My first post on San Diego Comic-Con is up. Flash report: A dozen or so people in Flash T-shirts around the hall…plus every single member of the DC Booth staff. (This probably doesn’t mean anything — they’ll probably all be in GL shirts tomorrow, Wonder Woman on Friday, Superman on Saturday, and Batman on Sunday. But I found it interesting.) I also spotted Ethan van Sciver as he drew a sketch for the last person in the line.
Everything’s packed, and I’ll soon be on the road to San Diego for Comic-Con International. I’ll be posting both here and at K-Squared Ramblings (to go with my last 4 years of con coverage) over the next few days as I have time and internet access.
Update (post-con): my complete coverage of the con is here:
Tom Peyer isn’t slowing down after he wraps up his run on The Flash next month. In addition to writing Tek Jansen and back-up stories for Marvel Apes, he’s also co-writing Galveston, an upcoming miniseries from BOOM! Studios.
“’Galveston’ is a light-hearted, violent, Butch & Sundancey look at the friendship between Texas legend Jim Bowie and pirate Jean LeFitte, which really happened,” Peyer told CBR News. “They really were business associates for a while. What Mark and I have done is researched their personalities and built a tall tale around them. It’s centered in Galveston Island, Texas, where LaFitte actually lived in a mansion with cannons on the roof. A stolen mansion, at that.”
Hmm, cannons on the roof, from BOOM! Studios. Sounds appropriate…
Newsarama’s Vaneta Rogers spoke with Ethan van Sciver at Wizard World Chicago last week about his upcoming projects, including Green Lantern: Blackest Night with Geoff Johns and an untitled Wonder Woman project with Gail Simone. They also discussed the rumors of an upcoming Flash project with Geoff Johns.
The artist had just come from a DC panel where Dan DiDio seemed to always turn to him to answer any question about The Flash. We asked: Why is that?
“Because he’s a sadist, deep down. He even told me that. He said, “I just like to see you squirm.’ I honestly have no idea. He likes to get the rumors going,” Van Sciver said.
We talked about the rumor mill and how most fans think his upcoming “secret project” with Geoff Johns is either Aquaman or The Flash.
“Aquaman’s leading the pack?” Van Sciver said in obviously feigned surprise….
The mysterious van Sciver/Johns project — whether it’s Flash, Aquaman, or something else — will be announced in San Diego later this month.
Ethan van Sciver is no stranger to the Flash, having worked with Geoff Johns on the 2001 graphic novel The Flash: Iron Heights (now collected in the second edition of Flash: Blood Will Run, released earlier this year). He also worked on Impulse with Todd Dezago, where he helped create Inertia, and did several covers for The Flash in 2004 and for The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive in 2007.
The Flash’s current writer Tom Peyer and artist Freddie Williams II will both wrap up their runs with the conclusion of “Fast Money” in August’s Flash #243. So what’s next on their plates?
CBR spoke with Tom Peyer about his work on Stephen Colbert’s Tek Jansen at Oni and back-up stories for the upcoming Marvel Apes miniseries.
As for the artist half of the team, The Pulse interviewed Freddie Williams II about his past and current work at DC, including his return to Robin. He answered several questions about The Flash, including how drawing a super-speed family differs from drawing Batman’s protege.
Visually, they are almost completely opposite. Even though Robin can get a bit animated, he was pretty grim and hid in the shadows allot, as well being able to use his cape and his mop of hair to show motion and movement. As opposed to Flash, which was art directed to be more open and cartoony. Flash is basically just a naked figured with nothing except for lightening to help in showing motion. Also, drawing the team dynamic was a bit different as well – having to account for some many figures.
When asked which artists most influenced his work on The Flash, Williams cited Daniel Acuña (his immediate predecessor), and Mike Wieringo.
Velocity, the speedster from Top Cow’s CyberForce and one of the two winners of 2007’s Pilot Season*, will be getting her own series in November. CBR spoke with artist ChrisCross this weekend at Wizard World Chicago, where the company announced he would be joining writer Joe Casey on the series.
Among other things, the artist talked about adjusting the heroine’s costume:
ChrisCross has also re-imagined Velocity herself, which he said has as much to do with Casey’s influence as it does with his own. “I retooled her hair and her uniform a bit, and gave her some real shoes for running,” ChrisCross said. “I don’t know how Flash was able to run that fast in those hideous boots. Now, Velocity, her sneaks are fierce, girlfriend!” [emphasis added]
Velocity made her debut in Cyberforce v.2 #1 (1993). In addition to her Pilot Season special, she headlined a 3-issue minseries in 1995.
Update: ChrisCross has posted some of his character study work.
*The idea behind Pilot Season: Produce one-shots for several different characters, and have fans vote on which get ongoing series. It was successful enough that Top Cow has launched a second round this year.