SDCC 2014 - Panel Roundup

San Diego Convention Center. The white tents are protecting the hours
long line to get into Hall H from the blazing sun. Photo by Kim Munson.

Here's a quick round up of panels and other happenings at San Diego Comic Con International:

At the Future of Geek panel moderated by John Siuntres (Word Balloon podcast), Heidi MacDonald (The Beat), Rob Salkowitz (Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture) and Tim Beyers (Motley Fool) expert industry watchers talked about the sudden increase of comics conventions around the country, and what this means to the comics industry.This was a fascinating panel, and a recording of it is available on the Word Balloon site.

Future of Geek: Siuntres, Salkowitz, MacDonald and Beyers,
with an unknown but helpful tech guy standing behind. Photo by Kim Munson.

This year marked the 60th anniversary of the publication of Dr. Fredrick Wertham's infamous book Seduction of the Innocent, which provided an occasion to look back on an era of censorship that strangled the comics industry. The panel Sixty Years of Seduction: Rights, Wrong, and Wertham, hosted by Jeff Trexler (the Beat), managed a large and interested audience, despite a late Friday night time slot. Scenes from Sequart's new documentary about Wertham, Diagram for Delinquents (above) were shown by its director Robert A. Emmons, Jr, who was joined by Brandford W. Wright (Comic Book Nation), Carol Tilley (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), and two psychiatrists, Vasilis K. Pozios, MD and Praveen R. Kambam, MD. The panel discussed Wertham's history and influences, his methodology, his campaign against comics and his legacy. A lively discussion about comics and violence followed. This panel is available almost verbatim on Bleeding Cool.

Wertham experts: Trexler, Emmons, Wright, Tilley, Kambam and Pozios. Photo by Kim Munson.

It's always fun to get the annual update from J. Michael Straczynski, this year he told us about Joe's Comics (through Image), a comics reboot of the Twilight Zone (Dynamite), a new volume of Superman (DC) and an endless stream of film and TV projects, including his new Netflix series Sense8 with the Wachowskis. He also told us that he might finally be doing a Babylon 5 movie (yay!) and that he forged his records in order to graduate from high school. It's always something...

JMS presents new projects. Photo by Kim Munson.

Art panels are always my favorites, and this year did not disappoint. One of the most interesting panels (to me) was Temple of Art, a documentary about collaboration and the creative process featuring the work of 52 different artists. Among the artists on this HUGE panel were Grant Morrison ("I paint with words"), Bill Sienkiewicz, Barron Storey and Dave Mckean.

I'm always happy to add fun pages to our ever growing collection! This year I bought a great page from "The Slobbit" a MAD Magazine spoof drawn by Tom Richmond. That's the devious and dangerous dragon Smaug in the nose and glasses. Richmond was very nice, and was sitting at the National Cartoonist Society booth with Greg Evans, and his daughter Karen, the real Luann.

MAD's Tom Richmond. Photo by Kim Munson.

Sunday, after the annual meeting of the church of Jack Kirby, which this year included one of my favorite oddballs, artist Scott Shaw!, was one of my favorite panels, Cover Story: Art of the Cover. In this session moderated by Mark Evanier, 5 well-known artists talk about the success, failure and challenges of 5 different cover images from projects done throughout the course of their careers. The artists do not see these images ahead of time, and are often surprised by the selection. They talked about the difficulties of having to produce a relevant cover months before the script for a comic is even written, and the challenge of finding a fresh take on an established character. Artists included Mark Brooks (New X-Men); Amanda Connor (Power Girl, Harley Quinn); Fiona Staples (Saga); Jae Lee (Before Watchmen) and Stan Sakai (Usagi Dojimbo). CBR has posted an almost verbatim report on this panel, including images.

Cover Story: Moderator Evanier, with artists Connor, Staples, Brooks, Lee
and Sakai. Photo by Kim Munson.

SDCC 2013 - A Couple of Neil Gaiman Stories

Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman on meeting Will Eisner early in his career at the Will Eisner Tribute panel (joined by a stellar group: Paul Levitz, Denis Kitchen, Scott McCloud & Jeff Smith): "When I was getting into writing comics, I learned from Comics & Sequential Art. I gave Will a copy of Signal to Noise in an elevator. He was always supportive of young artists & writers... You would excitedly tell him about a brilliant new idea you came up with, and he would nod & listen, and then say "yes, when we tried that back in 1947, it didn't work because..."

Neil Gaiman & Denis Kitchen

At the Annual Kirby Tribute panel (another stellar group: Attorney Paul Levine, Mark Evanier & Tony Isabella), Neil talked about his first experiences with US comics as a child: "I was 7 when Marvel started reprinting anthologies... a few years later my Dad gave me a big box of Marvel Comics... Years later, I asked "Dad, where did that big box of Marvel Comics come from?" He said, "I'll tell you," and then a few days later he died. I never knew."

Neil Gaiman & Tony Isabella

Gaiman said he was particularly intrigued by the ads in the comics, "how do Father Sea Monkeys smoke their pipes underwater? How did the Americans get the technology for x-rays spectacles and make them so inexpensive that children could buy them for a dollar? If I could only get dollars in the UK, I could find out"!

Eisner panel - Levitz, Gaiman, Kitchen, McCloud, Smith

Kirby panel - Levine, Evanier, Gaiman, Isabella

Free Comic Book Day at Comic Outpost

Crowd at the Outpost on Free Comic Book Day. Photo by
Bill Watters of Big Wow! Comicfest (San Jose Convention Center, May 18-19)

We really enjoyed Free Comic Book Day this year. Our favorite comics store in SF, the Comic Outpost had a special event, a taco truck, and a Timey Wimey Dr Who TV Party! And free comics! Who could ask for more?  I was pleased to see people of all ages, especially kids snapping up a wide range of free comics, from The Simpsons and The Mouse Guard to the latest promos from DC and Marvel (photo gallery).

2 books available on Free Comic Book Day.

I'm still making my way through my stack, and missed some issues that were gone by the time we arrived. So far my two favorites are Fantagraphics Prince Valiant and Valiant Masters (Valiant in titles coincidental).

As a child, I loved Prince Valiant in the newspapers. I was fascinated by Foster's drawings and the world he created, but had a hard time following the stories. Prince Valiant, I think, has greatly benefited from re-issues in book form. I can read and truly appreciate entire story arcs.  Valiant Masters showcases 4 new characters developed by creators like Jim Shooter, Barry Windsor-Smith, Joe Quesada, David Lapham and others. Space ninja! Spy ninja! Mythical fantasy warriors! Seemed very fun and retro to me.

Here's a view of 1 hour of the crowd at Comic Outpost condensed to 24 seconds!

 
Video by Gary Buechler of Comic Outpost.

Tim Boxell, Gary Buechler, Kim Munson & Marc Greenberg
enjoying Free Comic Book Day. Photo by Jay Jay.

Icons of the American Comic Book

I have an entry in this book, Icons of the American Comic Book from Captain America to Wonder Woman (published by ABC-CLIO in March) about the history of the Blade character, the development of the films, and their legacy. Blade was one of the first reoccurring African-American lead characters in comics and the success of the Blade trilogy starring Wesley Snipes kicked off the modern era of Marvel superhero films.

The book includes over 60 entries by a stellar line up of comics scholars, and I was honored to be included. Thanks to Randy Duncan & Matthew Smith for inviting me.

PCA/ACA San Antonio

San Antonio River Walk

The Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association's national conference, in conjunction with the Southwest Texas regional chapter, was held in San Antonio a couple of weeks ago. Hundreds of scholars converged on the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter for this always amazing convention, with presentations on everything from Tarot Cards and Medieval Literature to Buffy and Twilight (and every imaginable topic in between, the program looks like a phone book!). Comics scholars come out in force at this convention, and between the national conference, and the the fact that the SWTX-PCA has an active comics contingent on their own, there were around a hundred papers on comics and related subjects presented.

panel from Captain
America #125,
May 1970

I was honored to chair a session with a group of excellent presentations. Kerry Soper's Doonesbury Goes to War discussed Trudeau's treatment of BD's war injury, and the way that war and wounded servicepeople are depicted in comics. Brannon Costello's presentation Fascism and Mass Culture in Howard Chaykin's 'Blackhawk' focused on Chaykin's use of motifs and layouts from propaganda posters and advertising. Laura Perna talked about the eerrie nature of Charles Burns' comics in her presentation There Was Something Screwy Going On: Viewing Charles Burns' Comics through the Lens of the Uncanny.  My own paper, Censorship and Super Bodies: the Creative Odyssey of Margaret Harrison, concerned my on-going research on the British artist Margaret Harrison and her life long relationship with the Marvel Comics character Captain America, as a foundation for inquiries about world politics and gender (previous posts).

Aside from hearing many interesting presentations, I enjoyed having some "face time" with my fellow comics scholars, many of whom were previously just names on the Comics Scholars listserve. I enjoyed Randy Duncan's progress report on his research into the Superman: Grounded storyline, Yuri Shakouchi's presention on Beat Culture and Beatniks in MAD Magazine, and Russell Johnson's analysis of fan culture's response to Grant Morrison's Hypercrisis. There was a tea sponsored by the SWTX-PCA that celebrated Jeet Heer and Kent Worcester, authors of the Comics Studies Reader and recipients of the Peter C. Rollins Award.  The special session of the Institute for Korvac Studies was a fun and mystical experience. The PCA national conference always has a good exhibit hall, and as usual I have additions to my already groaning bookshelves. They also have an excellent tradition called "the paper table" where everyone brings 10 copies of their paper, and the papers are sold for a dollar to sponsor student travel to the conference. I always end up with lots of papers, because it's a great way to dip into other areas, and to get more detail on papers of interest (presentations are only 15 minutes).

I had mixed feelings about San Antonio itself, although I probably didn't have enough time there to do justice to such a large city.  The hotel was right next to the Alamo (it's the 175th anniversary) and the River Walk area. I admit, coming from California with our wealth of great Mexican restaurants, I wasn't very impressed with that part, but there's a big variety to be had, and I enjoyed my meals at the Zuni restaurant and the comics section dinner at Luciano's. I did feel a little sorry for people I'd talk with at the hotel that were looking for Vegetarian or Vegan meals, as it seems that San Antonio, at least in a touristy area like the River Walk, isn't real accommodating that way. I did really enjoy the conference though and the staff at the Marriott was unfailingly nice and helpful.  Next year, Boston!

Greenberg on Kirby at SDCC 2010

We're off to ComiCon!  I'm not speaking this year, but husband Marc is doing his annual "state of the Superman case" round-up, plus a summary of the latest doings in the Kirby copyright recapture case.

Thursday, July 22
2:30-3:30 Comics Arts Conference Session #4: Recapturing Copyright for Gold and Silver Age Comic Book Creators— Copyright lawyer Marc Greenberg (Golden Gate University School of Law) covers key developments in the Superman case (Siegel v. DC) and explores the claims filed by the Jack Kirby estate to the rights to the major Marvel Comics characters he created or co-created. Room 26AB

As always, I look forward to meeting colleagues and just geeking out for a few days. Lots of news to come!

Jack Kirby's Collages & the Sublime

The above image from Fantastic 4 Annual #6 (1968) was one of a series of photomontages created by the comics genius Jack Kirby (1917-1994). Kirby had a long and fruitful career as a comic artist spanning from the beginning of the comics industry in the 1930's through the 1970's. He is best known for his collaboration with Stan Lee (writer) which spawned many famous Marvel comics characters like the X-Men, The Avengers, The Hulk and The Fantastic Four.

Kirby was an artist that liked to experiment. In the mid-1950's he began making collages out of ads and magazine photos as a hobby. In the mid-1960's he put his collages to use in the comics he was working on. The most notable series of these were published in the Fantastic Four. The F4 had adventures in far-flung locations; the undersea world of Atlantis, labs filled with alien technology and the "negative zone," which existed in the 4th dimension. It's the negative zone collages that I would like to explore further.

I’m hypothesizing that Kirby used the collages because he was trying to find a way to differentiate our 3D reality from the disorienting and scary yet beautiful negative zone/fourth dimension within the limitations of 2D characters and (not so great) printing technology. The collages evoke feelings of the sublime, in Burke’s sense of terror and awe. Also, the idea of the technological sublime; attempting to show the unshowable (advanced alien technology, the vastness of the universe). Later Kirby experimented with the collages in a short-lived (only one issue) publication called Spirit World (this is one of his collages for it on the left). These collages, even more than the ones featured in the F4, suggest feelings of the eerie and the surreal.

At this stage in my research I can't say that I know specifically what art/collages Kirby might have seen that inspired him to create these. It seems logical that one influence might have been the early British pop artist Richard Hamilton's Just What Is It that Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing? (1956), which prominently features Kirby's cover for Young Romance #26 (October 1950) hung as a painting in the center of the piece. It was widely reproduced, and logically, he must have seen it. My sources, so far, say that he started playing with collage around this time. There are also many surrealist elements, reminiscent of works like Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany (1919) by the German collage artist Hanna Hoch. Kirby may have been especially affected by these surrealist works due to his war time experiences.

I plan to continue research on this topic and write an article about it in the fall.

Here are some interesting links about these collages:

http://www.twomorrows.com/kirby/articles/13spiritworld.html
http://booksteveslibrary.blogspot.com/2006/03/jack-kirbys-spirit-world.html
http://bullyscomics.blogspot.com/2009/01/fantastic-photo-world-of-jack-kirby.html

Ms Marvel #32: Torture Porn in Comics

My husband and I have been serious comics collectors for years. We collect a wide range of titles, from mainstream superhero books to foreign titles and more “arty” fare. Like many collectors, we have our local comics store (Comics Outpost on Ocean Avenue, a great store and community) set certain titles aside for us every month. I’ve enjoyed the Marvel House of M – Civil War – Secret Invasion trajectory, so I’ve been following many of the titles that have supporting roles in these company-wide crossover stories, like Ms. Marvel.



Ms. Marvel has historically been an uneven title. Unable to solidify her character, writers have often used her adventures (or misadventures) to serve as convenient plot twists in support of more popular characters. The Ms. Marvel/Carol Danvers character seemed to find more definition a couple years ago after the events of House of M and the launch of the New Avengers, and aside from the occasional inane plot line has been fairly readable. Last week I sat down with our latest stack of Marvel comics, and discovered that I had somehow wound up with the Ms. Marvel torture porn issue.

It’s no secret that extreme things happen to characters in comics, both male and female. I can deal with a couple tough pages in the context of the story. In the case of dark, tormented characters like Moon Knight, Batman, the Darkness and Wolverine, overcoming extremes of violence and degradation is part of the character’s development. After collecting Wolverine for several years, I finally dropped it after one particularly heinous story (#56) - Wolverine, a practically indestructible character that can regenerate, was trapped in a pit and shot at with machine guns around the clock; he gets out by playing on the psyche of one of the gunners, then slaughters everyone. On top of being disgusted by this story, I realized that the writers had no where left to go with this long-running and over-exposed character, and it was unlikely anything really interesting would ever happen again.

Ms. Marvel is not generally portrayed as a brooding anti-hero and in this case, her captivity is related to a shady government conspiracy. The context of her story may be different, but the same bankruptcy of original thought haunts Ms. Marvel #32. At the end of #30, Carol confronts a man from her past about a secret weapons program called Ascension (in #32, we see he was the one who tortured her). Issue #31 is a detour to visit her estranged family, including her emotionally distant father, now dying of cancer. At the beginning of #32, a flashback story written by Brian Reed, Carol ( before she acquires super powers) is a hot shot Air Force test pilot. She meets billionaire weapons manufacturer Tony Stark (aka Iron Man, her future colleague/boss) on the airstrip as she is about to take a test flight in a plane that Stark designed. The plane is shot down over a fictional middle eastern country occupied by the Taliban. She crashes and is held and tortured by the men that find her. When she finally makes her harrowing escape, she discovers that the men that tortured her are somehow connected to the CIA and a program called Ascension. With her broken arm and leg shrouded in a burka-like outfit, she fades into a crowd in the last panel. As of this writing, #33 isn’t out yet, but it seems a logical progression that Stark will reappear to be involved in her recovery, and that this is likely to be a bonding experience that helps establish strong feelings of mutual loyalty and respect between them.

You might be asking, what is unique about this story? If you follow comics, you probably recognize this as the type of plot line feminist comics writer Gail Simone pointed out in her well-known 1999 work Women in Refrigerators, in which female characters undergo extremes of emotional or physical trauma often to further the development of a better known male character. Ms. Marvel #32 should “rise” to #1 on this top ten list of worst offenders. Visually, it’s a startling piece of work. Carol (the busty, blond, tough talking pilot) has a broken leg from the plane crash, is stripped to her underwear, electrocuted, her nails pulled out, has a finger cut off with garden shears, and finally her arm is crushed by a blow with a sledgehammer. Out of 23 pages of story, 11 pages depict misery and torture. Every assault and reaction is skillfully and sensuously portrayed in great detail by penciler Paulo Siqueira and inker Amilton Santos, much like Brian Bolland’s famously cinematic depiction of the shooting of Barbara Gordon in The Killing Joke.

In the context of this story arc, the authors may feel that showing the details of the torture and how Carol fought back helps to establish credibility for this long misused character. I’m sure it’s the fantasy of abused people everywhere to magically obtain superpowers and then beat the crap out of their abuser (I know it would be mine). Perhaps one could stretch this thinly veiled S&M fantasy into a critical comment on the medieval policies of the Bush Administration, with a female American military officer on the receiving end of the kind of treatment the US dished out at Gitmo, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. When confronted with this bleak imagery in the actual book, it’s hard to visualize a plot line that justifies this kind of blatant pandering. Unfortunately, torture as entertainment has become such a common theme in contemporary media that nobody really questions it anymore. I imagine this Ms. Marvel story is intended to visually appeal to the fans of films like Saw and Hostel, or the cynical “torture someone, it’s sweeps week” attitude of a TV series like 24 or La Femme Nikita. Although there seem to be endless rationalizations and analyses of why people enjoy watching graphic depictions of torture, and I have to admit that on an emotional level the fascination with torture porn is still a total mystery to me. Any thoughts?


Addendum 9/09. Well, it turns out that this story didn’t go quite in the direction I thought it would, and good for the writers, although this was still a disgusting issue, and I haven’t followed Ms. Marvel regularly since. Deepening the mystery (as far as I'm concerned anyway) Entertainment Weekly (7/31/09 issue) ran an article by Christine Spines entitled Horror Films and the Women That Love Them. The article claims that a huge percentage of the audience for slasher horror films is female. This is probably no surprise to those of you who watch movies like this and notice the make-up of the audience in attendance, but I was really surprised. I admit that I am still puzzled and intrigued by this cultural phenomenon.