CTG At San Diego Comic-Con 2013: Part 2

Saturday night the zombie parade was in full swing. Previously the event was held by AMC in support of The Walking Dead television show. There were a few detractors of this year's event, who claimed it was not as strong without the support of the major company. The parade was more than slightly disorganized this year as people were walking in all directions of the street. The zombies were also a bit of a let down, simply because the makeup producer of the television show was not on staff. Thankfully there was still an enjoyable time to be had on the other side of the street. This was because the police were pretending to arrest people. For a donation to the San Diego police department, officers would place you face down on the car and handcuff the consenting adult. The best part of all of this, is that your friends can take some pictures of you being arrested. It lightened up the tone of those upset by the parade. The police complemented the tone of the dinner quite well as the rest of the Blue Point Restaurant was fairly animated. In fact a few GhostBusters sat next to my table. Their outfits were superb and featured the bulky machines on their backs quite prominently

The lights went down and the dream team assembled. They walked past a lighted up display of the logo for all of their family of titles. The X-Men panel was finally underway. The tone was more casual when the screen went down and a slight at DC shot off. The crowd treated the writers like rock stars, and outside the line was completely full. Brian Bendis, Paul Cornell, Brian Posehn, Gerry Duggan, Peter David, Arune Singh, Nick Lowe, Jeannine Schafer and Sam Humphries were all set to go. Artists Frank Cho and Terry Dodson were also announced as being late to the panel. X-Men: Battle Of The Atom was discussed slightly by The head writer Brian Bendis. The introduction to the series was underway.

This storyline was billed as a massive shift to the universe that the mutants live in. New art was shown off by Frank Cho and Stuart Immonen, which featured the past Jean Grey very prominently. Paul Cornell then shot off a pitch introducing his newer Wolverine series storyline entitled Killable. After his healing factor was recently taken away some interesting stories directly spring out of that series. The writer and editor Jeannine Schafer were sharing the vast potential for the series that could go up till issue thirteen. Nick Lowe then joined into the conversation and it explained how the ripple effect of Killable with continuity would take place in all of the books. The new costume for The character was also teased further. The focus then switched over to X-Force as Sam Humphries pitched where the book was going towards the future. He described the book as having taken a huge turn after Rick Remender left the title. Judging by some of the craziness that has ensued in the title thus far, the former was an apt description by the writer. Humphries also called collaborator Ramon Perez a smarmy beardo, he then told the audience to tweet that piece of information.

Posehn and Duggan then began to discuss Deadpool to the audience. The pair continued to explain that they were having a great time writing the book. Some darker teases to the inside of the character were also made. The pitch towards the end of X-Factor was also explored. The book in it's current incarnation has been written close to a decade. Scribe Peter David also explained how the book is a character driven title that focused on the smaller characters. Fans of the series were said to continually show their support of the title. Nick Lowe explained how the sales have been steady for most of this decade. A tease was also made on a new title coming from David as well. Fans of his writing will continue to enjoy his monthly adventures down at Marvel. Terry Dodson joined the panel and announced that he was taking over art duties on the X-Men title by Brian Wood. The female perspective of the title was explained more, and editors discussed how easy it was for executives to rally around the book. Schafer then said she "done did it" to which the audience let out a wail of laughter. The female perspectives of the books were also given the spotlight in the moment. The return of Longshot was also teased, in a title called Longshot Saves The Marvel Universe. The book is written by Christopher Hastings and is a one-shot featuring the character saving the entire MU.

A mutant was returning to the Marvel Universe in the shape of Nightcrawler. The project was also introduced and said to be written by Jason Aaron. Writer Brian Micheal Bendis called Aaron and excitement ensued. Amazing X-Men was then Formally announced and the crowd went wild once again. Singh explained how the small teleporting mutant was still dead and floating through a sort of purgatory, the artist was also announced as Ed McGuinness. The team of superheroes were also announced on the title as Beast, Iceman, Northstar, Firestar, Wolverine, and of course Nightcrawler. Amazing X-Men is set for release in October. Towards the question and answer part of the panel some talking about silly characters ensued. People like D-Man, Pixie, Maggot and more were made fun of by all of the writers and artists present. A sincere thank you was also given to Nick Lowe and the editors on the shape of the books to come. Peter David's stroke was also addressed as the writer thanked fans for such a massive show of support for his health. David then explained how a temple of Buddhist Monks were praying for him. When asked what kind of powers he wanted to have if he was a superhero, Posehn wanted invulnerability to sadness. The lights and dimmed and the crowd was all the wiser on the shape X-books to come.

On Saturday morning I checked out the Xbox lounge which was a pure delight. The best part about the surroundings here was that the Xbox one was here and playable to the public. Many were getting their first shot at actually holding the controller in question. As a huge comic book need I was also excited to check out the brand new Lego Marvel game. The previous Lego Batman game went really deep towards the DC Universe and featured some really strange characters. Readers should get a kick out of Vicki Vale being a playable character. With the same studio working on a Marvel game there is plenty of reason for fans to get excited. Included behind the actual game was also a some promotional art made out of Lego bricks. This was an incredibly nice touch by the coordinators of the event. The game handled as you would expect and featured all of the major Avengers characters except for Hawkeye. In addition Spider-Man was handled very well, he could hang from walls with a strange net. Also he could should tiny web blasts which were similar to the comics. Also present were the lego cutscenes that sported a robust sense of humor. This marriage of two beloved franchises has had an already promising start.

The spotlight on Neil Gaiman panel was the biggest place that I had been in at SDCC this year. There were a myriad of people and every single chair was completely filled, even though there was this massive amount of different faces standing all among me it still felt like the most intimate panel I had been to. Everyone was taking there time telling different kinds of stories. Speech was drawn out and slow yet when a simple joke was told there was a massive applause. Ghost stories were mused over and expressed by different types of people. In addition body switches along with supernatural ideas are covered. The Ocean At The End Of The Lane was the story being discussed. The novel was originally a love story from the writer. Inspired by an extended leave of absence from the wife of Gaiman himself. The storytelling chops proven by the scribe were really stretched to their limits by panelist moderator Jonathan Ross. Everything over the course of his career was discussed at this panel from Coraline to American Gods. Towards an even more comedic moment involving the hour, the writer's hair was mentioned. There was also a joke by Ross mentioning the fact that he looked similar in a fashion to Sideshow Bob.

Also mentioned was a special handmade notebook the author received in 2002 from a dead fan. The pages were made via crushed rose petals. He discovered some difficulty on writing in the notebook and an important project was put on hold. Then the writer announced that he had finished that story since his first attempt. It was formerly announced as one of many stories in an Anthology called Rogues, It was also set to be part of the Neverwhere series. The discussion now began to lead towards Sandman: Overture. He discussed the origins of the series which began in Sandman #1. The artist always wanted to tell the story in the middle of the comic, but never quite found adequate room in the title. The series was also meant to debut around 25 anniversary of the main comic book title.

A discussion about artist J.H. Williams who is drawing the Sandman prequel then began to ensue. Jonathan pressed on getting something new about the project to which Gaiman reluctantly agreed to. All of the endless were revealed to be featured in the story. The beginning of the saga also takes place at the creation of the DC Universe on 1916. The storyteller has gotten even more nervous as there areas readers of the series than ever before in his career. The writer revealed that he had some trouble starting the series upon his first try. He also began to explain how the characters still sounded the exact same as before. It was also stated that the writing the story has began to get a lot easier the further he goes I'm writing the title. In addition it was revealed by the panelists that the first issue of Sandman: Overture, Morpheus was set to be drawn as a flower.

When the call for questions was asked by the people behind the podium, fans made a mad dash towards the center of the giant room. The first question asked was geared towards Angela and the Marvel Universe. Two pages were written concerning her dialogue by the Sideshow Bon look alike. The son of the esteemed novelist Mike was revealed as a gear towards theaters themed pieces written in the future. Violent Cases was the first piece referred to as a mature work from the fiction weaver. When asked about a Good Omens movie, an answer received was quite possibly. This also set the audience on fire. Graveyard Book and Ocean At The End Of The Lane were both being adapted by different film studios.Miracle Man #25 was revealed as never actually being published. There was also some light shed on the origins of how Gaiman truly loves Dr. Who. The story goes all the way back to his very early childhood. A joke was pointed out that Amanda Palmer was going to be the new doctor on the smash hit television show. As the panel started to wrap, the entire audience seemed to be in a strange disbelief that the hour was set to be concluded.