WWLA: THE X-MEN PANEL

Marvel marketing guru Jim McCann took the lectern at the WWLA X-Men panel Saturday afternoon clad in a black and red X-Men jacket as Peter David, Matt Fraction, Craig Kyle, Aubrey Sitterson, and Chris Yost took their seats. Marc Guggenheim phoned in while he fought traffic on the I-10 freeway.

The two screens displaying the Marvel logo over Lenil Yu’s Skrulls switched to a presentation for the “Divided We Stand” event. Addressing the slide for “X-Men Legacy”, Sitterson said, “there’s a nostalgia aspect to it, but it’s also a story picking up directly from "Messiah Complex". Sitterson also revealed that Daken returns to “Wolverine Origins”.

When the slide of Mutant Town was presented, Peter David remarked that X-Factor will have to protect the town as it is being burnt to the ground. David also mentioned the Quicksilver and Layla Miller “Divide We Stand” one-shots. The Layla Miller one shot will address what happens to the character after she was stranded in the future at the end of Messiah Complex. Artist Larry Stroman will be returning to “X-Factor” to draw an upcoming X-Factor/She-Hulk crossover, which is also a Secret Invasion Tie-In. In addition, Darwin and Longshot will be joining the X-Factor team.

The presentation moved on to the other “Divided We Stand’’ one shots, focusing on Cannonball, Surge, and Nightcrawler. The Nightcrawler one-shot will be written by Matt Fraction and illustrated by Jamie McKelvie. This will be McKelvie’s first work for Marvel.

After a bit of shtick involving Ed Brubaker’s answering machine, it was revealed that Matt Fraction will co-write “Uncanny X-Men” with Brubaker starting with issue #500 in July. Greg Land and new Marvel exclusive Terry Dodson will rotate art chores. A story fourteen months in the making, Fraction joked, “Stuff explodes, everybody has lots of sex, and then everybody dies…and then the team moves to San Francisco to clear their heads.”

Jim McCann noted that Warren Ellis and Simone Bianchi will be taking over “Astonishing X-Men” with issue #25. Bianchi is doing costume redesigns for the team, and slides were shown of Cyclops, Nightcrawler, and Wolverine in their new uniforms.

The floor opened up to questions from the fans, and David responded to one regarding the Siryn-Madrox pregnancy:” There will be developments that will happen in that storyline that will make the internet light up like a Christmas tree.”

When asked about Dazzler by Jim McCann, Fraction confirmed that Dazzler will return in “Uncanny X-Men #501” as “the mutant Madonna”, discovering a late career as a mutant entertainer in San Francisco.” On CBR there’s a thread that just exploded”, McCann joked.

The presentation moved on to “X-Force” with Kyle and Yost. Kyle said that the X-Force team should grow to six by the issue #7 or #8. “After issue #3, you’re going to see how big and bad this book is going to get,” remarked Kyle. “We’re going to give you as much as we can pack into twenty-two pages.” At the point, Ed Brubaker returned Fraction’s phone call, and Marc Guggenheim finally arrived. Of “Young X-Men”, Guggenheim revealed, “The first arc really set the tone for the next two years worth of stories. There are seeds planted throughout the arc. Hopefully you won’t see the seeds planted. It’s a book with a lot of surprises. I’m planning to twist the plot like a pretzel. The book, unlike me, is never late.”

The floor opened up to fan questions again. In response to a question about Forge, Jim McCann revealed that Forge will return, but he may not cross paths with Storm. When the same fan asked if there was a chance of Jean Grey coming back, McCann replied, “It’s Jean, there’s always a chance.”

A British fan asked about UK Mutants like Pete Wisdom, to which McCann directed fans to “Captain Britain and MI:13”, an ongoing series that addresses the Secret Invasion of the Skrulls in the UK. Another fan asked about Havok. Sitterson answered that the character would appear in “Divided We Stand” issues #1 & #2.

One fan asked about the red haired mutant baby from Messiah Complex, to which Matt Fraction informed the audience that the baby was Arcade’s. Another fan asked if there were any plans for the Hellfire Club. Fraction replied,” There’s a Hellfire cult."

When asked about plans for Firestar, McCann answered, “She retired in ‘Civil War: Frontline’, but I can say we haven’t seen the last of the character.”

And with that, the panel came to a close.

Check out some of my other comics-related posts here.

Wizard World LA

I'll be at Wizard World LA this weekend, so if you're there and see a scrawny bald guy scurrying around - say hello!

comics

Batcave by Paul Rivoche

Here a design by Paul Rivoche of the batcave for Darwyn Cooke's The New Frontier dvd. Rivoche is one of the men behind Mr.X , part of the 80's vanguard, my favorite period in comics.


comics

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delicious

Queen Kwong at the Echo Curio

Photo by Lou O'Bedlam

Sincerity is hard to come by in Echo Park, especially at night. Drive by the Echo any Friday, and you’re bound to see a dozen idiots with tight jeans, mullets, and Loverboy headbands; Bad outfits to convey irony, where the intent is actually to conform. So when I read that Queen Kwong was performing at the Echo Curio, I was a little skeptical.

The Echo Curio is on Sunset, a ten-minute walk from my house. I got there around 10pm, right at the end of Daniel Ahearn's set. I made my way to the back of the room packed with people, home-made décor, and various items on consignment. I had hoped to find a spot near some circuit-bent music gear (at the shop the last time I checked), but instead found myself near some used books (such as Helter Skelter) and DVDs (such as The Cult Life).

Queen Kwong – AKA Carre Callaway – and her support quickly got in front of the crowd as a group of her friends walked out of the back room of the shop. Some of the friends carried paper cat masks on Popsicle sticks that she had made before the show. She wanted them to hold the masks up in front of their faces as she played. I figured this was to distance herself; it would be easier to sing candid lyrics to a front row of friends that way...one of them told me later that she just really loved cats. Supported by a bassist and keyboardist (who also wore cat masks), Queen Kwong opened up with “Eddie the Kid”, a wall of sound powered by a Fender Mustang.

Barring a couple of deviations into other arrangements, Queen Kwong’s sound is a soft voice against texture. The contrast heightens the stark, direct nature of her singing style. I really enjoyed the set; my only criticism is that it was too short.

Buy Queen Kwong's MP3 EP Love Is A Bruise at Amazon.

Read my other Music Performance Posts:
CSS & Natalie Portman's Shaved Head at The Echoplex.
Meat Beat Manifesto at The Knitting Factory.

Sistene Buckle - First Rough Backround

Here is a rough background for the next cartoon - going for more of a Bruce Timm meets Scooby Doo look this time around.




In other news, I finally uploaded some pics to my flickr account, mostly reference photos for backgrounds & props.

wrist-rocket

An eleven-year-old convinces his mother to buy him a wrist-rocket when they vacation out of state. Wrist-rockets were really no different that any other slingshot you could buy, but "wrist-rocket" was a much more A-Team sounding name, so they tended to be more popular with the armchair commandos of 1986.

The eleven-year-old walks to Oak Grove cemetery with his pal & his pal's little brother to try the wrist-rocket out. The pal brings his black folding knife with panther insignia on the handle, the most ninja thing he could buy at Mr. Han's Army-Navy Surplus. The little brother carries ammo for the wrist-rocket.

The three kids only get about thirty yards into the cemetery when they run into another two kids on BMX bikes. These two were the arch-enemies of the week, selected for their special role due to an altercation earlier that same day. One of the BMX bandits tosses a flare grenade, freshly concocted with a home chemistry set and a white-out bottle. The malfunctioning flare grenade bounces off the eleven-year-old's leg, unharmed by the grenade sparks. He fires off two rounds with the wrist-rocket, and the BMX bandits ride off. Our three heroes are victorious.

Until they turn around and see the patrol-car pulling up.

The cop questions the eleven-year-old about the wrist-rocket. The kid says the three of them were walking back from a friend's house, and he was just bringing the wrist-rocket home. They weren't in the cemetery to shoot anything; they were just taking a short cut on their walk. The cop asks the other kid if he has any weapons. The kid lies about the panther pocket knife. Almost satisfied, the cop asks the little brother if he has anything on him.

"Just some rocks," the little brother replies.

The cop takes the wrist-rocket and drives off.


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Twenty-one years later, the eleven-year-old is a cop, dead at thirty-two from what sketchy newspaper articles report as a self-inflicted gunshot would.

This is the second instance of something horrible happening with someone I grew up with in my hometown. Last year a guy I used to skate with back in high school actually killed someone. I used to think that my hometown - Fall River - was just another broken-down town to escape, hopefully with all your marbles intact and without knocking someone up. Now Fall River really seems like something to survive.

Back in Los Angeles I'm still trudging along with my handful of projects. One of the projects was recently shelved by a writing partner - which fucked my shit up pretty badly - but at least I learned something about writing in the process, and obviously life could be much worse. After finishing up the Sistene Buckle I may try writing something about Fall River...if I can get a handle on what Fall River does to the people who live there.