Tag Archives: Dan Didio

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Tuesday Night Comics Podcast 112 – Descender Vol 1 Reviewed!

Billy and Dave are very excited to read Descender Volume 1 by Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen in this week’s Tuesday Night Book Club! Listen to what the guys have to say about this new hit series from Image Comics.

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Plus – Billy had to go through what no comic book fan wants to deal with: a flooded storage facility! Burst pipes mean wet comics! Oh no!
All this, plus new comics reviews and our picks for the best comics for your dollar on New Comic Book Day this week.

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NYCC 2015 Saturday Panels – Our Picks!

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Written by Nick Doyle and Billy Henehan.

They say if you can survive Saturday at NYCC, you can make it anywhere. There’s a reason why the Saturday tickets sell out before 4-Day Passes sell out and that is because Saturday is the mother of all days at NYCC. Most of the biggest events are happening today. Will you be able to make it all of them? Of course not, not unless you own a Time Turner. There are too many panels to go through on the NYCC site, but you don’t have to wade through them all. Because we have cut through all the mediocre panels to bring you the best of the best. If you have to choose, at least choose from these. Because these are the BEST of the BEST of New York Comic Con Saturday 2015.

Writers Unite: Writing and Pitching Comic Stories – 11:00-12:00 1A01

This seems almost like a sequel to Charles Soule and Marguerite Bennett’s panel together at Special Edition: NYC. That was a great panel; I expect this one to be as well. Writers talking writing. More panels like this please.

Spotlight on Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba: Different is Cool – 11:00-12:00 1A18

It’s been years since Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba have been at NYCC. If you’re a fan of theirs, you need to be at this panel, because who knows how long it will be until they return?

Thrilling Adventure Hour – 11:15-12:15 1A24

Listen to the cast and writers of Thrilling Adventure Hour discuss their dearly departed comedy podcast (which lives on as a couple of Image Comics series – check them out!).

All-New All-Different Marvel – 11:15-12:15 1A10

Marvel announcement. Glorious Marvel announcements. Oooh, Gerry Duggan is going to be there. Looks like I’m going to this panel dressed as Zenpool. If you spot me, be sure to say hi. 🙂

DC Comics: Heroes to the Core – 12:15-1:15 1A06

Dan Didio will be talking with DC creators on stage, including John Romita Jr (it’s still hard for me to think of him as a DC guy), Robert Venditti and more about the future of the DCU (not to be confused with DC You, which DC seems to be quickly backing away from).

Disney-Lucasfilm Publishing Presents Star Wars: Journey to Force Awakens – 12:15-1:15 1A21

Have you noticed the flood of Journey to Force Awakens books that have recently hit the marketplace? The writers of those novels, including Greg Rucka and Chuck Wendig, will be at this panel discussing their Star Wars writing.

Cinemax Presents Robert Kirkman’s New Series Outcast – 1:30-2:30 1A06

Wow, Cinemax really wants to drive the connection to The Walking Dead home on this one. Who can blame them? After the success of The Walking Dead, I can only assume they paid a good deal for the rights to Kirkman’s new series, Outcast. Series star Patrick Fugit (Almost Famous) and Robert Kirkman will both be here to talk about the upcoming show.

DC Comics – Batman: The Bat Universe 1:30-2:30 Empire Stage 1-E

Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Peter Tomasi, Amy Chu, Tom King, Tim Seeley, Khary Randolph and James Tynion IV will all be at this panel. What a line-up! If you’re reading a Batbook right now, this is your panel.

Using Tmblr to Sell Your Idea – 1:30-2:30 1B03

Here’s a panel that has both an interesting theme and a stellar line-up. Felipe Smith (All-New Ghost Rider), Kieron Gillen (The Wicked + The Divine) and Katie Cook (artist of the cutest and smallest con sketches ever) will be in conversation with Marlene aka @ilikecomicstoo about using social media to sell your idea. I’m a huge fan of Kieron Gillen’s tumblr blog, which gives behind-the-scenes insights into his writing. It’s like reading a director’s commentary for his comics. I will definitely be at this panel. You should too.

Clueless 20th Anniversary Panel – 1:45-2:45 1A10

Clueless writer/director Amy Heckerling will be speaking about the movie, which in my opinion is one of the best movies of the 1990s.

Marvel: Cup O’Joe – 2:45-3:45 Empire Stage 1-E

The Cup O’Joe panel is a mainstay of NYCC. If you’re a Marvel fan, you’re going to want to make sure you get a seat to this one. We’ll no doubt be seeing exclusive looks at post-Secret Wars Marvel Comics for the first time. Kieron Gillen will be here. Follow him from the tumblr panel to this one, where he’ll be talking about his upcoming Marvel work. Other guests include Charles Soule and Dan Slott.

The Splat: All That Reunion – 4:15-5:15 1A10

Wait, Kel will be here but not Keenan? That is not a Goodburger…

Cartoon Network Presents: Regular Show 4:15-5:15 – Hammerstein Ballroom

NYCC has grown so big this year that some panels and screenings are taking place at The Hammerstein Ballroom. If you walked over from Penn Station along 34 Street, you no doubt passed by it. What could make you leave the Javits Center to attend a panel? Four words: Regular Show. The Movie.

Marvel Netflix: Daredevil and Jessica Jones: Alias. 5:00-6:45 Main Stage 1-D

Hopefully the ticketing for this is not as big a clusterfuck as it was for last year’s Daredevil panel, where a bunch of jerks tried cutting the line, causing Marvel to send everyone on their way before Marvel had a ticket lottery later in the day. I am so excited for both the return of Daredevil and the new Alias series. If only they were also giving us some news on Damage Control. Who knows? Maybe they are. (Wristband required)

FUNimation Industry Panel – 5:30-6:30 1A24

After recently getting into Attack on Titan, I’m all about this panel.

NYCC Charity Auction – 7:00-9:00 1A18

This is my favorite event at all of NYCC. If you are an original art collector, this is a MUST ATTEND event. Mike Negin, the Artist Alley coordinator amasses a spectacular collection of original comic book art to be auctioned off every year for charity. All money raised goes directly to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Original art pages, covers (COVERS!) and convention sketches will all be auctioned off. Even if you don’t buy any art, come for the bidding, which tends to vicious at different points. Expect the Adam Hughes and Walt Simonson pieces to be the #1 and #2 most expensive pieces of the night (they were the last two years). It’s an awesome time, and a terrific charity fundraiser. GO TO THIS!

Doctor Who Fan Screening and Q&A with Screenwriter Toby Whithouse – 7:45-9:15 

See the new Doctor Who episode Before the Flood before it airs on BBC America! I’m so tempted to go to this, but I’ll be at the Art Auction. While I’m losing out to bidders with a bigger bankroll, I will be sitting there jealous of all of you at this Doctor Who screening, especially because you’ll be able to ask screenwriter Toby Whithouse questions right after the episode. Please make them good questions. You’re watching the new episode that he wrote – make your questions specific to that.

 

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Batman: Year One – Review

5/5 – Perfect adaption of THE Batman origin story.

Batman: Year One might be my favorite comic book story ever published. Like Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, it’s a story that I’ve come back to year after year and it’s never felt old. When I heard that DC was planning an animated adaptation of Year One, I was a bit worried. Would they change the story? Would they stay true to Mazzucchelli’s line work or attempt update the art style?

My worries proved to be unfounded. Bruce Timm and Andrea Romano have once again put together the pieces to make a great animated movie. Batman: Year One should be considered a must-see for any Batman fan. I would also say that Batman: Year One, the comic this movie was based on, is mandatory reading for any Batman fan. After hearing Bruce and Andrea talk at New York Comic Con, and seeing the quality of Year One and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1, I’m very excited for everything coming down the DC Animated pipeline.

This movie shows Batman at his most fallible. He’s inexperienced and unsure of himself. He doesn’t have the super computer, all the fancy gadgets (though he does have some), the fancy car or the network of crime fighting colleagues to call upon. It’s cool to see Batman make mistakes, like when he attempts to foil a home burglary. And I was very happy to see that the coolest scene from Year One, which was also used in Batman Begins, was kept in the animated movie, namely Batman calling the cloud of bats to come to his aid when fleeing the Gotham PD.

Batman: Year One is much Jim Gordon’s story as it is Bruce Wayne’s. This isn’t only Batman’s first year in Gotham. It is also Gordon’s first year there as well, after uprooting from Chicago with his pregnant wife. The Gordon presented in Year One is unlike any Jim Gordon presented before. He’s trying hard to be an honest cop in a corrupt city full of corrupt cops and politicians. He’s not an infallible knight in shining armor though. He is full of pathos. He questions his decisions. You probably will too. But at the end of the day, he’s the most upstanding cop on the Gotham force. It’s interesting to watch Batman and Lt. Gordon do their dance, unsure if they can trust each other.

The Year One movie, like the Year One comic, accomplishes
 the amazing feat of making Jim Gordon as interesting as the Batman.

The only slight I have against the movie is the coloring of characters eyes. The whites of people’s eyes are the same color as the rest of their face. It’s not jarring when I see it in a still, but in the movie, I kept being distracted by it. I’m guessing the decision stemmed from wanting the animation style to match the book as much as possible, but I just found the flesh colored eyes to be weird.

I highly recommend watching Batman: Year One on DVD or Blu-ray. The special features included in it are great. There are two short interview-style featurettes, the first one focusing on the impact Frank Miller had on the Batman mythos. Miller doesn’t appear here himself, but a lot of other comic creators do, including Dennis O’Neil, Mike Carlin, Dan Didio and Scott Snyder. Producer Michael Uslan sits down with Dan Didio, Dennis O’Neil and Scott Snyder to talk about how Batman has changed over the years in the other featurette. Snyder, Didio and O’Neil each grew up during different eras of Batman, so it was very interesting to hear them talk about the differences and similarities of what defined Batman for them.

There’s also a Showcase animated short featuring Catwoman. I thought Eliza Dushku did a better job voicing Catwoman in Year One than she does here. In the short, she sounds stilted, as if she’s reading off of cue cards.

We’re coming up to the release of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2 very soon. I recommend watching Batman: Year One and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1 in anticipation of it.