Boom! Wham! Pow! The ComiQuad is a column dedicated to the spandex-laden world of comics and superheroes. It goes up each Tuesday and will alternate between comic book reviews and other comic book news. Reviews shall try to be spoiler-free. Zam!
In case you missed last week’s ComiQuad, Saturday’s Boston Comic Con Cosplay piece, Monday’s comic creator interviews and all the promoting the Quad and I have been doing over the past few days, Boston Comic Con was this past weekend! In the third in the series of five installments, the ComiQuad will be informally discussing the contents of three panels at the convention.
MAD Magazine Panel
The big headlining theme behind this year’s Boston Comic Con was “Legends of MAD: Icons of America’s Longest-Lived Humor Magazine!”
Three of the magazine’s most influential players, Al Feldstein, Al Jaffee and Al Paul Coker Jr., reunited at BCC to bring forth humor, history, answers and commentary for those who came to the panel. Considering the entire room filled, it was a lot of people.
The event began with Feldstein, MAD Magazine‘s editor for 28 years, recounting the creation and growth of the magazine. Originally, MAD was a part of Entertainment Comics until the Comics Code Authority of 1954 eliminated every facet of EC Comics except for the magazine. After explaining how the CCA had specific rules that targeted many of EC Comics’ specific publications, Feldstein joked that “juvenile delinquency went away.”
Al Jaffee, the incredibly well-spoken cartoonist of MAD Magazine, also told the story of how he joined the business. He began by working with Marvel Comics and Timely Comics, where he created cartoon characters Ziggy Pig, Silly Seal and teenager Patsy Walker.
“I have no idea what the lives of teenage girls are like, and teenage girls don’t want me to get involved either,” said Jaffee about writing and drawing Patsy Walker.
He then cited a light-hearted discussion with Marvel’s Stan Lee that led him to join MAD.
The final panelist, “Horrifying Cliches” illustrator Paul Coker, Jr. who has illustrated over 300 articles for the magazine, briefly talked about his experiences, humbly stating, “I’ve lived on the talents of so many good people.”
The floor then opened up to an audience Q&A, where audience members, including someone dressed as The Riddler, asked questions about the artists’ works, Jaffee’s favorite Fold-In illustrations and MAD Magazine‘s possible designs for the toilet paper roll dispenser.
DC Comics Panel
An hour after the MAD Magazine panel ended, four of DC Comics’ “New 52” artists walked in and prepared to talk about their experiences ushering in the publisher’s controversial company-wide comic reboot. Initial panelists were Wonder Woman artist Cliff Chiang, The Ray artist Jamal Igle and Aquaman artists Ivan Reis and Joe Prado. The Flash writer and artist Francis Manapul joined fifteen minutes into the panel.
Thanks to the questions provided by both moderator Stefan Blitz and the audience, several interesting tidbits of information were revealed, including:
- Blitz brought up the rumor about DC Comics making all of their issues this coming September issue “#0” and Francis Manapul confirmed it.
- Manapul also stated that he tried to bring back currently missing Wally West into continuity in issue #6 of The Flash, but that he got removed before the story went out.
- The panel discussed how the reboot gave them more creative freedom when designing characters.
- Jamal Igle, referring to The Ray’s new design, joked that the superhero is “just completely naked all the time.”
- The artists discussed how the introduction of digital comics changed or did not change their comic creation process. Igle produced fewer double-page spreads, all of them appreciated greater color strength and Manapul admitted to avoiding the transition.
- It was DC editorial’s decision to give Flash’s Rogues superpowers.
- Reis and Prado love Aquaman, and it was clearly they share that same love for Mera too.
The most entertaining bit of the panel was when Manapul teased each of people dressed as the Flash’s Rogues (all of whom were sitting together in the front row) with what their fate is going to be.
Marvel Comics Panel
The Marvel Comics panel, like the DC Comics one before it, featured a number of current Marvel artists, including Daredevil vol.2 artist Alex Maleev, Captain America artist Steve Epting and surprise panelist Paolo River who is working on the current run of Daredevil.
Unfortunately, and this is where the aforementioned informality comes in, the Marvel panel was terrible. The three panelists were introduced in less than ten minutes, which opened up the floor for the history’s most painful 50-minute long Q&A.
Specifically, it was a 50-minute long Q&A that consisted almost entirely of kids aged approximately 8-13 asking the panelists about the Marvel movies and Batman. Yes, Batman, a DC character, got more attention at the Marvel panel than did any other superhero.
In that long span of time, the audience found out which superheroes the artists would be (twice), their favorite Marvel movies, their least favorite Marvel movies, specific opinions about the Daredevil movie, thoughts on The Avengers movie, views on Galactus in the Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer movie, comic-book-to-movie inaccuracies, which movies they would like to draw a book on and more equally titillating questions.
With each movie-related question asked, more audience members left the panel, ultimately leaving several rows of chairs empty by the end of the panel.
Another highlight of the panel was when one preteen asked how the artists get over artists’ block, and Maleev responded by saying “drugs, are you kidding me?” The audience, kids included, laughed while a toddler cried in the back of the room.
“Finally, a comics question,” said one of the audience members waiting in line. After that point, the questions took a notable increase in quality. The artists talked about working digitally, discipline while working on deadline and favorite character redesigns.
And that lasted maybe ten minutes before the panel ended.
