Denny O’Neil, the genius who wrote the best team-up ever in the early 1970s will be the featured guest at the Comic Book I-Con Saturday, September 17, 2011, just outside of Des Moines in Altoona, Iowa at the Adventureland Inn.  The Iowa Comic Book Club has been hosting the convention for about ten years now, sometimes at the Iowa State Fairgrounds and more recently at the Adventureland venue.

O’Neil and artist Neal Adams both re-defined the modern superhero with their run on Green Lantern starting with Issue 76 back in 1971.  Along with Adams creating the modern look of Green Arrow with goatee and new costume, O’Neil brought us a new image of the modern hero, giving Green Arrow, Black Canary, and Green Lantern a new purpose: saving the world one problem at a time.  Their Hard-Traveling Heroes storyline and the team’s greater social consciousness beginning with that Issue 76 has been labeled time and time again as the beginning of the Silver Age of comic books.

O’Neil will be featured on a panel at I-Con at 11 a.m. Saturday.

Also headlining the event is long-time Iowa attendee and former Green Arrow artist Phil Hester, who has been drawing the Green Hornet series for Dynamite Comics and co-writing Bionic Man with Kevin Smith.

I-Con is a good local convention where visitors can get a lot of one on one time with comic book writers and artists.  Notable past guests include Mike Grell, the writer and artist on Green Arrow who re-defined Green Arrow for the 1980s generation.

The day’s events include:

10 a.m. Heroclix intro in the Game Room

11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Spider-man available for photos, 501st Legion, Mandalorian Mercs, Dazzler

11 a.m. Panel from the Bullpen with Denny O’Neil

12 p.m. Cosplay Costume Cavalcade

12:30 p.m. Trivia Contest

1 p.m. Comic Book Writing 101.1 With Tony Bedard

1 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Heroclix Tourney in the Game Room

2 p.m. Wave/Bluewater Comics panel

3 p.m. – 4 p.m. Portfolio reviews by Phil Hester (limited to six people and six pages each)

The show is one day only.  Check out the I-Con website and Iowa Comic Book Club website for more information, including a full list of other guest artists and writers scheduled to attend the event.

C.J. Bunce

Editor

borg.com