Last year Dynamite brought Charlie’s Angels back from the 1980s for some new adventures, joining other classic TV series comic adaptations including Batman ’66, Wonder Woman ’77, The Six Million Dollar Man, and The Bionic Woman. Dynamite has combined a few classic TV shows already, including a story with Wonder Woman ’77 and The Bionic Womantaking down some fembots. This year the publisher is putting together two more dream team-ups with The Bionic Woman joining Charlie’s Angels on a mission in Charlie’s Angels/The Bionic Woman. When Bosley hands Kelly Garrett, Kris Munroe, and Julie Rogers their next assignment from Charlie, they encounter one of our favorite classic borg characters, the bionic-powered Jaime Sommers. Following the events of the television series into the 1980s, we catch up with a privatized Office of Scientific Investigation, and it’s up to these four women to make sure the OSI technology doesn’t get into the wrong hands for military applications.
It’s a great move using the latter trio from Charlie’s Angels for the new series. Artist Cat Skaggs′ rendering of Tanya Roberts as Julie on her cover variant to Issue #1 is perfect, and she also provides a great portrait of Lindsay Wagner as Jaime for the cover of Issue #2. Other covers were drawn by Ron Lesser and Jim Mahfood, whose Issue #2 features a gorgeous, stylized, throwback design.
Cameron DeOrdio(Josie and the Pussycats) steps in to write this series, and in the first issue she lays the groundwork for a compelling spy thriller. Artist Soo Lee(Strange Attractors) brings in her unique style to give the series an authentic early 1980s vibe. Her artwork has elements of manga and anime blended with Matt Kindt, but best of all the book looks as if it could have been drawn in 1982. Color work is by Addison Duke, with letters by Crank!
Here are some preview images and covers for the first two issues, courtesy of Dynamite:
For the past decade I have tried to ask at least one artist at every comic book or pop culture convention that I attend to draw me a Green Arrow or Black Canary (or both) sketch. I’ve asked this from artists whether or not they have drawn these characters before and most artists are happy to do it. Some well-known artists charge a fee for sketches and many others will sketch for free. Sometimes the key is letting the artist know your sketch is not just going to appear on eBay the next day. Adam Hughes was in the news about this a few years ago when he worked all day on a sketch for someone that promptly flipped it on Ebay for several hundred dollars. He vowed off Con sketches after that. Some people, usually guys who have been going to cons for much longer than me, started with a sketchbook—a blank art book—and hand it off to artists at conventions. These books convey to artists that this fan is going to keep whatever they draw and sometimes artists will take more time when they draw in someone’s sketchbook. I’ve never gone the book route but like getting sketches on blank paper, usually supplied by the artist soI don’t have to leave a book behind. I have featured some of this original art at borg.com previously.
So Comic-Con this year was no different and I added two new Green Arrows to my collection. First up was by Cat Skaggs, who recently created the cover for Smallville Season 11 Issue 1. Not only did I get a signed print of that cover, but she drew a quick free-form sketch of Green Arrow for me. She is not a regular Green Arrow artist, and it was fun to watch her think about how the hat and goatee look:
It makes a nice addition to my collection.
I have had some comic book artists draw sketches for me over the years many would consider industry legends, including Mike Grell, Michael Golden, Rich Buckler, Joe Staton, and Howard Chaykin. This year at Comic-Con I got to chat with Neal Adams, the guy who created the look of the Green Arrow character I am such a big fan of. He created this classic, cocky Green Arrow image for me:
Pretty awesome.
I had met David Petersen at several prior conventions and he had a slot in his sketch schedule so I asked him to draw me a fox as seen in his current run of Mouse Guard:
A nice watercolor image in his unique style!
So not a bad haul for not being at the Con for a full weekend. I also picked up a few SDCC exclusives. Frank Cho was selling his new Liberty Meadows calendar:
I also picked up the new Alex Ross sketchbook:
At the Alex Ross booth I actually spent a lot of time talking with Sal, Justin and Chris, who are always great guys to talk to and deal with. They had some great sketches and painted original Alex Ross art available. As a fan of Six Million Dollar Man as early borg, Ross’s original cover sketches for Issues 1, 2, 4 and 5 of the current Bionic Man series struck me as particularly cool, especially seeing the change in logo evolve over the course of creating the covers. Look at the sketches compared to the final image on the book covers:
Featured in last year’s SDCC 2011 exclusive Alex Ross sketchbook, this sketch jumped out at me this year on display:
I love Zatanna in her magician’s box, waiting to make an appearance. This sketch was created for an Infinite Crisis card game.
Prior to Comic-Con I had connected with the artist for the current Star Trek/Doctor Who crossover series Assimilation², JK Woodward. He was at the Con with writers Scott and David Tipton. I never caught up with them but luckily my friend William got an extra autographed copy of the book. Check out these great original, painted pages from Issue #2 of the series. First, the TARDIS in the Enterprise-D holodeck:
Next, if you like Trek and Doctor Who like I do, you just can’t beat the Eleventh Doctor on the bridge with Captain Picard.
And check out that great rendering of the Enterprise-D soaring above!
Again this year Michael Turner art was available at the Aspen booth and it is always amazing to flip through the late artist’s work.
If you like seeing the creative process behind the scenes, it’s hard to beat seeing original comic art in person. And if you have the time hundreds of artists in Artist Alley are there sketching away throughout the Comic-Con weekend, and love to talk about their work and process.
You can spend your weekend at Comic-Con wandering the exhibit floor looking for mass market collectibles, talking with dealers of original art, talking with writers and artists of current and classic comic books, attend panels and see comic and other creators, TV and movie stars and get the low-down on coming projects, go offsite for parties and studio and publisher events–the biggest problem is doing all you want when there is nowhere close to enough time to do it in. If you’re in for only a few days, you really have to pick up your pace and narrow down what you want to see. Since I spent a whole day in panels and did not stay for the entire weekend, any encounters I had with creators and studio celebrities were pretty much based on happenstance this year. Many creators are now friends, others I gawk at like everyone else from afar. So who did I see?
First of all, in panels I saw the cast of Community, Firefly, and the new series Arrow, including guys I’d love to talk in person someday–Alan Tudyk and Adam Baldwin, David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel from Bones,and the guy you may know as Bud from Married with Children, David Faustino, who is doing voice work now for Nickelodeon, and he voiced the character Mako as part of the Legends of Korra panel. As I mentioned earlier in the week, waiting in line allowed me to meet and get a photo with Joss Whedon.
The Soup host Joel McHale, Firefly star Nathan Fillion, former Angel star David Boreanaz and Korra’s David Faustino really stood out as funny guys in these panels–surprisingly quick-witted people who got the crowd cheering with everything they said.
I saw the main cast of the Syfy Channel series Haven during their signing session. They really looked like they were having a good time–like they really get along with each other. Also signing in the Sails Pavilion were Richard Anderson, who was the classic character Oscar Goldman from one of borg.com’s favorite borg shows: The Six Million Dollar Man, and Cindy Morgan from the original Tron and Caddyshack. I hoped to run into Bruce Boxleitner, JK Woodward and Scott and David Tipton but my panel schedule caused me to miss meeting them.
On the exhibit floor I watched Lou Ferrigno (The Incredible Hulk) and Kevin Sorbo (Hercules) talk with fans and sign autographs.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was coming into the hall and I staked out a photo op location but his handlers moved him out of the hall so I missed seeing him.
As a Star Trek fan, I was very happy to finally meet and have a nice conversation with Brent Spiner. He was a great guy who was as nice in person as you’d hope him to be from years of watching his lovable character Data. I also had a brief chat at day’s end with Levar Burton, also a friendly guy, signing photos of Geordi LaForge for fans. I’d met Marina Sirtis before so I didn’t chat with her this round, but she was also signing Counselor Deanna Troi photos in the hall.
Earlier this year I reviewed Table Top, a new, fun Web series hosted by Wil Wheaton with the Geek and Sundry creators. I met him near a Starbucks and shared my feedback with him on his show. We talked about some of the games and he graciously introduced me to his wife and friends.
Wheaton is truly “one of us” and a really personable guy. Of everyone at the Con, he is probably my first pick of someone you’d like to wander the Con halls and chat with. Another show host, Blair Butler was attending the Con from the popular genre cable channel G4.
Of the comic book realm, I met Cat Skaggs, a well-known comic book artist who was signing cover prints to Smallville Season 11 #1 and she sketched a great Green Arrow bust for me.
I also met Neal Adams–a comic book legend who created the look of the Silver Age Green Arrow and I finally was able to add one of his sketches to my folio. Neal was sketching non-stop for fans just like the newer, younger artists in Artist Alley–a real “working artist” even after all these years.
I ran into my friend Freddie Williams II also, and he also was busy sketching for fans throughout the Con and selling original art from his various DC Comics series.
David Petersen, known best for his Mouse Guard work, was working on commissions for attendees and selling shirts and art at his booth in Artist Alley. I also lucked into getting a sketch from him and enjoyed talking with his wife, who manned the booth when he was doing signings elsewhere.
I ran into Frank Cho again this year and he said he is still expecting to get Guns & Dinos out soon. He was selling a great pin-up calendar featuring Brandy and the Liberty Meadows gang. More on that in future posts. A nominee for the Eisner in two categories this year, Rachel Rising creator Terry Moore was busy talking with fans.
As with last year, Jim Lee could be found at several panels and signing throughout Comic-Con.
As with Freddie Williams, I met up with several folks from back in the Midwest. I ran into artist Ande Parks and met his wife, while hanging with Sean and William from Elite Comics and Chris Jackson who runs Planet Comicon. Parks was chatting with his frequent cover artist Francesco Francavilla, this year’s Eisner cover artist of the year winner, and someone we have talked about here at borg.com all year long for his great cover art. I ran into Star Trek author Kevin Dilmore twice on the exhibit floor–my third year seeing Kevin at the Con. It’s crazy how you can be in your hometown and never run into anyone, and then fly to San Diego and see so many people from back home.
