Big Wow pics and highlights

So I went to the Big Wow Comicfest 2014 this past Saturday with my friend Luke, his dad, his brother. We saw a lot of neat stuff and got some good deals.

As we walked into the convention, Iron Lady was getting set up. I thought the display looked pretty cool.

 

 After walking around for a bit, we checked out the Batman museum, which had a lot of neat stuff.

 

 

 

 

 

 The Batmobile was even on display.

 

 

                                                   

 

 It was cool to see artwork that wasn't Batman-related as well.

 





 

 When walking towards the artists' alley, the DeLorean from the Back to the Future movies was on display and some Judge Dredd cosplayers were enjoying a conversation.

 

 

 

It's always cool to see the Bay Area Ghostbusters around and they were posing for pictures.

 



                                 

 Luke, his dad, and his brother had to leave early, so I hung around for about two hours and got some good deals on comics. There was these two people there -- I guess they're a married couple -- that I bought some comics from last year for a dollar each. I was wondering if they were gonna be there again this year and they were, so I bought some old Fantastic Four and Avengers comics as well as two Doom Patrol comics. I'm starting to become a Doom Patrol and although my Doom Patrol collection is just getting started, I do plan on checking out the rest of John Arcudi's run since I've heard good things about it. When I was at the booth, one of the Doom Patrol comics that caught my attention was from John Arcudi's run.

 

Anyway, I got around to meeting some of the artists I wanted to meet, which was nice. I started off with Shelly Byers and Gerhard.



 

 

 They were nice and I enjoyed talking to Gerhard all things Cerebus and comics-related. I had him sign some of my stuff and he was particularly fond of my copy of TMNT Vol. 1 #8, where Cerebus had made an appearance. I even got to check out a Swamp Thing Bernie Wrightson piece that he had done the background art for.

 

 





 

 Next was Mike Zeck, who signed my copy of Kraven's Last Hunt.

 

 

And least but not least, I talked to Nick Bradshaw for a bit and had him sign some of Army of Darkness comics.

 

 

 

On my way out, I snagged the Silver Surfer: Requiem series and the Marvel Select Lizard figure. I had a fun time overall except for the part where my legs felt like Jell-O. I look forward to next year's convention.

Goodreads review: Ultimate Fantastic Four Vol. 1: The Fantastic

Ultimate Fantastic Four, Vol. 1: The Fantastic by Brian Michael Bendis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had been wanting to check out some of the comics from the Ultimate universe for a while and decided to give Ultimate Fantastic Four Volume 1 a try. I had read some of Earth 616 comics of the Fantastic Four, so I was already somewhat familiar with the characters and storylines. Bendis and Millar's collaboration, I thought, was a refreshing take on the origin that kept me engaged the whole time through. I liked the fact that Reed Richards was a science geek in high school that got picked on a lot and would help Ben Grimm out with his homework in exchange for him beating up bullies. It gave insight into their relationship as well as how they came to know Sue and Johnny Storm. Reed would conduct experiments in his garage and his dad would get mad at him about it, but it allowed for Reed to go to learn and grow in the Baxter Building which led to his teleportation experiment. In this volume, the teleporation experiment, not the cosmic rays, was what gave the Fantastic Four their powers, which was much akin to David Cronenberg's The Fly.

The fact that Bendis and Millar were able to work together despite their stylistic differences never felt forced nor was it ever anything I had a problem with. Adam Kubert's art -- particularly in the action sequences -- to me, flew off the pages with fluid movement and vibrant motion. Never before did I think that'd I see The Thing used as a target practice for machine gun fire or Mr. Fantastic fold himself up into a ball to deal with a monster. There were so many great and creative moments that stand out that give the book that edge. Even though Bendis and Millar were writing characters that have been around for a while, they still found new ways to utilize their powers and develop their relationships ever further. I thought the Mole Man character, although kind of creepy, was kind of cool too because he had a skin condition and to me, looked very much Todd McFarlane-esque.

I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more Ultimate Marvel stories. This books comes highly recommended whether you've been into comics for a long or you're interested in them and aren't sure where to start.

View all my reviews

Fake Daredevil trailer

A fake Daredevil trailer you say? Is this some kind of Grindhouse-inspired thing? No, not really, but according to Comic Vine, this is what the trailer could have looked like. I watched it earlier today and was in awe of it. Director Joe Carnahan's pitch looks awesome despite not being an actual trailer. Whether it be a reboot or otherwise, it gets me excited for a possible Daredevil movie. I like the '70s look since it has pulp/film noir kind of ambience if you will that Frank Miller's run on Daredevil is known for. Hopefully the rights issue will get worked out, as mentioned in this. In terms of a new movie, it's time that the Man Without Fear is done justice -- no pun intended.

This is interesting too.

Big Wow Comicfest 2012 pics and highlights

So I went to the Big Wow Comicfest on Saturday and had a good time and took picutres of some of the things I saw as well as some of the people I met. I didn't take pictures of everything, but I am including commentary to give y'all a general idea.

Before having lunch, I got Swamp Thing co-creator Bernie Wrightson to sign some of my comics.

I didn't get to talk to him for a long time since there were a few people behind me in the line, but I'm glad I was able to have him sign some of my comics because I didn't know when that opportunity would present itself again.

When the opportunity presented itself, I took a picture of the Bay Area Ghostbusters' Jeep, which I thought was really cool. There's also a poster/image of Viggo in the background.

I also thought it was kinda cool how at the same booth, the Necronomicon from Army of Darkness and Jason's hockey mask were on display. I guess the idea behind that was that the Ghostbusters had examination reports on both items in regards to paranormal activity.

While walking around, I came across a Leonardo Micro Series comic. The guy that I guess was the book's artist or something wasn't around when I walked by, so I didn't get a chance to ask him about it.



There was another guy, though, that walked by when he noticed I intrigued by the book and told me something about pre-ordering it for $20.00 from what I remember, but I thought that was kinda steep, so maybe I'll order it from the site on the cover since the fact that it's an exclusive interests me. I haven't read any of the current Micro Series comics because I haven't been looking hard enough to see if my local shop carries them, but if anyone has any information about the comics, please let me know.

Before leaving, I had the chance to talk to Ron Lim and check out some of his artwork.

He didn't talk a lot when I came by since he was working a Thanos sketch, but he seemed really nice nonetheless. I told him that I was familiar with his work on X-Men 2099 and Spider-Man Unlimited and he said it's been about 15 years since he worked on those titles, which I told him was when I started to get into comics. With that in mind, I told him I never really lost interest in '90s Marvel stuff since I still collect and read it to this day. I told that I'd check out some more of his stuff because he was he quite active in the '90s. I hope to see him next year and perhaps talk with him again.

Overall, I enjoyed the convention and was glad that I didn't let the day go to waste. I even got some good deals on comics and bought a print from an artist named Corey Bass that I'm thinking about hanging up in my room. Oh, and I also won Spider-Man paddle ball by answering a trivia question. Basically there were these two guys in the panel room that I walked into to see a panel. They still had some prizes to give away and they encouraged the audience's participation. I spoke up when they asked what C.H.U.D. stood for since I had seen the movie and one of them handed me my prize. They seemed really enthusiastic when giving out prizes and I'd say the fact that they decided to do some trivia before the Underground Comics panel started helped to get everyone in the mood for it.

I think that's it for now. Hope y'all have enjoyed reading this.