moriarty@fluke.UUCP (Henry Vogel) (08/07/85)
A REPORT ON THE ATLANTA FANTASY FAIR Once again the Atlanta Fantasy Fair (FF from now on) was a big success. Over 4000 people attended making it the largest con in the southeast (I believe - if anyone has other info, let me know). There were lots of interesting guests: Fred Pohl (sf author), Wendi Pini, Colleen Doran (sp?), John Ostrander, Tim Truman, several people from Marvel including Steve Saffel their publicity director, some from DC but no big names, a few guys from Comico who were associated with the Macross books, and even me! This was my first time as a guest at a convention and it sure beats being a member! Guests can do no wrong! We could ask stupid questions without getting pained looks from the staff, we could go just about anywhere we wanted to regardless of whether the area was open to members yet or not. This is definately the way to go - and you get in free too! Unfortunately, part of being a guest means means sitting behind a table and talking to fans so you miss out on many of the panels, etc. I sat behind our table between Bill Neville - who pencilled Missing Beings for me - and Mark Propst - who is drawing SK#12 and 13 and has just recently had the pencilling chores for Americomics FemForce turned over to him (he hates the book, but has hopes of turning it into something worthwhile). The people from Comico were right next to us and from them I heard some interesting news concerning Bill Willingham. It seems Willingham and Comico have paved over their differences and he is working on the Elementals again - #5 I believe. They are talking about the book going monthly. The big news is Bill will NOT be drawing American Flagg for First. It seems he's working just for Comico now - this straight from the mouth of Rich Rankin. Also, Comico has licensed a couple of new titles. They'll be doing a comic book adaptation of Starblazers (I'm looking forward to that) and also one of Johnny Quest. Maybe Johnny is also going to be making a cartoon comeback - Ghod knows we could use a decent cartoon or two! The only other news I picked up concerns Grimjack. Truman will definately be leaving the book. While I was talking to Ostrander, he showed me xeroxs of the first book done by Grimjack's new penciller (that's the way he put it so I doubt we're talking about a leave of absence from the book for Tim). The pencils looked okay, but it was hard to tell how they'll look inked and colored just off of a photocopy. John was a nice guy and about the only other writer- but-not-artist who was there so I felt we had SOMETHING in common (now if we just had circulation figures in common...). To any of you out there who may have stopped by to talk to me, thanks! One of you even mentioned net.comics (you don't have access yourself, but have friends print it out for you - Hi!). I had lots of fun just sitting around talking to the few fans who made it down to where we were sitting and even got a few of them to give the Knights a try. In the amatuer art room someone had even done a drawing of the Knights although it that person stopped by to talk to us they didn't identify themselves. One of the frustrating things about being a writer at a con is that you can talk to the fans, but they always want sketches from the artists and I couldn't do them (some of them seemed to know nothing about what writers do on books - one of two complimented Bill on Missing Beings as a concept and story in general and Bill and I had to tell them that I created the concept and did all the writing - this can be somewhat frustrating if you don't take it in the right light). However, after burying my face in my arms on Saturday, Rich Rankin asked me to write a paragraph for him. He even acted the typical fan - he wanted it to be about Ororo as a little girl in Egypt suffering from claustrophobia and thinking about the Great Pain of her life. Eager for my first convention sale, I wrote up a great little paragraph about Ororo stuck in a tiny room trying to pick the lock while the walls closed in upon her and trying to ignore her Great Pain - which was caused by a nail in her foot. Everyone got a kick out of it and Rich even paid me $1 for it. All in all, the convention was lots of fun. I'm sorry I can't report on the various activities, but I was unable to attend most of them. Anyway, this should give you a look at a con from the other side of the table! Henry Vogel henry%clemson.csnet@csnet-relay
csc@pur-phy.UUCP (Craig S. Calhoun) (08/09/85)
> The people > from Comico were right next to us and from them I heard some interesting > news concerning Bill Willingham. > > It seems Willingham and Comico have paved over their differences and he is > working on the Elementals again - #5 I believe. They are talking about the > book going monthly. The big news is Bill will NOT be drawing American Flagg > for First. It seems he's working just for Comico now - this straight from > the mouth of Rich Rankin. Well this blows my theory all to heck. Oh, well, since every time I speak I say something stupid, I might as well continue the tradition. How about MARS as the #4 strip in FIRST ADVENTURES? Yeah, I`m probably wrong on this one too, but its a nice idea, don`t you think? Thanks again, Craig S. Calhoun UUCP:{ decvax, icalqa, ihnp4, inuxc, sequent, uiucdcs }!pur-ee!pur-phy!csc { decwrl, hplabs, icase, psuvax1, siemens, ucbvax }!purdue!pur-phy!csc P.S. Keep sending in those comics lists. I`ve only recieved the lists of 14 people so far. "May you suffer to live in interesting times."--Chinese curse