ted@usceast.UUCP (Ted Nolan) (07/10/84)
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The 1984 Heroes Convention was held last weekend (June 30, July 1) in Charlotte
NC. I was only able to make it up for part of one day, but here goes a partial
summary of the part I saw:
I got to the hotel after the big event of the day, George Perez's talk
(Charlotte is about 100 miles from Columbia, and I hate to get up early),
but I did catch talks by Jackson (Butch) Guice and Bo (Beau?) and Scott
Hampton.
Jackson Guice :
First he told why Marvel had changed his "official" name to Jackson
(his given name) from Butch, the name he had been working under.
It seems that Marvel felt 'Butch' had bad connotations in certain
circles, so when they offered Guice a new contract it was under
'Jackson' and so he will appear in all credits. He says it actually
has some advantages, He can disown the Indiana Jones adaptation (No that
wasn't me, it was my brother Jackson) and when the phone rings and
the party on the other end wants Jackson, he knows it's Marvel.
He blames the Indiana Jones botch (I haven't seen it, these are
his sentiments) on time pressure and poor inking. Says that all
Jones' heads had to be redone after all resemblance to Harrison
Ford was lost.
Upcoming projects :
A series with Bill Mantlo called SWASHBUKCLERS, a pirate comic
set in space (to be an EPIC comic I think). They tried approaching
the editors with a straight pirate comic at first and had it
turned down. They changed the setting to space and resubmitted
it, whereupon it was immediately OKed.
Another series to be called the DRANGERS about a whole team
of (you guessed it) deranged heroes (like the Badger) lead by
their Psychiatrist!. (I don't think this was a joke).
A WHAT IF based on the question : What if Dr. Doom had kept the
Silver Surfer's power. (It's not hard to guess, Guice said, if
you think about it, but I'll give you a clue. It's like all
the other WHAT IF's : everybody dies)
And, he said, he had an offer from Chris Claremont for a Rogue
mini series.
Guice came over well in the interview/question session. He was
both interesting and funny.
The Hamptons :
(Note, I may get the first names backwards in the following
I'm thinking Bo is the brother who did SILVER HEELS, if
that's wrong, reverse the names. I'm probably spelling
them wrong anyway)
Bo and Scot Hampton gave a talk later in the day, and while it
was not as good as Guice's it had some high points. Probably
the best bit was the story of what Scott did to Bo while he
was waiting for the payment from his first sale. I would tell
it , but It would take too many bytes and I have the feeling
you probably had to be there.
Bo said that for now, SILVER HEELS is definitely dead. He accepted
the blame himself, it was his first series and he hadn't realized
that he just couldn't work at the rate a series demands. He claimed
that there were no hard feelings between Pacific and himself (the
opposite in fact) and that he hoped to do work for them again.
Scot said that he had some work for Marvel coming up, Including
an Ilyana centered issue of the NEW MUTANTS, which would involve
Ilyana alone on a derelict spaceship.
After that, I went home. (I lead an exciting life). The next day
of the convention (the day I would have gone if I had had a schedule
in advance) Stan Lee was to talk (for 3 hours I think). You'll just
have to guess what he said though, I didn't make it back.
Oh well.
Ted Nolan ..usceast!ted
PS: If I anything above seems obviously wrong, It's no doubt my
faulty memory, not something that someone actually said.
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Ted Nolan ...decvax!mcnc!ncsu!ncrcae!usceast!ted
6536 Brookside Circle ...akgua!usceast!ted
Columbia, SC 29206 ("Hid the bell with a blot, she did")
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