SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2007
MEGACON: MARVEL PANEL
ORLANDO -- A few days before Civil War #7 is released and a week before a slew of announcements is expected in New York, several of Marvel's top artists gathered early Saturday for a panel at MegaCon.
In fact, it was a bit like a CrossGen reunion with Brandon Peterson, Mike Perkins and Steve McNiven. Add David Finch and Tim Townsend, and it was a reflection of an awfully lot of comics sold over the past two years.
Following are the highlights from the panel:
* Finch said he is done with Moon Knight and is working on a Spider-Man story with Jeph Loeb under the temporarily titled Fallen Son umbrella of post-Civil War titles.
He said he feels challenged because other top artists -- such as John Romita Jr. on Captain America and John Cassaday on Iron Man -- are working on other Fallen Son one-shots.
* "I hope you guys like it. I'm kind of partial to it," McNiven said when asked about Civil War #7.
McNiven said he doesn't know what his next project will be. "I'm going to New York at the end of the week to talk to the Marvel Guys," he sadi.
* Townsend noted he inked three of McNiven's page for Civil War #7. He also said he is looking forward to the conclusion of Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men run so he and X-Men artist Chris Bacahlo can work on some of the heavy-hitter X-Men characters that Whedon has had dibs on.
* Finch said he drew the cover to X-Men #200.
"It was the most fun I've ever had," he said. "These were the characters I read before I got into comics (professionally). I'm hoping to do these characters some time soon."
Finch is also working on covers for the upcoming World War Hulk event.
* The pros and cons of using computers to produce or help produce art were weighed, with the consensus that computers are good as a tool but bad as a crutch. Townsend noted that an overreliance on computers can often detract from an artist's work.
Peterson, who likes to use 3D models in his work, recently suffered a setback when his computer crashed, with no back-up files. He explained that rebuilding the models contributed to the delay of Ultimate Vision.
* Perkins said he and Steve Epting, who have alternated issues on Captain America, will now be drawing halves of the same issue beginning with #26.
"Each will be a different section with different characters," Perkins said.
Perkins also has another yet-to-be announced project coming up with Union Jack collaborator Christos Gage.
He said he's looking forward to drawing such second-tier characters as Iron Fist, Luke Cage and Moon Knight. "Give me a Deathlok, and I'd be happy," he said.
* McNiven said he felt "a lot of pressure right out of the gate" with Civil War.
"I had only been doing super-hero comics for three years and most of the characters I had never drawn before," he said. "I learned a lot."
* Asked about the long-discussed Ultimate X-Men run written by Bryan Singer, McNiven said he was flattered about being chosen as artist by Singer. "Hopefully, we'll get to do that at some point," he said.
* Perkins said USAgent was originally going to be in Union Jack, but had to be eliminated because of Civil War considerations.
* Asked about the validity of online comics, Peterson, who worked in that area at CrossGen, said it's an area that hasn't found its niche yet. He noted that the reproduction on a computer screen suffers in the translation from 400 DPI to 72 DPI and that keys for success of online comics are easy availablity for fans and protection against piracy.
* Finch noted that something that happens to someone close to the Hulk helps trigger the events of World War Hulk. "It's basically everybody against the Hulk," he said.
* McNiven said he was offered contracts from both Marvel and DC after leaving CrossGen. He noted he actually left CrossGen three to four months before the publisher's problems started to surface.
"They didn't want to give me a new contract" he said. "They just wanted to extend mine by a month."
* McNiven on the Civil War finale: "Hopefully, everything will fall together. It's not a Bob Newhart ending. It's not a Scooby-Doo ending."
* McNiven said even he was shocked when he found he was drawing Spider-Man publicly unmasking. "I had to call the office," he said. "And I asked, 'You're letting me do this?'"
* McNiven said writer Mark Millar went through several passes on each issue of Civil War.
* Perkins said "some strong stuff" is coming in Captain America, with #25 leading right out of the end of Civil War.
"It leads the book somewhere else," he said. "And Ed (Brubaker, writer) has been been leading up to this previously."
Perkins noted that Brubaker advised him to draw Captain America in a similar body form to Tom Strong from Alan Moore's America's Best Comics.
* The results of Civil War?
"It leads to a big shift with all the characters. They'll be in different places," McNiven said. "Some in stronger places than others."
Copyright © 2007, The Comics Continuum