HelioCon 2014

I hadn't heard of HelioCon 2014 until about two weeks ago.  Terry Parr of ShoNuff Studios told me about it, knowing that I was a big fan of one of the guests of honor - Linkara of Atop The Fourth Wall.  On the odd chance there's someone out there who is a fan of my work who doesn't know who Linkara is, let me say that in the professional field of comic book criticism he is one of the best and certainly one of the most famous critics out there.  He also lives a goodly distance from Texas, so I was surprised to hear about him doing a convention in DFW, much less a first-year one.


HelioCon was held at the MCL Grand Theater in the hart of downtown Lewisville, Texas.  The entrance was easily identified thanks to a conveniently parked TARDIS, which I believe is fast becoming the standard symbol for "Nerds Welcome Here" around world.


Linkara was the first of several guests to host a Q&A that day.  As is his custom at conventions, he did a live version of his show before taking questions from the fans.  Since he usually posts his con-shows on-line, I won't say anything about the show except that it was hilarious.  I'll post a link to it as soon as he has it up for viewing.



One mark of quality for a convention is a good games area and HelioCon had that.  No surprise given that the games area was run by the wonderful people at Roll2Play.   


The staff of HelioCon were also top-notch and you never had to look far to see them all hard at work.  As far as I know, this red-shirt staff member survived until the end of the Con.


No matter how may times I see a TARDIS dress at a convention, it never gets old.  I thought this gentleman was in the male equivalent of a TARDIS outfit but now that I look at it, I realize my mistake.  Anyone know what character he is?



There's no mistaking this dangerous customer.  That's an Orc.  Whether he's a Pathfinder Orc, a World of Warcraft Orc or an oversized Reaper miniature is a subject of some debate.  I wasn't brave enough to ask.

All in all, it was a fun day and I will definitely be back for the next HelioCon.  And now, some quick shout outs to some awesome people I met and hung out with as the day progressed.

* Sarah at Boomerang Comics, with whom I spent a goodly amount of time speaking about Green Arrow.

* Tony Franklin and Michelle Millette, whose comic Chantilly Mace I will be reviewing sometime soon.

* The Jedi Cole and his wife Cat, whom will be doing many awesome things at All-Con 2014.

* Halo and Terry from ShoNuff Studios, for getting me to Lewisville today in the first place.

* David Doub of Dusk Comics. For listening. I'll be reviewing one of his books shortly soon too.

* Kristen McGuire, who I didn't get to talk to because her table was swamped whenever I got near.

* Linkara, for being as cool as I hoped and for giving me an awesome picture to close with.

And THAT is why we call him Stan "The Man" Lee.

SOURCE: Atop The Fourth Wall

Linkara says it best in the video on his site, but allow me to sum up.

At the start of the year, the syndicated Amazing Spider-Man newspaper strip changed to reflect the reality in the comics as of Brand New Day (i.e. Peter is still living at home with Aunt May, is still in college and has no girlfriend much less a wife). Peter just went to bed one night and woke up in his old bedroom in Aunt May's house. No deal with the devil occurred; it just changed.

The newspaper strip, it should be noted, is still written by Stan Lee; the gentleman who co-created Spider-Man and handled the writing of the character for his first 100 issues. Stan is somewhat better known these days as the elder statesman and spokesman for the comics industry in general and Marvel Comics in specific. He has always toed the party line for the company he helped bring to prominence and has never had a bad word to say publicly about anyone who has worked for Marvel since he left. He's never even criticized any of the various storylines Marvel has published in the last 30 years since he left his editor position. Not even the ones the fans really hated.

That seems to have changed, as of yesterday.

Yes. Stan has changed things back to the way they were in the newspaper strip. Because You Demanded It!

Well... maybe not.

Awesome as it would be if Stan Lee were actually listening to the fans (unlike some Marvel (mis)management we COULD mention), some fans think it unlikely that the dinosaur that is syndicated newspaper comics could possibly inspire THAT much negative fan response in these days of dropping circulations and numerous established papers going bankrupt.

And apparently Roy Thomas may have announced four months ago on some database list that the change was planned to be a temporary one and that things were always going to go back to Peter and Mary Jane being married.

In either case, this is still a good sign for those of us who are hoping for a return of Mary Jane to the Spider-Man books and a return of sanity to Marvel Comics editorial team.

Why? Because Stan Lee is just as fastidious about continuity as he is polite about not saying a bad thing about HIS company. This is the man who established the interlaced nature of Silver Age Marvel, after all and set things up so that it was possible for other characters to cross-over with one another without any stories conflicting with one another. And it was Stan's plan that fans of the strips should not be confused by the comics (and vice versa) that lead to Peter and MJ marrying in the first place after Stan decided they should get married in the newspaper strip.

The fact that Stan Lee has allowed this split with mainline Marvel continuity as it is now says a lot about how Stan truly feels about the mess Joe Quesada has made of Spider-Man.

If it wasn't planned and honestly is the result of fan demand, than it's a sign that the fan outrage is finally working SOMEWHERE. It's not much - but our hopes weren't high with a company whose response to the massive outcry against Marvel Divas was to say "Well, you obviously aren't real Marvel fans, so why are you reading our books anyway?"

And if it was planned months ago, as Thomas suggests, it reflects badly on Quesada because it shows that Stan had no confidence in the idea being worth bringing over into his own work permanently.

Especially given that - by the way the text in the box at the end of the above comic is worded - Stan is painting it like fan demand WAS the cause for the change. That's a big F.U. to Joe Quesada and the first time Stan Lee has snubbed a editor like this.

And that is why we call him Stan "The Man" Lee.

Some Good Things To Look At...

I didn't mean to spend so much time writing two mostly negative reviews. So before I go out for the night (I have a show to perform at this evening) and return tomorrow to cover the rest of the comics I picked up this week, here's some good things to check out.

Atop The Fourth Wall - quite easily the best comedic critic video-blog since The Spoony Experiment, Lewis Lovhaug does for Amazons Attack! what Noah Antwiler did for Yor, The Hunter From The Future

Amazons Attack! #1-2
Amazons Attack! #3-4
Amazons Attack! #5-6


Harley Quinn: A Masochistic Bimbo Who Screwed Her Way Through College - a very thoughtful analysis of the character and The Joker that is one of the more intelligent bits of commentary I've read in a goodly while.