Looking To The Stars - Wizard World Texas 2006

Okay. Still no part three on the Hellblazer Episode Guide.

Mind you, there is a good reason for this.

Somehow in all the hustle and bustle of Halloween, a rush of unexpected job interviews and all the work I was doing on The Hellblazer Episode Guide, I somehow forgot that Wizard World Texas was happening this past weekend.

Funny how these little things just slip your mind when you’re busy, eh?

Actually, I know exactly why it slipped my mind. Despite being possibly the biggest convention in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, I have only ever been to Wizard World once- the very first year it was held.

The second year I had planned on attending but my manager at the time quit the day before the convention. This left me as the only person capable of opening and closing the store that weekend. Not only did I have to miss the convention – I also had to work the open to close shift for four days in a row.

The third year, I was in little mood to make merry in a geeky fashion. My friend Sam had died the week before. And not even the presence of Summer Glau of Firefly fame was enough to take me out of my funk.

I confess I was somewhat worried about this year. Not because I was afraid of being unable to attend but because there didn’t seem to be much worth getting excited about this year. The first Wizard World Texas – oh that was the stuff of legends. Paul Dini, Kurt Busiek, Paul Jenkins, George Perez and Kevin Smith – all great writers and all among my favorites.

This year, there were only two major professionals I cared much about meeting. One was Ed Brubaker, whom I place at the top of the short list of the people at Marvel who are doing anything worth reading these days. The other was George Perez whom I spent a pleasant half-hour chatting with three years ago at Wizard World Texas. I’ve gone to conventions for less, but given how Wizard World has a reputation for being as huge as it is the idea of going to Wizard World for just two guests was anathema to me.

Well, let me let you kids in on a little secret. Often times, all the fun in a convention is there for the making. It isn’t about what pros you meet or what swag you buy or what exclusive Uber-Kewl Limited Edition Promethium Sketch Cover of Ultimate Redundancy #1/2 you get just for walking in the door. It’s about the people you meet and the experiences you share with your fellow fans.

With that in mind, let me tell you the tale – with photographic accompaniment where appropriate – of the places I’ve been and the people I met. And how this column wound up being about something more than a list of Top Ten Things To Do At Wizard World When You Are Broke.


I arrived at the Arlington Convention Center an hour early and lined up for entry into the grand hall. Good news! George Perez, ready to meet and greet his public, worked his way down the line before the doors officially opened. I already had a few comics autographed by him the last time I was at Wizard World but I still got him to sign my program.

I ran into George again later that day at the booth for The HERO Initative (AKA The charity formerly known as ACTOR) where he was doing sketches. The price was a bit rich for a librarians’ salary but it was still heartening to see so many fans supporting the cause and getting nice Starfire sketches in the bargain.

A rare sight: critic and artist, together and at peace.

Of course even on a librarians’ salary, there is much fun to be had in looking at the plunder you cannot afford. One such place for such plunder is Vividvision - makers of many cool toys and collectible holographic prints. I’m not much a die hard Trekker or Trekkie or – whatever name the folks who love Star Wars have, but those who are will doubtlessly find some colorful wall decorations here.

Oooooh... shiny!

And speaking of decoration, I caught the beauty below as I was walking past the booth for The International Fight League. You may wonder, as I did then, why such a thing would be appearing at what is mostly a comic convention. Well, riddle me this - what else does Gareb Shamus run besides Wizard Magazine?

No, she isn’t one of the fighters. I checked.

I wondered even more why, when I asked about said business, they told me about a fitness training camp they offered as well as their shows. I know I have the look of a hardened criminal but I’m much more at home with a sword or a longbow than my bare fists. Shame that ‘romantic highwayman’ is not a viable occupation these days.

What is a viable occupation is "peddler of Heroclix" – a role I briefly assumed this week after discovering Strikezone Online. If you have a bunch of old cards or game-pieces to clear out of your closet or are looking for that one special card, they are by far the best dealer that I have ever dealt with. Not only did I make an amount of money considerable enough to not worry about my sundry expenses at the convention – I made enough to pay rent!

This may, I believe, make me the first person in recorded history to ever walk out of a comic book convention with more money than he started with.

La pièce de Danger Dans la miniature

Now that I had money, I decided to set about sharing my wealth. I first decided to pick up a little something for my girlfriend. Christmas and her birthday are coming up swiftly, after all.

Oddly enough, my girlfriend does read my column so I can’t go into any great detail about exactly what I got her. But I will say this much. If you have a need for a graphic designer and illustrator capable of working miracles under unusual conditions, I can think of no one artist I could recommend more than Mr. David K. Wong.

Wong At Work

And while I was wandering about the Artist’s Alley, I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was someone I was a fan of, whose name I did not hear advertised in connection to the Con. Jennie Breeden – author and artist of The Devil’s Panties.

I’ll say briefly that the comic (which, her flyers point out, is not Satanic Porn) is one of the most witty, honest and damn funny things out on the Internet. I’ll go into more detail in an upcoming column once I clear my plate. Who knows? I might even be able to get Ms. Breeden to honor us with an interview.

Deceptively innocent-looking, isn’t she?

And with all this talk of porn, I should perhaps mention that the Suicide Girls did NOT grant me permission to take pictures of them for this article. Those who wish to see such pictures are advised to go to Google as I would like to maintain the illusion of being a wholesome family entertainer for a while longer and not directly link to a most adult website.

This is the best you’re going to get from me.

The lovely lady above is Katherine – an employee with Anime Pavilion - a most excellent Anime shop, though I think their place at the convention would be more accurately termed a pergola than a pavilion. I think pavilions have awnings. Perhaps they have one back home in Virginia? I’m not sure. But what I am sure of is that apart from myself, Katherine was one of the few people I saw who bothered dressing up in a festive manner for Wizard World.

Sadly, that is all of the pictures I got of Wizard World. I had the misfortune to have all my batteries die twice. And even the batteries the kindly gentleman with the deadlocks and his friend with the camera gave me wore out all too soon. So let me conclude with a list of people to whom I owe my thanks and offer a thumbs up for a most unconventional convention.

Horrorwood - Not to be confused with Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood but just as cool. This is a suspenseful tale of Cold War era terror in the Hollywood studio system. Not a book for the kiddies, in other words.

Ape Comics - publishers of Horrorwood and many other fine quality comics.

The Hero Foundry - a non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring the youth of today through tales of heroism and the donation of comic-books to schools and libraries. A worthy cause I would support, even if I weren’t a librarian and a comic-book reader myself.

Jester Press - Publishers of the excellent horror title Night.

Coastline Comics - They provided me with the perfect book with which to explain to a young artist "Who is Black Canary?"

Cenikor - a local DFW charity devoted towards helping drug addicts fight their addictions, their booth was perhaps the most unusual one I found at Wizard World. Still, anything to help a worthy cause.

Big World Comics - a wonderful local comics and figures store, even if they didn’t have the Jack Knight figure and statue I was looking for.

Krazy Comix - another large dealer in comics collectibles, who told me of how it was near impossible to find the Jack Knight figure and statue that I am looking for.

Comics and Hobby Connection - this home-business offered friendly service, a fine selection and to track down the Jack Knight figure and statue I’m looking for.

Caricatures Etc - run by local artist, fixture of the DFW Con-scene and triple-threat “Myk” Friedman, this is yet another wonderful place to get custom artwork that is inexpensive but never cheap.

koops comics - a dealer in classic old comics who made me a great deal on an old Conan book as well as one of the few people who recognized my Jack Knight costume, Koop is a scholar and a gentleman. He even let me have a large Target bag to carry off some of my goods when my backpack proved too small for the task!


SPECIAL THANKS TO:

Everyone mentioned above, obviously.

Ed Brubaker, with whom I talked about Hellblazer and a story that never was.

Steve Epting, who was quite nice about signing my program and not doing a skech.

All the staff and volunteers of Wizard World Texas 2006.

All the staff of the Arlington Texas Convention Center

All the people at the Wizard Trivia Contest, who gave my library two new Manga.

All the kids who wanted to look at my Heroclix. There is hope for us all, yet.


Tune in next week. Same Matt time. Same Matt website.

Looking To The Stars - Gazing On The Internet

A short column this week, as I have been heavily occupied with, in no particular order, job interviews, projects at work and the prep work for two interviews that I think you will all enjoy very soon.

So since I have little time to prepare something for you all to enjoy reading this week, let me talk, in brief, about some things that I have enjoyed reading recently and I think you will too.

First of all, The Dabel Brothers are already taking pre-orders on the first trade-paperback collection of their adaptation of Raymond Feist’s Magician. This was one of my favorite books as a teenager and the comic, supervised by Feist himself with a script by Red Sonja scribe Mike Oeming is a real winner. I understand the first two issues have sold out in many areas, so I encourage you all to order now.

One thing you WON’T have to order, seeing as how it is freely available upon the web is a nice little web-comic I discovered called Sorcery 101. Now, they don’t need my help promoting themselves as they just made the leap to Keenspot after being self-hosted since May of last year. But for what it is worth as an ex-Vampire: The Masquerade player, I’ve never seen anything that quite captures the feel of that world in quite so real a fashion as this comic. Which may say a bit about who I played with as this comic is very much a fantastic comedy.

That’s fantastic as in fantasy, not fantastic as in good, though it is good so both meanings do apply.

The plot, such as it is, centers upon Danny, a schoolteacher and aspiring sorcerer. His life is complicated by, in no particular order, his werewolf best friend Brad, Brad’s demon-hunting wife Ally, his vampire magic teacher Pat and Seth; a very powerful and very alcoholic vampire who Danny has been blood-bonded (or ghouled, to use the World of Darkness terminology) to.

If you have a fondness for films such as Fright Night or Once Bitten… well, I think that’s very sad. But if you like seeing the supernatural dealt with in a stunning hilarious way, then I think you’ll like Sorcery 101.

This is Seth. NOT Neil Gaiman. Really.

Finally, let me point you toward The Absorbascon. A rather neat little blog that has a number of interesting essays on topics as wide and varied as…

* Why The Dibnys Are a symbol of the Seven Deadly Sins

* Reasons to read Manhunter (if you don’t get enough from the staff here)

* *Several essays on the differences between DC and Marvel Comics; re: Greek vs. Norse Myths

My favorite feature though, so far, is a number of custom “non-legal” HeroClix bystander pogs. For those of you who don’t play HeroClix (the best superhero miniatures game of all time!), bystander pogs are little cardboard pieces that represent minor characters in a battle, compared to the sculpted plastic pieces used to represent superheroes and supervillains. Usually they represent characters that aren’t “big” enough to rate a plastic figure, such as Harvey Bullock or L-Ron or civilians who need to be rescued (Aunt May and Silver Sable).

Some of them are funny if useless, such as a pog for Hal Jordan’s pet alien starfish Itty. Some are just twisted, such as a pog for Lois Lane’s slimness-challenged roommate Marsha Mallow. But my favorites so far have to be the series of writer pogs that allow you to put your favorite (or least favorite) writers on the battlefield to direct their heroes or be slaughtered mercilessly.

And just to show off how wonderful this idea is; here are the stats and pictures for my favorite and least favorite writer (of the ones done so far, at least) respectively.

Rules for using Gail Simone

1. All villains (on any team) adjacent to Gail Simone add +1 to their Attacks.

2. Villains (on any team )cannot attack Gail Simone.

3. When next to Gail Simone, Dr. Psycho gets +2 on uses of his Mind Control power.

Rules For Using Judd Winick

1. Judd Winick has the “Poison” power, but only toward figures with the Outsiders Team Ability as well as Green Arrow (Oliver Queen) and Kyle Rayner.

2. Normally, a flying hero can carry most other characters. Judd Winick may be only be carried by another writer.

3. Judd Winick has no ranged attacks, but does have a damage of 1. That means Judd can do damage to characters, but only when allowed anywhere near them.

Most of the articles are more the speed of your average comic fan though, but there’s enough variety to keep things interesting for everyone, even if the site does tend to lean toward DC Comics in what is discussed. Still, I like it. And I think you all will too.

Tune in next week. Same Matt time. Same Matt website.

Visit our blog at: http://www.livejournal.com/users/looking2dastars/

Looking To The Stars: Gaming For Comic Geeks

With the holidays fast approaching, I’m sure that some of you out there are looking for gift ideas. Since I’m in a generous mood and there’s no major crises in the comic industry demanding sarcastic commentary this week, I’d like to take some time to tell you all about a game that has quickly become one of my favorites; HeroClix.

HeroClix is a miniatures-based combat game based upon our favorite comic book heroes. At present there are three versions of the game; Marvel, DC and Indy. Marvel and DC feature the heroes of their respective companies with Indy collecting a spattering of heroes from CrossGen, Top Cow, 2000 AD, Dark Horse and other companies outside of the big Two.

The game is played on a flat map, laid out on a square grid. There are a variety of locations; inside an office-building, inside a museum, a city park, a martial arts dojo. Indeed, a recent set introduced location maps based on specific locations such as the lawn of the X-Mansion, the JLA Watchtower, The Avenger’s mansion and the streets of Metropolis.

The game pieces are plastic, painted miniature figures, modeled off the many comic characters. Players form a team out of their own collection of game pieces, building to a specified point limit. 300 is the maximum amount of points in sanctioned tournaments, but it is not unheard of for larger teams to be used for the fun of it. Players get a number of actions per turn equal to 1 turn for every 100 points on their team.

Each character is worth a certain amount of points, based upon their level of experience and power. There are three levels of experience; Rookie, Experienced and Veteran, denoted by a yellow, blue or red circle on the base of the figure. The more experienced or powerful a character is, the more points they are worth. A veteran Superman, for example, is worth a considerable amount more than a rookie Metropolis Special Crimes Unit officer.

There are two other levels of experience; Unique and Limited Edition. Uniques are rare, hard to find figures that either depict an exceptionally powerful character (Martian Manhunter and Adam Warlock are uniques) or a regular character that is in a different costume than usual. There is a unique Spider-Man, for example, where he is in the black costume. Likewise, while the regular Professor X figure is depicted in an ordinary wheelchair, the Unique Professor X is shown in his hover-chair from the 90’s comics. These are marked with a silver circle around the base. Limited Edition figures, by contrast, have a gold circle around the base and can only be found by winning a sanctioned tournament. They look much the same as a regular figure, but have better statistics than even their Veteran counterparts and are marked with the secret identy of the character. The Limited Edition Green Arrow, for example, is named Oliver Queen.

This brings us to the question of statistics. All of a characters “stats” are written on the base of the figure. There are five statistics; speed, attack, defense, range and damage. Speed shows how many squares a character may move on one term. Range shows how far away a character may make an attack. Attack and Defense denote how well a character may, respectively, attack and defend themselves. Damage shows how much damage the character does upon making a successful attack.

A color code around each number is used to denote the various superpowers and abilities that each character has. Spider-Man, for example, has light blue on his Attack value. This represents the Incapacitate ability, in which a character makes an attack that does no damage to his opponent but does make them unable to move for one turn. Incapacitate is a general blanket for a variety of powers that can stop an opponent in their tracks, such as Spider-Man’s webbing or Black Canary’s sonic scream.

Some figures also have a team symbol, which gives them special abilities. JLA members, for instance, can move without it taking up one of the player’s action points on that turn. 2000 AD team members have the ability to chose another team as their “enemy” and get an attack bonus against any member of that team.

One thing that impresses me the most about HeroClix is how it was obviously created by fans of the comics and very well researched. The rookie and veteran Mangeto figures, for example, are members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. But the experienced Magneto has the X-Men symbol, noting the time when Magneto took up the role of a teacher at Xavier’s school. Similarly, the rookie version of Rogue is a member of the Brotherhood but her experienced and veteran versions have the X-Men team ability.

All this is a bit dry, of course. To give you all an idea of the game play, here follows a quick textual description of a battle between two characters; a rookie Spider-Man and rookie Dr. Octopus. All the dice rolls of the game are made with a pair of six-sided dice.

The first step is to roll for initiation, to see who goes first. In this case, Spider-Man rolled a 7 while Doc Ock rolled a 5. Spider-Man gets to make the first move.

After checking to make sure that Doc is with his range of 4, Spidey rolls to make an Incapacitate attack. In comic book terms, Spidey is about to try and web down the Doctor, hoping to keep him pinned down long enough to get in a better attack.

Attacks are made by rolling the dice and adding the number rolled to the Attack stat of the attacker. This number is then compared to the Defense stat of the defender. If the attack total is equal to or higher than the Defense stat, it counts as a hit and the damage number of the attacker is consulted. The defending figure is then “clicked” to denote the damage done. Each figure has a dial on the bottom, which spins around, automatically lowering the statistics of the character as it takes damage.

In this case, Spidey rolled a 6, which is added to his Attack value of 10. This equals 16, which is higher than Doc Ock’s defense of 15. Instead of taking damage, Doctor Ock gets a note that he has one move action upon him.

In other words, the webbing connected and Doc is all tangled up and having trouble moving. Some of the webbing may even have hit his sunglasses, making it hard for him to see.

This might stop a lesser opponent… one who does not possess Doc Ock’s immense willpower. Indeed, Doc has an ability called Willpower (Purple on Defense). Willpower allows any character with it to “push” themselves without taking damage. Usually a character whom has just taken an action or has been incapacitated cannot move until their player’s next turn, without taking a “click” of damage for exerting themselves. A character with Willpower can take action in two consecutive turns, but cannot move for one turn immediately after.

In our comic scenario, Doc Ock strains his tentacles, trying not only to break the webbing’s hold on him, but to lash out at Spider-Man, who is within HIS attack range of 4 as well.

Doc Ock rolls double ones, or what is known as a Critical Failure. When a character rolls a Critical Failure, they take a click of damage; in effect, they hit themselves trying to make an attack.

So in our scenario, Doc is fighting blind and somehow knocks himself for a loop. This has stunned him for just long enough for Spider-Man to try and launch another attack, again from a safe distance.

Spidey rolls a 9, which added to his 10 Attack value gives him a total of 19. Spidey is on a roll and easily manages to get a blow in against the dazed Doctor and his decreased defense of 15. Checking Spidey’s damage rating (2 points) we click the Doctor’s base and find that he has lost his Willpower ability, having been angered by Spider-Man’s attack. He has, however, actually gained the Deflection power. Deflection gives a 2 point bonus to the defense of a character when they are attacked with a ranged attack. In effect, the Doctor has a collective defense of 15 against ranged attacks and a mere 13 defense against up-close fighting.

Imagine the tentacles breaking free, now whipping around the Doctor creating a buffer zone that no projectile can get through. Truly angered now, the Doctor launches another tentacle assault on Spider-Man.

Doc rolls an 8 which adds to his Attack Bonus of 7. Too bad for him that 15 isn’t quite enough to defeat Spider-Man’s defense of 16.

The good ol’ Spider-Agility is just enough to get Puny Parker out of the way of hurting. Knowing that he can’t keep wasting his webbing keeping Octavius pinned down, Spider-Man moves in to finish it.

Spider-Man moves the four squares between him and Octavius, ready to go toe-to-toe with one of his greatest enemies. Unless they have a power that allows it, such as Running Shot or Charge, a character cannot move and attack on the same turn. This gives Doc Ock a change to get a free shot at Spider-Man.

Doc Ock rolls a 5, which added to his Attack of 7 equals 12. Woefully inadequate to stop Spidey, who so far hasn’t taken one hit.

Dodging all way, Spidey manages to get right next to Doc Ock and readies a one-two punch to the glass jaw. He rolls a 7, which added to his Attack of 10 gives him a 17. Even if his Deflection power were active at close range, that still wouldn’t be enough to save Otto Octavius. The punch proves to be the last straw, as the second click of damage knocks him unconscious.

For more information on HeroClix, visit their website at http://www.wizkidsgames.com/heroclix/

Tune in next week. Same Matt Time. Same Matt Website.