Monday, July 24, 2006

Nothing From Nothing Means Nothing


So the big news out of Nerd Prom is that there was no big news, apparently. I didn't post anything during the con because I figured any interesting blog posts would be drowned out in con babble, but apparently I need not have worried. IDW sort-of slipped out that they were going to start reprinting Dick Tracy in a similar format to the recent Complete Peanuts and Dennis the Menace series, but no information on any other aspect of the project was released. DC confirmed that Adam Hughes is going to be writing and drawing an All-Star Wonder Woman book, something which the rest of the world sussed out a long time ago. I like this because I am something of a sucker for Hughes' work: cheesecake or no, the man can draw like a house on fire, probably one of the best two or three draftsmen working in the industry. And for all the attention his pretty ladies get, it has always seemed to me that he takes equal care in illustrating the heroic proportions of the male figure - more people are lining up to pay him to draw scantily-clad super babes than super hunks, is all.

But yeah, a whole lot of nothing, unless you count the seemingly endless reports of how big, hot, crowded, suffocating, exhausting and just generally demoralizing the show was. The con is pretty much centrally located in the nerd culture as of this moment but you're already seeing major comic book companies like DC and especially Marvel backing away from making large announcements at the con, for the legitimate reason that news about Joe Schmoe getting to write Bat-X kinda pales as a "news announcement" when you're competing for attention with panels filled with Hollywood mega celebrities talking about international blockbuster filmmaking. How long before the incessant negative publicity takes a toll on the con's appeal? Seriously, it seems like the only thing you ever hear about from the people actually involved in the industry is how much of a damn hassle it is. I can easily see a situation where the major comic companies seriously scale back their involvement with the show, leaving it primary a conduit for Hollywood and other extraneous nerd institutions while parceling the comics content to other, smaller, and more specifically targeted shows, such as the regional Wizard cons, SPX, APE, Heroes' Con, Wonder Con, et al.

But then again, having never been to the show, I might be full of shit. If all goes well with my life I'll never have a reason to go - if you ever see me at San Diego you can surmise that something has gone seriously wrong and I am quietly praying for death.




The story of the moment, however, appears to be a disappearance right here in our own neck of the woods. Specifically, Mr. Milo George, proprietor of The Unofficial John Westmoreland Memorial Tribute Webring, appears to have fallen off the face of the planet, to judge by the fact that the last dated post in the epic Last Road Home cycle is dated June 27. Have the forces of Endemic Treponematosis finally silenced this brave warrior? Or did he fulfil his life-long dream by landing a job writing an upcoming Darkhawk revival for Marvel, in which case he would currently be squirreled away in a seedy motel somewhere in south Jersey popping trucker speed and reading early 90s Marvel by the boatload? Perhaps the world will never know.




Yes, I am planning on finishing up that last Silver Surfer post. I've been carrying around the first Silver Surfer Masterworks volume in my bag for weeks now, awaiting the time and inspiration. It's coming, but like a turgid bowel movement after a long cross-country flight, some things just can't be rushed.

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