NYCC Day One: Civil War Fallout; Countdown Teasers; Vertigo’s Slate; BKV’s Accuser

There's loads to cover from day one of the New York Comic Con, so what say we just get right to it and run the highlight reel, eh? (And, fair warning, a couple of lowlights --no fault of the convention itself-- as well.)

Civil War's conclusion took a pretty good beating today. At the comics bloggers panel, Ron Hogan of Galley Cat got the party started by referring to the series conclusion as "really the ultimate in undelivered expectations." None of his fellow panelists disagreed. Joe Quesada introduced Marvel's Civil War Fallout panel by saying, "Civil War: It's over. Thank god. I'm so tired." He went on to face several questions from the audience taking issue with the conclusion -- particularly with regards to Cap's heel-turn. It must be admitted, however, that purely from a dramatic perspective, Quesada does have a point when he says that, "ending Civil War with pro-registration [forces] winning takes us in ... incredible directions." And to be fair, it does sound like writers Warren Ellis, Brian Bendis, Joe Straczynski and Dan Slott have cooked up some penetrating repercussions in the wake of Civil War. Jumping panels again, I'll turn the mic over to Quesada's counterpart at the Distinguished Competition, Dan Didio, who fielded the following question from the audience regarding Countdown (the sequel to 52): "Are there going to be, like, 18 tie-in issues?" Without missing a beat, Didio quipped in reply, "No, no, no. You're confusing us with the other guys."Speaking of Countdown, several tidbits were dropped during the DC Nation panel (including Didio, writer and co-architect Paul Dini, and breakdown artist Keith Giffen): Like its predecessor, the series will run 52 issues (beginning with #51, and --ahem-- counting down to #0); it will occur in real-time in the DCU over the course of a year; the debut issue hits the stands May 9, one week after the final issue of 52 hits the stands on May 2 (yes, would be 5/2); there will be a different cover artist for each month, for a total of 12 cover artists during the run; finally, in the words of Didio, "you're going to find that this is an action book ... shit blows up." Throughout the panel, one by one, five different teaser posters were revealed, and we've got 'em for you:

Switching gears from the DCU to Vertigo, their Looking Ahead panel began with the most disheartening display I've ever witnessed at a con. Following Karen Berger's introduction, a young man in the front row shouted, "Hey, Brian K. Vaughan, why don't you tell us how much you hate the Asian race?" This unseemly and, frankly, outrageously inappropriate slander resulted in surprised stammering from Berger, a look of utterly heartbreaking mortification from Vaughan ... and continued haranguing on the part of Vaughan's accuser, until he was (finally, thankfully) escorted out by security. Following the panel, I asked Vaughan if he had any comment on the outburst (and, seeing his face fall, immediately felt like a heel for having asked), and he replied, "I can't really comment on that, for legal reasons, because it's an ongoing thing." What can one say, really? The mind simply boggles at the misguided notions some people manage to concoct.

Anyway, we now return you to the Vertigo panel, already in progress. Here's what we were treated to in the slideshow (accompanied by details from the creators when present, and by Berger in cases where the creator wasn't present): Northlanders, Brian Wood's new book, for which he heavily researched Icelandic and Norwegian myths and legends; Silverfish, an original graphic novel due in July from David Lapham (in his Vertigo debut) which Berger tantalizingly referred to as a "suspenseful modern Hitchcock noir horror story"; God Save the Queen, a graphic novel written by Mike Carey and painted by John Bolton, is a tale of Titania, the Faerie queen; Sentences, an original autobiographical graphic novel written by Percy Carey (otherwise known under his nom du hip hop, MF Grimm) with artwork by Ron Wimberly, the book represents Carey's first comics work, which he referred to as a "beautiful experience"; The Alcoholic, a graphic novel due in 2008 featuring the comics writing debut of novelist / memoirist Jonathan Ames, and illustrated by Dean Haspiel, who referred to its sordid contends as being "90% autobiographical ... unfortunately" while also saying that the script was "an amazing first draft for a guy who's never written a comic book before"; Faker, a new ongoing series from writer Mike Carey, and due in July; Cairo, a fictional graphic novel due in 2008, the structure of which Berger referred to as being a "story like Babel or Crash, or any of Robert Altman's movies"; and Army@Love, a new ongoing series from Rick Veitch, who called it a "look at a sort of fictional war in the middle east set 5 years from now" whose "underlying satire ... is that the [U.S.] had to re-brand the war." Berger went on to say that around the office, the book was referred to as "Desperate Housewives meets M*A*S*H meets Six Feet Under."

Needless to say, it sounds like the big boys have got some pretty major stories planned for the coming year(s), and I hope you enjoyed this sneak peek into some of those plans as much as I enjoyed gathering them for you.

Oh, one last thing, and I hate to do this to you, but I am weak, and powerless before the urge to share with you my Most Disturbing Sight of the Day. To wit: An adult male fan approaches a display of high-end dolls (not action figures, mind you, but artisan quality dolls) at the Tonner booth, gazes longingly at their lifelike Supergirl doll, then lifts up her skirt and bends over to take a peek. Yuck, creepy Supergirl doll guy, yuck.