Wizard World brought Comic Con to Nashville for the first time ever and we were there for it. Check out the interviews from Opening Night!

I (Scott Asher) was joined by David Mason, a comic book expert (and fanboy), in interviewing many of the artists on the show room floor. Here are some excerpts.

 Daniel Leister (Artist: Hack/Slash, Army of Darkness).
Scott: Are you working on anything new?
Daniel: My own book? I hope so. I have a four issue mini-series that I wrote – I had to put it on hold for Army of Darkness – probably I’m gonna start a Kickstarter up soon for the series in another months or so. Put it up in December or January.:
Scott: What’s that one called?
Daniel: Werewolf Run.
David: Through Image?
Daniel: Probably. I’ll try to get it through them first.

 

Thony Silas (Spider-Man, Batman Beyond)

David: So what are you working on now?
Thony: I’m working on a mini-series… [issues] 6, 7, 8 of Daredevil Dark Knights. It is so hard to finish it [following the great art by Lee Weeks].
David: Are you working on Batman Beyond?
Thony: “Yes. You saw the movie? Bruce was the teacher of new Batman. Now Dick Grayson will be like the uncle… Batman beyond… Dick is more mature. He leave Bruce. Dick Grayson will try to [work through] forgiveness. Grayson will try to get together again with Bruce.”
David: Is this still their own universe or are they trying to mix it in with the New 52?
Thony: “Movies is one time. Comic book is another time. This moment, two years after the last one. I will draw what will happen.”
David: Your art is great for Daredevil. All the air shots.
Thoney: “Very different Batman beyond and Daredevil. It’s less. You see. A lot less line art. More brush.”

 

Harvey Tolibao (Danger Girl, Uncanny X-Force)

David: So what are you working on now?
Harvey: Danger Girls the Chase. They put me on the new arch. It’s going to be what’s in the briefcase the whole time. It is cool that it’s written by the real writers; the originals. I’m on issue three and every night I don’t know what’s inside the case.”
David: You’ve been good for Danger Girl. You gotta have a certain type of artwork.
Harvey: “Yeah. But Marvel just announced this morning that I’m going to do Uncanny X-Force for them. They told me that they have a project for me; a secret project. I was so happy! I don’t know who is going be the writer but I am very excited!”
David:
Harvey: “I’m going to do the next four books.:
David: So how long does it take to do one issue?
Harvey: “Marvel gives you six weeks usually. But it takes about one month [for art]. You have 30 days. The writer takes a week then passes it to you.”
Scott: Describe how Marvel gives you scripts.
Harvey: “Sometimes there are writers like that… Sometimes they give just a couple pages. It happened that [the script] got leaked to a website. I think it was Electra was a Skrull. So Marvel sometimes does it 5 pages… 10 pages. Sometimes I’ve done certain panels with a kick ass motorcycle in the background [that later] Abby Chase would ride it. It’s good when the artist and the writer have a link.”

 

Jackie Lewis (Play Ball)

Jackie: “What I’m working on now is a historical, kinda adventure one that’s based on a massacre that happened a couple hundred years ago…”
Scott: What is it called?
Jackie: “Um, I don’t know if I can talk about it yet! I don’t think it’s a secret, but my editor always says don’t talk about it until we announce it.”
Scott: I’m a big fan of Oni. I think Oni put’s out some really good stuff.
Jackie: “I love Oni. It’s really fun to work them. Their philosophy is the same as mine. The way they work and the way they communicate is like a family.”

 

Eric Powell (The Goon, Action Comics, Avengers)

David: So how are things coming with the Goon movie?
Eric: They are doing animatics. Everyone’s still involved. It’s been a while. What I’m hearing is that it’s not a lot different than a lot of [movies]. It took Hellboy 5 years. Still plugging away.”

 

 

 

Mike Grell (Green Arrow, X-Men, Action Comics)

David: What’s happening with Green Arrow?
Mike: “They stopped the stop for the summer thing was a ‘oh yeah, we are just stopping for the summer.’ [It is actually more permanent.] It was so tightly drawn to the plot of the show. When there was no show on they [lost their audience.] Foolish.”
David: It was good seeing you do Green Arrow again.
Mike: “Yeah, me too.”
David: What are you doing now?
Mike: “I’m working on Tarzan next.”

 

Neal Adams (Superman, X-Men, Batman)

David: I would always get disappointed when I’d buy Superman and see you covers and then a different artist would be doing the inside.
Neal: “All right, enough of that! You can’t compliment one guy but put down the other guy.” [Said with a smile]; chiding but playful.]
David: Oh, I know the other artists were great I’m just saying you are great. Personally. You and Garcia Lopex are my two favorite Superman artists.
Neal: “I agree about Garcia Lopez.”
David: Did you do the insides or just covers?
Neal: “I did the inside of Superman vs Mohammed Ali. If you look it up on the internet and figure out how many pages I did on a given year it would be… I did five covers a week. Usually that’s enough for one guy. But I did the insides as well.”

 

A.J. Scudiere (God’s Eye, Vengeance, Resonance, Shadow Constant)

Scott: So what are you working on now?
A.J.: “Have you seen the graphic novel? I wrote the story. [A company we worked with on the graphic novel] is running a thing in Fort Meyers right now. They are running RPGs, FPS. Games. They will eventually have roller coasters… They did the setup. They built these worlds. The five worlds that encompass all the possible worlds. The fantasy, tech, cartoony. I just wrote a live play event.”
David: So like a theme park?
A.J.: “Yeah. Basically they are going to kidnap people and send them through the game and act out part of it.”
Scott: Like a Murder Mystery?
A.J.: “Yes. Except video game. First Person Shooter. It’s a game.”

 

 

 

Mike Miller (Injustice: God’s Among Us, Game of Thrones)

Scott: So what are you working on now?
Mike: “Game of Thrones prequel stuff.”
Scott: So it’s a prequel to the Game of Thrones? Who’s writing that?
Mike: “The original novella is written by George R.R. Martin. Then they are adapted. I did the first one ten years ago. Then the second one six years ago. We’ve been on a hiatus until now.”
Scott: That guy will write every other story other than the ending of his series of books! His most recent book told the story of characters that hadn’t been written about in ten real years!
Mike: “Did you hear that he wrote another novella about the Targaryen reign. I said I’m drawing that!”
Scott: That series is now 10 or 15 years old.
Mike: “Maybe he doesn’t want to let people down. You know how they end series and people are like man, that ending sucked. Like Lost.”
Scott: When it never ends it is definitely going to be one of those series that the ending sucks!
Mike: “That’s like life!”

 

Greg Horn (Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers)

David: Are you doing anything new?
Greg: “I worked on Avengers 1. I worked on Guardians of the Galaxy 1. The big thing I’m working on right now is War of Heroes. It’s a video game you play on an iPhone or Android. Nobody even knows about this!”
Scott: “Tell me about it.
Greg: It is a video game by Disney. I describe it as Candy Crush for men. Because you play it and you get addicted and then spend all your money. You buy the damn lollipop.” [joking]
Scott: I’m not sure men will buy a lollipop…
Greg: “It’s Thor’s hammer.”
David: It’s Disney? Does it have Marvel characters in it?
Greg: “Yeah. I did the artwork.”