Friday is always a good day at the convention. The rush of the show has finally worn off, the sensory overload has started to deaden my sensitivity to, well, being overloaded, and I can settle in to enjoying the con. It is a good day to cruise around and take everything in.

I’m at my home office though, and the main event for today is panels. This, I am seeing, is one of the benefits to ComicCon@Home. Without the draw of the convention floor, the panels become the main event, and I can spend time enjoying all of these presentations.

It looks like there will be a few good comics panels to tune in to today. Here are some thoughts on the panels that I tuned in to:

Decoding the Kirby/Lee Relationship

The panelists are Abraham Riesman, Crystal Skillman, Fred Van Lente, and Danny Fingeroth.

This panel was a very even-handed view of the working relationship between Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. These two men, of course, are responsible for a vast portion of the Marvel Universe as we know it. Their collaboration introduced Fantastic Four, Thor, Hulk, and many, many other.

The panelists discussed the beginnings of the Kirby/Lee relationship, and how it developed as the Marvel Universe was invented and came to life in the early 1960s. They talked about the beginnings of the eventual end of this working relationship as well.

More than anything, I appreciated that all of the panelists had fair, even-handed views on the relationship between these two men. No one on the panel seemed overly biased in one way or the other between Jack or Stan.

More than anything, my big takeaway was that the origins of Marvel was messy. It was likely a true collaboration, with different creators creating different aspects of each of the characters. Also, the infamous “Marvel Method” was not really a very strict method, but instead a matter of just getting it done, with people contributing more or less as needed to get the stories done.

This panel is definitely worth the watch, if you are interested in the men behind the early years of Marvel comics.

Lucasfilm Publishing: Stories From a Galaxy Far, Far Away

This panel was packed with a ton of creative talent behind the current Star Wars books and comics. I am a fan of the extended Star Wars books. They are my Pokemon: I gotta get them all.

A lot of panels follow a similar pattern: a bunch of creators talk about the projects they have worked on, or have upcoming, and share their thoughts and feelings about working on these projects. That is exactly the type of panel that this is.

If you like Star Wars books, and want to know more about what is upcoming, then this is the panel for you. I like Star Wars books, and I want to know more about what is upcoming, so this panel is for me.

Some of the highlights from the panel:

• The current Darth Vader comic explores the fallout that Vader feels after his encounter with Luke in The Empire Strikes Back. An upcoming arc is going to bring back a prequel character, and also tie into some of the things we see in Episode IX.
• The Empire 40 book will be similar to the first installment. More stories from side characters, minor characters, or characters that aren’t even in The Empire Strikes Back.
• The Doctor Aphra comic looks to be a good continuation of that character, who is always out for herself. In the new series, she will be leading a team of mercenaries and academics. A match made in heaven. The writer, Alyssa Wong is going to bring some of her horror writing sensibilities to the comic.
• I have read every book Timothy Zahn has written that features Grand Admiral Thrawn. It is cool to hear about Timothy Zahn talk about how he approaches thinking like Thrawn. His new book is going to flesh out the Chiss Ascendency.
• The upcoming Myths & Fables book is an in-world book of myths inspired by Grimms Fairy Tales that will be sold in Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland.

The Annual Jack Kirby Tribute Panel

As always, presented by Mark Evanier. His guests this year are John Morrow and Alex Ross.

This panel happens every year, and every year, I don’t quite make it. I always feel like I should go to this tribute to the King, but I just don’t.

This year is different, and I made it to the panel!

Mostly recollections and memories of Jack Kirby, mixed with the panelists relationship with Kirby, this panel is a nice tribute to Mr. Kirby.

There aren’t any particular pieces of news or announcements, or juicy tidbits to share from this panel, just an hour of feel good enjoyment of Jack Kirby. I grabbed my Fourth World Omnibus and flipped through it to see Kirby’s visual imagination as I listened.

Long live The King!

How to Make A Comic From Start to Finish

This panel was presented by Brian Haberlin. He talked through the process of creating a comic, from his perspective of creating indie books at Image, from start to finish.

This was a very high level overview, since it is only an hour, but there are some interesting things that Brian describes about the process. He talks about some technical details about laying out pages, how to consider which pages go where in order to give cliffhangers and reveals the most impact.

There are some interesting thoughts about writing and collaboration, and he also reveals a secret weapon to make lettering comics easier.

For someone very interested in the process of making comics, I really enjoyed this one.

The Wonderful, Horrible World of E.C. Comics

This panel was moderated by Danny Fingeroth, and featured Arie Kaplan and Doctor Travis Langley and Grant Geissman.

This starts with some recollections about MC Gaines and Bill Gaines, and how EC Comics developed from the ashes of All-American Comics.

They cover the range of what EC published, from the early educational material, to the horror comics, the science fiction comics, and Mad. The panel continued the history of EC comics in the times of senate hearings, Seduction of the Innocent and comic book burnings.

Eventually, they cover the latter, “new direction” books that were published towards the end.

I have heard a lot of this history before, in a couple books and articles I have read over the years, but it is always good to hear a little history.

Some of the interesting things they talked about:

• Bill Gaines was an interesting publisher, in that he would publish some books at a loss, just because he liked to publish them. The sci-fi books for example, which are my favorite books, were published at a loss.
• I knew about some of the more subversive sci-fi stories that EC published, but they shared some information about some of the more interesting and subversive war and crime stories that EC published.

If you have any interest in the history or output of EC Comics, this is worth viewing. This made me want to complete that set of Weird Science-Fiction comics I started years ago!

Friday Wrap!

Well, that’s a wrap for Friday of the Con. I got to squeeze in a few panels that were very enjoyable. I’ll be back at the Con tomorrow!
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This post was cross-posted to OverthinkingComics.com.