Tag Archives: comics

C2E2 2014 Photos, Part 1 of 4: Costumes on the Show Floor, Comics Division

April 27, 2014 By in Conventions & Events Tags: , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

As I type this, the fifth annual Chicago Comic and Entertainment Exposition (“C2E2″) is wrapping up this year’s three-day run, April 25-27, 2014. Each year C2E2 keeps expanding, attracting more attention, inching ever closer to its goal of becoming the Midwest’s answer to the legendary San Diego Comic Con and its other coastal ilk. My wife and I missed the first year, but have attended every year since 2011 as a team.

Over the next four entries, which I’m hoping to crank out as quickly as possible without forming a symbiotic attachment to our PC, I’ll be sharing memories and photos from our C2E2 experience. The first three entries will be costume pics; the fourth, a sampling of the creators, actors, and curios we encountered. Several attendees may find themselves strolling through backgrounds as living, walking, oblivious Easter Eggs.

Caveats for first-time visitors to Midlife Crisis Crossover:

1. My wife and I are not professional photographers, nor do we believe ourselves worthy of press passes. These were taken as best as possible with the intent to share with fellow fans out of a sincere appreciation for the works inspired by the heroes, hobbies, artistic expressions, and/or intellectual properties that brought us geeks together under one vaulted roof for the weekend. We all do what we can with the tools and circumstances at hand.

2. It’s impossible for any human or organization to capture every costume on hand. What’s presented here will be a fraction of the sum total costume experience. That being said, please note MCC refutes the popular notion that everyone attends in costume. We appreciate those who do, but the general public believes it’s a mandatory masquerade and I’m kind of burnt out on confronting that cute but inaccurate perception.

3. We didn’t attend Sunday. Sincere apologies to anyone we missed as a result.

4. Corrections and comments are always welcome, especially for Parts 2 and 3, where You, the Viewers at Home, will have the opportunity to step up and name some anime and/or fantasy characters we old fogies didn’t recognize. I like learning new things, especially when I’m trying to write about characters and series that are beyond my particular geek foci.

5. Enjoy!

Booster, Beetle, and the Batgirls

Booster Gold (in his short-lived armor), Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes edition), Batgirl (Barbara Gordon), and Batgirl (Cassandra Cain) represent for the DC Universe. Many DC cosplayers in the house; very, very few from the New 52.

This way for heroes, villains, and other!

The MCC C2E2 Archive, 2011-2013

April 25, 2014 By in Comics/Lit, Conventions & Events Tags: , , , , , , , , , 5 Comments

C2E2 banner, Chicago

Stop me if you’ve heard me mention C2E2 one too many times. Well, you can try to stop me.

My wife and I are now in scenic downtown Chicago, having spent the evening enjoying some non-geek quality time before our big Saturday arrives. While we decompress and charge our devices, please enjoy this collected library of our last three C2E2 experiences as previously relayed here on MCC. New photos and stories from this year’s experience will be uploaded and shared starting on Sunday as soon as time and physical limitations permit. Cheers!

* Our C2E2 2011 Photo Archive, Part 1 of 2: Heroes in Chicago
* Our C2E2 2011 Photo Archive, Part 2 of 2: Villains in Chicago

* Our C2E2 2012 Photo Archive, Part 1 of 3: the Movie Tributes
* Our C2E2 2012 Photo Archive, Part 2 of 3: the Marvel and DC Tributes
* Our C2E2 2012 Photo Archive, Part 3 of 3: the TV and Video Game Tributes

* Comic Book Company Resurrection Scorecard, Part 1 of 2: the Valiant Return of Valiant
* Comic Book Company Resurrection Scorecard, Part 2 of 2: First Things First for First

* C2E2 2013 Photos, part 1 of 6: Costume Contest Winners and the Doctor Who Milieu Revue
* C2E2 2013 Photos, Part 2 of 6: Costumes from Screens Big and Small
* C2E2 2013 Photos, Part 3 of 6: Costumes from Marvel, Image, and Other Comics
* C2E2 2013 Photos, Part 4 of 6: Geek Culture Settings and Artifacts
* C2E2 2013 Photos, Part 5 of 6: Actors and Creators Who Made Our Day
* C2E2 2013 Photos, Part 6 of 6: Robots, Games, Misfits and Honorable Mentions

* The Fable of Why This Blog is C2E2′s Fault
* Behold the Future of Chicago Sun-Times Photojournalism (includes some C2E2 2013 Marvel panel material)
* The C2E2 2013 Music Panel: Our Disappointing Photo Collection

The C2E2 2013 Music Panel: Our Disappointing Photo Collection

April 25, 2014 By in Conventions & Events Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

When my wife and I attended C2E2 last year, I only made time for two panels: the Marvel NOW! panel that spotlighted their Infinity event and other upcoming new series; and a themed panel comprised of various creators with music-based projects on their comics resumé. I was more excited about the latter panel and its guests. When we got home and uploaded our photos the next day, I was chagrined to discover that this photo set, above all others, was the least impressive. I forget which happy album eventually cheered me up — possibly They Might Be Giants — but eventually I recovered. The experience gave me fond memories while serving as an unwanted learning experience.

Despite the morose expressions, I promise there was much joy and music-geeking to be had from listening to these fine talents:

C2E2 2013 Music Panel

This way for a closer look at two Marvel writers, an editor, and several power cords!

My 2013 in Comic Books: the Procrastinated Year in Review

April 22, 2014 By in Comics/Lit Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Hawkeye #11, Hawkguy, Lucky, PIzza Dog

It’s Hawkguy vs. Hawkeye, and Pizza Dog’s life hangs in the balance! More or less. Maybe a little. (Art by David Aja.)


To be honest, the intro to my 2012 comic-books-in-review entry could be swapped into this space and require next to no editing. Though I’ve now been reading and collecting comics for 35 years, the field and I continue to drift apart. The majority of what’s being offered at local shops nowadays too often falls into two categories that aren’t for me: titles susceptible to company-wide crossovers; and adults-only creator-owned works interested in pushing boundaries beyond the limits of what I can leave lying around the house without feeling guilty. The more these categories expand, the more my finicky preferences are marginalized.

That’s not to say my pull list is restricted to Scooby-Doo and Highlights Magazine. Several titles found their way onto my weekly reading stack in 2013, many of them proudly so. I put off spotlighting them here on MCC for a few reasons:

1. Entries about comics consistently draw the least traffic of all subjects.
2. My recurring frustrations with the medium nowadays leave a bitter taste that’s not fun to dwell on.
3. So many other subjects keep snaring and holding my attention first.
4. I reread last year’s summary and depressed myself with how little had changed.

Now that C2E2 is coming up this weekend, what better time to cross this off my to-do list, traffic or no traffic? The following, then, were my favorite comic book series throughout 2013, in no particular order:

This way for my Top 9…

Comics are for Everyone. Period.

April 21, 2014 By in Comics/Lit Tags: , , , , , , , , 6 Comments
Comics are for everyone

Design by Jordie Bellaire and Steven Finch. See unaffiliated link at end of entry for buying from them.

This shirt doesn’t exist yet, but I’ll be camped out in line as soon as the line forms.

Hot on the heels of last week’s double-barrel underage-hero-ogling/rape-threat controversy, another brouhaha hit the comic spheres Sunday evening when comics writer Landry Walker (The Incredibles, Danger Club) wandered around the show floor at WonderCon and was startled to find the following objet d’hate existing for sale:

https://twitter.com/LandryQWalker/status/457997405321842688

…ugh. Not that exclusionary fanguys didn’t already have plenty of merchandise tailored specifically to them, but this one speaks directly to the heart of so many recent hostilities. I may not read the same comics as everyone else, but it’d the height of arrogance to proclaim that all the comics should be all for me. Some publishers may be better a diversity than others on all the available levels, but taken as a whole, if you can find trusty guides to point you in the right directions, the medium really does have something for every reader out there. As well it should.

To that end, colorist extraordinaire Jordie Bellaire (Deadpool, Moon Knight, Magneto, Pretty Deadly, Three, etc., etc.) and a cohort named Steven Finch (parenthetical credits here if I knew who he was) designed the proposed T-shirt you see at the top of this entry. Bellaire hopes to have a site up and running circa May so this can exist, so supporters can buy several for themselves and friends, and so she and Finch can die heroic and wealthy. She hopes to see stickers and buttons in the mix as well for all your anti-dudebro needs.

I’ll happily update here as more info becomes available. The C.A.F.E. shirt sadly won’t be ready in time for this weekend’s C2E2, but I’d love to sport this at Indy Pop Con at the end of May. I can bide my time if I must, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we start seeing other artists producing more merchandise along these lines, in even bigger and bolder designs. It’d be nice to fortify my wardrobe with more defenses like this to wear at cons and balance out the presence of card-carrying reps from the He-Man Woman-Haters Club or the boys down at the Get Rid Of Slimy girlS treehouse.

* * * * *

[Updated 5/13/2014: Shirts are now available for purchase! Go buy some for the entire family!]

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Internet Rape Threats?

April 18, 2014 By in Comics/Lit, Misc. Media Tags: , , , , , , , , 1 Comment
Kenneth Rocafort, Teen Titans #1

The cover heard ’round the world. Art by Kenneth Rocafort.

Other working titles for this entry included “Why I Avoid Comic Book Discussions”, “Comics Industry Spends Easter Week Debating Baseline Human Interaction 101”, “Uppity Chick Dares to Critique Corporate-Approved Pandering”, and “Comic Book Fans Argue in Favor of Exploitative Art and Rape Threats”.

Earlier this week Comic Book Resources published an astute piece by a writer/editor named Janelle Asselin offering thorough, point-by-point analysis of the proposed first-issue cover to DC Comics’ upcoming relaunch of Teen Titans. Of all the aspects she skewered — perspective, anatomy, body language, energy level, demographic narrowcasting, complete lack of salesmanship toward new readers in general — one in particular struck a nerve with the audience at large: incredulity at the portrayal of a teenage character as an improbably shaped fantasy porn object.

Not that this is new to comics, mind you.

The issue in this instance: the complaint wasn’t from a stodgy old guy like me. This time, it was from a lousy dame, clearly speaking out of turn against her male superiors who need their super-heroes to look like this. It’s not enough to have genuine porn at their disposal for their eye-candy needs; they apparently want visual representations of the female figure in all media kept inflated and distorted at all times for the sake of their personal viewing euphoria.

And then it got worse…

Indiana Comic Con 2014: Leftover Talking Points

March 16, 2014 By in Comics/Lit, Conventions & Events, Indiana Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Adipose, Doctor Who

Adipose wasn’t at the Indiana Comic Con, but I took this pic later the same day. Cuteness goes a long way toward banishing frustration.

Several random digressions were tossed from the previous entry because I wanted to keep it concise and streamlined for first-time visitors and photo addicts. The following self-Q&A represents what I hope will be the final roundup of anecdotes from our weekend in general, a few reflections on the positive things that came from it, and some eager anticipation of potentially exciting events ahead in 2014 for us and for MCC readers.

So…was that it? You left the con, went home, wallowed in your high blood pressure, and registered your dismay on the internet for all to see? We had a backup plan, but I didn’t expect to have time to use it. After abandoning downtown we headed out west and attended the open house at Who North America. Touted as America’s largest online retailer of Doctor Who memorabilia, they’re normally closed to the public except by appointment, but they open one Saturday every month for a four-hour window. They timed their March open house to coincide with the con and drew at least ten times their normal visitor count. The line to enter was a ninety-minute wait…but at least we were allowed inside. They even announced they were extending their hours to accommodate the tremendous response. We literally applauded their generosity.

This way for more questions, a map, and a 2014 convention schedule!

Indiana Comic Con 2014 Photos: Costumes, Artists, and Other Sights Seen Before the Meltdown

March 16, 2014 By in Conventions & Events, Indiana Tags: , , , , , , , , , 5 Comments

Indianapolis hosted Star Wars Celebrations II and III in 2002 and 2005, which each attracted over 20,000 fans. Every year since 2003 we’ve hosted Gen Con, which keeps climbing in attendance and turned out 49,000 strong in 2013. We’ve hosted Super Bowl LXVI, the Big 10 college basketball conference, the Indianapolis 500, the Pan Am Games, and other large-scale sporting events. Indianapolis is centrally located in the Midwest and easily accessible from four different interstates in four different directions. The Indiana Convention Center is conveniently located in downtown Indianapolis, where visitors have easy access to countless restaurants, hotels, and tourist attractions they can visit in their off-hours or when either hunger or alcoholism strike.

But no one’s ever thought we were worth blessing with a comic book convention to call our own. Apparently word on the streets was that we suck. Or something. When the Indiana Comic Con was announced, that was kind of a major deal. Finally someone scrimped together enough sense to realize Indianapolis might be ready for the kind of geek conference that Louisville, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Columbus, and other Midwest cities have had for years. Chicago even has two of them. This, we reasoned, might be our chance to join the big boys and show all of fandom that Indianapolis is, in fact, a real, live city.

Well…they tried.

Indiana Comic Con, crowds, Indianapolis

The scene as we exited the exhibit hall around 12:30. Before it got worse.

This way for the complete, done-in-one saga!

Some Holes in Your Want List Will Never Be Filled

March 14, 2014 By in Comics/Lit Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Val Mayerik, Steelgrip Starkey 5, Epic Comics

Art by Val Mayerik, co-creator of Howard the Duck. I promise he’s done far, far better work in his time.

Every collection has gaps. Every collector dedicates a certain part of their hobbyist enjoyment to filling those gaps. It’s all part of the game.

Most collectors who consider themselves organized and serious about collecting certain collectible things for their collection have a want list. Sure, you could attend conventions or flea markets and simply buy random issues from whatever boxes lay in your path. The dealers and older collectors who have hundreds of pounds of pamphlets to unload won’t stop you.

There’s something to be said for spontaneous browsing and impulse buys up to a certain point. By adding the element of goal-setting, though, suddenly your hobby becomes a full-fledged quest. Now you have bragging rights because you’ve made it all seem so noble.

I’ve been reading comic books since age six. I’d say I began Collecting with a capital C around age twelve, when I first discovered comic dealers at a local antique show. I was used to buying comics off the spinner racks at Marsh or Hook Drugs, but the dealer’s approach was a radical new paradigm to me. All the comics stood in longboxes, were alphabetized by title, were filed in order by issue number, and went back several years. It was a mind-blowing moment to discover that I could buy old comics that went with my new comics. Years’ worth of them, even.

Not long after, my comics want list was born.

Ruminations from an old man about his Dulcineas…

Modest Hopes and Well Wishes for Indiana Comic Con 2014

March 11, 2014 By in Comics/Lit, Conventions & Events Tags: , , , , , , , , 3 Comments
Indiana Comic Con, Indianapolis

Official flyer handed out at my local comic shop. No idea what the QR code does.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover, back in June 2013:

This week the Indianapolis Star reported that someone out there wants to make my pipe dream a reality. A young Florida-based company called Action3 Events and Promotions has scheduled a comics convention for March 14-16, 2014, in our very own Indiana Convention Center. It’s as yet unnamed and not yet listed on their official site, but official enough that they’re proclaiming its proposed existence in public interviews. That much alone is a positive sign.

A name was assigned shortly after I wrote that. Nine months later, its time is nigh. March 14-16 sees the world premiere of the Indiana Comic Con, a three-day meeting-of-the-minds for connoisseurs of the graphic storytelling medium, and/or a temporary point of interest for autograph hounds. For once, local comics collectors will have someplace massive to converge that’s not Chicago, Ohio, Louisville, or some faraway land reachable only by air travel.

This way for more details and reservations…

2013 Road Trip Photos #32: the Great American Splendor

February 24, 2014 By in Comics/Lit, Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Panel 1
Panel 2
To be continued…this way!

Top 10 Even More Shocking Surprises in the Next “Fantastic Four” Film

February 20, 2014 By in Comics/Lit, Movies/Films/Flicks Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Fantastic Four

Left to right: Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell, Michael B. Jordan

Today the internet exploded once again (it seems to do that a lot) after hearing the news that Fox had completed casting of the primary roles for their Fantastic Four reboot, scheduled to hit theaters June 19, 2015. Unfortunately Fox forgot to ask the fans to approve their choices first and decided to make its own decisions like an independent adult. The internet responded by leaving nasty notes in Fox’s locker and spitting on its cafeteria pizza at lunchtime.

Fans who feel sole ownership of an intellectual property that’s been around for fifty years unanimously agreed everything about the four actors seen above is wrong. Reed Richards absolutely, positively must be middle-aged. Ben Grimm must begin as a muscular guy, because medical science has proven cosmic rays can’t possibly turn a short, thin guy into a giant rock monster. Johnny Storm has to be white, because all siblings in all Creation have identical skin tones. Sure, Jessica Alba wasn’t white in the last two movies either, but This Is Different. Thanks to these complaints, Fantastic Four has already been given a 5% Rotten rating on the Tomatometer sixteen months before release. That’ll show ’em.

This way for more thoughts about the stars of the series formerly known as the World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!

2013 Road Trip Photos #30: Man of Steel, Sons of Cleveland

February 10, 2014 By in Comics/Lit, Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Day Eight of our nine-day road trip continue in Cleveland due southeast from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in the kind of neighborhood that wouldn’t normally attract tourists if there weren’t some kind of major draw. As fate would have it, in 1938 a pair of young men named Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster would put their heads together to create an intellectual property (years before the term became commonplace and meaningful) that would bend pop culture into new shapes and change the course of entertainment history.

Superman, Jerry Siegel House, Cleveland

This way, faster than a speeding bullet!

My 2013 in Books and Graphic Novels

December 28, 2013 By in Misc. Media Tags: , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Neil Gaiman, Skottie Young, Fortunately the Milk

A rare instance of a book I bought and read in the same year it was published.

I rarely review printed matter on this site, but rest assured I find time to read a book or two where I can — in between buying new comics every Wednesday (single issues, pamphlets, floppies, whatever you prefer to call them), occasional issues of the Indianapolis Star, my longtime Entertainment Weekly subscription, Bible study, internet, contributing to this site close-to-daily, overtime at work, chores, family, and other distracting excuses. But books are definitely on my activity list, ranking well ahead of laundry, shining my shoes, and any home repair projects that I don’t actually know how to start.

I spent the first part of the year trying to clear out my accumulation of new finds and autographed items from conventions. I wedged in some prose novels and even a little nonfiction wherever I could, but most of my reading was catching up on the graphic-storytelling variety. I’m really tired of having a large backlog, and some tentatively planned restructuring of my free time and priorities in 2014 should help facilitate that. Maybe. Hopefully.

Presented below is the complete list of books, graphic novels, and trade collections that I finished reading in 2013. A few were started in 2012 and one was an on-‘n’-off side project for years, but I reached their final page this year and that’s what matters. I’m also pessimistically assuming I won’t have any reading time over the three days remaining. If reading time does occur, I’ll just stop three pages from the end and save it for January 1st. Fair enough?

That list, then…

Former Kickstarter Junkie II: Even Formerer

October 4, 2013 By in Comics/Lit, Misc. Media Tags: , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Smoke/Ashes, Alex DeCampi, Tomer Hanuka

The Smoke/Ashes two-in-one limited hardcover edition was made possible through Kickstarter and conscientious perseverance. Art by Tomer Hanuka.

My copy of the new hardcover graphic novel Ashes arrived in my mailbox this week. When I first put up my money for the project, it was a sequel to a well-received IDW miniseries called Smoke. During the production process, creator Alex DeCampi announced it wouldn’t be a stretch for her to include both stories in a single volume. I’m certainly not one to turn down a value-added bonus.

This fabulous package was the result of a Kickstarter campaign that was launched in October 2011, successfully funded in December 2011, announced with a delivery date of December 2012, and plagued by setbacks too numerous to recount. Through frequent updates composed with above-and-beyond personal candor, DeCampi kept in touch throughout the process, provided backers with access to a digital version months ago, and generally gave the impression that she had every intention of fulfilling her commitments, no matter how much it would end up costing her in the long run, all without passing the budget overruns on to us. Congress should be so conscientious.

More than a few Kickstarter projects out there can’t say the same.

The following entry is a sequel to a previous entry…

“THE Star Wars”: Fun Adaptation of Stuff Found in George Lucas’ File Cabinets

September 11, 2013 By in Comics/Lit Tags: , , , , , , , , 1 Comment
Annikin Starkiller, Kane Starkiller, The Star Wars

Race into adventure with Kane Starkiller and his sons Annikin and Deak! Whoever they are!

In 1999 Dark Horse Comics published an intriguing experiment called Buffy the Vampire Slayer: the Origin — a comic-book adaptation of Joss Whedon’s original script for the movie, hewing more closely to what he envisioned in his head before the director and producer meddled and warped everything. Although Dark Horse’s version didn’t contain nearly enough Paul Reubens, few Buffy fans would choose the movie over The Origin. It was a rare opportunity to see a writer’s lost draft technically restored and given life anew.

In that same vein, Dark Horse now brings us The Star Wars, an eight-issue miniseries promising to adapt George Lucas’ 1974 rough-draft screenplay that would later be rethought, rewritten, rearranged, and eventually filmed as merely Star Wars. Without the “The”. Because it looked cleaner.

Continue reading →

“Batman ’66”: My New Favorite DC Comic

July 30, 2013 By in Comics/Lit Tags: , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Jeff Parker, Jonathan Case, Batman '66, DC Comics

When I was a kid, Adam West and Burt Ward were the first super-heroes I remember following on TV. Less wooden than the Super-Friends, beset by better villains than Marvel’s 1970s live-action TV offerings, and a few years ahead of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, syndicated reruns of the 1966-1968 Batman TV show were a staple of my afternoon viewing.

Continue reading →

So There’s a Scene During “The Wolverine” End Credits

July 28, 2013 By in Movies/Films/Flicks Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Hugh Jackman, Rila Fukushima, The Wolverine

For the first 2½ acts, The Wolverine is an engrossing slow-burn psychological thriller about the crippling effects of grief, powerlessness, sin, rediscovering your life’s purpose, and stranger-in-a-strange-land culture clash, all nestled inside an outlandish but well-oiled martial-arts flick that easily outclasses the previous Wolverine solo film. That being said, this is a rare instance of a Marvel film that would’ve functioned more cohesively if super-villains had been kept out of it altogether.

Continue reading →

San Diego Comic Con 2013: the Best and Least-Best News as Seen from the Cheap Seats

July 23, 2013 By in Comics/Lit, Movies/Films/Flicks Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Godzilla movie teaser poster, America, 2014Anyone who followed the entertainment news as it flooded out of 2013’s San Diego Comic Con found themselves shocked and surprised by two or more bombshells dropped from above, as the movie and comic book companies kept trying to top each other with the Greatest Announcement of All.

My general impressions follow of what stood out to me most, whether good, bad, or both.

Continue reading →

The Joy of Watching San Diego from the Sidelines

July 18, 2013 By in Conventions & Events, Meta Tags: , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

San Diego Comic ConI can always tell when the Greatest Spectacle in Entertainment News is revving its engines and approaching the starting line — the Facebook statuses for all my West Coast online cohorts begin chiming their location and awe in unison, letting those of us off in the distance know It Has Begun.

The unwieldy official name is Comic-Con International: San Diego. It’s been called the San Diego Comic Con since I was a kid, probably even longer than that. For as long as I’ve known comic book conventions were a thing, I’ve been aware that San Diego is America’s biggest and boldest, a four-day Shangri-La of heroes, creators, fans, dealers, publishers, cosplay, community, news, announcements, panels, and more. A four-day smorgasbord of four-color sensory overload unlike any other experience in the entirety of the hobby. And that was before Hollywood co-opted it years ago and raised the media’s attention level to new heights.

Continue reading →