Friday Humor: New York Comic Con in One Word

Story by Rob Lee for Comic Booked.

Requited answers to a Desperate writer feeling the Tension of a possible Reckoning if he doesn’t get a Good interview

New York Comic Con and ComicBooked.com recently presented the opportunity to interview some of the creative minds behind Madefire, a revolutionary motion comic app available on  iPhones and iPads. Worried that my interview prowess might be a bit rusty, I decided to warm up. How does one warm up for an interview?  By interviewing everyone in sight of course!

Seeing that I had no other formal interviews scheduled, this would need to be guerilla-style ambush interviews, and I didn’t want to seem too invasive. So I informed the interviewees that they must, for the sake of my precious time and hectic schedule, limit their responses to one word only.

I began with Erik Larsen, one of the founders of Image Comics.

We’re going into the year in which the 200^th issue of the Savage Dragon will be released, an amazing milestone by a single writer/ artist, and I just wanted to know, in one word…. (I made him wait in anticipation for the question for a few moments) How does Erik Larsen feel?

“Good,” was Mr. Larsen’s reply with a grin and a touch of relief at my softball question.

He should feel good.  He’s told a truly epic story that is close to his heart.  I sincerely hope there are another 200 issues of the Savage Dragon.

Later that day I bumped into Scott Snyder, writer of Batman, Swamp Thing, and upcoming on Superman with Jim Lee.  He agreed to the one-word interview, and “Reckoning” was how he chose to describe the upcoming Death of the Family storyline.

Had I not just read Batman 13, I might have doubted a true reckoning for the family of the Dark Knight. They always seem to escape the nefarious deathtraps put before them. However, Scott’s use of the Joker is truly the stuff of nightmares. I could definitely see a reckoning on the horizon for the Bat Family.

Ryan Ottley, artist of the popular Skybound book, Invincible, informed me that we can expect quite a bit of “Tension” leading into the milestone 100^th issue. I can’t wait to see Invincible go triple digits.  Its fellow Skybound book, The Walking Dead, recently enjoyed its 100^th issue, which exuded tension on every page.

I met Jonathan Case in Artist Alley.  You might know his work on The Creep from Dark Horse Comics.  He was selling his book Dear Creature, which has some of the most striking black and white art I’ve seen in some time.  In one word, Jonathan told me Dear Creature would express “requited-ness.”   I’m familiar with unrequited-ness in stories, but requited-ness?

I wanted to be clear on this, so I told him I’d go home and look it up.

So, I did. It means to “Make appropriate return for (a favor or service).” Basically, it means getting what you have coming to you, whether it is good or bad. So, this Dear Creature better watch out. If he’s a bad fellow, I imagine he’ll get an equal dose of bad right back at ‘em.  Unless, of course he’s a really nice guy, in which case he’d probably like what he has coming to him. I better read it.  It looks great.

After getting an inscription to my son in a copy of Kingdom Come, I asked Mark Waid what was in store for Daredevil in the coming months? Mark thought long and hard, and then gave a reply that has me quite worried for our pal Mr. Matt Murdock Esq.

“Desperation…”

Look out Daredevil.

The challenge to answer with one word was met head-on by every person I cornered. All of these creators chose powerful and meaningful words. The most important words to me at NYCC were good, reckoning, tension, requited-ness and desperation.  What do all of these words have in common other than being in this article?  They are all noteworthy elements of good storytelling.  For me, this was “Fun.”