First, I neglected to mention yesterday that I attended the presentation of the “Young Justice” animated series. The audience reaction seems overwhelmingly positive, and I’m glad to hear it, because (and I am now free to mention it) I’m going to be writing several episodes for the series. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to reconnect with the characters, even if there are some differences between the guys I wrote and the new incarnation. I would love to tell you all about my first episode, but I’m afraid that it’s…oh, what’s the word…Secret.
Anyway, today is my roughest day in terms of commitments.
The day starts with the third and last signing with Claudio Sanchez of Coheed and Cambria, and rolls right into a signing at the Marvel booth. From there I have to high tail it to the Quick Draw panel. Every year Mark Evanier has both Len Wein and myself participate in “Hidden Words,” in which three words are put up on the screen, revealed to everyone in the place except the challenged individual, and then three artists attempt to convey–via drawing projected on large screens–what the words are. This year Mark has opted for what he calls a “steel cage death match,” with Len and I going head to head. The winner would be decided by audience applause, be declared the “King of Hidden Word,” and move on to the challenge round.
We are given a choice of four envelopes, some of which have easier words than others. Len chooses envelope #2, and I select #1. The good news is, envelope #1 has easier words than #2. The bad news is, whoever is in charge of the envelopes screws up and gives Len the words from #1. They’re challenging, but not overly so.
Mine are murderous. Eventually I get all three, but it’s a struggle. Furthermore, my heart isn’t really in it; I want the crowd to choose Len.
They cross me up and vote for me anyway. I don’t know whether it’s because they liked my efforts more, or are just anxious to see me suffer.
So we go to the bonus round. Some bonus. And then all three artists draw the first word, and it’s identical: A head shot of a cat. I almost fall over laughing. “Cat,” I say. Huzzah. Mark tells the artists to start on the next and before any of them draw a line, I say, “Dog.” Yup. So I figure Evanier would make the third one easy as well.
It was “Miscellaneous.”
Bášŧárd.
I move on to an IDW panel that’s somewhat less exhausting: Transforming Words to Pictures. The panel focuses on the differences between writing comics and novels. One panelist proudly says that she can write an entire novel in a mere four months. This draws oohs and ahhs from the audience. I figure this is not the time to mention I can write a novel in six to eight weeks typically, and I turned out my DS9 novel in fourteen days.
After that is the Disney Epic Mickey panel. It goes fairly well, I think, as Warren Spector runs footage and gameplay from the hotly anticipated game, while I discuss the Digicomics and adaptation of the game itself that I’ve written (accompanied by sample art on the screen.) One guy in the audience is dressed like Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, so that’s a good sign.
I attend the party for the Animators Guild, which my work on “Ben 10” qualifies me for. After that I catch the tail end of the Stan Lee documentary, “With Great Power.”
Then I come back to my room and collapse.
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