Many thanks to the organisers, staff and support crew of 'Graphic' at the Sydney Opera House for their kindness, good nature and professionalism during last weekend's 'Graphic' festival. I had the great pleasure of being invited to research and chat with Comic book legend Len Wein (The co-creator of Wolverine, Swamp Thing, The new X-men, Marvel EIC, etc.) on Saturday for his 'Creator Focus' panel. We managed to cover a wide range of his career in the hour, from Gold Key (Twilight Zone, Microbots, Star Trek), to Marvel, to DC, the crazy bullpen, Wolverine, X-Men, Swamp Thing, Jigsaw, Lucius Fox, that infamous pirate hat (;P), Watchmen, X-Men: Animated, and more...there was still a few questions I would have loved to have asked (and was able to chat and get some stories outside the panel that I was very appreciative of), but really, you could spend a whole hour just on Brother Voodoo alone. Apparently, I was able to cover a great deal more than most panels held in the past on his career, according to Len. I was very pleased with the feedback I received, and had a great time. It was great to hear a whole bunch of funny and interesting stories from the man himself, and many stories I didn't find during the research. A sneak peak into his methodology too, and if not for a combination of surprise Daylight savings changeover (we don't have that up here in Queensland...), and family commitments, I would have had a better chance of catching his Sunday appearances. Alas, it was not to be. But, happy for the time I was able to have at 'Graphic' on Saturday.
I won't bore folks with a tonne of badly taken International Fleet Review photos and fireworks (that was on in Sydney the same day; public transport and crowds throughout the city were as big as New Years Eve and the Sydney Olympics...nuts!), but there's a taste there too of the drinks night for the artists on the balcony of the Opera House, while the Navy ships and helicopters lit up the sky. Very cool! Overall, it was nice to be appreciated for the Doctoral studies in Comics; something different again from the Comic illustrating/Writing or Australian team Taekwon-do.
Anyways, gotta run, thank you for the pics taken during the panel. I completely forgot to palm the camera off to someone.
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| Photos courtesy of Ian Browning |
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| Some kids dressed as DC Comic characters ask Len Wein some last minute questions. We both agreed that it was awesome to see the next gen getting into comics. Very easy to forget, considering the output, that comics ARE for kids too ;P |
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| Thank you for taking the photo Christine- Your husband is right: you do take good pictures (despite my terrible camera!). Lovely to meet you, and Angus. |
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