WonderCon 2017

[grendeljd]

Anybody around here attend this weekend with some stories or pics to share?

I did not go, but I heard a story today; that Valiant held a 25th anniversary retrospective panel about XO Manowar... and Bob Layton was *SQUEE* off about it, as he was in attendance at the Con but wasn't invited to be involved in the panel! Oops!

[lorddunlow]

Anybody around here attend this weekend with some stories or pics to share?

I did not go, but I heard a story today; that Valiant held a 25th anniversary retrospective panel about XO Manowar... and Bob Layton was *SQUEE* off about it, as he was in attendance at the Con but wasn't invited to be involved in the panel! Oops!

Aww man... If that's true, geez. I talked to Bob for a looooong time at SDCC 2015. Super nice guy. Definitely let me know what he thought about the VEI stuff, but did not seem angry/slighted or anything. Just asked me what I thought of the new X-O and when I said I liked it a lot, he said "Me too! Of course I liked it when I did it the first time too..." To be honest, I'd be upset if nobody even mentioned it to me that a character I created was having a retrospective panel by the publisher that own the rights and especially if I wasn't invited.

Who knows what happened though.

That was a weird day at SDCC by the way. Layton was a few tables away from Jill Thompson and after spending literally about 45 minutes talking to Bob Layton I went to her table and I actually had to awkwardly act like I had to be somewhere because after about an hour at her table talking, she seemed to be giving me no natural way out of the conversation. She's one of the nicest people I've met in comics - I just can't afford her art.

[TheeBaldMoose]

There has to be a simple miscommunication here. It's a bit of a head scratcher, from what I have heard, Valiant knew he was there...

[jeremycoe]

I don't know. I like Bob, but he seems to have the ability to make every conversation about him. Maybe they wanted to focus on X-O and not Bob?

[Thegreatmagnet]

I was at the panel and they did mentioned that Bob was at the show and said some nice things about him (great guy, great artist, doing a cover for the new run). I'd say that the panel was mostly about his VEI iteration, with a lot of discussion about the new launch. So perhaps that's why they didn't have Bob on the panel?

[nycjadie]

Why invite someone who has no issue with hurling Valiant criticism to a marketing panel? Doesn't seem prudent or productive.

[depluto]

So are we saying this was quite a boner for Valiant and now Bob is butt-hurt?

[grendeljd]

I was at the panel and they did mentioned that Bob was at the show and said some nice things about him (great guy, great artist, doing a cover for the new run). I'd say that the panel was mostly about his VEI iteration, with a lot of discussion about the new launch. So perhaps that's why they didn't have Bob on the panel?

Cool that you got to be there!

So more of a VEI-centric retrospective then. I don't think it's a *huge* gaff or anything, especially if they at least mentioned him during the panel. I can see both pros & cons to having him in on it.

[grendeljd]

I saw this pic of Matt Kindt & CAFU together at Wondercon, thought it was amusing that they have a passing resemblance in looks & fashion sense;


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[Keith]

So are we saying this was quite a boner for Valiant and now Bob is butt-hurt?

Not to say he went off half-cocked, but I imagine he's going to be hard on them for awhile.

Looks like Fred has already made an apology:
https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/04/03 ... on-idiots/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[jmatt]

I'd say that the panel was mostly about his VEI iteration, with a lot of discussion about the new launch. So perhaps that's why they didn't have Bob on the panel?

Not having seen it, that'd be my guess. If the point was a push for the new launch, don't lay out a doormat for a hundred audience questions about 1992.

[paradise]

So are we saying this was quite a boner for Valiant and now Bob is butt-hurt?

I think it's a little bit of both. Bob is someone you can't control. Love the guy, one of my favorite artists, but he is not known for being restrained. VEI has been pretty open to him, all types of cover work. He's shown me at least 3-4 covers that you guys have not even seen, for multiple titles, not just X-O. But he still bites the hand that feeds. If he wanted more work, going public for what could have easily been an oversight, not a malicious diss, is not the way to go. What does VEI gain from publicly avoiding him? They just did not know he was a guest, I mean he lives in Florida, it's not a given he'd be at this show.

Bob's had a thing for Dinesh and Co. for a long time. I remember talking to him a few years ago (when Dynamite first introduced the fake valiant titles) and he was crapping on them then, too. Two weeks later, he was talking to them about doing something. It's a continuous thing, it will never end. Very immature.

[Shadowman99]

So are we saying this was quite a boner for Valiant and now Bob is butt-hurt?

Not to say he went off half-cocked, but I imagine he's going to be hard on them for awhile.

Looks like Fred has already made an apology:
https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/04/03 ... on-idiots/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Looks like the gaff was fair enough to me (still, y'never know, might just be placating Bob to shut him up), good on Fred for putting that apology out there in the open.

Still, based on Ed's comment, Bob sounds like he's probably a bit of a pain in the arse generally

[lorddunlow]

So are we saying this was quite a boner for Valiant and now Bob is butt-hurt?

Not to say he went off half-cocked, but I imagine he's going to be hard on them for awhile.

Looks like Fred has already made an apology:
https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/04/03 ... on-idiots/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Looks like the gaff was fair enough to me (still, y'never know, might just be placating Bob to shut him up), good on Fred for putting that apology out there in the open.

Still, based on Ed's comment, Bob sounds like he's probably a bit of a pain in the arse generally

I think that's why I like him. I'm sure most of the people I work with think I'm a pain in the *SQUEE*.

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[Shadowman99]

So are we saying this was quite a boner for Valiant and now Bob is butt-hurt?

Not to say he went off half-cocked, but I imagine he's going to be hard on them for awhile.

Looks like Fred has already made an apology:
https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/04/03 ... on-idiots/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Looks like the gaff was fair enough to me (still, y'never know, might just be placating Bob to shut him up), good on Fred for putting that apology out there in the open.

Still, based on Ed's comment, Bob sounds like he's probably a bit of a pain in the arse generally

I think that's why I like him. I'm sure most of the people I work with think I'm a pain in the *SQUEE*.

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I'm sure most of the people on this board think you're a pain in the arse too

[jmatt]

Bob's had a thing for Dinesh and Co. for a long time.

I'm sure Bob feels like he got Shootered. He and Massarsky pulled the rug out from under Jim and stole his thing. Then Bob's thing went belly-up and somebody else now owns and controls it.

If Bob had taken control of the properties instead of Dinesh, and he was holding a con panel to push a new launch, would he have invited Jim to be on the dais as a co-creator? Unlikely, to say the least.

[Thegreatmagnet]

Also for context, the panel was pretty low-key. Just Hunter and Warren, and no creators. It was generally a XO 101 panel with a pitch for the new series. Layton would've been more appropriate on a panel with other creators like VDitti or Kindt, but this wasn't really that kind of panel.

[chriskay99]

Layton was announced as a Special Guest back in November. They always say it's easier to ask for forgiveness...

I saw this pic of Matt Kindt & CAFU together at Wondercon, thought it was amusing that they have a passing resemblance in looks & fashion sense;

Kindt & Cafu were at a con in Barcelona. I would have dropped everything if Kindt was appearing at WonderCon.

https://twitter.com/mattkindt/status/848523759153594368" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[TripleH_0225]

I wasn't able to attend the Sunday show, but did get to hit the Ninjak vs Valiant U panel on saturday. Everyone I'm sure had already seen the clip that's on the web, but the Bloodshot sequence that Hunter layed on us was AWESOME!!!

Couple this venture with their hook-up with the Warped Tour and it's evident: this aint your daddy's comic book company. No way, would either of the big 2 be caught sponsoring a punk rock tour. Just another innovative approach to expand their marketbase with a demographic that has gotten away from comics.

[grendeljd]

Layton was announced as a Special Guest back in November. They always say it's easier to ask for forgiveness...

I saw this pic of Matt Kindt & CAFU together at Wondercon, thought it was amusing that they have a passing resemblance in looks & fashion sense;

Kindt & Cafu were at a con in Barcelona. I would have dropped everything if Kindt was appearing at WonderCon.

https://twitter.com/mattkindt/status/848523759153594368" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Oh, my mistake! I thought it was Wondercon.

[grendeljd]

Also for context, the panel was pretty low-key. Just Hunter and Warren, and no creators. It was generally a XO 101 panel with a pitch for the new series. Layton would've been more appropriate on a panel with other creators like VDitti or Kindt, but this wasn't really that kind of panel.

Sounds like calling it a 25th anniversary retrospective was kind of inaccurate then...

[lorddunlow]

Also for context, the panel was pretty low-key. Just Hunter and Warren, and no creators. It was generally a XO 101 panel with a pitch for the new series. Layton would've been more appropriate on a panel with other creators like VDitti or Kindt, but this wasn't really that kind of panel.

Sounds like calling it a 25th anniversary retrospective was kind of inaccurate then...

Sort of how they said Unity was a groundbreaking idea for a book.

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[Shadowman99]

Also for context, the panel was pretty low-key. Just Hunter and Warren, and no creators. It was generally a XO 101 panel with a pitch for the new series. Layton would've been more appropriate on a panel with other creators like VDitti or Kindt, but this wasn't really that kind of panel.

Sounds like calling it a 25th anniversary retrospective was kind of inaccurate then...

+1

[jmatt]

Also for context, the panel was pretty low-key. Just Hunter and Warren, and no creators. It was generally a XO 101 panel with a pitch for the new series. Layton would've been more appropriate on a panel with other creators like VDitti or Kindt, but this wasn't really that kind of panel.

Sounds like calling it a 25th anniversary retrospective was kind of inaccurate then...

+1

+2 I thought the same thing. If it's a retrospective, then maybe Bob should have been there. But it sounds like it wasn't.

[Shadowman99]

Also for context, the panel was pretty low-key. Just Hunter and Warren, and no creators. It was generally a XO 101 panel with a pitch for the new series. Layton would've been more appropriate on a panel with other creators like VDitti or Kindt, but this wasn't really that kind of panel.

Sounds like calling it a 25th anniversary retrospective was kind of inaccurate then...

+1

+2 I thought the same thing. If it's a retrospective, then maybe Bob should have been there. But it sounds like it wasn't.

That's what I thought. Seems odd for Valiant to even call it a 25th retrospective if all they wanted to do was say "25 years since XO first burst into comics... Anyway, here's a new comic that we want to talk about!". I guess they probably just wanted to use the 25 years thing as a marketing tool to sell the new comic rather than do any kind of actual retrospective celebration or whatever...