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At NYCC, Legendary Were Legend… Wait For It…

Published Tue, 16 Oct 2012 16:00:04 -0500

Donny and Eliot wrote for Bleeding Cool from NYCC;

NYCC was bigger than it has ever been, and these past few days we saw a record amount of creators, exhibitors, and fans that made this con feel like it could become the new San Diego – And at the center of it was Legendary Entertainment. Two years, two years! That's all it took for Legendary Entertainment's comic book imprint to become a staple in the publishing community, and they were certainly a driving force of this con.

Let's do a little overview shall we?

Thursday-

A very exciting press panel announcing Guillermo del Toro and Travis Beechman's newest Legendary project entitled, "Pacific Rim" which will be a prequel to the film. And although we are all excited by filmmakers in publishing community, as comics go the most impressive announcement came from Grant Morrison. Grant is announcing a new creator owned project with Legendary called, "Annihilator."

Annihilator is (essentially) the story of Ray Spass ( pronounced "Space") who has four days to complete a screenplay or the world will be destroyed. Also there's this whole thing with a brain tumor and a black hole. Let's just let Grant tell it, yes?

Here are some parts of the interview that we had with Grant that shone the light on what seems to be – in Morrison style, a very dark, high concept morally ambiguous book…

Interview: (Please imagine a thick Scottish Accent from all Grant's answers).

Q:What's the art team on "Annihilator" and what kind of run are we looking at here?

Grant: We can't tell you the art team quite yet, its still in negotiation, but it is six issues that are 32 pages.

Q: Where does the story of "Annihilator" come from?

Grant: Well fortunately I have never had a deadly brain tumor… But I think we have all had the deadline horror, and I wanted to take that feeling and expand it to cosmic dimensions. Since "We3" I have been interested in this idea of the three dimensional page where panels don't just have to sit on the surface, they can float in a three dimensional space. When it comes out it will just seem like an ordinary comic, but this is all the thinking that went into it!

Q: It seems like you have been returning to a lot more creator owned properties lately. Why?

Grant: I think writing superheroes is somewhat easy, they come with their own emotional baggage intact. In this one (this story) we try to create new characters and make sure people get into it as much as possible in the first issue. But I've got to say it's been a lot of fun, the last ten years I've done pretty much exclusively superheroes, so it's been great. I'm trying to take the same sensibility of a superhero story, the big moments, and transfer it to a different kind of story.

Q: Considering Legendary's ties to the film world, can we expect an "Annihilator" film?

Grant: If it becomes a movie that would be terrific, but it's not about that. It's really about these six issues.

Grant went on to describe how this project began when artist Rian Hughes challenged Morrison to make a project that is "As intricate as Watchmen." Whether or not that was a slip on who the artist is for "Annihilator" we don't know, but it seems to be a pretty good bet.

Now For Saturday –

When you think of comic books and parties you don't expect much, probably a bowl Cheetos, some Mountain Dew Code Red, and a DVD of "Army of Darkness" continually playing in the background – also no girls. This was the type of atmosphere expected when we went to SLATE, one Manhattan's swankiest night clubs.

The first thing we are greeted by are the various confused/hurt faces of a literal line of beautiful women, trying to flirt their way into the club, being passed over for scores of VIP Nerds wearing short sleeve shirts tucked into dockers, complete with tube socks and loafers.

The first thing we noticed as we walked in the door was the fountain of fog with the legendary logo lasered into it by an unseen projector. You literally had to walk through a fog fountain to enter, and as the epic dance tunes booomed through the club, the effect made us feel….well, super cool. I expected Blade to come in at any second and tell us that motherfuckers always try and ice skate up hill. As we walked down the spiral staircase we were bombarded by beautiful women and dashing men in nice expensive suits. It was a far cry and a welcome change from our days on the con floor choking on cosplay B.O. Oh, there were ping pong tables and pool tables and flat screen televisions showing Legendary properties, there were gorgeous women dancing there were nerds singing and laughing and everyone was happy and everyone was cool.

But then, a dramatic turn in the third act. As we went to the bar to order drinks, our money was turned away. Yes folks, that's right. A club, at New York Comic Con, a party with horny nerds and hungry business men..

…had an open bar.

You'll forgive our lack of detail for the rest of the night. Things became….a little blurry for the rest of the night. We remember seeing what looked like Deadpool dancing Gangnam style, we remember Chris Hardwick killing a guy with a trident, we remember a strange cigarette smoking man telling us something about the truth being somewhere, and we remember Bob Schreck having a blast, and being a joy to be around.

The Panel-

Earlier in the piece we concentrated on Morrison, but at this panel Guillermo Del Toro took center stage. Del Toro expanded on his prequel book for his film "Pacific Rim" and also was able to explain a nagging question that we had been having about the film itself which was, WHY 3D?! Del Toro explained that he initially had many reservations like: He didn't want the extra cost of 3D to effect the budget of the film, he didn't want anything to be scaled back, and he wanted to make sure that he had final say over the cut of the film and direction it took during post production. Since Del Toro is clearly becoming a much needed auteur in what seems to be a full on commercial film world (I.E. James Bond is drinking Heineken now?- Gross!) he was given what he wanted. They ran a test for 3D and turns out Del Toro liked it and so he decided to go with it.

As cool as learning the ins and outs of the film and publishing process is, it is more fun listening to Del Toro's hilarious personality and heavy Spanish accent talk about these exciting projects!

All in All-

Legendary also had more things to be proud about like "The Tower Chronicles" and the amazing success of their film projects, but clearly we don't have enough time to go into detail. But here is thing, we have been going to NYCC for five years. It has never been this big nor this important and it is clear that Legendary has been, and will continue to be, a major player.

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