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Boom! Panel Busts At San Diego Comic Con

Peter Svensson writes for Bleeding Cool;

Chip Mosher, Boom's head of marketing, was fired during their panel on Friday by CEO Ross Richie and Editor in Chief Matt Gagnon.

Not really of course. It was all part of the massive joke that their panel devolved into, as a single fan's frustration at the panel being the "Same ol' dog and pony show" that he'd seen a hundred times over broke Mosher's capacity to run the panel. To be fair, he had been drinking quite a bit the night before to celebrate the victory of Shannon Wheeler's "I Thought You'd Be Funnier" at the Eisners, (Mosher having helped bring that book to Boom). Let us be clear, this was a panel where the biggest news was that Ross Richie had totally given into his inner fatty and devoured the entire panel's rations of Hershey's Kisses on his lonesome. "If they didn't want me eating them all, why are they here?!" quipped Richie, after having stuffed his face with a bag of chocolate. Matt Gagnon retained his dignity throughout the process. Mostly by staying silent.

But to recap the rest of the news…

Clive Barker's working relationship with Boom grew out of Matt Gagnon having worked at the comic shop that Barker shopped at prior to his rapid ascension to being the youngest EIC in comics. That lead Gagnon and Richie to a dinner with Barker, where both were afraid to bring up the idea of reviving Hellraiser in comics for fear of being outed as massive fanboys, only to have Barker bring up the idea himself. The comic has already begun the process of introducing more Cenobites, and by the time issue six hits will have greatly expanded the mythology and setting of what has become the best selling Boom title. The audience was reminded of the 8 page PDF exclusive prelude to the comic, which can be found on many places in the intertubes. The first volume reprinting the Marvel Hellraiser comics has done well, and has work by luminaries such as John Bolton, Mike Mignola, Matrix writer/director Larry Wachowski, Alex Ross, Kevin O'Neill and up-and-comer Neil Gaiman. "I think he'll be going places!" said Richie.

apescomics.com is the exclusive home of prelude comics to the upcoming movie Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The comics, being released every Wednesday features two characters in Bright Eyes and Alpha who will interact with a major character in the film with importance to those who are fans of the franchise. It's written by Daryl Gregory, whose work on Dracula: Company of Monsters with Kurt Busiek is outstanding and I'm breaking any sort of journalistic integrity by recommending it so blatantly but hey, this panel was pretty ridiculous in the first place. The ongoing Planet of the Apes book is having the same deal that Irredeemable did with issue five, where you have an upcoming trade of the first four issues for $9.99 on the same day as issue five which comes out at the low, low price of $1. Not .99 cents as was erroneously stated earlier in the panel. It is set in the original film continuity, and Boom strongly believes in it.

It was at this point in the panel where Richie had finished devouring his chocolates and stole Gagnon's.

The Elric Free Comic Book Day story is online at elriccomic.com, with a FAQ designed to help new readers to comics understand how they can purchase more Elric comics in either single issue, graphic novel or digital download format. Richie went on a digression about how he's a Texan and Moorcock lives in Texas, and in fact Richie is descended from a man who fought at the Alamo. Mosher joked that since everyone at the Alamo died, how can Richie even exist? The explanation was that Richie's ancestor was the man sent to leave the battle and get reinforcements, who arrived just a litttttle too late to do anything.
In any case, the first issue of the Elric comic written by Chris Roberson has sold out. It also includes an afterword by Neil Gaiman,
"who I think is really going places!" stated Richie. It was released day and date digitally, which they attribute to the success of the
book.

Now, one man decided to leave the panel. Mosher asked why he was leaving, which is common in these sorts of situations. The usual
response is embarrassed silence. But no, they got a rant from someone who had clear and genuine anger at the panel, and made it very clear. He was expecting something he'd never seen before, as the panel description had implied, and clearly was not going to get it. Mosher took it hard. "I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry… Really, please stay. We'll show you something you've never seen before. OUR LOVE IS REAL!"

The panel died at this point. It made a shambling attempt at survival, shuddering and convulsing as the next batch of powerpoint slides went on the screen, but really, you could stick a fork in it. Richie suggested that perhaps the man was just frustrated at having tried to cross the train tracks, but was happy to rub in Mosher's face that he personally had escaped the ire of the attendee. Mosher wondered if the panel description was accurate, given that he generally just copy and pastes the same one every year. The Con Staffer in the room took the opportunity to read the panel description:

BOOM! Studios/KABOOM!/BOOM! Town Panel— The BOOM! team — Ross
Richie, Matt Gagnon, and Chip Mosher — take over Comic-Con for one
full hour. You will not believe what you will hear at this panel. The
publisher that is full of surprises…surprises once again! It's not a
panel. It's a publishing event as the team at BOOM! take publishing
panels to the next level. You will never be the same after this
one!

"I may have oversold it." said Mosher. "That guy was so mad. I was so completely unprepared for that!"

Key of Z, the new urban post-apocalyptic zombie title by Claudio Sanchez had its cover (by Nathan Fox) premiere! See, something new! Richie shared the story of how he'd been chatting comics with Marc Silvestri at a bar, when Sanchez came in and joined them. They chatted about superheroes and general geekiness. When Sanchez departed, Silvestri asked who Richie's friend was and was shocked to realize he'd been talking comics with a bonafide rock star. Who also writes comics like Kill Audio and The Amory Wars.

Fanboys vs Zombies, which had been announced on Monday, posted the zombie apocalypse happening at Comic Con. Among our leads are a Star Wars and a Star Trek fan, so that there will be plenty of conflict. Richie went on to tell how he and his geeky wife (who writes for Eureka) would play the game that many of us do: wouldn't it be awesome if the zombies came? Honestly it wouldn't really, said Richie, but the idea is fun. The creative team for the book has yet to be announced.

Mosher's breakdown continued. "I've failed as a marketing director." Never has one man's complete failure to hold himself together been so funny to watch. He began using the fact that the book he edited won an Eisner to justify his employment.

The Rinse, a crime book featuring a money launderer in San Francisco had some art shown. The book is written by crime novelist Gary Phillips, who also recently did the graphic novel Cowboy for Vertigo. The art is by Marc Laming, who did American Century with Howard Chaykin. It's about a man involved in a dirty business, trying to clean his soul.

Boom won an Eisner for Best Publisher (under 4%)!

The deal that Boom made with Shannon Wheeler will continue in October with the recently solicited "Grandpa won't wake up!", a parody children's book about dealing with recently deceased relatives. The back of the book features other wonderful (and thankfully imaginary titles) like "Jazz is Not Music" and "The Drunk Family Goes Swimming" It will be released at APE, which has Wheeler as a guest of honor.

The Show Must Go On, collecting Roger Langridge's uncollected strips was next. Followed by… well it should have been followed by Snarked.

Snarked is his new ongoing series inspired by but not slave to the works of Lewis Carrol. It features Princess Scarlet and her younger
brother Rusty going on a quest for their missing royal father along with two men of dubious note. The Walrus and the Carpenter. Boom is certain that this will be huge, and advises everyone to buy a copy at the day of release because they are sure it's been underordered. Joe Field, the owner of Flying Colors comic shop saw the first issue and claims that "It's at the intersection of Boneville Avenue and Muppet Way."

The recent Peanuts GN actually came between Snarked and Show Must Go On, which annoyed Mosher who realized his mistake just a tad too late.

Running out of time, they burned through the last few slides. Word Girl, based on the popular PBS show about a superheroine with literature powers is coming. The Ducktales/Darkwing Duck Crossover cover art was premiered for the first time in color.

Ross Richie now had eaten all the chocolate Hershey Kisses. A runner was sent to get more so that future panels wouldn't be deprived of chocolate goodness.

The Irredeemable Deluxe Edition, featuring the first twelve issues and the Irredeemable Special, an introduction by Super Size Me's Morgan Spurlock and extensive back matter including every cover, Mark Waid's original proposal, and sketches by Peter Krause which include different cover schemes. Richie loves them, as it's like seeing the Earth-2 Plutonian. The con exclusive version of the peanuts GN was shown, as was the get a sketch covers, the 8-bit Ducktales cover meant to evoke the NES game, and the photo cover for the Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

Having spent far too much time on Chip's nervous breakdown, and Richie's binge eating, there was no time for Q&A, but one question did manage to squeeze through. There will be no Hellraiser/Peanuts crossover.

That's all folks!

Peter S. Svensson is a Bleeding Cool Foreign Correspondent, currently embedded at Comic Con.

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