Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: Comics, entertainment, Jim Shooter, kansas city comic con, Mike Zeck, Secret Wars

The Secret Wars Reunion Tour Arrives At Kansas City Comic Con

Published Tue, 18 Aug 2015 18:00:25 -0500

by Hannah Means Shannon

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Ashleigh Jay reported this year from Denver Comic Con, and now takes on the first year of Kansas City Comic Con. She is 12 years old. Since Kansas City makes a particular point of advertizing the "all-ages" experience at their con, it's great to have a direct report from a young person about the convention's debut show.

Jim Shooter, Mike Zeck, and John Beatty all attended Kansas City Comic Con. It was one of their stops on their Secret Wars Reunion Tour, since it is Secret Wars's 30th anniversary. All three attended a panel focusing on the Secret Wars comic. Some of the different topics were the black Spider-man suit, the new Secret Wars, Mike Zeck's original covers, how the idea for the comic came to light.

Mike Zeck was the creator of the black Spider-man suit and he was asked if there was any pressure when creating it. He replied that he had felt no pressure at all because they all thought that the suit would not be a big deal and that it would go back to its original colors. They all agreed that they never really thought that the suit would become this big of a deal.

When asked if they had read the new Secret Wars that is coming out, all said they had not because of traveling and doing other projects. They all agreed that going to so many conventions made it harder to read. It seemed that they were thinking of reading it later, though.

Mike Zeck was also asked about what he thought of some of the characters being taken out of his original covers. He said that he always knew some of the characters were going to be cropped out so that it could fit on the comic, but he did realize that they left the Human Torch's flame trail on the cover of issue 8.

Another topic that came up was how the idea for the comic came about. Jim Shooter said that Mattel wanted to make and sell a bunch of different superheroes, but they wanted them to be all tied together somehow. The people at Marvel got to work and grouped several characters together in one comic. It was added that at the time, none of the characters were really crossing over into each other's stories.

Jim Shooter talked about the story line and how they had to plan ahead for the ending. He had to know what would happen when and how it would end up that way. He also mentioned having the characters slightly changed by the end.

It was very neat to see Jim Shooter, Mike Zeck, and John Beatty at Kansas City Comic Con. All of them were very friendly. It is amazing that Secret Wars has been around for 30 years!

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