We’re back with our third look at Comic-Con publications that I edited and designed from almost 15 years ago. The writing is on the wall with this installment, as more and more editions of the printed magazines go to PDF format and are presented online only. This post covers Comic-Con Magazine #s 4 through 8, which were published in 2009 through 2010.
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The three 2008 issues of Comic-Con Magazine, issues #1 through 3.
Comic-Con celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2009, and I convinced the powers-that-be to let me upgrade the Souvenir Book to full color printing, on nice paper, hoping that it was one of those mystical corners you sometimes turn and you can’t go back. (Spoiler alert: It was. Every other Souvenir Book I did, along with the WonderCon Program Book, was in full color, through 2020.) One of the things that bugged me about Comic-Con Magazine in 2008 was that while we upgraded the format (from comic book sized to magazine sized), we still used the same crappy newsprint for the paper stock. Even though the paper was called something like “Bright White,” the color ink just seemed to lay there, muddying up the page. For the first issue of CCM in 2009 (#4), I finally persuaded those self-same powers-that-be to upgrade the paper to the same stock we were going to use in the Souvenir Book. But there was, of course, a trade-off due to the paper cost increase: We were going to print only two issues per year; the third issue, in the fall, was going to be just a PDF online-only. So there went my grandiose plan for the 2009 Photo Issue that recapped Comic-Con.
The big feature of the first 2009 issue, published in winter and debuting in late January, was an interview I conducted with writer/director Zack Snyder on the Watchmen movie. You probably know firsthand what Watchmen is to comic fans: A seminal superhero story that became the all-time, best-selling graphic novel. Written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons, it was also viewed as being impossible to make into a movie. You can debate amongst yourselves how successful Snyder was, but here’s the complete interview. WB allowed Watchmen to be shown at WonderCon in a nearby San Francisco theater, as a ticketed event, about a week before the movie actually debuted, and with an in-person intro by Snyder (he had done the same with his first comic book adaptation, 300 at WonderCon in 2007).
The big story for the second issue of CCM in 2009 was the 40th anniversary book we produced with Chronicle Books, Comic-Con: 40 Years of Artists, Writers, Fans and Friends. You can read all about that book here, including my role in it, but suffice it to say, it was the first major book on Comic-Con, profusely illustrated, and edited and compiled in-house by me—but designed and produced by Chronicle. I was lucky enough to have a copy of the cover proof with me at WonderCon 2009 to snap that photo of Sergio Aragonés holding it.
Another interview I enjoyed doing appeared in that issue of CCM, with comic writer Gail Simone, which is also presented here in its entirety for your reading pleasure. Simone was best known for books like Nightwing and Birds of Prey, and had just taken over Wonder Woman. She was a special guest at Comic-Con 2009.
As I mentioned, the third issue of CCM for 2009 (#6 for me), was once again “The Photo Issue,” and was an online-only edition. This was good for a couple of reasons: I didn’t have to worry about making a date with the printer, making sure they purchased the right paper months in advance (paper had an annoying habit of constantly going up in price and we were always urged to lock it in as far ahead as possible), nor seeing to some of the other post-printing details, such as getting the mailing list to the mailing house and arranging for distribution elsewhere, like through Diamond. Luckily another department in the Comic-Con office did local distribution, which entailed copies being placed alongside local freebie weekly newspapers, etc. And the PDF route was much easier (and correctable once you published it and realized you made a mistake, something you normally noticed the second you opened a printed copy), sort of a “no muss, no fuss” alternative. But I still wish we printed these issues. My collection is incomplete!!!
The photos in this issue once again showcased the enormity of the event, including the Exhibit Hall (far left), the comic book guests who were awarded 2009’s Inkpot Awards (a particularly diverse group, I think), and a multi-page look at that year’s Saturday night Masquerade (that’s the first of that essay on the far right). I really enjoyed putting these “photo albums” together, searching through tens of thousands of photos. It wasn’t always fun to look through them all, but there were always some gems that popped up.
Photos on photo album pages © 2023 SDCC.
This final tier of photo pages from the 2009 Photo Issue shows a bunch of Hollywood-related images and a rare Comic-Con holiday card. My boss thought it would be a good idea to have a “team-building” day at the beach, and one of the projects was to build a sandman for our Christmas card (since there are no “real” snowmen in San Diego). Naturally, the weather matched the mood of everyone who would have rather been having root canal without Novocaine, at least until we all built the damn thing and retreated to a nearby beach bar for lunch. While the finished product didn’t approach Neil Gaiman’s elegant Sandman, it kind of resembled Clayface after having the crap beat out of him by Batman. Fun times!
We only did one more printed issue of Comic-Con Magazine before it climbed up one more rung on its evolutionary ladder, and that was the first issue of 2010 (#7), which I dubbed “The Writers Issue,” as you can see by the cover above. Next to it is my first attempt to ape Stan Lee’s old “Bullpen Bulletins Page,” and it was kinda startling to see how easy it was for me to slip into Stan the Man mode and sound like him. The third image is of the final page of that issue, which featured another “Comic-Con A to Z” feature. I’ve always loved that Hall H photo with everyone wearing 3D glasses, spellbound in darkness.
Since this was “The Writers Issue,” we turned to two of the hottest writers in comics of the time, Brian Michael Bendis and Matt Fraction. Both were writing for Marvel at that point and both lived in Portland, OR and were friends, so rather than me interviewing them, I asked them to just have a normal conversation and let us listen in. The two were involved in yet another Marvel Event, something called “The Heroic Age,” which came and went before the inevitable next Marvel Event came and went. Their conversation is also printed here in its entirety.
Another byproduct of an issue devoted to writers, “The Tip Sheet” was advice from a whole mess of writers who were scheduled to be special guests at WonderCon and Comic-Con in 2010, everything from “get a good chair pad” to “stop thinking about writing and write.” The issue also featured an interview with Geoff Johns, then knee-deep in the Blackest Night series for DC and the person who said “stop thinking … ,” and some advice from inker turned writer Jimmy Palmiotti.
Next time: Countdown to Comic-Con concludes with the final two mailed publications, Comic-Con Annual for 2011 and 2012, featuring one more upgrade to square-bound, “80-Page Giant” format before the internet took over as the main source of communication for all of the organization’s events.
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