Informed Art - Comic-Con Revealed

So you think you can dance?

Day 2 in a now completely sold out San Diego Comic-con found me back at the Dark Horse Comics booth for an early chat with Jeremy Atkins about a big announcement at their panel later that afternoon. While I was waiting for the super busy Atkins I had the great honor of meeting Sergio Aragones, the prolific award-winning Spanish cartoonist and creator of Groo.

Aragones at Dark Horse

Sergio is a very gracious gentleman and was happy to chat in his native Spanish. Turned out we had a lot to talk about. Most people from my blog know that I am a traditional Aztec Indian dancer or a danzante. Somehow that came up in our conversation about famous Mexican calendar artist Jesus Helguera and Sergio was quick to tell me about his time in the Mexico of the 1950’s performing along with a troupe of folklorico-type and Aztec dancers in a water ballet extravaganza. He reminisced about how he played the part of the tragic Aztec warrior of legend, Popotepetl and he showed me his regal stance as he mimed holding the dying Iztacihuatl in his arms. Then he laughed and told me how he had to run backstage for a costume change as in the next part of the show he played a clown. That’s Mexico for you - one minute you’re a brave Aztec warrior and the next you’re wearing a squeaky red nose. We chatted more about Mexico and did some dance steps together of various dances like El Guajito and La Botella much to the entertainment of the attendees in the booth. What a great way to spend a half hour!

Brian Talbot and Alice in Sunderland

After Sergio and I chatted and danced, I ran into Mark Evanier (no time for a photo) and Will Vinton. I saw Brian Talbot who was signing his fabulous Alice in Sunderland. While I waited in line as he sketched for a fan, I overheard him talking about Margaret Thatcher and how much she is universally hated. Standing in line can be very educational. Also spotted at Dark Horse – Josh Whedon and Eric Powell. The booth was incredibly busy with customers packing the store area as well as standing in line for signatures and sketches.

Will Vinton

Busy day at Dark Horse

Later, I attended the quick half-hour Dark Horse panel for the exciting announcement that they are re-launching the series Dark Horse Presents in conjunction with Myspace.com. Dark Horse Presents was a great black and white anthology series in the 80’s. The relaunch of the digital version of the anthology debuts today at http://myspace.com/darkhorsepresents. The series begins in earnest with a new monthly comic every month starting in September. The page on Myspace looks amazing and features a story called Sugar Shock by famed Buffy creator Josh Whedon. Sugar Shock is a story from an upcoming Dark Horse series called Umbrella Academy by Gerard Way, front man for My Chemical Romance. Dark Horse expects to publish new talent they find on Myspace on the online series. I hear they are already searching for talent on the popular social networking site.

The new creators will maintain ownership of their work, with Dark Horse having the exclusive right to run it on MySpace as well as the rights for a limited print run. Future Dark Horse Presents contributors will include Hellboy’s Mike Mignola, Guy Davis, Peter Bagge and Gilbert Hernandez, and more are expected to turn up in the coming months.

Dancing off,

Gina