Photos © Todd Klein except as noted.

Lots of pictures today and not a lot of time for comments, so they’ll be shorter. Entering the con Thursday morning, lots busier, lines to get badges, but I had mine, so I avoided that.

Writer Marv Wolfman, once again with a beard, and not too happy this morning. The DC booth had on display a costume and mask for Deathstroke, from the upcoming Green Arrow TV show. It’s a character Marv co-created, and no one had even told him he’d be used in the show.

Batgirl and Harley Quinn, two of the more appealing costumes walking the halls.

Mark Buckingham (“Bucky”) doing a lovely watercolor sketch at the Hero Initiative booth, raising funds for that charity that helps elderly and ailing comics creators.

Marvel’s big display this year is seven life-size Iron Man suits in support of the next film.

Assuming they’re chronological (I think so) the two oldest suits, the left one very Jack Kirby…

…and the most recent versions.

Artist Eddie Campbell at the Top Shelf booth, not only selling a new book, but showing me a great piece of art that will figure large in fan interest by year’s end. I can say no more.

Took more logo pics, this being the most interesting to me. It’s original logo art on a cover by Otto Mesmer.

Artist Gary Gianni talking to a fan. “I have two more Prince Valiant Sundays for you to letter,” he told me. That means he sold them, and the buyer wants to pay my additional fee to hand-letter the captions onto the art. Normally they’re done on a computer, printed out, and taped in place.

This is the only movie promo display I’ve yet seen that interests me. Fine character portraits in lenticular 3D on show, and some behind-the-scenes film clips.

I enjoyed catching up with artist Trevor Von Eeden, who I worked with on the comic THRILLER many years ago.

Here’s writer, film producer and Batman fan Michael Uslan and his wife…

…chatting with another one-time DC staffer, colorist and now publisher Anthony Tollin, showing off one of the Shadow pulps he puts out. The cover art on this one has a painstakingly restored painting that now shows a large area of the art once covered by an ugly type-filled box on the original pulp magazine.

Had lunch outside on a cloudy but still very pleasant day.

Gulls were standing by for any food dropped.

And for entertainment just around the corner, knights in home-made armor where whacking each other with swords.

After lunch I attended several panels. Lines were long for all the panels today. First I caught one about Tarzan and John Carter of Mars. In addition to artists, the one-time Tarzan actor Ron Ely was there, and told some great stories about filming in South America and Mexico. Didn’t get any good pictures there, though.

Then a Spotlight Panel featuring writer Mike Carey. I’ve worked with him a lot over the years, currently lettering his THE UNWRITTEN. Shelly Bond did an entertaining interview and overview of Mike’s career, and he received an Inkpot Award from the Con.

Lastly, the Vertigo panel hosted by Vertigo head Karen Berger, and featuring lots of artists and writers. Here are Dan Abnett, Bill Willingham, Scott Snyder and Scott Nguyen. All current and upcoming Vertigo projects were shown in projected slides and discussed. But the biggest news came at the end.

Image © DC Comics, Inc.

Writer Neil Gaiman, in a video clip, announced he’ll be writing a new 6-issue SANDMAN series detailing what happened right before the beginning of the original 75-issue run. Art will be by J.H. Williams III, promo sample above. And here’s a scoop: everyone from the DC slide show runner to USA Today has the art at the wrong angle, here it is shown correctly, as confirmed by my pal J.H. I’ll be lettering the series, and am looking forward to it. First issue won’t be out for at least a year. The crowd went wild. Neil texted Karen, “It went huge.”

One more pic from the Exhibit Hall, this is the one and only copy of the world’s largest graphic novel. A smaller and more useful sized one is for sale, but the publisher told me they did actually get a few orders for this ridiculously large version.

After regrouping and changing at my hotel, I walked over to the Hyatt to meet Karen Berger, J.H. Williams III and his wife for dinner. Karen had invited us to celebrate the SANDMAN announcement, and we had a fine meal and lots of great conversation. On the way I spotted Cinderella’s carriage…

…and found out what Supergirl is doing at the con: pedalling a bike taxi. Bet she has plenty of customers. More tomorrow!