My Review of Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics

Originally submitted at WB Shop

An expansive documentary exploring the 75 years of DC Comics, the memorable characters of its universe and the talented artists and writers who brought them to life.

Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics

Loved it!

By Nathan OBrien from Spokane, WA on 11/3/2010

 

5out of 5

Pros: Broad Appeal, Informative, Good Resource, Entertaining

Cons: None

Best Uses: At Home, Perfect Gift

Describe Yourself: Avid Moviegoer

I was lucky enough to view the advance screening of "Secret Origin" at San Diego Comic con and loved it. Even though I already watched it I still plan on purchasing it. "Secret Origin" is an absolute must for any comic book and pop culture fan.

spokanecomicon.com

(legalese)

What's New?!

What's up with NO! well plenty of stuff thank you very much. I've been keeping busy this summer for sure on all fronts. After a great trip to SDCC I am inspired by some artists to keep doing my thing and creating new pieces. I had a blast seeing some friends and talking art and comics.

***The big news from SDCC (for me) was writer and creator (and pal) John Layman will be putting in more of my fan art in CHEW #16. This time it's a one page (type of epilogue) written by John Layman, pencils by NO! and inks by Levi Skeen [link] ***

My Etsy shop [link] has really been keeping my busy too. I've been selling a decent amount of prints and starting to get some commissions too. Please take a look...makes a great gift hint, hint.

I've been writing a lot for my web comic Weaselman [link] plotting out what's next to come. I've got some fun ideas for the next few chapters and it will all lead into a big blockbuster in the 24 comic challenge on October 2nd. [link]

Somewhere in between all that I find time for my family, and my full time job. I also have to start thinking about getting ready for Jet City Comic book show on September 25th in Seattle. It's a new one day show put on by the same people as Emerald City CC, so I am looking forward to that. I will have a table in the artist alley AA30 so plan on coming!

Thanks for everyone's support and I'll post more updates as they happen.
Cheers,
NO!

Spokane Comicon 2010 recap

"You really put on a great show! Having just attended the Emerald City Comicon two months prior, this was comparable & much more friendly."

The 4th annual Spokane Comicon was held on Saturday May 22, 2010 and continued to grow in a positive direction. Nearly 900 people attended and 75 tables filled making this grass roots con our biggest yet!
Our 2010 special guest of honor John Layman (Creator and writer of Image Comics "CHEW") was a fan favorite. Other special guests included Charlie Schmidt (Keyboard Cat),Matthew Southworth ("Stumptown"), Dustin Weaver (Marvel comics "SHIELD"), Brandon Jerwa (Fajita-man), Eric Trautmann (DC Comics "The Shield"), Mark Rahner ("Rotten"), Chad Hardin ("Warlord"), Daniel M. Davis ("Monster Commute") and local guests Lars Brown ("North-World"), Andy Owens ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer") and Jason Gorder ("Dark Avengers") FEW.

I HUGE HUGE special thanks to Mike "WHOO-HOO" Watson, Rose and the entire Sasquad Comic Book club for all of their hard work and dedication in planning and volunteering the con with me. Without them none of this would be possible. Thank you also to the 501st, Craig from the Comic Book Shop, Uncle's Games and John from Merlyn's for all of their support!

Become of Spokane Comicon on FACEBOOK for the latest updates and to view our 2010 photo album.

Next Show: 5th Annual Spokane Comicon Saturday May 21, 2011 @ SCC

Spokane Comicon 2010 Update #5

It's now May (where has the time gone?) and that means it's time to starting counting down to the 4th Annual Spokane Comicon on Saturday May 22!
We've got lots of exciting things to cover including the much anticipated Program of Events and Gaming so let's get going.

2010 Guests:
John Layman
Andy Owens
Jason Gorder
Daniel M Davis
Dustin Weaver
Eric Trautmann
Brandon Jerwa
Matthew Southworth
Charlie Schmidt
Mark Rahner
Lars Brown
Stephen Lindsey
John Lustig
Chad Anderson *NEW* You can read Chad's bio on our web page under the "Guests" tab

Program of Events:
10am Doors Open (100 exclusive bags)
11am Free Raffle Prize drawing #1
11:30am WACOM tech instructional demo #1 (conf room)
12pm Free Raffle Prize drawing #2
12pm "CD" Comics Panel (auditorium) w/ Eric Trautmann and Brandon Jerwa
1pm Free Raffle Prize drawing #3
1pm Chew Panel (auditorium) w/ John Layman
2pm Free Raffle Prize drawing #4 (+ 50 exclusive gift bags)
2pm Breaking into Comics (auditorium) w/ Creators Edge Press
2:30pm WACOM tech instructional demo #2 (conf room)
3pm Free Raffle Prize drawing #5
3pm Keyboard Cat Retrospective (auditorium) w/ Charlie Schmidt
4pm All $1 raffle prizes names drawn (podium stage)
4pm Spokane Ghostbusters (auditorium)
5pm Costume Contest (auditorium)
5pm End of show

Gaming:

11am (game room opens):
>Learn: Magic The Gathering "Basic Training" (All Day except during booster draft)

>Magic and Brawl registration starts. (ends at 12:30 or until spots are full.)

>Zombies and Doorways d20 Demo (All Day)

>Opening Console Gaming "Wii, PS3" (All Day)

12:30pm
All registration closes, Magic Draft Begins (DCI Sanctioned)

Gift Bags:

The Gift bags will be full of fun freebies from our sponsors that will surely not disappoint.
In celebration of Iron Man 2 we are excited to be giving away authentic 35MM film cells in each gift bag!

We will be giving away 100 gift bags for the first 100 paid attendees starting at 10am while supplies last.

For those of you that can't make it out in time to get a gift bag at 10am we've got you covered. For the first time ever we will be giving away an additional 50 gift bags at 2pm with paid admission while supplies last.

One lucky gift bag will have a certified Iron Man 2 trading card that has a piece of costume worn by actor Don (Jim "Rhodey" Rhodes) Cheadle! Estimated value $50!!

Costume Contest:

I promise details will be posted in our next update. All I can say is we have more sponsors, so we will more categories for you to win!

Blood Drive:

Do something good and be a real hero. This year the Inland Northwest Blood Center will be set up all day from 10am-5:00pm outside of Building 6 during our show.

We encourage you to register on site and donate blood to help save lives.

When you show proof of donation you will get a FREE DOLLAR RAFFLE ticket to enter into any prize of your choice. Dollar raffle prizes will be drawn at 4:00pm.

The countdown to con is here! Don't miss it!!

4th Annual Spokane Comicon
Next show: Saturday May 22, 2010
Location: Spokane Community College Bld 6 Lair
Time: 10:00am-5:00pm
---------------------------------
Nathan O'Brien
Spokane Comicon Founder & Coordinator
www.spokanecomicon.com

Spokane Comicon 2010 Update #4

Hello fans, it's only nine weeks until Spokane Comicon! This will be a short but important update.

Here is our current list of guests:
John Layman
Andy Owens
Jason Gorder
Daniel M Davis
Dustin Weaver
Eric Trautmann
Brandon Jerwa
Matthew Southworth
Charlie Schmidt
Mark Rahner
Lars Brown
Stephen Lindsey*NEW*
John Lustig*NEW*

You can find out more about our guests on our web page http://spokanecomicon.com/

Dealer/Artist Tables:
First off all of our Artist Alley tables are SOLD OUT! As a result a waiting list has been created so you can email me (spokanecomicon@yaho.com) if you want to be added to the list.

We are on pace to sell out of dealer tables for the second straight year as we only have about a dozen dealer tables left. A friendly reminder that the price break ends April 22 then it goes up $10. When you go to our site click on the dealer tab and download the dealer application word doc.

Sponsors Update:
I am very excited to announce Creators Edge Press as a new sponsor. Creators Edge Press will be debuting the Devil's Trail (for mature readers) exclusively at the fourth annual Spokane Comicon! Additionally writer Stephen Lindsey will be on hand to sign his new comic at the Creators Edge Press tables. Finally the talented folks from CEP will be doing a panel about "How to break into comics". Time of the panel TBA. To learn more about Creators Edge Press, including appearances, upcoming releases and submission guidelines take a look at their site. http://creatorsedgepress.com/

Additional local sponsor and dealer added are Uncles Games. Uncles will be sponsors our gaming tournaments. More details coming soon. http://www.unclesgames.com/

Finally since our last sponsor update both Oni Press and Arcane Comics both sent me 7 boxes each of comics to give away this year! I think we'll have a few to go around.

The last thing I wanted to mention is a special thank you to all of the people that turned out and I had to a chance to talk to at Emerald City Comicon. It was a great con and I was amazed at how many fans from the east side of Washington/Idaho stopped by to show their support for the Spokane Comicon. Hope to see you all in May!

---------------------------------
Nathan O'Brien
Spokane Comicon Founder & Coordinator
www.spokanecomicon.com

ECCC 2010 Wrap Up

Where do I even begin, since there was so much that happened over the weekend. I've been attending ECCC as a fan for the past 7 years, but this was the first time I attended as an artist. It's been an amazing run for me personally since I've started the Spokane Comicon [link] back in 07 because of all the great people in the industry I've gotten a chance to know. Two of them are artists Levi Skeen [link] and Ben 1314 Hansen [link] Both are crazy talented and invited me to join them along with the rest of the Sketch Crew [link] at ECCC. I graciously accepted as I could help promote my con and do my art thang.
Right from the get go when the trumpet blared on Saturday I was instantly busy selling prints and doing commissions. I don't think I took my first real break until 3pm. It was really cool besides seeing many of the pros I've gotten to know over the years, but also friends from all over Washington who came by and said hi. I was also amazed how many people where from the east side of the state and where also stoked to see me cross promoting for the Spokane Comicon
On Sunday I had a girl come up to me and look through my portfolio and said she was looking for Punisher prints, which I didn't have. She commissioned me to do a color/inked piece of the Punisher that she would then take to Thomas Jane to sign, no pressure. Some other commissions I did were Deadpool, Clone Trooper, Batman, Poison Ivy, Catwoman just to name a few (pics coming soon).
My personal favorite part of the con was being able to get into the con an hour and half prior to the doors opening. This gave me a tremendous opportunity to talk to fellow artists and vendors. My personal agenda was accomplished by getting to talk to (name dropping time) Tim Sale, Greg Rucka, J.H. Williams III, John Layman, Matthew Southworth, and Dustin Nguyen to name a few. I got some prints, signed comics, a few sketches and talk Spokane Comicon boo-yah. Fingers crossed that maybe we might see one of those guys come to the Inland Northwest some day.
I am looking forward to doing Jet City Comicon in September (new sister con to ECCC) and returning to ECCC in 2011. I took lots of notes on how to improve and I can't wait for the next con. I only wish I had time to do some sketches at my own show, but I'll be to busy making sure things are running smooth.
Talking with a few friends considering how well I did at ECCC they are trying to tell me I should start doing commissions on Deviant art here. Anyone want to give me their thoughts?
A couple other notes to wrap up my thoughts on ECCC. One, was that I debuted my first 3/5 guest comic panels to Monster Commute [link] artist Daniel M Davis. Daniel really liked my interpretation of his characters and thought I captured the essence nicely. For those of you who don't know Daniel asked me to be a guest artist for his Monster Commute web comic so while Daniel travels to cons in the summer he can run the guest artist strips.
The other second item worth noting was on Sunday when creator/writer of Image Comics Chew came by my table. I've had the please of having a few conversations with John prior to ECCC so he knew who I was, plus he will be coming to the Spokane Comicon [link] as a guest. Anyways, he checked out my portfolio and commented that he liked my Chew tribute drawings. John then asked me if I've seen the latest issue of Chew. I said no not yet, and he said "well you should, you're in it!"
"what do you mean?" I asked."I published one of your tribute drawings in the back" he said. I think I swore to some degree in my ecstatic state of mind. For the record I think it's in Chew #8, because that's the only issue I don't have, and it's not in #9. Go me. UPDATE! I got a scan of it and it was in issue #8.
Anyways, thanks for reading. It was great being surrounded by so many talented people and I am still on an emotional high from the entire weekend. I came home on Monday to read this [link]Cheers

How was my weekend at ECCC you ask? Well there's an insane amount to tell but for now here is a good start.

http://downtownseattle.komonews.com/content/next-generation-talent-emerald-city-comicon

The Next Generation of Talent at the Emerald City Comicon

Submitted by AJ Roberts on Sunday, March 14th, 05:17pm

Though everyone knows the big names like Stan Lee and Leonard Nimoy, the Emerald City Comicon offered more than just long-established superstars. The ECCC also showcased a wide range of up-and-coming talent, artists and writers who have yet to make their big break. The Sketch Crew is one such group of gifted comic artists that are on the cusp of breaking into the mainstream. The Sketch Crew consists of Tony Dela Cruz, Levi Skeen, Nate O’Brien, Harrison Wood, and Ben Hansen. Most of the men hail from the Puget Sound area, and Levi Skeen, of Spokane, heads up the Sketch Crew. The group started 4 to 5 years ago and mostly met through the art showcase website, Deviantart.com. They have been coming to the ECCC ever since. Individually, they have not done anything big, just a few good small gigs here and there. But they come to Comicon every year to get their names out there, meet people, and just to do what they love, draw comics.

Reminder that I will be at Emerald City Comicon all weekend along with some of Spokane's finest artists. I will be sitting with the Sketch Crew (artists Levi Skeen, Ben Hansen, Tony Dela Cruz, and Harrison Wood) in the artist alley tables A-18/19/20. http://thesketchcrew.deviantart.com/

We also have the pleasure of sitting along side The Spokane Comicsmiths Guild A-16/17 http://www.comicsmithsguild.com/
We will be doing sketches, selling prints and helping plug the 4th Annual Spokane Comicon. If you are in Seattle stop by and say hi and I will have some freebies while supplies last.

I have finally posted Chapter 1 of my new web comic "WEASELMAN" http://www.weaselmancomic.webs.com/

Each Chapter will consist of 5 parts. For as much as I would love to be "that guy" who posts a new comic every day, I simply don't have time for that. I am happy to do them in blocks as the ideas come. For those of you coming to ECCC this weekend stop by to see me with the Sketch Crew, I'll have Chapter 2 available to view before it gets posted.

Hope to see you there!

Spokane Comicon 2010 Update #3

Hello fans, it's only been two weeks since our last update and a lot has happened! Our guest list continues to grow.
Here is the current list of scheduled guests:

John Layman *new
Andy Owens *new
Jason Gorder *new
Daniel M Davis *new
Dustin Weaver
Eric Trautmann
Brandon Jerwa
Matthew Southworth
Charlie Schmidt
Mark Rahner
Lars Brown

Here are some more details about our new guests.

Special Guest of Honor John Layman (appearance courtesy of Sasquad Comic Book Club). Once an editor for Wildstorm, a branch of DC Comics, Layman turned to writing comics full-time in 2002 and mainly writes for Marvel Comics. He has also worked on several comic books based on pre-existing licenses such as Xena: Warrior Princess, ThunderCats, as well as crossovers like Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness and Army of Darkness/Xena: Why Not?. Layman has written a number of creator-owned titles at Image Comics, like the graphic novel called Puffed and Chew with artist Rob Guillory.

You can view John's full list of work here comicbookdb.com Still don't know what Chew is about? Then check out the blog and get caught up here

Andy Owens is a professional comic book inker that lives right here in good ol' Spokane, WA. We are happy to have Andy return as a guest for his second time since 2008. Andy is currently the long time inker of Joss Whedon's Buff the Vampire Slayer Season 7 for Dark Horse comics and DC Comics The Great 10.

Check out Andy's full credits here

So, Andy Owens comes to me and says in his best George Clooney in Ocean's 12 voice "You think we need one more?" (long pause by me) "Ok, we'll get one more" .
Jason Gorder is that one more. Jason is another talented Spokane artist in the comic book industry. Jason's work includes a long run with Aspen and Top Cow Comics.
Check out his impressive list of work here

Daniel M Davis of Monster Commute says "Monster abduction is real."

Mr. Davis has been abducted by monsters on 318 occasions throughout his life, beginning in the pine trees of the Spokane's North Side. While he has managed to escape every instance physically unscathed, he has been deeply touched by these encounters with odd creatures "from the other side." Everything that he creates reflects these traumatic experiences; Mr. Davis cannot stop drawing monsters or telling their tales.

An amateur Monsterologist, Mr. Davis is also the proprietor of Steam Crow, a Phoenix, Arizona based organization dedicated to creating stories, artwork and products with a monster imagination. To date, Mr. Davis has illustrated, written and published 4 books about mythical beasties, all crafted in his vintage style. His most recent release, Monster Commute Book 1, is a compilation of comics from his MonsterCommute.com webcomic.

Mr. Davis is also passionate about the possibilities that the internet creates for entrepreneurial artists. He is also the founder of Tiny Army, a Phoenix-based illustration group dedicated to bringing together local illustrators to share strategies for success. It has been said that he is rather fond of armored hats. http://www.steamcrow.com

Dealer/Artist tables:
Emails have been coming in fast and furious about tables. Thank you to those of you that I've spoken to recently since our last update. Let me tell you that we are on pace to sell out of tables again this year and maybe very soon. The first to fill up will be the the artist alley tables. Currently I only have 3 left so don't hesitate if you want to participate. Reminder that the dealer application is currently available to download off of our site. Please contact me if you need support.

Gift Bags
For those of you that don't know, we like to give things away during our show! One thing we give away (which has grown in popularity) is the gift bags. Last year we gave away 100 free gift bags full of goodies to the first 100 paying attendees and we plan on doing so again this year. Plans are underway in making sure that this years gift bags are going to be really full of amazing prizes. In addition to the 100 bags at 10am we plan on giving away an additional 50 bags (maybe more) later in the day at 2pm for those of you that can't make it out at 10am! More details coming soon.

Raffle Prizes

This first $1 raffle prize (from my personal collection) is a Marvel Comics "Civil War" preview card signed by the late great Michael Turner! Michael Turner did the variant covers for the series and this rare prize could be yours for only $1!! There is picture of it up on our site in the new tab for "Raffle Prizes" http://spokanecomicon.com/

Keep checking back for more raffle prize updates.

Emerald City Comicon 2010
Huh? What the...?! Isn't this an update for Spokane Comicon? Don't worry we haven't been bought out by the man. Yours truly will be at Emerald City Comicon all weekend along with some of Spokane's finest artists. I will be sitting with the Sketch Crew (artists Levi Skeen, Ben Hansen, Tony Dela Cruz, and Harrison Wood) in the artist alley tables A-18/19/20. http://thesketchcrew.deviantart.com/

We also have the pleasure of sitting along side The Spokane Comicsmiths Guild http://www.comicsmithsguild.com/ A-16/17.
We will be doing sketches, selling prints and helping plug the 4th Annual Spokane Comicon. If you are in Seattle stop by and say hi and I will have some freebies while supplies last.

As we keep getting closer to showtime keep checking our web page and our facebook fan page for direct updates.

Best,
Nathan

---------------------------------
Nathan O'Brien
Spokane Comicon Founder & Coordinator
www.spokanecomicon.com

4th Annual Spokane Comicon
Next show: Saturday May 22, 2010
Location: Spokane Community College Bld 6 Lair
Time: 10:00am-5:00pm

Spokane Comicon 2010 Update #2

Hello fans! I can't believe that we are now less than 4 months until showtime. Where has the time gone? On to the updates...

Special Guests:
In addition to our previously announced guests (Dustin Weaver, Eric Trautmann, Charlie Schmidt, and Lars Brown) here are three more.

Based in Seattle, Brandon Jerwa is the author of several Battlestar Galactica titles, Highlander, Savage Tales and Eva: Daughter of the Dragon. He made his comics debut with the G.I. Joe franchise, including a long run on the main title and the hit mini-series Master & Apprentice and Snake-Eyes Declassified. Brandon also co-writes with Eric Trautmann for a new webcomic called Wide Awake. Finally, Brandon is writing the second feature story of "The Inferno" in the DC Comics title "The Shield" . You can find out more about Brandon's bio here http://comicbookdb.com/creator.php?ID=3585

Matthew Southworth is the acclaimed artist from the hot new sold out series "Stumptown" from Greg Rucka and Oni Press. Matthew's other work includes work for DC Comics "Infinity Inc" and Images Comics "Savage Dragon". Comic Book DB link

Matthew is also kind enough to be working on an original print that will be a part of our $1 raffle prizes. More details coming soon.

Mark Rahner (Spokane Native) is a veteran critic, interviewer and pop culture writer at the Seattle Times. He's also a comic book writer whose new series, "ROTTEN," debuted in May 2009.

Rahner's work has appeared in publications around the world including WIRED, FANGORIA, and STARS AND STRIPES. Media appearances include Headline News, MSNBC TV, KIRO talk radio Seattle, KPTK (Air America) radio Seattle, KZOK (Bob Rivers Show) Seattle, and the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame ("Rahner's Rotten Rentals"). http://www.markrahner.com/

Dealer/Artist tables:
Here is the latest on tables. We have 38/62 tables filled! I had to do the math a second time making sure I was right. I couldn't believe how fast they are filled up.
The Dealer/Artist application is currently available to download off of our site. Please shoot me an email if you plan on submitting it to me. Just because you print it off doesn't mean your space is gaurenteed until I have communication with you.

Artist Alley:
On our website the Artist Alley tab is now updated with the current list of participants and their links. When you get a chance go check them out. There will be some amazingly talented people in the Artist Alley this year.

Lodging:
Will you be coming from out of town for the con? Looking for a place to stay? For the 3rd straight year we have a great deal at the local Comfort Inn. For details and room rate please email me and I get help get you set up. If you look to book it directly online you won't get the significant room rate unless you go through me first.

Planning is in full swing for the 4th Annual Spokane Comicon. Our committee meetings have resumed with the clubs at Spokane Community College and we are getting some great ideas. As we keep getting closer to showtime keep checking our web page and our facebook fan page for direct updates.

Best,
Nathan
____________________________
Nathan O'Brien
Spokane Comicon Founder & Coordinator
http://www.spokanecomicon.com/

4th Annual Spokane Comicon
Next show: Saturday May 22, 2010
Location: Spokane Community College Bld 6 Lair
Time: 10:00am-5:00pm