My WONDERCON 2014 Schedule

I'll be attending WONDERCON 2014 in Anaheim, California for one day only: Saturday, April 19th, 2014.

http://www.comic-con.org/wca

I've got no official panels this year - though, STAR WARS fans should definitely check out the STAR WARS REBELS panel on Saturday from 2-3pm in Room 300AB. Executive Producer Dave Filoni and Vanessa Marshall (the voice of Hera Syndulla) will be taking your questions.

But I do have a couple of events scheduled:

1. 11:30am - @1pm: ASK GREG LIVE, a.k.a. YOUNG JUSTICE MEET-UP, a.k.a. GARGOYLES 20TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION, a.k.a. SPEC SPIDEY BLU-RAY CHEERFEST, a.k.a. RAIN OF THE GHOSTS ISLAND TOUR, a.k.a. whatever geeky thing you like...
This is a casual fan get together where I'll be answering questions. Vanessa Marshall (voice of Mary Jane Watson, Black Canary and many more) and Nicole Dubuc (writer/producer of Transformers: RescueBots, writer on W.I.T.C.H., SpecSpidey & YJ, voice of Iris West-Allen) have both said they'll stop by too. And we may have a few other surprise special guests, as well. Note: that although I'm notoriously anti-spoiler, I'm way more likely to drop a few hints in person than on-line. We'll be meeting in Lobby B of the convention hall, behind the escalators, more or less opposite of where DC Comics and Graphitti Designs have their booths if you were going to walk into the hall. (I've posted a map on my twitter account @Greg_Weisman) If the weather permits, we will probably head outside around 11:45am and continue the meet-up there. We'll also be posing for photos, so I encourage cosplayers to attend, etc. I will also be bringing copies of RAIN OF THE GHOSTS to autograph and sell. For a mere $10 in cash, you get a signed copy of the book and signed copies of the original inspirational character designs (drawn by Kuni Tomita) for the animated series version of Rain that we never made back at DreamWorks in 1997-98. (While supplies last.) I'm in no real hurry, so I can pretty much hang out as long as folks want.

2. @1pm - 3pm SIGNING
After the Meet Up, I'll be heading over to Artist's Alley, specifically Table 186, where Thom Zahler of the amazing Love & Capes series has graciously allowed me a place to sit. Once again, I'll be selling and signing RAIN OF THE GHOSTS. Still $10 (CASH ONLY) for a signed copy of the book and signed copies of the Kuni Tomita inspirational designs. (Again, while supplies last.)

So please, stop by and say hello!

ASK GREG LIVE - Correcting the web

So, I still maintain that ASK GREG LIVE was a great success, but I've seen a few posts on the interwebs that... undercut that success a bit.

With the best intentions, I'm sure, people have attempted to relate what I said, and although they got a lot right, they also got a bunch of stuff wrong. They either misheard me or mistyped or related the information second-hand or whatever, but I'm going to try to set some of the misconceptions straight.

Myth #1: "Greg categorically stated that Wally West is dead and will never come back."

I did not. Surprisingly, I was not even asked this question and thus never responded to it at all. Now, let me be clear. I also have not stated categorically that Wally West is not dead will definitely come back. And I'm not going to do either. Let me illustrate why with an example:

You've seen memorial holograms for Jason Todd/Robin and Tula/Aquagirl. There are four potential scenarios for those two characters coming back:

Scenario A) Both are going to come back.

Scenario B) Jason is going to come back, but Tula is staying dead.

Scenario C) Tula is going to come back, but Jason is staying dead.

Scenario D) Both are staying dead.

Break it down like this, and it becomes clear why I won't answer any questions about either character in this regard. Assume, just as a hypothetical example, our plan was Scenario C. Then someone asks me about Jason. They say, the show is over; if he's really dead, why not tell us. This sounds logical (in the moment), so I state that Jason is staying dead. No harm, no foul. I've only confirmed something that the show itself already stated. No big deal. That is, until someone else asked me about Tula. I don't want to answer this one, of course, because I want her resurrection to be a surprise. But I also don't want to lie. So I go for my standard "SPOILER REQUEST. NO COMMENT." But then someone realizes that I was willing to be clear about Jason, but not about Tula. Ipso facto, Tula must be coming back. And I've just spoiled my own show. Which, as I'm sure you know, I am quite LOATHE to do. Clear?

Myth #2: "Greg stated that they killed off Wally instead of Barry because Barry's death would be too telegraphed."

That's almost exactly the OPPOSITE of what I said. Rather, in response to comments I've seen that Wally's death was out of the blue, I said I found those comments to be ironic, because Brandon and I spent the whole season afraid we were telegraphing WALLY's death too much. We cut lines of dialogue from and about Wally because we thought it would send too obvious a signal that Wally was going to buy it at the end. (And this is NOT meant as a statement with regards to Myth #1 above. As far as Season Two is concerned, Wally is considered dead. What that may bode for the future, is something that I won't respond to for the reasons outlined above.)

We did - at the very beginning of the season's development - briefly consider taking out Barry instead of Wally. But we decided that Barry was too much of a minor character, and that his death would have no resonance for our audience, would exact no cost. I suppose, as some have argued, we could have spent the entire season bulking up Barry's part to make sure his end had resonance, but we didn't have either the screen time or, frankly, the desire to do that. Wally mattered to our audience. Even with relatively little screen time in Season Two, he MATTERED. And I think the proof that we made the correct choice is obvious in how it's torn fans apart over his demise. It hurts. It hurt us too. I still well up watching that scene - and I've seen it dozens of times by now. It is sad. It's supposed to be sad when a hero that we love dies. Given that, I don't have any regrets.

Myth #3: "Greg stated that Ocean-Master will have a huge roll in Young Justice: Legacy."

No, I didn't say anything of the sort. You guys have seen the villains who are participating in Legacy. You already KNOW he's not in there.

Myth #4: "Greg stated that Troia will have a huge roll in Legacy."

No, I did not. You already know the heroes participating in Legacy - except for the these-are-just-for-fun-and-don't-count-toward-the-canon-story characters. You already KNOW she's not participating in the story.

Myth #5: "Greg stated that Mary Batson is Lieutenant Marvel."

No, I did not. First off, I've never once mentioned anyone named Mary Batson. I have mentioned Mary Bromfield. But she is NOT Lieutenant Marvel. I did give a small spoiler about the Marvel Family at ASK GREG LIVE, but I'm going to leave it as a prize for those who attended in person.

Myth #6: "Greg stated that the plan from day one was to use Donna in Season One and Cassie in Season Two."

This is more of a half-truth. EARLY, early on, Donna was one of our leading candidates for Season One. This was before we had even narrowed things down very much. And BEFORE any true decisions were made, we were informed by our DC Liasons that both Wonder Girls were off-limits for legal reasons that were never explained to us. (So don't ask me.) So neither Wonder Girl was seriously considered. Then Geoff Johns came aboard and made both Wonder Girls available. Unfortunately, by that time, it was flat out too late to include Donna. So we decided we'd put Cassie in Season Two. And have Donna be one of the characters who joined and left the Team during the timeskip, and cameo her in Season Two. Unfortunately, for reasons reported fairly accurately from ASK GREG LIVE, we were unable to cameo either Troia or Mary at Rocket's bridal shower because there just wasn't time for Phil Bourassa to design FOUR new characters, i.e. the two girls in both their civilian and super-hero costumes. Had they appeared in "Satisfaction", then they would have also had cameos in "Endgame", since their designs would already have been completed. But since they didn't appear in the earlier episode, we weren't able to get them at all. This is a sadness to me. But there are realities of production that we're all subject to.

Myth #7: "Greg stated that rumors about DC wanting Wally killed off were 'complete horses#!t.'"

I NEVER used the term "Horses#!t" and never would. I clearly said "complete bulls#!t."

WONDERCON & ASK GREG LIVE

I'm declaring ASK GREG LIVE at WonderCon a success!!

We had about twenty or so people show up (including Masterdramon and Blaise). It was informal, fun (for me, at least) and, hopefully, informative. As expected, we mostly talked about YOUNG JUSTICE, but there were also questions about GARGOYLES and THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN and how to break into the business, etc. So it was a nice Ask Greg-ish mix.

Someone said they were waiting for me to say "SPOILER REQUEST. NO COMMENT." And I really did mean to say it, but I'm not sure that I ever really did. I don't think I spoiled very much, but I definitely revealed a couple things that I'm fairly confident I would not have revealed here on the website. I guess seeing the in-person faces of the fans melts me - at least a little.

I wasn't sure how many people would show up, so I had no idea how long it would run, but I had figured on about an hour. But we stood there - no sitting allowed in the Anaheim Convention Center Lobby - for over an hour and a half, and the time just raced by. (Special thanks to Matthew for holding up the ASK GREG LIVE sign for nearly the entire event.) At the end, we took a few photos, and I did an impromptu signing for anyone who had something they wanted signed. (Hadn't planned on that either, so I didn't have a pen. So thanks also to those who loaned me their sharpies!)

If you were there, I invite you to post about it here at ASK GREG tomorrow (i.e. Sunday, March 31st, 2013) or at the Station 8 Comment Room anytime next week. (I'll be stopping by to see what folks thought.) It's something I'd like to think about doing again. Perhaps at Denver Comic-Con or maybe even at San Diego Comic-Con (though that venue would present some MAJOR challenges). So even if you weren't able to attend, let me know if you'd like to see it happen again.