MAN OF ACTION KAL BRAINSTORMS A GRAPHIC NOVEL WORLD BUILD
Kal flipped through the guide book and decided he wanted to go to the Create Your Own Comic panel with Man of Action Entertainment because, as he says now, "they make video games and I wanted to do that kind of stuff to help me design video games. And they're the Ben 10 guys." Steven T. Seagle, Joe Casey, and Duncan Rouleau were there to represent MOA. "We only have an hour, so we gotta fly through this one," Seagle said. We did. They explained how to brainstorm effectively and what our rules were: Raise your hand, wait for the microphone, and applaud. We voted on the ideas we generated to pick the kind of project, the setting, the main character, and so on, and then tried to make it better. The main thing Kal remembered before watching the videos was that MOA had put a copyright symbol on the ideas pad. He didn't remember the kid singled out to be a TV executive. As I recall, this kid was told to sit at the table in the front after he gave a total killjoy answer. What I do have on video is everyone voting on the name of the main character and it not being decisive. So they ask the TV exec who decides it should be Dr. Frozen—a choice not even close to winning. Seagle says, "This happens to us all the time. Someone sitting around in the meeting, not paying any attention, and then suddenly he makes a veto decision." Kal's hand shoots up. "Isn't Dr. Frozen just a rip-off of Mr. Freeze?" "It's important to understand that rip-offs are often very successful." The room laughs. Then the TV exec vetoes his veto and says the name can be Dr. I Forget Dang It. The other part Kal didn't remember was needing to ask Rouleau to explain "hoist the petard." Rouleau was enthusiastic about where some of our ideas could go and how we could introduce poetic justice—how good stories are when the person who is supposed to be the face of an operation is actually trying to bring it down. After watching all the videos from the day, Kal said the panels were the best part of Comic Con. And the costumes. —MV
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Art Department Weekly • Conventions 2018
