"Welcome to the Party, Pal!"

Alas, it’s the last zine of the summer. We’ve hit that 2/3rds mark that, for me, at least, is always sad. I have been soaking up and loving everything about summertime – the nice hot weather, the extra daylight hours, the nice warm late nights out writing and/or reading on my patio. Soon fall will close in (not THAT soon, as I am in California!), the days will get shorter, the nights chillier. And the long wait for my favorite season will begin again. But that’s later. Right now? Got all of August to keep on lovin’ it, so I’m going to do my best to enjoy.

Gonna be a short zine this time around for reasons I probably cited last time – ridiculous work schedule (lots of new goals sprung upon us) that led right up to CON! And then just getting back from Con a handful of days before the deadline. Have to try to make it up next time. Hey, and speaking of CON!!!!...

Comic-Con 2008 = AWESOME!

Had an amazing time at this year’s Con, though I’m not going to go into too much detail here. I’m saving that up for my geek blog (which I’m waiting to write until I put this issue to bed). We missed a few key people this time around (namely Martin, Jeff, A.T. and K.C.!), but did okay with some substitutes. Joel made it this year (he can really only manage every other year these days), my Forte boys Adam and Jim made it from here in Sac (along with their friend Bill, who’s a really great guy that I’ve met once before), Tim filled in at the last minute for the missing A.T. (even wore the A.T. badge since I’d already registered for it), Russ made it, Ben and Kaye and the boys made it for two nights (which meant BBQ action in La Jolla, baby!) and Aaron and Jeni made the trip to introduce Jen to her very first Comic-Con. For those of who’ve been, just imagine your jaw dropping the first time you walk into that place that way it is now. Having someone along who’s not all used to it makes it more fun for everyone.

Man, what were the highlights? So many things. Most of it, for me, was Joss Whedon stuff. Dr. Horrible had JUST exploded, so there was a frenzy about that – and knowing Joss as I do, I was not surprised at all when the Joss Whedon panel turned into the Dr. Horrible panel and he brought Nathan Fillion and Neil Patrick Harris (and everyone else involved) out on stage as a surprise. Better yet was going to the 10:45pm Friday night showing of Dr. Horrible, where we (at least Russ and me, as the others didn’t make it in with the line and had to go to an alternate room where they were showing it) got to watch it WITH Joss and NPH. Plus the Dollhouse panel was more Joss love – along with a very different kind of love in the form of star Eliza Dushku (meow…). Kevin Smith hosting the Battlestar Galactica panel? Gold. The entire SG:1 cast showing up (even Richard Dean Anderson for his first Comic-Con)? Gold. An hour of having our minds blown by a talk from Grant Morrison and Deepak Chopra? Gold. Me meeting and falling in love with stuntwoman Zoe Bell? Major gold. Eric Estrada?! SOLID gold!! Like I said, I’ll get into all of it elsewhere, but everyone had a great time, and I managed to squeeze in time with just about everyone, which was more important than any Con stuff could be. Megablast for all, and lots of great pics to be shared. And I shall!

This Time Around

Like I said, not too much this time. I started working on “Seahawk: Number Zero”’s next chapter, and it was going great, but then the work hours made it impossible to finish. So instead, I decided to do something I’ve been meaning to for a long time and start up my “Why I Love…” feature on the Forte blog. This’ll be my chance to obsess on how much I love each and every Forte hero, and give you the reasons why. You may just learn some stuff you didn’t about these Seattle defenders. So I decided to start latter-day instead of at the start, and launched the feature with Rainier, so I hope you enjoy my talk on the big rocky brainy fella.

Ah, but there was Con. And you know what that means. Con art!!!

Let’s jump to the Forte 2000 Gallery! First, let’s start with the pre-Con stuff. Once more, I turned to Kevin West for more of his AWESOME color sketchards, and added Vortex, Seahawk and Nightsable to the collection. Just two more to go and I’ll have collected the whole F2K set! Then it’s on to the rest of Forte… Heh heh… Also, our old art buddy Eryck Webb, who hasn’t been on the gallery in a while, started putting up some irresistible prices for color work on eBay, so I just had to grab some. Decided I needed some more Forge art, and figured he’d enjoy those since all those costumes are his design. So got shots of all six team members, broken up into pairs. Very nice. And for good measure, added a Nightsable/Rainier shot, just because I’ve never gotten one of just the two of them together.

For this year’s Con art, I did exercise some self control (for me). I mostly stuck to some regulars, but did have a couple of very cool new additions. Like, say, HUMBERTO RAMOS?!! Yes, Humberto was there doing art. While he was charging $100 for full-figure complete shots, he was only charging $25 for quick sketches – which is what I got of Nightsable. His set-up was really cool. You sign your name on his list, and then you go off and do your thing. Anyone walking up and getting in line can get their drawing done right there. But if you return – just like Supercuts, if you call in early, you get to the front of the line. That’s what I did. Love having something from such a big-name guy! The other new guy I tried was Grant Gould, a really great guy who’s currently doing a lot of Clone Wars stuff and cards. He did an amazing color Dyna Girl for me that really blew me away. I went for some regulars after that. Had to get my Jeff Moy, so I grabbed him for some Seahawk action. And after Excalibur artist Michael Ryan did such a nice Nightsable for me last year, I had to rope him in for a Dyna Girl. And that was about it for Con…but then I came home and found some art in the mail that I’d ordered a while back from the MOST impressive Scott James, who did a very dramatic color Nightsable. Great additions to the gallery again, as always this time of year. It keeps…on…growing!

Next Time...On "The 'F' Word"...

We’ll see what I can whip up next time. It’s all about the planning and the free time. I’ll try to make up for lack of fictional goodness. So we’ll see you all back in 60! Have a great rest of your summer, and I’ll see you when the leaves come down.

Michael O’Connell
Last of the Red-Hot Forte Lovers