North Carolina Comicon hit the stage this year to showcase local art, costume designs and comic culture. The statewide convention in Morrisville attracted students from all over North Carolina.
The biggest invited name this year was a comic-book artist named Arthur Suydam , a writer who has worked for Marvel and D.C . Comics on titles like Marvel Zombies, The Adventures of Cholly and Flytrap and Army of Darkness. Right now, he’s working on the well-known series Misfits.
“Probably my favorite thing to work on is my own series that I write myself, but then second to that I love working on the Marvel Zombies material,” Suydam said.
His table was overflowing with printings of decomposing, un-dead superheroes in classic poses, as well as a few celebrities that he had elegantly “corpsified” and pictures from his own series, Skindeep , which is also about zombies.
“I’m kind of an anatomical artist. I got into artwork really studying the anatomical drawings of Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo,” Suydam said.
That’s why, he said, he loves drawing superheroes.
“That’s a lot of guys in their underwear, and you can see their anatomy,” he said.
Not only were there well-known names, there were many booths open in the dealer and art rooms to explore and discover obscure local work. Dexter Morrill , and amateur comic book artist, and Tirell Morrill , an aspiring comic book writer, are working on their first project together called The Adventures of Drake and Oliver. The pair had a booth up at Comicon to promote it.
“It’s kind of a science-fiction-adventure-comedy,” Morrill said. “It’s about a planet that’s been torn apart, and there are people that live on one part of the planet and people who live on the other part. One part of the planet is polluted, so they turned into mutants – that’s Oliver – and one of them is still normal, and that’s Drake.”
According to Morrill , the two friends come from very different cultures, but they have to join forces to save the planet. Morrill said the comic is for a younger audience.
Amateur artists frequented the event, especially sci-fi movie enthusiasts. The convention promoted a big, non-theater movie starring Devin Reeve, an actor and producer. He’s acting in the movie version of Humpty Dumpty , a graphic novel written by Billy Majestic. The story follows the life of a half-alien, half-human monster attempting to take his revenge on the humans that killed his family.
“It’s kind of a creature-feature, if you will, so a little bit of horror,” Reeve said.
Reeve said he hopes the theme won’t put anyone off the movie.
“So it’s kind of a sci-fi-thriller-action . It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Gamers showed up for the event in hoards and engaged in organized tournaments. David Lewis, an agricultural engineer, plays the card game Magic during his free time, and he participated in a Magic tournament at Comicon .
The stakes were quite high, with a monetary prize of $750 and an invitation to the national competition on the line.
The convention on Saturday and Sunday attracted art and entertainment fans from around the state and put the Triangle on the map for the growing culture.
