DC closed out it’s San Diego Comic-Con panel presence with a fun and interactive look at its lineup of original graphic novels targeting young adult readers, and some fans were lucky enough to receive some original artwork. The panel featured award-winning writer Mark Russell (PREZ: Setting A Dangerous President), writer Nicole Maines and artist Rye Hickman (Bad Dream: A Dreamer Story), and writer Julio Anta and artist Jacoby Salcedo (This Land is Our Land: A Blue Beetle Story).
The panelists spoke to the audience on a variety of topics, including how their first introduction into their characters, reimagining them for a young adult audience, and the challenges their protagonists face as inheritors of a superpowered legacy that none of them asked for. They also spoke to issues that are unique to their books. Simultaneously, artists Hickman and Salcedo were sketching various DC characters.
Mark Russell’s PREZ: Setting A Dangerous President reimagines a character originally published in the 1970’s. The writer shared with the audience how he updated the character for a world where corporations vote, the government is corrupt, and a 17-year old girl can become president of the United States based on a video of her getting her hair caught in a fast food deep fryer, all while creating a story (with artists Ben Caldwell, Mark Morales and Domonike “Domo” Stanton) that balances the topical with the evergreen.
The This Land is Our Land: A Blue Beetle Story duo of Julio Anta and Jacoby Salcedo also addressed the topical nature of their story, combining a superhero coming-of-age story with modern and relevant themes, why Blue Beetle was the right character for their vision, placing the story in the real-world city of El Paso, Texas, and what kind of visual research Salcedo did to accurately reflect the city and culture that serves as the backdrop of the story.
Nicole Maines brought a unique perspective to the panel, not only having debuted Nia Nal, aka Dreamer, on television, but also integrating the character into DC’s core line with titles like DC PRIDE and Suicide Squad: Dream Team. Collaborating with artist Rye Hickman, a reimagined version of Dreamer is now part of DC’s young adult original graphic novel lineup. Maines and Hickman spoke about the importance of Dreamer’s friends as she goes on her heroic journey, and how they used them to explore provide a unique perspective on Dreamer’s evolution. Hickman also spoke about working with Nicole about that approach to creating the prophetic dreams that are central to Dreamer’s power set.
The panel concluded with their recommendations on who their books would appeal to, and a fun giveaway of the sketches from the participating artists by answering DC trivia questions a variety of DC Super Heroes.
