Fanning out

Wizard World Comic Con descends on Tulsa, beckoning the culture-obsessed masses

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Drawn together

Comic Con's arrival in Tulsa means big exposure for local artists // by Anna Bennett

Although pop culture icons and well-known artists might be Comic Con’s main draw, a jaunt down Artist’s Alley turns up some serious Tulsa talent in a variety of media. The artists use events like Comic Con to sell their work and increase their visibility. The convention circuit is like old-school social networking, but with more cosplay. Cons can be lucrative, but the up-front investment is large for artists, and sales aren’t guaranteed. Expenses push lesser-known talents out of the loop for major conventions held outside their cities of residence—which makes Tulsa’s selection as host city a welcome development. In the run-up to the huge Wizard World event, a few of these locals took time out of their intense prep work to chat with the Voice.

 Mickel Yantz, Tulsa

Secret Identity: Bookish adjunct professor at OU and museum curator

Origin Story: “I always joke around that my art is what happens when a kid grows up reading comics, watching cartoons and (driving) a 1963 Cadillac Hearse to high school.”

Weapon of Choice: Adobe Illustrator. Yantz uses digital media to create his signature pieces, Día de los Muertos sugar skulls. “I have a skull template that I created a few years ago, and then I start adding layers for clothing, hair, pin striping, shading and more. One print could have from 15 to 40 separate layers.”

Heroes: Animators Chuck Jones and Tex Avery, and Dr. Seuss

Superpower: Making people smile. “I am grateful for every sale (at conventions), but the greatest feeling (comes from) the smiles and comments that people share.”

Plans for World Domination: More sugar skulls! Recent posters feature Disney villains and the thirteen Doctors (from Doctor Who), and Yantz hopes the requests of fans will continue to stretch his boundaries. “The future is wide open. I get my greatest inspiration from fans.”

Backstory Highlights: Designed the poster for the 2014 Living Arts Day of the Dead festival. 

 Jonny Hinkle, Tulsa

Secret Identity: Mild-mannered librarian

Weapons of Choice: Pencil, ink, chalk, charcoal and watercolor

Heroes: Ed McGuinness, the comic book artist and penciller best known for his work on Deadpool, Superman and The Hulk, among others.

Superpower: The ability to transform into a car sized, super strong and invulnerable scorpion!

Plan for World Domination: To work with one of the big comic companies to develop a new comic series franchise that would eventually be turned into a big-budget blockbuster movie series and reap the rewards that confer.

Backstory Highlights: Drew comic books and sold them for a quarter in elementary school; awarded Runner Up in TopCow’s 2013 talent search for writers.

Hero Name: Tsisduna (from Cherokee for Scorpion: tsi-s-dv-na a-da-tsv-i-s-gi). An adoptee, Hinkle researched his heritage and discovered he has Cherokee, Chiracahua Apache and Irish ancestry. “Many of the characters I have created or worked on have been Native American.”

 Jerry Bennett, Oklahoma City

Secret Identity: door machinist turned professional artist

Weapons of Choice: Cintiq, Manga Studio, Photoshop. Digital media gives artists more precision, and comic book art “is also a commercial art that requires deadlines, and you need all the timesavers you can get.”

Heroes: Comic book artists Arthur Adams, Stuart Immonen and Micheal Golden

Superpowers: Like Superman, but without a cape. “Never a cape.”

Plan for World Domination: “I have found some stories inside me that I want to bring to life as graphic novels and picture books, all with the hopes of them becoming movies.”

Backstory Highlights: Designing T-shirt for Tokyo in Tulsa 2014. Doing licensed T-shirt design work with Marvel, Lucasfilm and Saban. Working for the Stan Lee Foundation. 

  Natasha Alterici, Tahlequah

Secret Identity: University librarian turned freelance artist

Weapons of Choice: Pencil and inks, charcoal and oil, digital inks

Heroes: Illustrators Rick Berry and Jon Foster and comic book artist Ashley Wood 

Superpowers: “Encyclopedia Girl! With the ability to know any fact in an instant. Black suit, pink boots, with a pink brain on the chest, and I’d want a mask like Captain Marvel, that gives my hair that awesome mohawk.” 

Plans for World Domination: Doing variant covers of her favorite titles, or drawing a limited run of a great female-led comic, like Black Widow or Captain Marvel or Wonderwoman. “I want to write and draw comics about women, because they’re the stories that I want to read and don’t see enough of right now.”

  Zach Raw, Tulsa

Secret Identity: Unassuming Dillard’s associate

Weapons of Choice: Sharpies, Faber Castell pens and Cintiq—“the most handy tool I’ve invested in,” which is like a high-tech digital sketch pad.

Hero: Hiroyuki Imaishi (animator and anime director)

Superpowers: Flight and Regeneration. “Originally it would have only been flight, but it would be too easy to crash into something.”

Plan for World Domination: Leading a team of animators on a feature film. Good comics are “like reading storyboards to a movie.”

The long view

Purveyors of fine art might dismiss comics, but the art form is a medium—not a genre—and it’s a blend of literature and art. Limitless in their storytelling possibilities and stylistic range, comics are in a time of transition. 

Increasing demand for more diversity and inclusiveness in comics is pushing artists to explore new territory, and popular artists and large comic empires have come under fire for their less-than-heroic response. Blogs about the portrayal of women in comics, like Escher Girls and The Hawkeye Initiative, once covering a fringe topic, have gotten attention in the mainstream media. On Saturday at the Wizard World event, a selection of panel discussions will focus on diversity and gender in the world of comics:

FEMALES IN GENRE FICTION: WRITING STRONG FEMALE CHARACTERS AND HANDLING GENDER STEREOTYPES 

Saturday, Nov. 8 // 11:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m. // Conference A // Discussing the need for strong, realistic female characters that defy stereotypes, and the need for progressive voices in genre storytelling. 

NERDY GIRLS AND THE NEED FOR WOMEN-CENTRIC SPACES 

Saturday, Nov. 8 // 2–2:45 p.m. // Conference B // Discussing the genesis of the nonprofit group Nerdy Girls, and why a women-centric group is only a Band-Aid for a much larger problem in nerd culture.

NERDY GIRLS: FEMINISM AND FANDOM 

Saturday, Nov. 8 // 5:30–6:15 p.m. // Conference A // A panel discussion on the ways—both good and bad—that women are portrayed in nerd culture.