Montréal Hosted The 67th World Science Fiction Con

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Parent Category: Expos and Conventions

Category: Reviews

Published on Saturday, 05 September 2009 10:50

Written by fftraveler staff

The 67th World Science Fiction Convention (or Worldcon), dubbed Anticipation, was hosted in Montréal, Québec, Canada, on 6-10 August 2009. The fifth Worldcon to be held in Canada - and the first one to be held in an officially French-speaking city - Anticipation also incorporated the annual Canvention, the Canadian national sf con.

Guests of Honour (sic; Canadian spelling) at the convention were:

Neil Gaiman and Elisabeth Vonarburg (Invitée d'honneur, the con officially being bilingual)
Taral Wayne (Fan Guest of Honour)
David Hartwell (Editor Guest of Honour)
Tom Doherty (Publisher Guest of Honour).

Julie Czerneda was Master of Ceremonies.

As traditional at Worldcons, the Science Fiction Achievement Awards, or Hugo Awards, voted on by all Worldcon members (attending and not attending, or supporting), were presented. Recipients were:

 Best Novel: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
 Best Novella: "The Erdmann Nexus" by Nancy Kress
Best Novelette: "Shoggoths in Bloom" by Elizabeth Bear
Best Short Story: "Exhalation" by Ted Chiang
Best Related Book: Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded: A Decade of Whatever, 1998-2008 by John Scalzi
Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: WALL-E, story by Andrew Stanton and Pete Docter; screenplay by Andrew Stanton & Jim Reardon; directed by Andrew Stanton (Pixar/Walt Disney)
Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, written by Joss Whedon, Zack Whedon, Jed Whedon, and Maurissa Tancharoen, directed by Joss Whedon
Best Editor, Long Form: David G. Hartwell
Best Editor, Short Form: Ellen Datlow
Best Pro Artist: Donato Giancola
Best Semiprozine: Weird Tales, edited by Ann VanderMeer and Stephen H. Segal
Best Fanzine: Electric Velocipede, edited by John Klima, Cheryl Morgan, and Frank Wu
Best Fan Writer: Cheryl Morgan
Best Graphic Story: Girl Genius, Volume 8: Agatha Heterodyne and the Chapel of Bones, written by Kaja and Phil Foglio, art by Phil Foglio, color by Cheyenne Wright (Anticipation was the first Worldcon to include the category graphic story on the Hugo ballot.)
John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (not a Hugo Award): David Anthony Durham

Elsewhere at the convention, the Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists (ASFA) awarded their 24th annual Chesley Awards. The winners for 2008 were:
Best Cover Illustration: Hardback Book: Donato Giancola for A Book of Wizards, edited by Marvin Kaye
Best Cover Illustration: Paperback Book: John Picacio for Fast Forward 2, edited by Lou Anders
Best Cover Illustration: Magazine: Matts Minnhagen for Clarkesworl

Best Interior Illustration: Donato Giancola for "The Wraith" by J. Robert Lennon

Best Color Work: Unpublished: Simon Dominic for "The Gift" (digital)

Best Monochrome Work: Unpublished: Simon Dominic for "Kraken" (digital)
   * Best Three-Dimensional Art: Vincent Villafranca for "The Celestial Itinerant" (bronze)
   * Best Product Illustration: Dan Dos Santos for Hellboy II promotional art
   * Best Gaming-Related Illustration:  Volkan Baga for Stoic Angel Magic Card, Shards of Alara
   * Best Art Director: Lou Anders of Pyr Books
   * Award for Artistic Achievement: Julie Bell
In addition, the Sidewise Awards for Alternate History were announced by its panel of judges:
   * Long form: Chris Roberson, The Dragon's Nine Sons
   * Short form: Mary Rosenblum, "Sacrifice"
and the winners of this year's Prometheus Awards (for libertarian sf/fantasy) by the Libertarian Futurist Society:
* Best Novel: Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
* Hall of Fame Award: The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

In its role as Canvention, Anticipation oversaw the presentation of the Prix Aurora, or Aurora Awards (or “Canadian Hugos”):

   * Best Long Form: Marseguro by Edward Willett
   * Meilleur livre: Les vents de Tammerlan by Michèle Laframboise
   * Best Short Form: "Ringing in the Changes in Okotoks, Alberta" by Randy McCharles
   * Meilleure nouvelle: Le Dôme de Saint-Macaire by Jean-Louis Trudel
   * Other, in English: Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine, Karl Johanson, editor
   * Meilleur ouvrage (autre): Solaris, Joël Champetier
   * Fanzine: The Original Universe, Jeff Boman, editor
   * Fan (Organizational): Randy McCharles (Chair of World Fantasy 2008)
   * Fan (Other): Joan Sherman for Heather Dale Concert (organizer)
   * Artistic Achievement: Looking for Group by Lar deSouza

Besides the Hugos, the other important decision made by Worldcon members is future site selection. Reno, Nevada, was chosen to host the 69th World Science Fiction Convention, to be held in 2011 and to be called Renovation, and Raleigh, NC as the hosting city for the 10th North American Science Fiction Convention (or NASFiC), to be held in 2010 and to be called ReConStruction. Both were decided by uncontested elections. Additionally, the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association selected Winnipeg, Manitoba (the site of the 1994 Worldcon, Conadian) as the site of Canvention 2010 and the 30th Prix Aurora/Aurora Awards.

The 68th World Science Fiction Convention, Aussiecon Four, will be held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2-6 September 2010.

“Clerks” Star Brian O’Halloran Recalls His Career and Irish Heritage

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Parent Category: Expos and Conventions

Category: Interviews

Published on Friday, 24 March 2023 19:20

Written by Renzo Adler

If it weren’t for events such as the Big Apple Comic Con — now taking place this March 25th and 26th (www.bigapplecc.com) — American actor, producer, and podcaster Brian O’Halloran wouldn’t have had the chance to reach out and meet his audience in a friendly setting. But a con like the BACC is totally conceived with the touchy-feely experience in mind.

And it’s no wonder he draws fans to such an event. By playing Dante Hicks in “Clerks,” Kevin Smith’s 1994 debut and became part of a low-rent comedy of punkish pop characters that became a cult classic.

He has also made appearances in most of Smith’s View Askewniverse films, either as Dante Hicks or one of Dante’s cousins. Born in Manhattan, he lived in Old Bridge Township, New Jersey, since he was 13. A second-generation Irish-American, both his parents emigrated from Ireland. Sadly, the 53-year-old’s father died when he was 15 years old. Once he graduated from Cedar Ridge High School, he pursued acting starting with “Clerks.” He returned many times to reprise his role as Dante Hicks in its 2006 and ’22 sequels “Clerks II” and “Clerks III.”

O’Halloran is the lead actor in “Vulgar” a 2000 film about a small town clown who’s traumatized after he’s attacked during one of his performances. Writer/director Bryan Johnson wrote the lead specifically with O’Halloran in mind. He has worked on theatre productions since high school. Since “Clerks,” O’Halloran has primarily been a stage actor, working with the Boomerang Theatre Company, the New Jersey Repertory Company and the Tri-State Actors Theatre, among others. In 2020, O’Halloran began presenting his own pop culture podcast, “The O’HalloRant,” on YouTube.

Q: What is it like being part of a franchise? Did you ever expect that would happen and hope that would happen? And as a result, how has it changed your life? 

BO: No. You know, when we first made the very first “Clerks” back in 1993, [director] Kevin Smith was just writing about his actual job. The thing that he did was working at a convenience store in Leonardo, New Jersey. The fact is that we then shot that film in the store after hours, late at night, and we were able to get accepted into the 1994 Sundance Film Festival, where it skyrocketed in popularity. Then being picked up by Miramax and being distributed around the world – going to the Cannes Film Festival and things after that. And then getting a deal with Universal and all these great studios, Lionsgate and stuff after that with these other films was a big shock, to be honest with you. Just some guys out of Jersey just doing the thing they loved to do, which is comedy. 

Q: Were you doing acting before you did that film? Was acting always in your blood? 

BO: Yeah, I had started doing theater in high school, college, and then local community theater in the Central Jersey area, Monmouth County. I did some off-off-Broadway stuff here in Manhattan, and was doing that for about three or four years prior to meeting Kevin. Theater is the best training you can do as an actor. To be in front of a live audience, there’s no “Stop, wait, oh geez, what was that line again?” It just sharpens your reflexes. It sharpens your interaction. And it definitely sharpens your memory because you have to know an entire show from beginning to end.

Q: “Chasing Amy” is probably my favorite Kevin Smith film, and it was a really critically acclaimed film in its time. It was ahead of its time. How has it impacted on you, and how have you seen people’s reaction to it? 

BO: Well it’s definitely one of the best-written films of Kevin’s career. I mean, it was nominated for a Spirit Award for Best Screenplay. And Joey Lauren Adams, the lead in that film, was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance. So, it was giving it more credibility to Kevin’s career. I mean, we had won awards at Sundance and at Con with the original “Clerks,” but this was a topic that I thought was never approached in a mainstream way like he did. And it was based on real life experience that Kevin had experienced himself. So, it was good to see that that storyline resonated with so many people in many communities, not only the gay and lesbian community, but also in just the relationship. It’s a romantic story that just so happens to tackle, you know, gay relationships. 

Q: So how much of “Clerks” was improvised and how much of it was scripted? 

BO: The first script was 95% scripted. Kevin was not a big fan of improvisation at all. When he got into, you know, “Mallrats” that was straight-up scripted. And “Chasing Amy” very much so. Even though Ben Affleck tried to riff, so to speak, from time to time, Kevin would be like, “Yeah, why don’t you just come back to my script? You go write your own script there, boy.” And then eventually he did and won an Oscar for it so, who knows. But what was good about that and Kevin is really his dialogue. His strength is his dialogue. And that’s what brings me back to doing work with him all the time. He has such an ear for dialogue that’s realistic, yet funny, yet tackles subjects that you don’t hear normally in movies. 

Q: I believe you have some horror films in your background as well. 

BO: I’ve never done a horror film straight up. I’ve done a film that's a mockumentary about making up a horror film called “Brutal Massacre,” a comedy, and that’s about it with David Naughton, Gunnar Hansen, Ken Phiri, and many others. You’re watching a film crew as they make this horror film. Written and directed by Stevan Mena, it’s very funny. I do make a cameo in David Lee Madison’s horror film called “Mr. Hush.” I’m towards the end of the film for that one. And then there have been bit parts in other small films as well. 

Q: So now are you making films yourself in the future or that you’re working on? 

BO: Well, right now I have a couple of scripts that I’ve been writing that I’m still working on. As far as jumping on the other side of the camera, that is one of my goals right now. I’ve been in front of the camera most of my career, so I look forward to working and jumping to that side. 

Q: Now let’s talk about the most important bit of your history. Let’s talk about your Irish roots. 

BO: My family came from Ireland in 1965 here to New York City. We settled in the Bronx. I was born here in Manhattan in 1969, lived in the Bronx until 1979. Then we moved to New Jersey. But every summer we went home, as we would call it, back to the west coast of Ireland, hung out in Galway, went up to Sligo and stuff like that. So, I’m the only one who’s American here. My father used to tease me like, you’re the only one who could be president of this country. I’m like, well, who wants it. But what’s great is I’ve been able to go back numerous times, and I love my Irish heritage. I’ve used it to my advantage a few times because I’m proud of it. I’ve done numerous Irish plays. I definitely would love to do a film over there at some point. The film industry in Ireland is huge. 

Q: It’s growing all the time. 

BO: It is growing all the time. And with the tax credits that the Irish Arts Council puts out, it’s really affordable. As you saw the House of Dragon was recently filmed there, many, many period pieces, especially when you film out into the West Coast on the southern coast of Ireland. It’s gorgeous. It’s an untouched country that really gives you that essence that I love. So, the fact that every time I hear, whenever I come to New York City, especially Manhattan, and I hear that accent, I’m like, oh, where are you from? And then we get to chat and then, you know, it only takes me not even a few days when I’m over there to get back into the accent. And it takes me about a week once I’m home here to get rid of it. 

Q: I think there’s a movie in all this. Where’s your Irish movie? 

BO: Yeah, there should be, there should be.  

Q: But anyhow, what’s coming up? 

BO: People can follow me on “Brian C O’Halloran” on Twitter and Instagram and “The Brian C O’Halloran” on Facebook. I’ll be releasing a new website here next year where people can follow me as to what I’m up to. I’m in talks with two production companies right now for films next year. I know we’ve just wrapped up Clerks 3. That was the most recent release, which went really well for us. Hopefully we’re working on “Mallrats 2” next year, but we’ll see. 

Q: Anyhow, I really am glad that we’ve gotten a chance to meet. 

BO: Pleasure meeting you as well. 

Q: I’m going to make sure we get the word out about your roots. 

BO: Right on, take care.

Master Storyteller Jim Steranko Makes His Mark At The Big Apple Comic Con This March 25th – 26th

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Parent Category: Expos and Conventions

Category: Interviews

Published on Tuesday, 21 March 2023 13:40

Written by Brad Balfour

Jim Steranko's cover art for the 1982 Marvel Comics Adaptation of Blade Runner.

More than half a century ago, artist/writer Jim Steranko changed the way comic book storytelling was visualized. He brought in design elements originally conceived through design and fine art ideas. Back then, artists coming from the pop art scene such as Roy Litchenstein appropriated comic book design elements into genre-bending large scale paintings. It took Steranko to do the opposite for comics. His infusion of surrealism, pop art, and graphic design into the medium earned him lasting acclaim for such innovations in sequential art during the Silver Age of Comic Books, particularly with the 1960s superspy series “Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.” in Marvel Comics’ Strange Tales and in the subsequent eponymous sequential art runs.

With ST #135, Steranko took over Nick Fury, but the series had started with Jack Kirby and John Severin. Although he didn’t originate Fury, Steranko’s art radically changed the look of comics. Though it concluded when Strange Tales ended after some 35+ appearances, the 84-year-old’s influence didn’t end there. He then took on Captain America and the X-Men; there were short runs on X-Men (#50–51, Nov.–Dec. 1968), for which he designed a new cover logo, and Captain America (#110–111, 113, Feb.–March, May 1969). The Pennsylvania native introduced the Madame Hydra character in his brief time on the book as well.

Of course the comics of Captain America — which began in the early 1940s — definitely weren’t his either, but Steranko’s way of stylizing the character again was so highly innovative and influential that, in these cases, he made the characters his own so he could easily take a stand about them.

There was an exhibit of Kirby and Steranko’s work once at the Victoria and Albert Museum years ago. It was very nice work indeed from both artists — and it displayed their specific styles. Some in the comic book world might consider Sternako’s viewpoint on other artists provocative but he never demurred on his thoughts on graphic story making or anything else.

His work has been published in many countries and his impact on the field has remained strong since his comics heyday. He went on to create book covers, became a comics historian — who published a pioneering multi-volume history of the birth and early years of comic books — and created conceptual art and character designs for films including “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and "Bram Stoker’s Dracula.” He was inducted into the comic-book industry’s Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006.

And at the December Christmas Con, clad in his distinct outfitting, the octogenarian expressed taut and sharp thoughts on the state of comics past and present — something he’ll do again on March 25-26 at the New Yorker Hotel.

Q: You’ve had a long career in comics and in dealing with the world of media. What do you consider the most important moments in your career that you want people to realize? You wrote Nick Fury, had your own magazine, came up with a design concept that nobody else has ever thought of for comics. Where do you feel one’s education should start?

JS: I think all those things that you mentioned and a few others besides that. They’re all my children, so I do not have a definitive answer when people ask me what my favorites are and what my most important things are that I’ve done in the past.

Q: What were your the biggest challenges/legacy?

JS: My biggest legacy, that’s something… I leave that to my fans and my friends. I don’t make that decision. I want them to make the decision.

Q: When you were developing your concepts for “Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.” you came into the field with a particular vision and visual style. Where and when did you decide how to step away from comics traditions and add all the collagic effects, the big panoramic images, and the psychedelic influences? Whoever thought a secret agent or someone part of a spy organization would fit in to that kind of environment? You really affected the way comics were conceptualized from that point going forward.

JS: I grew up with comic books, and found that when I was in a position of power, that I couldn’t imitate what came before. I had no interest in being a rubber stamp artist. That’s not what I do. At the time I got into comics, I had a full-time job as an art director and manager — it was eight to five. I also played rock and roll for 12 years, three to five nights a week — that’s a second full-time job. Then, along the way, I got an assignment to do a number of Marvel comics. I worked for them for three years. It was a somewhat uphill battle to convince Stan [Lee] to adopt non-Marvel-type techniques and treatments in my books, Captain America and Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. He resisted that idea, even though they called themselves the “House of Ideas.” But don’t make me laugh. I guess I developed a kind of system where the work was an ultimatum. For example, I would never tell Stan what I was going to do ahead of time because he would say, “Don’t do that.” I’d just bring the work in on the day of the deadline when there was no time to make changes, and they’d have to take it or lose their monthly distribution. So those firsters that you were talking about, those puzzle pages, I called them innovations because they had never been done before in comics.

Q: They hadn’t even been done in normal illustrations as well.

JS: A lot of them. But the number that you’re looking for is, 150 of them I brought to comics in the space of about three years. The unusual thing about that is, that if you took every comic artist from the beginning of comic book history — American comic book history — and added them all up, they wouldn’t be anywhere near that number of 150 — 150 things, graphic things, that had never been done in comics before.

Q: Take artist/writer Neal Adams. A lot of the ideas Neal later incorporated into DC with “Green Lantern” were ideas that you also had about the way a page should look and the elements you could bring on the page.

JS: Neal did not represent what I represented in the field. He had his own agenda and I had mine. Even Jack Kirby, who was the king of all of us, was unparalleled in terms of what he contributed to comic book art. Not only in the number of pages, but the quality of those pages. But Jack had few innovations, maybe not more than two or three. Believe me, I’ve looked at his work and know it very well. I knew Jack and admired him for decades and decades, and he was a good friend of the family. He was a wonderful man but in terms of innovating new things, that was not Jack’s idea. He wanted to draw the greatest action figures and stories that could possibly be done in comic book lore. He achieved that, that was his goal. Mine was something completely different.

Q: One of the things you also did was to be one of the first comic artists to create their own publishing company. You brought out your own magazine — Mediascene (beginning with issue #7, Dec. 1973) and ultimately, it transformed into Prevue.

JS: Yes, I was in publishing for 25 years.

Q: Nobody can question you about your knowledge of comics because you also created histories of comics — “The Steranko History of Comics.”

JS: I wrote the first two comic history books. And, I believe to this very day, they are different from the thousands of comic history books — literally thousands of them. Book shelves full of them. The reason I believe mine are different is because I wrote them from a position inside the business. Get it? Everything else has been written from the outside, by strangers. They’re making comments, some of them really important ones but they’re not from my viewpoint as [a comic book insider]. I knew the artists, writers, publishers personally. I knew them myself as a friend or they if they were enemies along the way. That personal touch, I think, is evident in “The Steranko History of Comics.”

Q: Those books are loved. They have their own voice. When you did the magazine, you not only were doing comics, you were covering pop culture in general so you had your own viewpoint. You did a lot of the interviews, too.

JS: yes I did a lot of TV, film, and…

Q: Music?

JS: I was on the set of many, many Hollywood films. It was an education for me.

Q: Why haven’t you made a movie yourself? You have your legacy in “Captain America” and “Nick Fury.”

JS: I’ve just been so busy along the way that making a film, in the space of a year and a half or two, doesn’t work. However, right now, at this very moment, I’m engaged in one of the largest assignments that I’ve ever had in my life. I’m working for an international corporation to develop a new and different compelling strange world that will be turned into 3D and played by millions of gamers all over the world.

Q: Do you like how the movies treated the characters you worked on and how they interpreted your work? Did you like they way Nick Fury was transformed by Samuel L. Jackson? Do you think they captured the spirit that you were trying to convey?

JS: This may disappoint you, but I have generally found, particularly with the early Marvel adaptations — and the DC ones — that the actors who played the key roles, the superhero roles, looked to me like they had just graduated from college earlier in the week. They have zero authority. And I know that Captain America — one of the [key characters] that I worked on and that I loved, and I still love to this very day — he is the pinnacle of authority and justice. A kid just out of college for a week just can’t make that work. So I stopped looking at the Marvel movies. They have incredible special effects and things that have never been done before. I love that material but I believe the heart of filmmaking really exists in the characters, and I don’t believe those characters.

Q: Who would you like to see make a movie of some of your characters? Do you have anybody in mind? Do you have any character creation that you would like to see turned into a movie?

JS: Not really. I have no jones about that at all. I think eventually the right people on one side of the camera will connect with the right people on the other side of the camera and give us the kind of superhero movies that I think should be made. With really engaging stories and individuals and great acting.

Q: People haven’t appreciated that you’re as much of a writer as you are an artist.

JS: Nobody thinks of me as a writer.

Q: With all those issues of magazines, you delivered great coverage and had great ideas. What do you think about the current state of pop culture now, and how would you write about it if you had the magazine still going?

JS: I could be answering that question for the next 45 minutes but I find myself generally disappointed with contemporary comic books. Why? We have the best looking art that we’ve ever had. We have our pick of the crop of the entire world because of the internet. We have great, great art being produced. The thing is, most of them don’t know anything about narrative technique. Their pages are simply chaotic. I can’t read the stuff. I can’t read it. And I refuse to read it in that form. The artwork is often excellent. Most of the really good stuff is saved for the covers. You’re on your own when you get into the interior of them. Frankly, I can’t read that material. There are exceptions to the rules [but few are] available.

To learn more about Jim Steranko's appearance at The Big Apple Comic Con, go to: https://bigapplecc.com/