Long Beach Comic Con & POE NOIR

Huge THANK YOU to Ivan Cohen for the assistance with last minute Press Credentials – I bungled something I was supposed to do on my end and only realized it very last minute. So he was nice enough to really come through for me and my friend.

LBCC is a much more indie flavor than the bigger Cons and thats nice, a real emphasis on the creators and artists instead of the latest blockbuster. I dug that. Much appreciated.

*Random pics from panels and artists, YES I DID BUY that PINHEAD painting but look at it! I HAD TOO!!

I attended some great discussions including WOMEN ON THE DARK SIDE and a Q n A with a founder of LOVE AND ROCKETS.

I also ran into some other cool people, such as… my buddy behind the hit comic POE NOIR.

I got to catch up with him a sec in all the chaos of the event:

WHAT IS POE NOIR?

POE NOIR is a comic anthology series that features film noir-styled adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe’s literary works. Inspired by the acclaimed cinematic movement known as film noir, POE NOIR takes Poe’s tales and sets them in new times and places, sometimes changing the perspective of the stories, but always staying true to the heart and soul of the legendary Poe. Its black and white art is not only evocative of film noir visuals, it also perfectly captures the macabre underbelly of society that both our influences share.

WHY POE?
Edgar Allan Poe is in the very bedrock of American literature, and has influenced culture and storytelling even to this day, over 150 years later. His invention of the detective story and exploration of the horrific, the criminal, and the intriguing runs a direct thread to the pulp novel era, jumping to the movies through what we now call film noir. These thematic and tonal echoes are peppered throughout these movies, from the 1940s and beyond. This is the perfect marriage of American literary and cinematic tradition, translated into something we love very much—comic books.

WHY NOIR?
The film noir phenomenon made itself known by its distinct look and feel: lots of shadows, contrasting lights, and heroes that weren’t so heroic, all in a world that wasn’t exactly the way it seemed. As a student of cinema, I fell in love with these stories that fell into the gray areas of life. Even more, it was impossible for me to overlook these movies’ connections to another set of stories I loved—those from Edgar Allan Poe! Blending this all together pays homage to both this great author and this great cinematic art form.

THEY CAN BE REACHED AT: