Low-Key Mayhem at New York Comic Con, 2014 – Episode 2

On Saturday, concept art designer Paul Tobin and artist Nick Keller from Weta Workshop shared the behind the scene character designing process for The Hobbit movies.

This is Paul:

And this is Nick:

Here are some highlights of that panel.  Hover over the image to see the first words of the caption. Click on any image to view full captions in slideshow mode.

The started the presentation emphasizing how collaborative the process was and ultimately, Peter Jackson would have to approve every detail.

Note how the two Gandalf silhouettes have drastically different feelings with just the hat shape and the staff head shape changes.

From human to dwarven, to too much. Paul used himself as a model for this experiment.

Nick wore a prosthetic arm to show us finger movements and such.

They design and the props department brings their design to reality.

Gloin’s design has to convince the audience that he’s Gimli’s father. Thus the reference image of Gimli from LotR.

My favorite things: weaponry design!

The little sketch of the horn was from Peter Jackson and all they did was put in details and rendered the 3D effects.

Various severity of beards. It was sometimes a delicate matter, asking their coworkers to pose as Dwarven women and not Elves.

Armour has to be both impressive and practical because the actors would have to be able to move fluidly in them.

The light and bright Rivendell culture is in stark contrast with the dark and dangerous woodland elf culture.

They consulted Mongolian cultural representations as part of their research in designing the woodland elf culture. And the character, costume, and weapons designs are all based on thorny plants in the forest.

Heavily armoured with leather and metal. The silhouettes are bulky and non-distinct.

Soft leather allows for slender and elegant shapes.

So many women dressed as Thranduil at this Con!

On Sunday, I sat in the audience at the Women of Marvel panel.  On stage, there were more than a dozen women, editors, producers, writers, and artists, who work to bring various Marvel Comics to the readers — from new titles (such as Ms. Marvel) featuring strong female protagonists to traditional superhero series.  The high energy panel was full of hope and the women gave sound advice to audience questioning how to move the female movement forward in this very male dominant world.  I have my own thoughts on this after the recap of the event.

The panel was moderated aptly by talent scout Jeanine Schaefer and presented a slideshow of upcoming Marvel original comics, and media tie-ins, and even a YA novel. Here are a few highlights. Hover over the image to see the first words of the caption. Click on any image to view full captions in slideshow mode.

X Men: all female storyline deep in the bowls of Earth.

Ms Marvel by G. Willow Wilson: new installment of this Muslim female superhero from New Jersey

20+ old titles with new, female artists drawn covers

Angela: a major collaborative project

Gamora: an origin story?

Black Widow by Margaret Stohl: a much anticpated Black Widow novel

My hope is that the newer generation of super hero comics with strong female leads are not just echoing of the traditional male led comics.  I would like to see strong and tough heroines who behave like real women and not men-wanna-be’s.  I also would like to see these female characters drawn to be combat ready and not scantily clothed which are never really practical in fights but have been the canon because of the assumption of their sex appeal to the predominately young male readers. I believe they can appeal to readers in both genders if they come with appealing personalities and strong story lines.