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| Amanda Conner & Jimmy Palmiotti |
Amanda Conner began the panel by reviewing her career. She began her career in the mid 1980's working for Marvel, Archie Comics and Disney. Amanda drew such characters as Bayou Bill, Archie, Barbie and Gargoyles. She had a lot more fun drawing Vampirella. Drawing licensed properties such as Barbie was more limiting because of corproate restrictions. Amanda also enjoyed drawing Power Girl.
Currently, she is working on a project for DC Comics that hasn't been announced yet, and Captain Brooklyn (working title) with Frank Tieri and Jimmy Palmiotti serving as co-writers. A character she would love to work on is Catwoman.
Someone in the audience asked her what her standard daily schedule was? Amanda said that it depends on her schedule. For instance, with Power Girl, she had a few months head start, which was handy because she said she isn't a fast artist. It helped that there was a skip month between issues six and seven. But with the last several issues she basically worked around the clock with only nap breaks. At the end of the twelve issues she attended WonderCon in San Francisco, and after visiting family and then attending a Chicago comic book convention, she contracted chicken pox.
A normal day, when she is doing covers and commissions, is to first drink coffee, then after eating something work from 11 - 8. When she is doing a comic book project or pressed for a deadline she will work until 2 or 3 in the morning.
Another person asked her is there might be any more stories with The Pro. Amanda said that she wished. Whenever she talked with The Pro writer Garth Ennis, he reminded her that the character died at the end of the story and he wanted to leave her dead. So she is still wearing him down, as Amanda put it.
A woman in the audience asked her if it was harder to break into the industry because she was a woman. Amanda said that she was blissfully unaware if any rejections were because of her work or her gender. When she began attending the Joe Kubert School Of Comic Book Art, Joe told the beginning students that the comic book industry would be very hard, so she wasn't caught off guard when she had early struggles breaking in.
Jimmy Palmiotti joined the panel around this time. He said that what he likes about Amanda's artwork is that she always puts interesting things in the backgrounds.
Amanda was asked which comic books she read. She said she loves Terry Moore's Echo. Jimmy said that Echo was always on time and is a great story with a strong female lead. Amanda added that she likes Fables and Ed Brubaker's Incognito.
Someone asked why Vartox was brought in to Power Girl. Amanda said his sexiness. Jimmy, who was a co-writer on the title, got tired of being told by various DC editors that he couldn't use any villains he suggested because of different reasons. When Jimmy asked which villain he could use, Dan Didio suggested Vartox. Jimmy said that he decided that Vartox would fall in love with Power Girl. He wanted to show that she wasn't always angry as she had been in past stories. Amanda said that she wanted to show what serious people do when they are around silly people.
Jimmy said that while he enjoys superheroes, he prefers the relationship aspects of superhero comics. He developed Power Girl's relationship with Terra as a mentor relationship. He felt that Amanda was the best artist to pull of the version of Power Girl he wanted to do.
Another question was how the story about the comic book nerd developed. Jimmy said that he wanted to put Power Girl in the real world, instead of punching her way out of problems. He wanted to establish her personality and show her compassionate side. Amanda said that she wanted to know where she came from and portray her making a new life for herself.
So Jimmy put a comic book shop in her neighborhood, and had one of the customers learn her secret identity. So he wanted to show how she handled the kid, and how he handled her, and show her compassionate side.
Someone asked Amanda and Jimmy's opinion about the coming digital revolution. Amanda said that it was a new delivery system. Jimmy said that digital comics won't be a threat to comic book stores if they keep up with the times. Meltdown Comics brings a food truck on Wednesday and creates an atmosphere where fans can gather to talk about comic books. Jimmy talked about Isotope Comics in San Francisco. That store has a lounge where people gather to have conversations.
When he's writing, Jimmy likes to listen to music. Amanda likes to watch TV shows that are dialogue heavy but not visually distracting, like judge shows. She's learned a lot about civil law that way.
Amanda and Jimmy were asked what each other's most annoying habit is. (Amanda and Jimmy are engaged.) Amanda said that when he steps out of the shower, Jimmy gets water all over the bathroom floor. Jimmy, smartly, said that Amanda doesn't have any annoying habits. He just has to wait for her when they're going somewhere.
Amanda's upcoming projects are an unannounced DC Comics project, an Image creator owned project and Marvel covers.
Next Episode: MegaCon 2011 Wrap Up!
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