Kiger's Notebook

Comic convention coming to Rochester's ' Underground city'

Local comics and fantasy fans have long been envious of the attention that larger cities in warmer places get from pop culture conventions, like the recent San Diego Comic Con.

Now it looks like they will have their one piece of the action right here in the Med City.

Bill Willingham, the creator of the wildly popular comic Fables as well as being a southern Minnesota transplant, recently told the Comic Con crowd that this was his last appearance at the San Diego event.

Most importantly for local comic and fantasy fanatics like myself, Willingham announced that he is organizing his own three day convention to be called, "Fabletown and Beyond."

It will focus on "mythic fiction" like his dark retelling of fairy tales and Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" series.

Here's the happy ending to this tale. This young Midwestern sibling of Comic Con will be held in downtown Rochester in March.

I got a kick out of how the comics site, bleedingcool.com, described the choice of Rochester as a venue.

"… The show will be held in Rochester, Minnesota. The facilities that have been chosen have been chosen specifically for the expansive indoor space, an underground city built for the wealthy visitors of the Mayo Clinic. This space will enable convention goers to remain indoors in the bitter Minnesota March."

Heh.

The Post-Bulletin will have more on this as it gets nearer. For more information, check out fablescon.com.

Austin author phenom signs comic book deal

Here's an interesting tidbit for comics fans out there. Total disclosure - I'm a complete comics/fantasy/sci fi  fan boy.

Local writer Amanda Hocking has signed a deal with Dynamite comics to publish a comic series based on her Hollowland novels. Dynamite is a cool and very edgy publisher.

Amanda Hocking is Austin's literary phenom who exploded on the Internet by self-publishing her novels in 2010 leading up St. Martin's Press signing a mult-book deal with the young woman.

The multi-million dollar writer has been profiled by the New York Times Magazine and was selling an average of 9,000 e-book A DAY, earlier this year.

Her rocket ride from hobbyist writer to best-selling author launched back in February when the Post-Bulletin's very own Matt Stolle profiled Hocking.

Here's some from Dynamite's announcement of the Hocking/Hollowlands project:

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Dynamite is proud to announce that we have reached an agreement with Amanda Hocking and will publish Hollowland comic books in 2012!

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In Hollowland, Nineteen-year-old Remy King is on a mission to get across the wasteland left of America, and nothing will stand in her way - not violent marauders, a spoiled rock star, or an army of flesh-eating zombies.

"It's always been a dream of mine to bring the world of The Hollows to graphic novels," says acclaimed author Amanda Hocking. "I'm so fortunate to be able to partner with an amazing publisher like Dynamite to bring this dream to life."

"It is such a pleasure for Dynamite to be working with Amanda as she knows the world of comics," says Dynamite President and Publisher Nick Barrucci. "Amanda's success shows that hard work and passion pays off and we can't wait to see her incredible energy translated to comics!"

 

Zombies on parade

In case you missed it over the weekend, here's some from what I wrote up about Rochester's first zombie walk Saturday plus a pic by Scott Jacobson.

If you want to see some video Scott shot of the faux dead event, some is posted here.

It was the sunny afternoon of the … uh … dead today in Rochester.

A mob of almost 100 zombie fans covered in fake blood gathered in the downtown Peace Plaza for Rochester's first-ever Zombie Walk.

 "Awesome," is what young Sam Hanson declared the event as he followed the shuffling zombies down Broadway. While he didn't dress up for it, Hanson did enjoy watching the sort of undead parade.

Sam's parents, Cory and Kimberly, brought Sam and his sister out to see the spectacle, because "he is a huge monster movie fan."

Not every spectator was as excited about the theatrical group.

A couple eating dinner in front of Mac's Diner said they were "appalled" by the display and that the zombies "should get real and have more purpose to their lives."

However, by far, the majority of people on downtown's sidewalks and streets seemed entertained by the invasion of the legendary brain-eating monsters. Spectators took photos, honked horns, laughed and shouted their support.

Many people said it was refreshing to see Rochester embrace something different.

"I didn't get to run around town like a zombie," said 30-year-old Jane Remfert, who was visiting her parents, Elizabeth and Jeff Remfert. "I would have loved to have done that growing up here."

The Remferts sat on a bench watching the zombies gathering in the Peace Plaza. Looking for something to do to entertain their daughter, the Remferts decided zombie watching might be fun.

Another set of parents, Connor and Erin Letts, were also pleased that a zombie walk had made it to their hometown.

Two of their kids, 4-year-old Hank and 5 1/2-year-old Rosie, were very familiar with the zombie scene as they ran around in the green grass sporting makeup and fake blood.

Connor, whose band Zed on Arrival will perform later, said the kids had been to many zombie gatherings throughout the region with their parents.

"It is its own subculture," he said.

The Letts thought it was great that instead of driving to the Twin Cities or South Dakota, zombies had arrived in Rochester.

"I think it was overdue," said Connor.

While pretend undead started to limp toward the parking lot of Top Cat Tattoo on Broadway, another member of the Letts family — 10-day-old baby Nora — slept through her first zombie walk.

Connor said she'll get other chances to check out the zombie scene, hopefully in Rochester.

"She'll be going to a lot more of these," Nora's dad said with a bloody smile.