Thursday, August 22, 2019

Terrificon 2019 Review Part 1 - Dan Jurgens


Summer is convention season and the big convention on my list has become Terrificon. Amidst a sea of 'comic cons' which are more pop culture get togethers, Terrificon remains a near-pure comic book based convention.

This is a convention with a true boatload of creators which range from legends of the field to the main creators I grew up with to current hot writers and artists. The guest list kept growing until it became clear that not all the books I was hoping to get signed would fit in my backpack in one go around and I would need to decant and refill the bag at the car a couple of times.

It also is the con where I focus my commission ideas at it has the best guests for a Supergirl fan like me.

As the 3 day con was so massive for me, I will be covering it in 3 posts, each focusing on who I got a commission from while rehashing other stories.

I was absolutely thrilled when Dan Jurgens was announced as a guest. Jurgens has been such a huge part of Superman, and by extension Supergirl's, history that he has been someone I have hoped to meet forever. And, given that it was during the Reign of the Supermen that the Matrix Supergirl turned the corner and became a hero, I knew I wanted a sketch from him.


I was lucky enough to get on his list and get this unbelievably phenomenal Matrix sketch complete with the minor details I love of the angled belt and oversized pointy sleeves. I love the determined look in her eye, ready to jump into action.

Thrilled to have this in my collection!



Best of all Jurgens was just a nice guy, completely approachable and let me ask all the questions.

I got to add his signature to my Action Comics #1000 (as well as John Cassaday's) bringing the total to eleven (Jurgens, Nowlan, Lee, Kirkham (variant cover artist), Tomasi, Bendis, Ordway, Garcia-Lopez, King, Cassaday, and Mann).


I got him to sign a couple of issues of Superman/Aliens which introduced a sort of Kara back into the DCU. Kevin Nowlan had signed them last year so I feel lucky. I also got to show Jurgens the Nowlan sketch I got of that Kara had she made it to Earth and become Supergirl.


I also got him to sign my copy of Action Comics #674 which brought Matrix Supergirl back into the Superman storylines for good. She had been off in space prior. I use this image in my source material so I felt I had to get it signed.


I got some other issues from the Doomsday/Reign time period signed. I thanked him for bringing back the Lois and Clark dynamic in Convergence and then in the mini-series. I thanked him for the Superman he wrote in the Rebirth era.

I even asked him if Mr. Oz was always intended to be Jor-El. He said the Superman team had a meeting where they all pitched ideas who Mr. Oz should be and Jor-El was voted in as having the most potential storylines, especially given the presence of Jon.

Meeting Jurgens was definitely a highlight for me at Terrificon. But there are a lot of highlights! I'll cover more soon!

2 comments:

Martin Gray said...

Thanks so much for sharing the sketch and the information. I love the picture, while the Mr Oz background stuff is fascinating!

Rob S. said...

Jurgens said something similar about Mr. Oz in his panel taped for Wordballoon -- also during his Terrificon appearance, IIRC. And I can see where they're coming from. If they made Oz someone else, they'd probably just get one storyline out of it. With Jor-El in the mix, they've changed the family dynamic, and added a very prickly element to it. It doesn't feel like what we "know" of Jor-El, but the Jor-El we know was much younger, and from a different timeline altogether. I'm not crazy about it, but I can see that there's more potential there than in making him, say, Mxyzptlx or Braniac, or someone we'd never seen before. Jor-El adds drama that Clark can't really escape from.