We’re back with our follow-up coverage of Planet Comicon Kansas City 2022, the Midwest’s largest and longest-running comic and pop culture event, held downtown at Bartle Hall, and this is a re-cap of some of the most interesting Panels held during the three-day event.
Panels are among the best chances to hear what your favorite celebrity has on their mind, listen to behind-the-scenes humorous stories, potentially have a chance to ask your own question, and occasionally get to see or hear something completely unexpected.
Bret Iwan / Ashley Eckstein – Voice Your Dreams
Both voice artists are hugely popular to Disney fans – Iwan is the current voice of Mickey Mouse, while Eckstein is best known for Star Wars character Ahsoka Tano and both had early dreams of being involved with Disney. Iwan initially wanted to be an artist while Eckstein envisioned herself voicing one of the many Disney princesses. Fans’ questions were answered, and the hour-long panel had a true sense of positivity and encouraging following your passion.
Phil LaMarr
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Phil LaMarr / Maria Canals-Barrera, Susan Eisenberg – Voicing the League
A couple of late cancellations meant we didn’t get to hear from the voices of Batman and Superman, but the remaining voice actors kept the fans very entertained. All gave highest praise to voice casting director Andrea Romano for her help in making so many DC animated series, the successes that they are.
When asked about their most underrated job, Eisenberg mentioned voicing Viper in the animated Jackie Chan Adventures, LaMarr pointed to his four-season stint on The Weekenders which aired in the early 2000s, and Canals-Barrera brought up her role in the 2002 Dana Carvey film, The Master of Disguise.
All mentioned that voices are recorded together as much as possible and were star-struck when actors like Mark Hamill and Ed Asner would come in for guest spots and LaMarr admitted being nervously in awe when he saw actor Dennis (24, Major League) Haysbert auditioning for the voice of Green Lantern, right before his turn.
James Tynion IV – Comics Spotlight
One of comics’ hottest writers held court to talk about his breakthrough Batman run, and more rewarding creator-owned properties- Something Is Killing the Children, Department of Truth, Wynd, and Nice House on the Lake.
Tynion said he was always very curious and would read a lot, meeting and studying under Scott Snyder while in college for creative writing. He prefers creator-owned work as far as the most creatively satisfying, saying the near-autonomy allows his stories to unfold at the pace he wants and is the best incubator for unique ideas. He admits to being very influenced by DC’s Vertigo line of books, especially with Department of Truth (TV optioned) which he purposely wanted a look similar to Vertigo artists Dave McKean and Bill Sienkiewicz.
Brandon Routh / Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Courtney Ford / Jes Macallan – Legends of Tomorrow
Unfortunately, shortly after the Con weekend, the CW decided to cancel Legends of Tomorrow, but there was plenty of support in the Grand Ballroom to continue with the show.
Batwoman stars Rachel Skarsten and Nicole Kang even snuck into the question line, to lobby for an episode crossover between the two series (unfortunately, Batwoman was also canceled as well).
Routh enjoyed being on Chuck as Daniel Shaw, eventually embracing playing a bad guy even though it was against his true nature, and Macallan and Richardson-Sellers told stories about the LoT episodes they were able to direct.
John Romita, Jr.
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John Romita, Jr.- Comics Spotlight
The legendary artist recently returned to Marvel to re-launch (yet again) a new Spider-Man #1 and when asked about how he’d like to work with, he admitted to working with almost everyone, but wants to re-work with many (like writer Dan Slott who he likes being taller than).
Writers Romita feels the best communication with, are Frank Miller and Neil Gaiman, and he’s proud of his co-creations over the years, including Hobgoblin, Typhoid Mary (influenced by his ex-wife’s look), and Blackheart (inspired by Joan Jett and band). He believes in trusting filmmakers that adapt his works and actually tried to cameo in the Ben Affleck Daredevil movie, but was told he didn’t look “New York” enough (though has spent his life in NYC).
Jason David Frank – The Mighty Morphin Life
The famous Green Ranger and former MMA fighter was excited to update fans on his new movie, Legend of the White Dragon, due out next year and emphasized his continued connection to the fans that support him. He mentioned he still sends a Make-A-Wish kid he met, a short daily video to brighten his day, and had the audience all say hello to him as well.
Booker T– Legend of Wrestling
The legendary Hall of Famer started by talking about his love of golf, not wrestling, a sport he picked up later in life and thought he might have a second career at, but wrestling training did not help his game and he found the disciplines are very different. He continues to regularly train and maintain a routine, as he knew that he didn’t want the ongoing injuries that plague so many wrestlers in later life. While he was ok with getting hurt in the ring, any actual injuries would be very different.
Adam Savage
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Adam Savage- An Hour With
The Mythbusters star’s presentation was among the most popular of the entire weekend and he admitted he was thinking of returning to TV, even asking the crowd (jokingly) if he should don a costume on “The Masked Singer”. A recent work-for-hire job was designing and building a full spacesuit for a Boeing display at Cape Canaveral, and when a young boy asked how many things had he blown up, he mentioned it was over 2500 items, using more than eight tons of explosives.
James Murray – Impractically Joking
The comedian and member of the Tenderloins troupe is best known as a member of the popular Impractical Jokers TV show. He had the crowd laughing early, revealing the translations and alternate names of the show in other countries, and admitted he’d always wanted to be a comedian (or maybe a scientist) since he was young.
When asked about his favorite hero and villain, he admitted to still loving the 70s Christopher Reeve/ Gene Hackman Superman films and ended by re-iterating he wasn’t on TV until he was thirty-five and after eleven years in the business, so it was ok to keep dreaming and working toward your goals.
James Arnold Taylor – Talking to Myself
In lieu of Cassandra (Elvira) Peterson’s late cancellation, the versatile voice actor stepped into her time slot with a well-done audio-visual presentation about his beginnings and influences, which included spot-on impressions and stories along the way.
Joey Fatone
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Joey Fatone – From Boy Band to TV Star
The former NSYNC singer and current reality TV celebrity talked about all the fun he’s had over the years, from touring the world, to commercial endorsements, to his many TV and stage appearances, saying he’s fortunate enough to be in this position and is determined to enjoy the ride.
Fatone continues to perform with a boy band hybrid super group that combines members of Backstreet Boys, Boys II Men and NSYNC and he is also out with his Joey and Friends incarnation, which plays Epcot Center in August.
He especially remembered having fun playing the Superbowl halftime show, the 2016 boy-band zombie western film Dead 7 and is apprehensively looking forward to his punishment on a Season10 episode of Impractical Jokers.
Jason Aaron / Dennis Hopeless / Phil Hester / Skottie Young- Mainstream Comics to Indie
In this panel, four of the best known area comic creators reflected on their careers and gave attendees tips on breaking into the business. All said to create your own properties and self-publish if you can, as anything good will attract attention, but to prepare to be your own one-man show of marketing, editing, promoting and more, and that networking is also important.
Most liked having a mix of working with company-owned and their own creator-owned properties and that most creators start by creating stories they want to see told in the marketplace themself, and still create in those ways that are most self-satisfying.
Mark-Paul Gosselaar – Bayside and Beyond
The Saved by the Bell and NYPD Blue star entertained the audience with stories and recollections, though admitted his memory is poor, as evidenced by a crowd member recalling a night in the 90s Gosselaar spent at KC’s Worlds of Fun amusement park, something he had no memory of.
Gosselaar did have good memories of the Saved by the Bell precursor, Good Morning Miss Bliss and always considered Zack Morris as a TV version of Ferris Bueller. He also recalled being fired from an early toy commercial, only to be replaced by Paul (Fast and The Furious) Walker and remarked that Slater and Jessie had much more on-screen chemistry, than his Zack and Tiffany Amber-Theissen’s Kelly Kapowski, which seemed more like siblings.
Gates McFadden / John de Lancie – Star Trek:TNG and Beyond
Most fans didn’t realize that The Next Generation pair had worked together prior, in bit parts for Arthur Hiller’s 1990 film, Taking Care of Business. McFadden expressed her excitement for the upcoming expanded Trek docuseries The Center Seat for the History Channel and an upcoming appearance on the Picard series. Her earlier work as a choreographer for the Henson Company had her showing David Bowie how to waltz for Labyrinth, and meeting Kermit onscreen for Muppets Take Manhattan.
de Lancie copped to not really watching the popular series, assuming the fans will take the work with their own interpretations, but was himself amused when guesting on a recent Star Trek-themed cruise (an idea he’s still not sure about) and finding every channel on the on-board TVs, had some kind of Star Trek show on.
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Planet Comicon Kansas City was back in full form with large and generally happy crowds, and has already made plans to return less than a year from now, on March 17-19, 2023.
(note- no actual photos taken from the weekend are here, as the backpack with our photographer’s camera inside, was stolen in a car break-in, shortly after the show ended)
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