IDistractedYou
10-22-2008, 09:42 PM
I was just at the Screaming Tiki Con (http://www.screamingtikicon.com/), a comic and pop culture expo in its inaugural year in Niles, Ohio.
Art Baltazar and Franco, the creators of DC's Tiny Titans (http://www.artbaltazar.com/tinytitans) were there. I attended a panel they had about their hit DC Comic Tiny Titans as well as their self published comic Patrick the Wolf Boy (http://www.patrickthewolfboy.com/). Here are some tidbits about Tiny Titans revealed at the panel by both Art Baltazar and Franco as well as from talking with Art later on after the panel.
Questions asked by Art Baltazar (Artist) and Franco (Writer) and answered at the Panel
Q: Have you heard about DCU Elementary? Is that happening and will it affect Tiny Titans?
A: Yes somehow that images had been posted online but they are old and were one of the many ideas being batted around by DC Comics for their kids' comics line. But the problem became Batman and Superman. Batman was never Bat-Boy and Superman is superman. But Robin is Robin,Speedy is Speedy, and Kid Flash is Kid Flash. Dan DiDio is very big on continuity and did not want readers to confuse the two. So what was the idea for DCU eventually became Tiny Titans.
Q:Were you limited on what characters you could use?
A: We were told at first we could only use Titans characters but in the first issue we had Bizarro throwing around trains and destroying the city and Batgirl stopped him by buying him ice cream. Dan DiDio said we couldn't have people being killed in our comic so we said okay nobody will fight. The villains are just kind of jerks but not evil. So the Bizarro scene was reworked to Plasmus and the Lollipop. We just drew the adults in there but didn't show the face because well its just the costume we don't know for sure if its them it could be anybody in the costume. By Issue 3 they pretty much gave us free reign and let us use whoever we wished.
The only time character use issues came up was when we had the creepy Batgirl and Barbara Gordon in the same comic, Dan DiDio said we couldn't have two Batgirls in the same comic as it wasn't in continuity. So we decided to not use the creepy Batgirl and keep Barbara Gordon. I refuse to call her Batgirl because she's not Batgirl she's Barbara Gordon. Though we have two Wonder Girls in the comic at the same time but one's Wonder Girl and the other one's Cassie so. We also changed Beast Boy's outfit on the cover to issue #1 from the purple and black from the cartoon to the red and white outfit because George Perez said he loved it but wanted to know if Beast Boy could be drawn in his classic white and red outfit. How could we say no? Cyborg is the only character in continuity as there as things he can't do. I've asked the guy who writes Shazam if we can use Captain Marvel Jr.
Q:What are some things to look forward to in future issues?
A: Well in (I believe he said) Issue 14 we introduce Darkseid into the comic as the Lunch Lady. We thought it was perfect because he's evil, "You don't like potatoes? Here's potatoes! GLOP GLOP!" We also plan to bring in Lobo as the Gym Teacher and have issues scripted all the way up to issue 21.
Q: Any Tiny Titans merchandise coming anytime soon?
A: None yet but we're hoping for some. Warner Bros. makes a lot of the merchandise decisions
Questions asked and answered after the Panel by Art Baltazar (Artist) while he did a sketch for me
Regarding Tiny Titans and their fan base:
Q: Do you find your fans are more adults or children?
A: Its a mix of both, though our issues regularly sell better than some Vertigo titles and even some mainstream DC titles, though they won't tell me which ones. As a matter of fact our book has 40% readership among males. I think We have a lot of guys who like the book but won't admit it.
Q:So is there a Tiny Titans trade coming out?
A: Yes the first trade is coming out in January, the first or second week and its called "Welcome to the Tree house." The second trade doesn't have a release date yet but its going to be called "Awesome Adventures in Awesomeness" but I wanted it to be called "Awww Yeah Titans!" Maybe for the third trade.
Q: So when will Tiny Titans be animated?
A: (Art) Well I have done a short in an animated style thats it.
Some other interesting Tiny Titan Tidbits:
Tiny Titans exists outside of regular DC Continuity. It is actually a cartoon in the DC Universe. We see this in the issue(s) of Batman/Superman with the Myxzptlyk Superheroes when they're watching it on TV. So they exist somewhere in the interdimensional frequencies.
Look for an officialy in continuity Tiny Titans story in the DC Holiday special.
Art is working on several secret projects he can't talk about but is trying to get DC editorial to let him explain Infinite/Final Crisis in two panels.
That was all I was able to get out of Art but I must say both he and Franco are a pleasure to deal with and both are funny and always make time for their fans both young and old.
Art Baltazar and Franco, the creators of DC's Tiny Titans (http://www.artbaltazar.com/tinytitans) were there. I attended a panel they had about their hit DC Comic Tiny Titans as well as their self published comic Patrick the Wolf Boy (http://www.patrickthewolfboy.com/). Here are some tidbits about Tiny Titans revealed at the panel by both Art Baltazar and Franco as well as from talking with Art later on after the panel.
Questions asked by Art Baltazar (Artist) and Franco (Writer) and answered at the Panel
Q: Have you heard about DCU Elementary? Is that happening and will it affect Tiny Titans?
A: Yes somehow that images had been posted online but they are old and were one of the many ideas being batted around by DC Comics for their kids' comics line. But the problem became Batman and Superman. Batman was never Bat-Boy and Superman is superman. But Robin is Robin,Speedy is Speedy, and Kid Flash is Kid Flash. Dan DiDio is very big on continuity and did not want readers to confuse the two. So what was the idea for DCU eventually became Tiny Titans.
Q:Were you limited on what characters you could use?
A: We were told at first we could only use Titans characters but in the first issue we had Bizarro throwing around trains and destroying the city and Batgirl stopped him by buying him ice cream. Dan DiDio said we couldn't have people being killed in our comic so we said okay nobody will fight. The villains are just kind of jerks but not evil. So the Bizarro scene was reworked to Plasmus and the Lollipop. We just drew the adults in there but didn't show the face because well its just the costume we don't know for sure if its them it could be anybody in the costume. By Issue 3 they pretty much gave us free reign and let us use whoever we wished.
The only time character use issues came up was when we had the creepy Batgirl and Barbara Gordon in the same comic, Dan DiDio said we couldn't have two Batgirls in the same comic as it wasn't in continuity. So we decided to not use the creepy Batgirl and keep Barbara Gordon. I refuse to call her Batgirl because she's not Batgirl she's Barbara Gordon. Though we have two Wonder Girls in the comic at the same time but one's Wonder Girl and the other one's Cassie so. We also changed Beast Boy's outfit on the cover to issue #1 from the purple and black from the cartoon to the red and white outfit because George Perez said he loved it but wanted to know if Beast Boy could be drawn in his classic white and red outfit. How could we say no? Cyborg is the only character in continuity as there as things he can't do. I've asked the guy who writes Shazam if we can use Captain Marvel Jr.
Q:What are some things to look forward to in future issues?
A: Well in (I believe he said) Issue 14 we introduce Darkseid into the comic as the Lunch Lady. We thought it was perfect because he's evil, "You don't like potatoes? Here's potatoes! GLOP GLOP!" We also plan to bring in Lobo as the Gym Teacher and have issues scripted all the way up to issue 21.
Q: Any Tiny Titans merchandise coming anytime soon?
A: None yet but we're hoping for some. Warner Bros. makes a lot of the merchandise decisions
Questions asked and answered after the Panel by Art Baltazar (Artist) while he did a sketch for me
Regarding Tiny Titans and their fan base:
Q: Do you find your fans are more adults or children?
A: Its a mix of both, though our issues regularly sell better than some Vertigo titles and even some mainstream DC titles, though they won't tell me which ones. As a matter of fact our book has 40% readership among males. I think We have a lot of guys who like the book but won't admit it.
Q:So is there a Tiny Titans trade coming out?
A: Yes the first trade is coming out in January, the first or second week and its called "Welcome to the Tree house." The second trade doesn't have a release date yet but its going to be called "Awesome Adventures in Awesomeness" but I wanted it to be called "Awww Yeah Titans!" Maybe for the third trade.
Q: So when will Tiny Titans be animated?
A: (Art) Well I have done a short in an animated style thats it.
Some other interesting Tiny Titan Tidbits:
Tiny Titans exists outside of regular DC Continuity. It is actually a cartoon in the DC Universe. We see this in the issue(s) of Batman/Superman with the Myxzptlyk Superheroes when they're watching it on TV. So they exist somewhere in the interdimensional frequencies.
Look for an officialy in continuity Tiny Titans story in the DC Holiday special.
Art is working on several secret projects he can't talk about but is trying to get DC editorial to let him explain Infinite/Final Crisis in two panels.
That was all I was able to get out of Art but I must say both he and Franco are a pleasure to deal with and both are funny and always make time for their fans both young and old.