Marvel, ‘Star Wars’ projects highlight Vegas Valley Comic Book Festival

Douglas Wolk has done thing that, depending upon however you consciousness astir comic books, was either chill and fantastic oregon a crushed to telephone the authorities: He work each superhero comic published by Marvel Comics from 1961 (“Fantastic Four” No. 1) to 2017 (“Marvel Legacy” No. 1).

Wolk’s heavy dive into Marveldom near him intimately acquainted with the Avengers and the Incredible Hulk and different Marvel stars, arsenic good arsenic the company’s also-rans, B-listers and failures. It besides gave him a unsocial vantage constituent from which to spot however Marvel faced, oregon didn’t, civilian rights, the Vietnam warfare and different societal and governmental currents of the past half-century.

He covers it each successful his caller book, “All of the Marvels: A Journey to the Ends of the Biggest Story Ever Told” ($23.49, Penguin). On Saturday, he’ll contiguous “A History of the Marvel Universe successful Five Objects,” a speech based connected his book, astatine the 13th Vegas Valley Comic Book Festival.

Also appearing virtually astatine the festival volition Annalise Ophelian, whose documentary bid “Looking for Leia” examines the quality of fandom, peculiarly among women, non-binary and LGBTQ fans of the “Star Wars” universe. The docuseries includes interviews with fans who’ve recovered meaning and transportation successful the much than 40-year-old sci-fi saga.

The festival volition tally from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 6, astatine the Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road. The escaped lawsuit volition see sheet discussions, cosplayers, meet-and-greets with artists, writers and publishers, a vendor area, crafts, kids’ activities and entertainment. For much information, sojourn vegasvalleycomicbookfestival.org

Saturday’s lawsuit marks the Vegas Valley Comic Book Festival’s instrumentality aft past year’s COVID-prompted cancellation. Chair Suzanne Scott said guests volition beryllium required to deterioration look masks and seating volition beryllium arranged for societal distancing. (The archetypal 600 guests volition person a commemorative cloth look mask.)

And, portion the impermanent database is spot abbreviated compared to pre-pandemic times, Scott says the festival inactive aims to fulfill fans’ involvement successful comic books and connection newcomers an casual mode to research what the mean is about.

A Marvelous undertaking

So what bash different fans deliberation astir Wolk doing thing astir of them tin lone imagination of? “Mostly the absorption I get is, ‘Are you OK? Did your caput survive?’ ” helium jokes.

Wolk figures helium work astir 27,000 superhero comics published by Marvel. In the instauration to his book, helium calls that postulation of comics “the longest continuous, self-contained enactment of fabrication ever created.”

Surprisingly, though those much than a half-million pages of comics were created by thousands of artists and writers implicit a span of decades, Wolk says they are, “more oregon less, accordant with 1 another.”

He work the books successful nary peculiar bid and made notes erstwhile thing struck him. “Themes and ideas and motifs gradually emerged,” Wolk says, encompassing topics ranging from atomic warfare to racism and civilian rights.

“The archetypal decennary is precise overmuch acrophobic with the Cold War and the thought of what is ‘alien’ and what is ‘monstrous.’ Monsters were a large thing. Marvel was publishing monster comics earlier superheroes.”

As the ’60s rolled on, “you spot an cognition alteration toward the warfare successful Vietnam,” arsenic seen successful a quality successful Spider-Man comics who returns from Vietnam and “something unspeakable happened to him. A fewer years later, you’ve got assemblage students picketing (Iron-Man/Tony Stark’s) Stark Industries, which is an arms manufacturing plant.”

The book’s appendix consists of “me trying to travel up with a crippled summarization of 60 years of Marvel,” Wolk says. “But, precise broadly, determination is the taxable of subject arsenic a large driving unit of the world. All the champion heroes and champion villains person Ph.Ds, and subject created a satellite that is transformed by wonders and horrors.”

And determination are “questions astir family, astir what household means, and what monsters are,” Wolk says.

He finished impressed with what helium read, though it’s not each good.” There’s immoderate atrocious worldly successful there,” helium adds. “I work each contented of ‘NFL SuperPro’ ” — astir a erstwhile shot subordinate superhero who wears a ace shot uniform; it ran for conscionable 12 isssues— “and it is what it sounds like.

“But the bully worldly is good. It’s truthful good. Some of it is fantastic and immoderate of it is enduringly wonderful.”

Finding Leia

The festival volition connection a screening of “Looking for Leia,” Ophelian’s seven-episode short-form documentary bid that looks astatine fandom successful general, and “Star Wars” fandom successful particular, done the lens of women and LGBTQ fans.

They’ve ever been there, from the archetypal film’s premiere successful 1977, she notes, but the lens done which astir observers were looking astatine sci-fi was “not reflective of the tremendous diverseness of what fans are truly doing.”

The civilization of sci-fi and phantasy fandom tends to beryllium thought of arsenic homogeneous and “very narrow,” focusing lone connected the astir visible, mostly male, portion of fandom, Ophelian says.

In summation to distorting the world of fandom, “it also, I think, gives a distorted presumption of the reasons (why) radical prosecute successful fandom to statesman with,” says Ophelian, whose archetypal conception was to “examine what happens erstwhile idiosyncratic loves a happening and wants it to beryllium a portion of their regular lives.”

In interviewing fans, Ophelian — who volition enactment virtually successful a treatment of her movie — recovered women and LGBTQ fans who recovered resonance, individuality and inspiration successful the “Star Wars” saga. And portion women and LGBTQ fans are the absorption of the film, “I’d accidental each idiosyncratic I spoke to … (has) aggregate domains for fandom.”

“The information is, we’ve ever been there, and each forms of fandom are valid,” says Ophelian, who has seen changes during her ain pursuit of fandom. She recalls attending events during the ’90s and being “adrift successful a oversea of fanboys. You had to asseverate yourself.”

Now, she has been amazed astatine the fig of women she sees, “then I was amazed wherefore that was surprising.”

Contact John Przybys astatine jprzybys@reviewjournal.com. Follow @JJPrzybys connected Twitter.