Comic-Con® attendees will have a chance to peek inside the craniums of powerhouse world-building artists Frank Miller (Sin City, 300, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns) and Tony DiTerlizzi (The Spiderwick Chronicles, Star Wars; The Adventures of Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight; The WondLa Trilogy) to see how the blank page becomes inhabited with compelling imagery, unforgettable characters and iconic storytelling from the earliest inception stages to the last dot of ink. Mr. Miller and Mr. DiTerlizzi will exchange ideas about the heroes and anti-heroes that inhabit their works; the creative and artistic heroes that inspired them as young artists (which comics writers, illustrators, filmmakers set their imaginations on fire), and their responsibility to inspire a new generation of artists. The panel will be moderated by Borys Kit, Senior Film Writer for The Hollywood Reporter.
Comic Con Panel: Hero Worship: Capes, Conflict & Creativity A Conversation with Frank Miller and Tony DiTerlizzi
Friday, July 21at 10:00 am – 11:00 am; Room 6DE
Both artists share a deep understanding of the precarious nature of childhood and the importance of the HERO concept to their art. Mr. Miller has said that Batman is interesting “because he straightens the world out. He brings order to a very chaotic world. Especially when you’re a child. You need somebody, even if it’s a fictional character, to tell you that the world makes sense and that the good guys can win. That’s what these heroes are for.”
Mr. DiTerlizzi is fascinated by the sources of inspiration that empower fellow creators and is eager to compare and contrast methods and processes with Mr. Miller on stage. His major takeaway after a lifetime spent in the pursuit of art? “Encourage children to use their imaginations,” he proclaims. “Help them to develop the imagination musculature in the same way you develop physical competence.” One of Mr. DiTerlizzi’s first handmade books, on dinosaurs, was done for a Boy Scout merit badge…another on insects was part of an entire summer spent illustrating a field guide on fantastical creatures. This original creative enterprise would serve as the template for the creatures in The Spiderwick Chronicles, (created by Mr. DiTerlizzi and Holly Black) which sold 10 million copies worldwide, was translated into 30 languages and was made into a film by Paramount.
In addition, both Mr. Miller and Mr. DiTerlizzi have plans for major retrospectives of their work at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA. Never Abandon Imagination: The Fantastical Art of Tony DiTerlizzi, an exhibition of works by the Caldecott Medal-winning, New York Times bestselling author/illustrator, runs November 11, 2017 through February 25, 2018.
FRANK MILLER
is regarded as one of the most influential and awarded professionals in the entertainment industry today, known for his intense, hard-boiled storytelling and gritty noir aesthetic across comics, graphic novels and film. Recently, Mr. Miller, alongside Brian Azzarello completed DC’s best-selling “Dark Knight III: The Master Race,” a nine-issue second sequel to “The Dark Knight Returns.”
Mr. Miller made his feature film directorial debut in 2005 with SIN CITY, the adaptation of his graphic novel, which he co-directed with Robert Rodriguez. The critically acclaimed film was nominated for a Palme d’Or at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, won the Austin Film Critics Award and garnered a Czech Lion nomination. In 2015, Mr. Miller and Mr. Rodriguez returned as co-directors on a sequel with SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR which reunited the duo with returning cast members as well as series newcomers Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Eva Green and Lady Gaga among others.
In 2007, Mr. Miller served as an executive producer on Zack Snyder’s blockbuster 300, based on his own graphic novel, written by Mr. Miller and painted by Lynn Varley. The film went on to gross over $456 million dollars worldwide in box office alone. In 2008, he wrote and directed his second feature, THE SPIRIT, an action fantasy based on the Will Eisner comic book series and starring Gabriel Macht, Eva Mendes, Sarah Paulson, Scarlett Johansson, and Samuel L. Jackson.
Mr. Miller became a professional comic book artist while in his teens, working on a variety of assignments for major publishers, including Gold Key, DC and Marvel. He first drew attention to his work on two issues of Marvel’s Spectacular Spider-Man, in a story that teamed the ever-popular arachnid with another popular character Daredevil. Mr. Miller was then offered the regular penciling slot on Daredevil’s own book and, soon after, took over the writing chores on the title. Over the next several years, in collaboration with inker Klaus Janson, he created the ninja assassin-for-hire, Elektra.
In the early 1980s, Mr. Miller attracted further attention as one of the first comic freelancers who braved the field outside the comfortable world of company-owned characters with the creation of Ronin, a futuristic high-tech samurai pop adventure. It was the first of several collaborations with Lynn Varley.
Since then, Mr. Miller has added a number of notable projects to his repertoire, including Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, with Janson and Varley; Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again, with Varley; Batman: Year One, illustrated by David Mazzuchelli and colored by Richmond Lewis; Elektra: Assassin, illustrated by Bill Sienkiewicz; Elektra Lives Again, with Varley; the award-winning Martha Washington miniseries Give Me Liberty, illustrated by Dave Gibbons; and Hard Boiled, illustrated by Geof Darrow.
The Sin City books have garnered numerous awards, including two Harvey awards for Best Graphic Album of Original Work in 1998 and Best Continuing Series in 1996; and six Eisner Awards, including those for Best Writer/Artist, Best Graphic Novel Reprint, Best Cartoonist, Best Cover Artist, Best Limited Series and Best Short Story. In 2015, Mr. Miller was inducted Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame for his lifetime of contributions to the industry.
TONY DITERLIZZI
#1 New York Times bestselling author and illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi has been creating children’s books for nearly two decades. From fanciful picture books like The Spider & The Fly (a Caldecott Honor book), to chapter books like Kenny and The Dragon and the WondLa trilogy, DiTerlizzi imbues his stories with a rich imagination. With Holly Black, he created the middle-grade series, The Spiderwick Chronicles, which has sold 12 million copies worldwide, been adapted into a feature film (on which he served as executive producer), and has been translated in over thirty countries.
He teamed up with Lucasfilm to retell the original Star Wars trilogy as a picture book and his collaboration with acclaimed author Mo Willems created the bestselling The Story of Diva & Flea. The beginning of his storied career is showcased in Realms: The Roleplaying Game Art of Tony DiTerlizzi. He has been featured in Time magazine, USA Today, CNN, PBS, the BBC and NBC’s TODAY.
With all the discourse surrounding the much anticipated Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot, not
to mention Sarah Michelle Gellar’s and Alyson Hannigan’s joint interview on the Today show
discussing the show’s legacy! Many fans have revised their opinions on some of the
original show’s titular characters. One such character is Hannigan’s own, Willow Rosenberg. Once seen as the shy, lovable, nerdy sidekick, now her image is less than rosy. Manipulative? Petty? And maybe worst of all: a bad friend.
10. Easing us in with a somewhat annoying one. In Season 6, Episode 11, ‘Gone’, it is
morning in the Summers household. After throwing out most of Willow’s magical stash as
the fallen wiccan tries to go cold turkey with her magic addiction (more on that later). Buffy
is post-traumatic-resurrection trying to keep it all together after a night of hot,
passionate…fighting with a vampire. Willow appears to be living in the Summers’ home rent-free and is cooking Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg) an apology omelette. She is making a
mess while cooking, as one does, but leaves her traumatised friend to clean up after her! Poor
Buffy (you’ll hear that a lot) was just lambasting herself for not noticing Willow’s self-
inflicted downfall. Buffy is literally chopping off her own hair in distress, and no one notices!
The audacity!
9. In Season 3, Episode 2, ‘Dead Man’s Party’, Buffy has returned to Sunnydale after her
secondment in LA. After a traumatic year, Buffy clearly just wants to hang out with her
friends like a regular teenager. Willow agrees to meet Buffy in town to re-bond over
shopping. Yes, Willow did say earlier in the episode that she had school work that she would
have to rearrange, which is fair enough, but at least cancel instead of leaving poor Buffy
(see?) sitting alone waiting for you!
8. Anya (Emma Caulfield), the ex-vengeance demon, was treated pretty coolly by the
Scoobies. Willow was clearly jealous of Anya’s relationship with Xander (Nicholas
Brendon), taking Xander’s attention from her. Throughout the final seasons, Willow treated
Anya like an annoyance at best and undermined her with cruel remarks at worst. In no
episode was this more obvious than Season 5, Episode 11, ‘Triangle’. Willow is brazenly
stealing spell ingredients from Anya’s and Giles’s (her friends) small business. Willow even
says herself she is not “stealing”, she is “…just taking things without paying for them. In what
twisted dictionary is that stealing?”.
Willow comes off as a bully throughout this episode, cruelly mimicking Anya and trying to
make Xander choose between his childhood best friend and his girlfriend. I want to mention
that not only is Willow gay, but has her own girlfriend at this point. So her possessiveness of
Xander comes off as particularly childish.
7. Willow’s irresponsibility with magic becomes a large feature of the series. Even her most
ardent fans can’t explain what she was thinking in Season 5, Episode 17, ‘Forever’ when she
draws Dawn’s attention to a dark spell book. This book encourages 15-year-old Dawn to raise
her mother from the dead. Culminating in what is, in my opinion, one of the creepiest scenes
in Buffy: the shadow of zombie Joyce walking past Summer’s curtained window, returning
home. Presumably, Willow knew the dangers but was fine with a child dabbling in dark
magic.
6. Back to Season 3, Episode 2 ‘Dead Man’s Party’. After not being satisfied standing Buffy
up, she also wants to rant at a clearly distressed Buffy that Willow’s now got a boyfriend and is
practicing witchcraft, AND had no one to talk to about it when Buffy ran away. Bear in mind
that Buffy had to stab her boyfriend through the heart and send him to Hell after months of
his evil alter ego psychologically torturing her. But Willow needs her gal pal.
Very similar to Season 7, Episode 19 ‘Empty Places’ when Willow joined the group pile on,
blaming poor Buffy (and again) for everything that’s gone wrong. And then throwing Buffy
out of her own house (you know the one she pays for?)! In the words of one Buffy fan ‘Y’all
hate her so much, why did you resurrect her?’
5. Going to my personal favourite season, Season 6 (I’m not arguing about it), Episode 10
‘Wrecked’. Willow is caught in the throes of magic addiction. Within the Buffy universe,
magic was a metaphor for lesbian sex, but the metaphor changes in Season 6 to substance
abuse. Willow takes Dawn to what is essentially a magical drug den and leaves her waiting
there for over an hour. Then, high on magic, he proceeds to not take Dawn home, instead
offering to teleport her back home. Willow then gets behind the wheel of a car with Dawn
while high and crashes the car.
Buffy was known to tackle social issues, and its handling of substance abuse was surprisingly
Realistic, mainly due to Alyson Hannigan’s amazing acting!
4. In Season 4, Episode 6, ‘Wild at Heart,’ we get to see the true darkness that appears to live
inside Willow. After being cheated on by her long-time boyfriend Oz (Seth Green), Willow
takes it upon herself to hex both Oz and his cheating partner, Veruca. She casts ‘in the name
of Hell’ wanting to break both their hearts and find no peace or solace…harsh. To be fair to
her, she does stop herself, but Willow, I appreciate you got cheated on, but we can’t just go
about hexing people.
3. And now to one of the best episodes ever! Season 6, Episode 8 ‘Tabula Rasa’ delivers
some serious comic gold, but the premise of the episode is rather disturbing. Despite
promising Tara (Amber Benson), her long-term partner, that she would give up magic for a
week, Willow casts a spell. Tara is understandably upset that the woman she loves cast a
memory spell on her to make her forget their arguments. Willow’s answer to this is to cast yet
another memory spell to make Tara forget the first memory spell (stay with me). Willow also tries to cast a spell on Buffy (you know her friend suffering from depression) to make her forget being in Heaven. As is a staple in the Buffy universe, the spell goes awry, making the whole gang forget who they are, leading to hilarious hijinks.
Yes, it’s one of the funniest Buffy episodes, but if the spell hadn’t accidentally been broken, then they all could have been stuck like that.
2. For such a trailblazing relationship, Willow and Tara have a lot of problems when
scrutinised. Almost everything stems from Willow’s overuse of magic. The relationship
gets darker the more you examine it. As Tara said in ‘Tabula Rasa’, Willow violated her
mind. Some fans have pointed out; not only was the flower Willow used to cast the forgetting
spell (Season 6, Episode 6) is in an oddly convenient place in their bedroom. This begs the
question: how many times has Willow cast these spells? Fans have also pointed out that if
Tara had sex with Willow after any spell was cast on her, she wouldn’t be consenting.
1. As a surprise to literally no one, the number one time Willow was a bad friend on top of
being completely irresponsible, resurrecting one Miss Buffy Summers. Now, many may
argue that after the finale of Season 5, ‘The Gift’, it would be understandable that Willow
would think Buffy was trapped in some Hell dimension.
Ok, let’s stay with that logic. Willow is aware that resurrection spells are extremely volatile,
presumably why the Scoobies have been planning it for weeks. Xander voices it perfectly, in
Season 6, Episode 1 ‘Bargaining Pt 1’, Buffy may try to “eat our brains”. Willow even
comments (Season 6, Episode 3) on how messed up Angel was when he came back from Hell.
Willow could have caused an emotional and physical catastrophe for them all by bringing
back a ‘wrong’ Buffy who still possesses super-strength and super-speed. Spike (James
Marsters) declares in the same episode that he shut down any idea Willow had about bringing
Buffy, back in case it went so badly, they would have to “get rid of what came back”. It’s bad
when the soulless vampire is more mature than you, isn’t it?
Willow Rosenberg is indeed a very complex character played expertly by Alyson Hannigan. Willow has her flaws, but it is those flaws that make her such a compelling character. I, for one, am very interested to see what they do with the character in the reboot.
From the World of John Wick: Ballerina is a stylish and brutal addition to the ever-expanding John Wick universe. Set between the explosive events of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and Chapter 4, the film seamlessly slots into the timeline without feeling like a stopgap. Instead, it builds something fresh, introducing a new protagonist on a vengeful journey of her own.
Ana de Armas delivers a fierce and emotionally layered performance as Eve Macarro, a ballerina-trained assassin seeking justice for her family. While her motivations mirror Wick’s, the film avoids repetition by diving deeper into the Ruska Roma and High Table lore. It’s a testament to the world-building that this spin-off doesn’t just feel justified—it feels essential.
As expected, the fight choreography is at its peak—gritty, inventive, and ruthlessly beautiful. Every action set-piece hits with a kinetic energy that’s both thrilling and brutal. This franchise continues to prove that when it comes to stunt work and direction, it’s in a league of its own. Can the John Wick series really disappoint? So far, no.
The story is tight, the pacing brisk, and each supporting performance, especially the cameos from familiar faces, adds weight and continuity to the narrative. Ballerina proves that this universe is more than just one man’s war; it’s a whole underworld waiting to be explored.
With compelling characters, rich mythology, and jaw-dropping action, Ballerina is a strong 9/10—one of the best spin-offs in recent memory.
Few directors in the modern cinematic landscape have reshaped genre filmmaking quite like James Gunn. Known for blending irreverent humor with profound emotional depth, Gunn has left an indelible mark on both indie horror and superhero franchises. As he transitions into leading DC Studios, it’s the perfect time to revisit his five finest works—each a statement of his unique voice in an often formulaic industry.
1. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
Rating: 9.5/10
A rare sequel that deepens its characters rather than merely expanding its universe, Vol. 2 is Gunn at his most personal. The film wrestles with the pain of abandonment, the search for belonging, and the complexity of father-son dynamics—cloaked in vibrant visuals and a killer soundtrack. Yondu’s “He may have been your father, boy, but he wasn’t your daddy” line alone secures its legacy.
2. The Suicide Squad (2021)
Rating: 9/10
Chaotic, gory, and gleefully anarchic, The Suicide Squad is a wild remix of the superhero genre. Gunn injects pathos into misfits like Ratcatcher 2 and Polka-Dot Man, proving his unmatched talent for humanizing the bizarre. It’s a subversive spectacle that doubles as an anti-war allegory—with a giant alien starfish to boot.
3. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Rating: 8.8/10
The film that redefined Marvel’s creative boundaries, Guardians took a gang of obscure comic-book characters and turned them into pop culture icons. With its perfect balance of humor, heart, and ‘70s mixtape vibes, it’s the origin story of Gunn’s mainstream rise and one of the MCU’s most beloved entries.
4. Slither (2006)
Rating: 8/10
Before superheroes and intergalactic misfits, Gunn gave us Slither—a grotesque and hilarious horror-comedy with serious B-movie charm. This film showcases his roots: practical effects, quotable dialogue, and an affection for the genre’s oddballs. It’s disgusting, delightful, and distinctly Gunn.
5. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)
Rating: 8/10
An emotionally charged finale to the Guardians trilogy, *Vol
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