As has been the case for each of Image Comics' previous Image Expo events at the Yerba Buena Center of the Arts in San Francisco, the Northern California-based comics publisher once again brought in a host of the writers and artists to populate panels and announce new series for the publisher. At this particular Image Expo, and at this specific panel, the creators on hand to discuss their creator-owned work consisted of Kyle Higgins, Alec Siegel, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Leslie Hung, Ron Wimberly and Steven T. Seagle.

The forum began with Seagle giving out free copies of a mini-comic that serves as a preview of his and artist Jason Adam Katzenstein's upcoming all-ages graphic novel "Camp Midnight." Seagle explained that he wanted to give his newfound young fans something new to read that would also be enjoyable for adults.

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"There's some deep stuff that goes on, but it's in a way that kids can read," said Seagle. "My audience in the past eight years have become kids who love 'Ben 10,' 'Big Hero 6,' 'Generator Rex,' and 'Spider-Man' cartoons. I genuinely feel bad when parents come up to our [Man of Action] tables at cons and ask, 'Can my kids read 'Red Diary' or 'Kafka'? They can; they might become serial killers later, though."

Seagle met "Camp Midnight" artist Katzenstein through a writers' group that would meet at a Korean spa in Los Angeles each week, and Seagle gradually became very impressed by Katszenstein's work. "Every week at the Writer's Block, I would write him seven pages and in the course of that week, he would pencil, ink and color seven pages. We just did that for a year and a half, and we banged out 240 pages. His evolution went from good, to scary good. He does it digitally, but it looks handrawn, which I find terrifying."

The conversation shifted to how Bryan Lee O'Malley and Leslie Hung came to collaborate on their forthcoming series "Snotgirl," for which O'Malley is handling the scripting duties while Hung is on art chores. The two friends cited the fact that they've long had a mutual admiration for each other's work. In the morning's keynote presentation, this new project was described as "a dark comedy centered in the world of fashion blogging."

During this panel, O'Malley teased, "We just started talking about ideas. Allergies and fashion and the things that take over our minds, whether we're interested in them or not in relation to everything in the world, and we just found this idea that we're both excited about."

In correlation to the project, Hung spoke a little about her appreciation for the manga series "Jojo's Bizarre Adventure." "When I first got into 'Jojo,' I never knew that a comic could just be everything that I liked. It's clearly influenced by fashion and fashion illustration, music -- it's truly bizarre."

On the subject of why they set up "Snot Girl" at Image, O'Malley answered, "It felt right. Image is doing a lot of cool stuff; Image has a lot of other books with 'Girl' in the title, which I didn't realize at the time. It speaks to what Image is doing."

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The "Snot Girl" pair made mention that their project would in fact be an on-going series, with the idea that the book would keep up with references and commentary alluding to current fashions and trends. "It's exciting to write something very now and in issues, which I've never done before," O'Malley said, whose previously worked in the graphic novel medium. "We know what fashions are coming out three months from now because we've seen all the fashion shows. So it's working out that way."

Higgins and Siegel likewise spoke about of how they first partnered up, revealing that they first met in high school when Higgins sought out Siegel for help on a screenplay he was working on. The two worked again on Higgins' senior thesis project in college. Higgins noted, "The story in 'C.O.W.L.' is actually based on what we wrote."

The pair, who had previously worked with artist Rod Reis on their creator-owned "C.O.W.L," announced at the expo that the trio would again be teaming up on the outer space set "Hadrian's Wall." "The plot is contained, and a murder mystery and a psychological thriller," Higgins described. "But there's a larger scope outside of it, and similar to 'C.O.W.L.,' the alternative history angle."

Speaking of Reis, Higgins expressed happiness over how much audiences have latched onto the artist's work on "C.O.W.L." Reis, who had worked with Higgins on "Nightwing" at DC Comics as the series' colorist, was nudged by Higgins to try his had at illustrating.

"He transitioned from coloring full-time," continued Higgins. "He was scared of making that jump. If you're getting monthly work, it's consistent. "To jump not only into a different career as an illustrator, but into the creator-owned world where maybe it works, and maybe it doesn't -- is a pretty big leap of faith. But it made us all that much closer, because 'C.O.W.L.' was our first, as well."

Earlier that day, artist Ronald Wimberly revealed two new projects he has on the horizon at Image: "Sunset Park" and "Slave Punk: White Coal." "Sunset Park" explores Brooklyn's gentrification issues, but the limited series also deals with economic vampires of a whole other kind. "Slave Punk: White Coal" details the exploits of a genius slave that defies King Cotton in the civil war era in an attempt to end slavery.

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"Both of these have been stuck in my head for a while now," said Wimberly, who also noted that the idea for "Sunset Park" came when he was living in Bushwick, a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood in Brooklyn. "It still is a gentrifying neighborhood. All of Brooklyn is gentrifying." Wimberly related that collections of individual ideas would sometimes just mentally stew. With "Sunset Park" he suggested, "Maybe you just pick up an art school box with Andy Warhol in it, and then another with gentrification, and Dracula, and then you think, 'Oh hey, these things do kind of go together!"

As far as the concept for "Slave Punk," Wimberly said, "I've never been a huge steampunk fan, but I've seen a movie here or there, or Jules Verne illustration, and thought about history and alternative energy, and the engine that would have fueled America."

The session finished with a question posed from an audience member concerning failure and how the panelists cope with it.

"I move on, so I don't remember," Wimberly said with a grin.

"Own your work," answered Seagle. "When stuff of mine fails, I'll look at it critically to see why it didn't connect. Although it didn't work out the way I wanted, it's still me at a specific point in time, doing a specific job the way I wanted it to, and it didn't work. Don't do that again. Don't run away from it in terror." Seagle did have one exception when it comes to one entry on his resume. "I won't even discuss it," he quipped. "I've bought every copy I've ever seen so nobody else will."

"I care about everything I write, but stuff I'm really passionate about and invested in makes the fear of failure go away -- I don't even think about it anymore," said Higgins.

"I've never written a comic book for someone else to draw before, so while writing, I've just been screaming in my head the whole time because I don't want to fail my collaborators," said O'Malley. "I feel very lucky to work with them, myself. But I figure if we fail, we'll just move on to the next thing."

"You have to think about it," said Hung, "but to dwell on it, and not make anything -- are you really not gonna make anything, or are you going to make something?"

The panelists were unanimous in that even the bad work is someone's favorite. "Even in my work that I hate the most, someone champions that work and loves it," O'Malley said.

"I did a run on '[Uncanny] X-Men' and it was just torturous," said Seagle. "It all had to be rewritten, and half of it isn't even my words. I'd be at a convention and somebody would go, 'I loved your run on the 'X-Men'!' Then I'd be like, 'Why?'"

After laughter from his comment died down, Seagle added that he's stopped asking why people like certain things he's written. "[I]t is somebody's book that they loved, and who am I to say somebody's experience with this monstrosity should not be enjoyed."