Suppose they held an LA comic book convention without a live audience? That's what happened last week, on a shoot for the CBS TV series NUMB3RS.

The episode revolves around some action at a comic book convention so the word went out for creators to show up to the mock-con and go through the motions of a real show.

There were some familiar names among the creators and guest stars for the shoot, and Word Balloon got the low down from indie artist Tony Fleecs (In My Lifetime, Postcards:True Stories That Never Happened)

On this Halloween edition of Word Balloon, host John Siuntres
chats with artist Phil Hester, who's been flexing his writer muscles
and has a slate of current and upcoming monster related stories.

We caught Phil as he was recovering from a cold, but still excited about
getting more scripting work alongside his upcoming art projects.

You'll hear about Hester taking the reins on THE DARKNESS for Top Cow, and a new direction for the series main character Jackie Estacado.
Also the very funny "werewolf in recovery" series THIRTEEN STEPS,
co-written with Chuck Satterlee and drawn by Kevin Mellon for Desperado.

But Phil show his sensitive side too, in a poingant indie short story featured in The Villard Books collection POSTCARDS: "True Stories That Never Happened".

On the art side, Phil previews the December start of his run on Superman Confidential, teaming up with his infamous inking partner Ande Parks and writer B Clay Moore.

Next Year will be busy for Phil, writing and drawing a Daredevil/Magdalena crossoverfor Marvel/Top Cow in February, and in the spring he and artist Andy Kuhn bring back FIREBREATHER for Image Comics.

Part 2 of The Comic Creator Panel That Josh Fialkov put together Sept 29th for the LA Public Libarry.

Featuring Mark Waid Ross Richie, Christos Gage Kazu Kabuishi and Tony Fleecs.