SDCC08: Keith Giffen panel (update 1)

Note: this post only discusses the Legion-related content at Keith Giffen's panel. There was a lot of other stuff that got talked about, including Ambush Bug, the Omega Men, Trencher, and Julie Schwartz. Robert Loren Fleming was there to help with the Ambush Bug stuff. That's Ambush Bug editor Jann Jones and Bug co-writer Fleming on the left, with Giffen on the right.

Giffen/Levitz reunion: "all Paul has to do is say yes". The LSH long poster burned him outn that's why he left v3. When Levitz left v3, Karen Berger asked Giffen back. When asked about v4 in retrospect, he joked that Tom and Mary Bierbaum screwed it up (they are in the audience and laughed). Karate Kid is always on his hit list, he was going to leave v3 and Levitz said "I'll let you kill him if you stay a bit". Blowing up the moon was a plot point, blowing up the earth was a temper tantrum (he and DC were pissed off at each other).

Update Sunday night

A more fleshed-out version of the above, from the Q&A portion of the show.
Q: were your style choices and changes deliberate? A: yes, I hate easy. I tried to tailor the art to the script.

Q: Rumors about a Giffen/Levitz reunion on the Legion in some way? A: All Paul has to do is say "yes". The fact that he's not saying "no" means he's being coy about it.

Q: Rumors about the long poster? A: Yes, it's true that working on that long poster burned him out and blew him off the book. He said he couldn't do it any more, his head wasn't in it, and the art suffered. He needed some time off to mentally recharge.

Q: What made you come back? A: Karen Berger, LSH editor, asked him to come back when Paul left the book. Mark Waid was editor at the time.

Q: How do you feel about v4 in retrospect? A: I feel that Tom and Mary Bierbaum screwed it all up (Tom and Mary, who were in the audience, laugh at this, along with Giffen and the rest of the audience). But despite how it ended up, he'd still do it again.

Q: What about Karate Kid? A: Karate Kid is always on his check-off list. He was ready to leave early in v3 when Levitz revealed that he was going to kill Karate Kid. That was enough to get Keith to stay for a little while longer at least.

Q: What happened at the end? (I only wrote the answer and not the question to this, so I'm speculating on what the question might have been.) A: Giffen and DC were pissed off at each other (reasons TBD) and Giffen was leaving anyway, so he blew up the Earth. Blowing up the moon was a plot point, blowing up the Earth was a temper tantrum. (Read here for another point of view of the Earth blowup issue.)