Notes From New York Comic Con
I'm back in DC and sitting in my library now. You wouldn't believe the number of people who read my badge and thought I worked for DC Comics in some kind of public outreach division....
Next Time I put Washington DC Public Library or District of Columbia Public Library on the badge.
So, here's the breakdown.
Exhibit Hall
I skipped the first two panels to go straight to the exhibit hall before the crowds became beyond enormous. I got to walk the whole floor, and I took some pictures of the cool things. I'll post those later.
Notable booths
After Dark HorrorFest: These are the people who put out 8 films to die for. They had a trailer running in a little room that scares you just walking in, and trying to get out you have to go by the hanging corpse mannequin. The film is just as gory as you would expect, and it's unrated and not being released in the 8 films series because they got an NC-17 and decided to not go that route.
Mr. Toast: This stuff was so cute I couldn't believe it. I totally wanted to buy a painting of egg or toast to put on my kitchen wall. I couldn't find the booth again after the first time, so I'm going to contact him through his website.
Vertical Publishing: Vertical publishing is the company who releases a lot of Osamu Tezuka's more literary works like Buddha, M-W, and Apollo's Song. They are also the publisher of the English translations of Koji Suzuki's horror novels which have been the basis for the Ring and Dark Water. I bought the Ring trilogy, and holy heck, I could not go to sleep at ALL last night. I must finish it if only to put it away forever.
A Wave Blue World: This was notable, because their comic "American Terrorist" was an interesting statement of rebellion through traditional means like free inquiry, free press, free speech. The protagonists are a teacher, a reporter, etc. It looked good, and I may pick it up.
Comixology.com: Comixology is a means for the average guy to put together a pull file on his own based on the listings of comics being released that week through Diamond. It also contains a TON of information and original content about comics. I'm definitely going to start looking at this.
Panels
These are all the panels I attended. I will keep it brief, since there were a lot of them.
State of the Manga Industry: Three bigshots from Del Rey, Viz and Tokyopop chatted about how things are doing. Basically they are at a levelling off point.
Emerging Trends in Manga Retailing: Four store owners and a moderator from ICv2 chatted about how they buy, what they buy, their target audiences, and shelving. Across the board it was different. Some stores had niche markets for adult oriented Manga, whereas others had extensive collections of everything ever produced in English. No clear decisive way to do it.
Using Comics in the Classroom: This particular panel appealed to me because I notice some of the teachers discouraging kids taking out comics at the library. I got some good ideas about how to talk to teachers about children reading comics, and how they could be used as part of a curriculum across all ages.
Beyond Shonen and Shoujo: Indie Manga from Japan: This was one of the least exciting panels of the day. It basically consisted of a slideshow and a list of names. This is so and so's artwork, it's very important. I did learn a couple of things. Axe magazine is the indie manga bimonthly publication, and preferred term for these indies is "gekiga."
Bandai Entertainment: WOW! Bandai is going to release Gurren Lagann, and they're going to release it in 9 episode subtitled chunks at a time. This is like the most awesome news to me ever. They are also finally releasing Lucky Star and Code Geass will be airing on Adult Swim starting this saturday night. I'm totally in love with Bandai right now.
Lucky Star: This was a screening of the first two episodes of Lucky Star. It's basically a slice of life comedy about high school girls and their inane conversations. It was absolutely hysterical. I can't wait to buy this.
MoCCA: Ralph Bakshi Unfiltered: This was a panel including Ralph Bakshi and the two gentlemen who wrote his biography. It was absolutely fascinating to hear Ralph talk about his vision of animation as collage and utilizing real soundscapes in the production of his films. It was pretty great.
The X-Files: Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz, the two main producers of The X-Files were there to talk around their new movie coming out this July. They played a trailer and it was exciting. I think there will be more Antarctica from the look of it, but that's about all you could tell. They said it's not an alien conspiracy story, but just a regular scary story. We'll see what happens!
Sci-Friday: Sci-Fi channel, god bless them, played that evenings Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica, uncut without commercial interruptions for the benefit of the people in the audience who would miss it because of the con. It was awesome to see so many people laughing at the Doctor being silly, and gasping at the Cylons being evil. And that episode of BSG, Frakk Me! That I didn't see coming...
Del Rey Manga: they are releasing more Mushishi, Parasyte and they will be releasing Yokaiden and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. I'm stoked.
Code Geass: This was a screening of the first two episodes of Code Geass. The first ep was AWESOME! The second was skipping and sticking and not wanting to play right, so we left. It'll be on Adult Swim this Saturday, and I've got it scheduled to record.
Venture Bros.: This was the most hysterically funny panel I have ever seen in my entire life. It was the four main voice actors from VB and they showed a trailer for season 3. And they also mentioned that they're writing up season 4. It was INCREDIBLE! Oh, the silliness. I laughed so much I think I cried.
There could be no topping that final panel, so we called it a day, and chose not to go back on Sunday.
Next Time I put Washington DC Public Library or District of Columbia Public Library on the badge.
So, here's the breakdown.
Exhibit Hall
I skipped the first two panels to go straight to the exhibit hall before the crowds became beyond enormous. I got to walk the whole floor, and I took some pictures of the cool things. I'll post those later.
Notable booths
After Dark HorrorFest: These are the people who put out 8 films to die for. They had a trailer running in a little room that scares you just walking in, and trying to get out you have to go by the hanging corpse mannequin. The film is just as gory as you would expect, and it's unrated and not being released in the 8 films series because they got an NC-17 and decided to not go that route.
Mr. Toast: This stuff was so cute I couldn't believe it. I totally wanted to buy a painting of egg or toast to put on my kitchen wall. I couldn't find the booth again after the first time, so I'm going to contact him through his website.
Vertical Publishing: Vertical publishing is the company who releases a lot of Osamu Tezuka's more literary works like Buddha, M-W, and Apollo's Song. They are also the publisher of the English translations of Koji Suzuki's horror novels which have been the basis for the Ring and Dark Water. I bought the Ring trilogy, and holy heck, I could not go to sleep at ALL last night. I must finish it if only to put it away forever.
A Wave Blue World: This was notable, because their comic "American Terrorist" was an interesting statement of rebellion through traditional means like free inquiry, free press, free speech. The protagonists are a teacher, a reporter, etc. It looked good, and I may pick it up.
Comixology.com: Comixology is a means for the average guy to put together a pull file on his own based on the listings of comics being released that week through Diamond. It also contains a TON of information and original content about comics. I'm definitely going to start looking at this.
Panels
These are all the panels I attended. I will keep it brief, since there were a lot of them.
State of the Manga Industry: Three bigshots from Del Rey, Viz and Tokyopop chatted about how things are doing. Basically they are at a levelling off point.
Emerging Trends in Manga Retailing: Four store owners and a moderator from ICv2 chatted about how they buy, what they buy, their target audiences, and shelving. Across the board it was different. Some stores had niche markets for adult oriented Manga, whereas others had extensive collections of everything ever produced in English. No clear decisive way to do it.
Using Comics in the Classroom: This particular panel appealed to me because I notice some of the teachers discouraging kids taking out comics at the library. I got some good ideas about how to talk to teachers about children reading comics, and how they could be used as part of a curriculum across all ages.
Beyond Shonen and Shoujo: Indie Manga from Japan: This was one of the least exciting panels of the day. It basically consisted of a slideshow and a list of names. This is so and so's artwork, it's very important. I did learn a couple of things. Axe magazine is the indie manga bimonthly publication, and preferred term for these indies is "gekiga."
Bandai Entertainment: WOW! Bandai is going to release Gurren Lagann, and they're going to release it in 9 episode subtitled chunks at a time. This is like the most awesome news to me ever. They are also finally releasing Lucky Star and Code Geass will be airing on Adult Swim starting this saturday night. I'm totally in love with Bandai right now.
Lucky Star: This was a screening of the first two episodes of Lucky Star. It's basically a slice of life comedy about high school girls and their inane conversations. It was absolutely hysterical. I can't wait to buy this.
MoCCA: Ralph Bakshi Unfiltered: This was a panel including Ralph Bakshi and the two gentlemen who wrote his biography. It was absolutely fascinating to hear Ralph talk about his vision of animation as collage and utilizing real soundscapes in the production of his films. It was pretty great.
The X-Files: Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz, the two main producers of The X-Files were there to talk around their new movie coming out this July. They played a trailer and it was exciting. I think there will be more Antarctica from the look of it, but that's about all you could tell. They said it's not an alien conspiracy story, but just a regular scary story. We'll see what happens!
Sci-Friday: Sci-Fi channel, god bless them, played that evenings Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica, uncut without commercial interruptions for the benefit of the people in the audience who would miss it because of the con. It was awesome to see so many people laughing at the Doctor being silly, and gasping at the Cylons being evil. And that episode of BSG, Frakk Me! That I didn't see coming...
Del Rey Manga: they are releasing more Mushishi, Parasyte and they will be releasing Yokaiden and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. I'm stoked.
Code Geass: This was a screening of the first two episodes of Code Geass. The first ep was AWESOME! The second was skipping and sticking and not wanting to play right, so we left. It'll be on Adult Swim this Saturday, and I've got it scheduled to record.
Venture Bros.: This was the most hysterically funny panel I have ever seen in my entire life. It was the four main voice actors from VB and they showed a trailer for season 3. And they also mentioned that they're writing up season 4. It was INCREDIBLE! Oh, the silliness. I laughed so much I think I cried.
There could be no topping that final panel, so we called it a day, and chose not to go back on Sunday.