New York Comic Con 2018 - Saturday, October 6
First panel of the day was I'll Take Dementors for $500, Obi-Wan: A Fan Game Show with (left to right) Marc Thompson, Delilah S. Dawson, Sylvain Neuve, Ryan North, and Chuck Wendig.
Here is the gist: Do you know the whole DC universe by their legal names? ID a Star Wars villain from a single wicked line? Name every kind of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans? Test your knowledge, competing alongside bestselling authors in categories like The Dark Side, Bad@ss Chicks, Winter Is Coming and more, using clips from Star Wars, Game of Thrones and Harry Potter audiobooks. Narrator Marc Thompson hosts in character as Obi-Wan Kenobi and will select a few lucky audience members to compete onstage.
While Marc was dressed as Obi-Wan, he didn't do his voice the whole time. The game was played like Jeopardy! and the categories were The Dark Side; Expecto Patronum; Winter Is Coming; Fierce Females; I Can Be Your Hero, Baby; and Nerd-Tastic.
It was really fun to watch. My favorite categories were The Dark Side and Expecto Patronum. For some reason they weren't picking Winter Is Coming until nearly the end. If none of the players knew the answer the audience would shout it out and the first one to buzz in got to answer it. In the end Delilah's team won.
There was a short Q&A afterwards. The part that interested me most was when Marc Thompson was talking about the process of recording an audiobook. He'll get the book and make notes, and also record some new voices on his phone to refer to. As he gets more into the recording process he will be so used to doing the new voices he won't need to refer to his voice memo.
Marc doesn't talk to the authors because he has a director and doesn't want to go over the director's head by saying, "Well, the author said this."
He was complemented on how great he sounds but Marc gave the credit to the editors who piece it together when he makes mistakes, as well as the music and sound effects they add when it's a Star Wars novel.
As for the voice of Thrawn, I guess he did a different voice for the anniversary edition of the Thrawn Trilogy, because that was before Rebels. I still have to listen to it. But for the two most recent books he really captured the his voice from the animated series.
I can't remember this other question or full answer now, but Chuck said that Palpatine's first name "Sheev" is like "Steve" in AGFFA. That made me laugh.
After the panel there was a signing with the authors right outside the room, which was super convenient. We didn't have to run and push our way to another part of the Javits.
This time I brought From a Certain Point of View with me. I told each author how I plan to slowly collect every author's signature until I am old.
First Chuck Wendig signed. He wrote "We Don't Serve Their Kind Here", which is about Wuher, the bar tender at the cantina. He is very much the grump he appears to be in the movie, and his hate for droids is not just economical, it's personal.
When I said that Chuck agreed and said that is probably what they were thinking back then, that droids can't buy any drinks so they are not allowed in, but in light of the Prequels and the there was something to delve deeper into.
Delilah S. Dawson wrote "The Secrets of Long Snoot", about Garindan ezz Zavor, the snitch who tells the stormtroopers which direction the droids headed. But we find out what his motivations are. This story's character building was well done.
I told her how I still want to read Kill The Farm Boy. She suggested I listen to it on audiobook. I responded that I am more into audiobooks now and have been listening to Deathly Hallows, and that I loved that category. She said she felt she knew the most about that one.
Marc Thomson signed both FaCPOV and Thrawn: Alliances. I asked him more about the recording process and was amazed how fast the turn over is. He gets the book about a week or two before he goes in to record. They record the whole book in about 3-4 days, from about 10am-6pm. This is about a month before the release of the book so there is time to edit it. These days with computers it all happens really fast.
Signatures: Delilah is above the title, Marc is to the left. Chuck is below the title and above Pierce Brown's. I decided to keep this book not personalized so that it doesn't say my name 40-something times.
But this one I wanted personalized.
Next I had a photo op with Alex Kingston. They really improved the photo op system! Last year was a cluster-f---. This year they used Hall E for queues. So you would queue up according to your celebrity and group number in neat, spread out chutes. Then the queue was ushered to the photo op area for queuing there. The sessions started on time and moved efficiently.
The autographing was also better arranged. The A-listers were in a different Hall from the B-listers so to keep the queues organized and less crowding.
Alex was really fun and personable. With the men she would life her leg up for them to hold. With the women she would pose in a spunky way pointing her two fingers toward the person.
With me, because I am so petite, she lightly rested her arm on my head. At her signing, as she signed my photo she said she was being naughty when she decided to pose that way. My sister said it looks like a jazzercise pose.
My sister and I told her we saw the first episode of A Discovery of Witches the night before and that she is just perfect for Sarah Bishop. We also thought she would pop in as a surprise guest.
Alex said there was supposed to be a full panel with the cast but then Deborah decided to premiere the first episode instead and there would be no time for a panel.
I loved the panel at SDCC and her excitement about the Bishop House. Alex's eyes lit up and she spoke about the amazing details the set designers put into it. We also learned that the Bodleian Library was a set. The exterior was shot on location but the inside is a set. They could have fooled me!
We told her we went to Oxford but couldn't go inside the Bodleian Library.
Before we concluded our conversation I told her I loved her on ER. She was thankful. She was so easy to talk to and down to earth.
As Sarah Bishop in A Discovery of Witches.
In between the photo op and autograph with Alex, my sister and I went to the signing for Pierce at the Del Rey Booth. The only thing I had for him to sign were the Red Rising comics. I gave a couple of issues to my sister, because like me she already has all his books signed already.
When we spoke to him I asked if there would be more comics and he said there would be, continuing the story of the beginning of the Sons of Ares.
He asked me if I liked the art, and being honest I said I didn't. I explained that it was too sketchy and storyboard like and I prefer cleaner lines.
I think Pierce appreciated my honesty and said he would like to feature different artists for different comic book series. That I would like.
Then we said we can't wait until Dark Age and the next book tour.
The Hallmark booth had someone dressed up as Rainbow Brite as they were having a signing for a Rainbow Brite comic book. We bought it for $8, had it signed and took a photo with the character. Poor Rainbow Brite couldn't see and the Hallmark lady had to tell her "to your left." That is why the photo is so awkward.
My sister and I grew up loving Rainbow Brite and she didn't get the comeback that My Little Pony did, so we wanted to give her some support.
That was Saturday!
Last, but not least, Sunday.