NYCC: wrapped up for your pleasure
Well, now that I've gotten a decent night's sleep for the first time all weekend, my thoughts are coherent enough for me to recap my time at the New York Comic Con.
A whole gang of us from Nine Panel Nerds -- me, Dave, Marc, Lita, and Scott -- plus Lita's cousins Devin and Michael trekked down to the city early Friday, arriving mid-afternoon. Although the con was all weekend, we only planned to go on Saturday, and used Friday to get settled and do a few other things we wanted to do. Dave in particular wanted to go to a place called Toy Tokyo, which sells, among other things, memorabilia from Godzilla movies. Dave, being a big fan of monster movies in general, was eager to see what they had. He ended up picking up a few figurines he didn't have, while the rest of us wandered around looking at the odd, and sometimes horrifying, figures they had sitting around the store.
Saturday was the big day. I was planning to meet some people at the show, so I left the rest of the gang to get breakfast while I headed to the Javits Center. I got in around 10:30, meaning I spent about 45 minutes in line. But at least it was a briskly-moving line. I finally got in, and marveled at the sheer scope of what I was seeing. The entire third floor of the Javits was taken up by the con. If you don't know what that means, it means this show was huge. I walked around for nine hours on Saturday, and there were new things to see every time I made a loop around the floor. There was actually stuff on other floors, too, but I had neither the time nor the inclination to go anywhere else.
I was able to meet a number of people I admire, including Colin Baker -- aka the Sixth Doctor from "Doctor Who" -- crime novelist Charlie Huston, and web cartoonists Scott Kurtz of "PVP" and Danielle Corsetto of "Girls With Slingshots." I got autographs from and photos with the first two, and sketches from the second two. Baker was very gracious, Huston was funny, and Kurtz and Corsetto were incredibly friendly.
I also bought a bunch of comics, some of which I was looking for and hadn't been able to find recently, and some new stuff I had never heard of before but looked kind of interesting. The stuff I had been looking for included volumes 4-6 of the manga "Monster," the first volume of Osamu Tezuka's "Buddha," "Indiana Jones Omnibus" vol. 1, and "Girls With Slingshots" volumes 1 and 2 (I got the sketches in those). I also bought one volume of "PVP" so I could get a sketch in it, even though I already own those comics.
I got a few novels, too. I bought a signed copy of Cory Doctorow's "Eastern Standard Tribe" to benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and got a free copy of Huston's "Already Dead," which he was giving away to people at his autograph session.
And in between all that, I got interviews from all sorts of people for our podcast. That included people as varied as Kurtz and Corsetto to the guy who invented Ghost Rider to the head of the CBLDF. The full show should hopefully go up today.
Marc, meanwhile, got himself a really sweet two-page spread of original art from a recent issue of "Nightwing," which featured Nightwing, Batman, and the Batmobile. And he got it for a really good price, too. Scott also met Colin Baker, and Lita and Devin were two of the many costumed people walking around the floor. Lita was the female Loki from the current run of "Thor," while Devin was Raven from "Teen Titans." Lita got a pretty good reception from the people in the Marvel costume contest, although she didn't win.
I mentioned I was meeting up with a few people this weekend. Some, unfortunately, I didn't see as much as I wanted to or planned to (sorry, John). But one person I did see, and am very happy I did, was my friend Izobel. Iz is one half of Comic Racks, a UK-based podcast about comics and pop culture from the woman's point of view. We've gotten to know each other since May on the forums we both frequent, but since she lives in Wales and I live in Connecticut, I didn't think we'd get a chance to meet in person for a long time. But then she won a free flight to New York, and decided to go to the con. We e-mailed a bit beforehand and planned to meet up during the show. I figured we'd hang out for an hour or two and then go our separate ways, but we actually spent almost all of Saturday together. We covered every inch of that show floor, meeting creators we liked and just taking in the entire spectacle while we talked about the people we both know and all the things we like about geek culture and beyond. In fact, the only time we weren't together during the nine hours I was on the show floor was when she went to some panels and I went to do my interviews. It is hard to put in words exactly how lovely a person Iz is. She is a genuinely sweet and friendly person and it's disappointing we only got to hang out on Saturday. I am so glad to have a friend like her. She's already planning to come back for the 2010 show, this time with her husband, which will be cool because not only will I see her again but I'll finally be able to meet him, too.
You'd think that'd be plenty for one Saturday, but that's not the end of it. Iz got me into the dinner that Comic News Insider, the podcast that helps organize the show, had that evening. I had met Jimmy and Joe, the CNI hosts, earlier in the day, but that night I got to a meet a whole bunch more people from the forums (some of whom I've talked with quite a bit on-line), as well as people from other podcasts and the woman who either runs or is the main point of contact for The Ohio State University Cartoon Library and Museum. I also met a comedian who plays a character called Unemployed Skeletor at shows and other events, who also does stand-up, too. He was probably the only person I talked to that whole day with whom I didn't talk about comic books. I networked quite a bit, and was glad to see that Nine Panel Nerds was at least vaguely familiar to people there. And yeah, me and Iz hung out there a bit, too, obviously, finally saying our goodbyes as the party broke up some time around midnight.
On Sunday, we were all ready to go home. Everyone was pretty exhausted from our extremely busy weekend, and I had a splitting headache that was probably a combination of a hangover and getting very little sleep thanks to spending two nights on the floor. But everyone had a blast, everyone came home with stories, and everyone wants to go again next year.
I took some photos, too, as did Dave and Lita, so when I get them all I'm going to put them up on my Facebook page. Hopefully tonight.
A whole gang of us from Nine Panel Nerds -- me, Dave, Marc, Lita, and Scott -- plus Lita's cousins Devin and Michael trekked down to the city early Friday, arriving mid-afternoon. Although the con was all weekend, we only planned to go on Saturday, and used Friday to get settled and do a few other things we wanted to do. Dave in particular wanted to go to a place called Toy Tokyo, which sells, among other things, memorabilia from Godzilla movies. Dave, being a big fan of monster movies in general, was eager to see what they had. He ended up picking up a few figurines he didn't have, while the rest of us wandered around looking at the odd, and sometimes horrifying, figures they had sitting around the store.
Saturday was the big day. I was planning to meet some people at the show, so I left the rest of the gang to get breakfast while I headed to the Javits Center. I got in around 10:30, meaning I spent about 45 minutes in line. But at least it was a briskly-moving line. I finally got in, and marveled at the sheer scope of what I was seeing. The entire third floor of the Javits was taken up by the con. If you don't know what that means, it means this show was huge. I walked around for nine hours on Saturday, and there were new things to see every time I made a loop around the floor. There was actually stuff on other floors, too, but I had neither the time nor the inclination to go anywhere else.
I was able to meet a number of people I admire, including Colin Baker -- aka the Sixth Doctor from "Doctor Who" -- crime novelist Charlie Huston, and web cartoonists Scott Kurtz of "PVP" and Danielle Corsetto of "Girls With Slingshots." I got autographs from and photos with the first two, and sketches from the second two. Baker was very gracious, Huston was funny, and Kurtz and Corsetto were incredibly friendly.
I also bought a bunch of comics, some of which I was looking for and hadn't been able to find recently, and some new stuff I had never heard of before but looked kind of interesting. The stuff I had been looking for included volumes 4-6 of the manga "Monster," the first volume of Osamu Tezuka's "Buddha," "Indiana Jones Omnibus" vol. 1, and "Girls With Slingshots" volumes 1 and 2 (I got the sketches in those). I also bought one volume of "PVP" so I could get a sketch in it, even though I already own those comics.
I got a few novels, too. I bought a signed copy of Cory Doctorow's "Eastern Standard Tribe" to benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and got a free copy of Huston's "Already Dead," which he was giving away to people at his autograph session.
And in between all that, I got interviews from all sorts of people for our podcast. That included people as varied as Kurtz and Corsetto to the guy who invented Ghost Rider to the head of the CBLDF. The full show should hopefully go up today.
Marc, meanwhile, got himself a really sweet two-page spread of original art from a recent issue of "Nightwing," which featured Nightwing, Batman, and the Batmobile. And he got it for a really good price, too. Scott also met Colin Baker, and Lita and Devin were two of the many costumed people walking around the floor. Lita was the female Loki from the current run of "Thor," while Devin was Raven from "Teen Titans." Lita got a pretty good reception from the people in the Marvel costume contest, although she didn't win.
I mentioned I was meeting up with a few people this weekend. Some, unfortunately, I didn't see as much as I wanted to or planned to (sorry, John). But one person I did see, and am very happy I did, was my friend Izobel. Iz is one half of Comic Racks, a UK-based podcast about comics and pop culture from the woman's point of view. We've gotten to know each other since May on the forums we both frequent, but since she lives in Wales and I live in Connecticut, I didn't think we'd get a chance to meet in person for a long time. But then she won a free flight to New York, and decided to go to the con. We e-mailed a bit beforehand and planned to meet up during the show. I figured we'd hang out for an hour or two and then go our separate ways, but we actually spent almost all of Saturday together. We covered every inch of that show floor, meeting creators we liked and just taking in the entire spectacle while we talked about the people we both know and all the things we like about geek culture and beyond. In fact, the only time we weren't together during the nine hours I was on the show floor was when she went to some panels and I went to do my interviews. It is hard to put in words exactly how lovely a person Iz is. She is a genuinely sweet and friendly person and it's disappointing we only got to hang out on Saturday. I am so glad to have a friend like her. She's already planning to come back for the 2010 show, this time with her husband, which will be cool because not only will I see her again but I'll finally be able to meet him, too.
You'd think that'd be plenty for one Saturday, but that's not the end of it. Iz got me into the dinner that Comic News Insider, the podcast that helps organize the show, had that evening. I had met Jimmy and Joe, the CNI hosts, earlier in the day, but that night I got to a meet a whole bunch more people from the forums (some of whom I've talked with quite a bit on-line), as well as people from other podcasts and the woman who either runs or is the main point of contact for The Ohio State University Cartoon Library and Museum. I also met a comedian who plays a character called Unemployed Skeletor at shows and other events, who also does stand-up, too. He was probably the only person I talked to that whole day with whom I didn't talk about comic books. I networked quite a bit, and was glad to see that Nine Panel Nerds was at least vaguely familiar to people there. And yeah, me and Iz hung out there a bit, too, obviously, finally saying our goodbyes as the party broke up some time around midnight.
On Sunday, we were all ready to go home. Everyone was pretty exhausted from our extremely busy weekend, and I had a splitting headache that was probably a combination of a hangover and getting very little sleep thanks to spending two nights on the floor. But everyone had a blast, everyone came home with stories, and everyone wants to go again next year.
I took some photos, too, as did Dave and Lita, so when I get them all I'm going to put them up on my Facebook page. Hopefully tonight.