NYCC 2019 day two

I managed to write a blog post for each day of the con last year. I guess I’m not going to do that this year, since it’s already day two and I haven’t written anything yet. So here’s a few notes on yesterday and maybe a couple of thoughts for today.

It rained all day yesterday, so that put a damper on things, to some extent. I took a cab down to Javits and spent most of the day there, inside. I took the subway back to my hotel at the end of the day, since the Hudson Yards station was actually open this year. (It was closed for most of the con last year, for maintenance work or something.) It should be clear today, so hopefully I can wander around the city a bit more than yesterday.

I went to a few panels yesterday. The first was the Christopher Eccleston panel. I really liked his portrayal of the Doctor, and was sad to see him go after only one season. He mostly kept away from anything to do with the show for years afterwards, but I guess he’s OK with talking about it a bit now. He has a book out now, about his father, and their relationship. The panel was fun and I’m glad I went to it. (It was also the only panel I “won” in the lottery, though it wasn’t crowded and anyone would have been able to walk in.)

I also went to the DC Meet The Publishers panel, with Dan DiDio and Jim Lee. I’d gone to that one last year on Thursday too, and have gone to other Dan & Jim panels at other cons, so I knew what to expect out of that one. Mostly Dan doing his “carnival barker” thing (he described himself that way at one point in the panel), with a bit of Jim Lee’s more laid-back self-deprecating style mixed in. This year, they were pushing the new Joe Hill imprint, which sounds good, if you’re into that kind of thing. (Personally, I’m not, but it does sound kind of cool.)

And I went to a couple of other, smaller panels, one on horror comics (from Dark Horse) and one on women in Jack Kirby’s comics. Both were fairly interesting, though I will admit that I was also just using them as an opportunity to sit down and relax for an hour.

I left the con at around 5 PM, mostly because I was really tired by that time. There were a couple of more panels I wanted to go to, but I decided to give up and go back to my hotel. I got some nice spicy lamb noodles from the Xi’an Famous Foods branch that’s right down the block from my hotel, watched some TV, then went to bed at 8 PM. I had really just intended to take a little nap, then get back up and do a few things, but I gave up on that and decided that I’m old enough to go to bed at 8 PM without shame.

Today, I’m looking forward to the DC Nation panel, maybe the Marvel Cup o’ Joe panel, maybe the Berger Books panel, and definitely the Castlevania panel with Warren Ellis. Ellis posted a photo from New York on his blog last night, so I assume he made it into town in one piece. I’m still a little disappointed that he’s only doing the Castlevania panel. I put my name in the lottery for a signing with him, but I didn’t win that one, and (as far as I can tell) there’s no public signing with him and he’s not on any other panels. He doesn’t really do cons, and he almost never comes to the US anymore, so this it probably my only chance to see him in person. So hopefully that’ll be a cool panel.

Anyway, I got up at 6 AM today, so I’ve got a good ten hours of sleep. Hopefully, that’s enough to get me through the day. I do need to pace myself, since that Castlevania panel isn’t until 5:15, which is dangerously close to my bed time.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.