Category: NYC

So I did give up on the idea of going back to NYCC today. I checked out of my hotel in the morning and went straight home. Here’s a photo of my modest haul from the con. Mostly trade paperbacks out of discount boxes, plus one Warren Ellis series, also out of a discount box. (Also, a signed Zorro novel by Peter David and a signed Motor Girl omnibus from Terry Moore.)

I think one of my main takeaways from this con is that I’m too old for a full four-day con in NYC. Especially if I’m not staying overnight for Sunday night. The thought of checking out of the hotel this morning, going down to the con, then having to come back to the hotel, pick up my bags, then get back to Penn Station and take the train home in the evening was a bit too much for me.

On the plus side, I get to enjoy a little of the Somerville street fair today, and watch the Giants game!

Since I wrote up posts for days one and two, I might as well write one for day three also. As planned, I did in fact spend most of the day at the con, arriving a little after 10am and leaving a little after 6pm.

I wandered the floor for a little while in the morning, before it got too crowded. And I went through Artist’s Alley again, and stumbled across Terry Moore. I bought a signed copy of Motor Girl from him. (And that’s really all I bought, unless you count overpriced Javits food and coffee.)

I went to several panels today. The first was a “Coffee and Comics” panel, with a pretty random assemblage of people, including DMC (from Run-DMC), Larry Hama, Amy Chu, Sean Von Gorman and Ming Chen (from Comic Book Men). They did, indeed, talk about coffee a bit. But mostly they talked about comics, so that was fun. (There was a Will Eisner panel at the same time as that one, and I would have gone to that one instead, if I’d been paying more attention to the schedule. But I’m glad I went to the Coffee & Comics panel.)

Next, I went to a DC World’s Finest panel. (It didn’t have anything to do with the old World’s Finest title. It was just a random panel name.) They had a variety of creators at that one, similar to the previous night’s All-Star panel.

After that one, I went to the DC Superman 80th panel. I was expecting that to be more of a historical overview panel, as these anniversary panels often are, but instead it was a conversation between Brian Bendis and Frank Miller about Superman (moderated by Dan DiDio, as many of the DC panels were.) It was actually very interesting to hear the two of them talk about Superman. I’m now a little more interested in Miller’s upcoming Superman project, given some of the stuff he said on the panel.

I stayed in the same room after that one for the Adam Savage panel, which is the only non-comics-related panel I went to. He showed a trailer for Mythbusters Jr. and talked about that a bit. He also talked about cosplay and stuff like that. And he spent about half the time answering questions. I’ve seen him live a couple of times before, and he’s always great. Very energetic, funny, and kind.

Lastly, I went to a Brian Bendis spotlight panel. I had meant to go to a Tom King spotlight, but they switched up the schedule, so the Bendis panel was moved from earlier in the day. (I’m not sure what happened to the Tom King panel.) Anyway, that was also pretty cool, but the end result is that I saw a lot of Bendis over the last couple of days. I haven’t actually read any of his DC work yet, but now I’m looking forward to some of it.

I guess that was only four panels, but it seemed like a lot. I was going to go back to the con for a StarTalk All-Stars panel at 8pm, but I’m too tired for that.

Looking back, I seem to have gone to a lot of DC panels this weekend. I haven’t gone to any Marvel panels, or really any panels from any other publisher. That wasn’t intentional, and some of that is just timing. But a lot of that is that I’m not really that interested in anything coming out of Marvel right now. I’m interested in a few things coming out from Image, Dark Horse, and other smaller publishers, but there weren’t any panels related to them that were convenient for me to attend.

I’m writing this on Saturday night, unsure about whether or not I’m going to actually go back to the con on Sunday. I have my badge, but there’s not much I’m interested in tomorrow. I’ve seen just about everything I want to see on the show floor. And there aren’t any must-see panels tomorrow. There’s the big Doctor Who panel at MSG, but that’s probably going to be crazy. There are probably people lined up for it already.

So I may just check out of my hotel tomorrow morning and go home. Or I might get a second wind, and/or remember something I want to buy, or whatever. (Or I might just want to delay re-entering the real world a bit longer, since I see we apparently now have a horrible new addition to the Supreme Court? Sigh.)

I’ve got some time to kill this morning, so I might as well write up another con report. As I mentioned yesterday, I decided to skip the con in the morning, and went to the Met instead. I saw the new Delacroix exhibit, then killed some time having a coffee and reading a book.

Then I went to the NY Historical Society for the Harry Potter exhibit. I had some time before my scheduled entry time, so I wandered around the museum a bit. I’d never been there before, so that was worthwhile. The History of Magic exhibit itself was very crowded. They were letting only ticketed people in, at their appropriate time, but it seems like maybe they were a little overly optimistic about how quickly people would get through it. I think that, if there’s a chance to see it when the crowds are more manageable, it would be pretty fun. The NY Times review, in fact, mentions a number of interesting items that I didn’t notice at all. (Oh, and the gift shop was almost as big as the exhibit itself. Lots of crazy Harry Potter paraphernalia for sale.)

After that, I went to the con. I didn’t do much, really. I just walked the floor a bit and checked out Artist’s Alley. I saw Peter David there, and said hello, and bought a signed Zorro novel from him. I went back to the hotel to grab some dinner and clean up a bit, then went back to Javits for the DC All-Stars panel. That was fun. I went back to the hotel after that and just watched a couple of Doctor Who episodes on my iPad, then went to bed at 9:30pm. (Yeah, I’m getting too old for this stuff.)

I don’t have much of a plan for today (Saturday). There are enough interesting panels today that I’ll probably spend the whole day at the con. I’m not sure how I’m going to get back to the hotel afterward, since the 7 line will be shut down and I haven’t had much luck catching cabs around Javits so far. So I’m liable to walk back to the hotel again, which I’ve done a few times already, and isn’t horrible, but it’s definitely a bit painful. (Again, I’m getting too old…)

I’m sitting in my hotel room this morning, eating breakfast, after a pretty long day at NYCC yesterday.

I started the day off by wandering the floor a bit, and bought a few comics. Then I went to the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child panel. That was fun. They had the actors for all the lead parts there. (I need to see Cursed Child again one of these days.)

Later, I went to a DC Meet the Publishers panel, with Dan DiDio and Jim Lee. I’m cautiously optimistic about some of the stuff DC is doing right now, like Grant Morrison’s Green Lantern or some of the new stuff Bendis is working on. But other stuff definitely falls into the “not for me” category, like the Primal Age toys. They’re not for me, and that’s fine.

Then, after taking a break, I came back to the con for the StarTalk panel. That was mostly silly fun, but it ended with Dr. Tyson reading an open letter to NASA, on the occasion of their shared 60th birthday, that was quite touching. (I looked around online for the text of the letter, and couldn’t find it, but did find a similar one from ten years ago, for their shared 50th birthday.)

As an aside, I’m glad I stayed in the city last night, instead of taking the train home and back in this morning, since there was a NJ Transit derailment last night. No one was hurt, apparently, but it screwed up last night’s rush hour, and I think is still screwing things up today.

My initial plan for today was to go to the con in the morning, then head up to the NY Historical Society for the Harry Potter exhibit at 12:45, then back to the con. But I’m worried about how hard it’ll be to get a cab from Javits to the exhibit. The area around Javits is kind of a mess right now. And there’s really not much that I need to see at the con this morning. So I will probably skip the con in the morning and go uptown to see a museum or two. Then I can go to the con in the afternoon, after the exhibit.

I did a lot of walking yesterday, over 20,000 steps according to my watch. I think I want to be smarter about transportation today and maybe cut down on the walking a bit. I’m getting too old for all this exercise.

I’m (kind of) ready for NYCC tomorrow. Really, I’m not much more ready than I was a month ago. I’ve jotted down some notes about panels and stuff that I want to go to, but I’m basically going to wing it. Here’s a high-level article about the show this year that’s pretty informative.

My plan for tomorrow is to try to follow my usual weekday schedule, getting out of bed at 6 and leaving the house around 7:20, which will get me on a 7:40 train, which will then get me into the city by 9. Then, I’ll stop at my hotel, drop off my bag, and get down to Javits, probably a little before 10. Or I could take it easy at home for a bit, take a later train, and push everything back an hour. I haven’t been sleeping well the last few days, so maybe taking it easy tomorrow morning isn’t such a bad idea. And my neck and shoulders have been bothering me, so I’m not sure how well I’m going to deal with lugging a backpack around NYC for four days. We’ll see. If I fall apart, I can always skip out of the con early and go back to my hotel room for a nap.

I’m a little disorganized about my electronics on this trip too. I’m taking my iPhone, iPad, and Kindle, along with a keyboard for the iPad. I’m going to try to get by with no laptop or desktop computer for a few days. And I’m going to try to avoid checking my email too often. (Or Facebook or Twitter or the NY Times…) I’m looking at all the charging cables and adapters I have, and thinking I should get some kind of multi-purpose multi-port travel charger so I can cut down on all the doodads. Maybe for the next trip.

Well, I hope I can relax and untangle my brain a bit over the next few days. (I’ve also been keeping up with my meditation this week, so I’ll try to keep that up during the con too, probably in my hotel room in the morning or at night before bed.)

New York Comic Con is just about a month away. I bought my tickets back in June, and got tickets for all four days this year. (Last year, I only went on two days.)

I also bought a ticket for the Harry Potter: A History of Magic exhibit at the New York Historical Society, for Friday of the con. This isn’t related to the con, but just happens to open on the same weekend. There may be a few other related (or not exactly related) events that I’ll try to get to during the con.

I dithered a lot on whether or not I should book a hotel room. I’d pretty much decided against it, and was going to just take the train in each day, but then changed my mind this weekend. So now I’ve booked a room for Thursday through Sunday. That’s a bit of a compromise, since I was initially looking to get a room from Wednesday night through Monday, so I’d have the room for all four days of the con. But hotel rooms in Manhattan are expensive, and three nights is easier to justify than five nights. So the plan now is to take the train in on Thursday morning, drop my stuff off at the hotel, go to the con, then come back and check in later in the day. Then, I’ll check out Sunday morning and leave my bags at the hotel, go to the con, then pick them up later and take the train home Sunday night. Here’s hoping that all works out and doesn’t backfire in some way.

The excuse I used to talk myself into paying for the hotel is basically that I haven’t taken any other significant vacation this year, and the year is almost over now. I did stay in NYC for two nights in March, when I went to see Cursed Child, but that’s about it. So three nights in October won’t kill my checking account, and it’ll be a nice break.

I’ve started looking at the panel schedule for the con. There’s a lot going on! I kind of wish they had a downloadable PDF of the schedule. The interface they have for browsing it isn’t great, and their site is pretty slow. (The auto-playing video in the page header isn’t helping.) I do like that you can add panels to a personal schedule, and then print it out later. (I may have spoken too soon on that… I remember being able to print out the schedule last year, but I just checked and I don’t see any easy way to do it now. So I may be adding a bunch of stuff to a schedule that I can only view online. Ugh.) Well, either way, there’s plenty of interesting stuff going on, so I should be able to have a pretty good time.

After waiting an hour in the “virtual queue”, and spending an ungodly amount of money, I now have tickets for all four days of NYCC 2018. I had a good time last year, but only managed to get tickets for two days. This year, I’ll try to survive the full four-day con experience. When I was younger, I could get through a full four-day San Diego con with no problem, but as I get older, it’s hard to sustain my energy through four days of walking around a lot while carrying a backpack. We’ll see how it goes.

By a weird coincidence, I saw in my “On This Day” sidebar a post from 2005 referencing the announcement of the very first NYCC. (The link from that post is dead, but you can read it via archive.org here.) It’s been a highly successful con, overall. It’s hard to run a large con in New York, and other cons have failed. There have been some bumps in the road; for a few years, they didn’t seem to be managing the con well, and there were a lot of complaints about overcrowding. But last year wasn’t bad and they seem to have figured out crowd control, for the most part. So kudos to them for sticking it out and surviving!

I went into New York today for MoCCA Fest. I’d gone to it last year, and enjoyed it, so I went back again this year. Last year, I’d made a full day of it, hitting a couple of museums too. This year, I wasn’t as ambitious and just went to MoCCA Fest. (And I was lazy and took a cab from the train station and back, so I didn’t even get in much walking.)

Last year, I didn’t buy anything at all, nor did I go to any panels. This year, I went to one panel and bought one book, so I did a little better on that front. I bought a copy of March: Book Three, and got it signed by Nate Powell, so that was pretty cool. (I have digital copies of books one and two, though I haven’t read them yet.) Powell was one of their guests of honor, and had some of his art exhibited in the little gallery they set up.

I went to a Q&A panel with Jaime Hernandez, one of my favorite artists. He was there mostly to promote his new book The Dragon Slayer: Folktales from Latin America. He also talked about the new Studio Edition book from Fantagraphics, and about his work in general. I’ll probably pick up the Dragon Slayer book from Amazon; the Studio Edition book looks a little too expensive for me. Love and Rockets has been one my very favorite comics since the early days; I think the first issue I bought was #2, in 1982. I’ve never seen any of the Hernandez brothers in person before today though, so it was really cool to finally see Jaime. I probably should have stuck around long enough to get something signed by him, but I didn’t. I’m way behind in my L&R reading too. I have the whole New Stories series, all eight volumes, from Comixology, but I haven’t read any of them yet. That series ran from 2008 to 2016, so I guess I’m ten years behind. (Geez.)

I would also have liked to stick around for Mike Mignola’s panel, but it wasn’t until 3:30 and I didn’t want to stay in the city too late. I could have gotten something signed by him, too, if I’d wanted. When I first walked into the con, he was at his table, and there wasn’t a line, just a couple of guys chatting with him. But I hadn’t actually brought anything for him to sign. (I probably should have just asked him to sign my program book.) Maybe next time.

Overall, it was a fun little show. Lots of eccentric work on display, and pretty much zero super-hero stuff. A nice change of pace from a typical comic con.