I went to New York Comic Con, and it was amazing. If you follow me on twitter (@btolsen) you already got a lot of the play-by-play, but here are some pics and a lot more commentary. Behind the cut, because of a mountain of cosplay pictures.
I’m a pro! I had originally planned on only going to the con on Saturday, but I waited too long and the tickets were sold out. (I waited three days, but apparently waiting a half an hour would have also been too long.) I thought I was out of luck, but katedanley clued me in about the pro pass. All four days! I’ve got a golden ticket! It’s ours, Charlie!
Establishing shot! I headed up late for day one – I had to work on Thursday, but rushed up after to catch the tail end of the festivities. I started by walking the exhibitors’ floor – I always find this to be the most exhausting part of the con because of the crowds, and I thought Thursday would be the easiest day to tackle it. (Spoilers – I was correct.)
First cosplay sighting! Elastigirl and Mr. Incredible.
Fifth Doctor! There were a lot of Doctor Who cosplayers, I was happy to see. Didn’t get pics of as many of them as I wish. This is a pretty great Fifthie – I particularly like the magic marker drawn pattern on the sweater. Shows commitment. And it’s a smart costume for a con, because if you get hungry you can skip the overpriced food court and just eat the celery.
Really wish that guy vaping wasn’t in the back. Vaping. Ugh. I’ll just pretend he’s sucking on a sonic screwdriver.
I wandered by the GeeksOUT booth – gotta check in on my peeps – and met Jeff Krell, creator of the legendary comic strip Jayson. Jayson was created in 1983, although I discovered it in the ’90s in the Meatmen trade anthology of collected gay comics. Jeff was very nice, and I picked up a copy of the book he’s holding (which he signed for me). Looking forward to reading it – check out Jayson if you’ve never read it, it’s very sweet and funny.
Let me start by saying I don’t know why this picture is sideways and I can’t fix it. Sorry. Tilt your head. Or your monitor. Anyway, the whole reason I rushed to the Javitz Center after work was to attend a panel – “LGBT in Comics,” presented by NYTimesOUT and GeeksOUT (why does everybody shout OUT?). Pictured here, sideways, are panelists Phil Jimenez (of whom I’m a big fan) and Kieron Gillen (of whom I am also a big fan). Phil’s worked on tons of stuff, mostly as a penciller, though he did double-duty as writer on a terrific run of Wonder Woman. Kieron Gillen I’m mostly familiar with through his work as writer of Journey into Mystery and Young Avengers.
Here’s another panelist, Luciano Vecchio, penciler for some of Marvel’s digital Infinite Comics. To be honest, I had never heard of him before, but I took a picture because, come on. Look at him. And he’s Argentinian. You could hear the whole audience swoon when he opened his mouth. (Oh, did you think this was going to be an intelligent narrative about my con experiences? You haven’t read my work, then?)
Just another picture of Phil and Kieron, not as good but Phil seems to be looking directly at me, and I didn’t notice that until just now. Anyway, the rest of the panelists were Jamie McKelvie, penciler for Young Avengers, Annie Mok, mostly indie cartoonist, and Noelle Stevenson, co-creator of Lumberjanes, a comic about girls at a summer camp battling monsters in the woods which everyone should buy right now because it is AMAZING.
The panel was great. I’m afraid my memory is terrible and I didn’t take any notes, so I can’t relate too many details, but Annie Mok and Phil Jimenez in particular made a lot of great comments about working as LGBT in the industry. Phil raised the question about whether straight white cisgendered guys could get away with including diversity in their work much easier with major publishers because it would be seen as “cool,” whereas gay or trans or POC creators would be seen as pushing an agenda.
Kieron Gillen is great, and one thing I love about his work is how diverse and inclusive it is, but I winced a bit when he responded – he sort of handwaved it away as not an issue anymore. He wasn’t as dismissive as I’m making it sound – it didn’t seem to bother anybody else, so I’m probably being oversensitive. Whether the actual publishers at DC and Marvel feel the way Phil described anymore I would have no way of knowing, but certainly huge portions of fandom do. But those people suck, so let’s move on.
Hey, look, it’s Captain Marvel! Captain Marvel was very popular this year, I was happy to see. Also, the new Ms. Marvel, although I don’t think I got any pictures of any Kamala Khans, unfortunately.
Wonder Woman and Batwoman! I saw them holding hands leaving the LGBT panel and had to chase them down to get a picture. I would like to be both of these women when I grow up.
Thursday was obviously a short day, since I had gotten there so late, and after the panel I started the long schlog home.
Thursday’s loot! I had given myself a strict budget, and didn’t want to blow it all on day one. I got the aforementioned Jayson book, signed by the author, plus the first issue of Titan Comics Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor comics, which isn’t in stores yet.
I’ll break this up into three posts, one per day. More shortly!
