Last day at the con, for me. Panels and cosplayers beyond the cut…
I got there bright and early – well, eleven-ish, which for me is practically dawn – and was reminded of just how packed this con gets on Saturday. So many people! And I’m a New Yorker, I’m used to crowds!
I spotted these two right of the bat, posing for pictures – the Hound and Arya from Game of Thrones. With chicken.
I had time before my first panel, so I braved the show floor once again. It was slow going – lots of bodies, minimal walking room.
Right inside the entrance was a big pavilion set up to promote the third Hobbit movie. I didn’t poke around, it was too crowded, but the giant Smaug head was cool. (It opened its eyes from time to time.)
A quintet of archers! I could be wrong on which versions of their characters they’re doing, but I believe that’s shipwrecked comics Green Arrow, movie universe Clint Barton Hawkeye, comics Clint Barton Hawkeye, Kate Bishop Hawkeye, and Mike Grell era Green Arrow. Ptwang!
I chased these two down to get a picture – love my classic Doctors. That’s Four and Two. They were both very nice and she gave me an actual jelly baby! Somehow I’ve gone my whole life without having a real one. It was quite good.
First panel was (deep breath) “These Are My People/Aliens/Zombies/Vampires/Dragons!: Building Community in the SciFi/Fantasy World.” It was a panel of prose writers discussing how to engage with and build a readership. It was a great panel – extremely helpful. To be honest, a lot of the tips I’ve probably heard before, but I tend to be bad at following through and it was useful to hear it all again.
The panel was moderated by Petra Meyer from NPR Books, and featured (left to right) Sanford Greene, Trevor Pryce, Arwen Elys Dayton, N.K. Jemisin, Nicholas Sansbury Smith, Richard Kadrey, Daniel Jose Older, and (not pictured) Jerzy Drozd. There was a huge focus on social media – everyone was very insistent on how important it was to get yourself out there on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr and connect with your readers on a genuine, personal level. I tend to be terrible about that, but I’m trying to get better. (Case in point – I was just going to post these pics on my personal Facebook page, like I usually do, but I thought they might be of interest to someone besides my friends and family. Hadn’t really intended on posting such a long-winded account of my entire weekend…so for the three of you still reading, I hope you’re enjoying it.)
Well, I said everyone was insistent about social media, but there was one exception. Trevor Pryce was very down on the whole idea of it. He was insisting on the importance of direct, personal interaction with fans – he writes children’s literature, and talked about going into schools, or even panels such as this one. It’s a valid point – certainly in-person communication is better, I don’t think anyone was arguing that it’s not – but it seemed like he had blinders on about the topic. I doubt most of the aspiring writers in the audience have a whole lot of opportunities to speak to crowds of people – we don’t have publishing houses behind us to get us invited to speak at comic con. The other writers were being much more helpful, with tips we could actually follow, and he kept interrupting or rolling his eyes or making snide comments. The other panelists didn’t seem to mind – or they didn’t express it if they did – but I thought it was a little rude. Dayton was saying something about how her fans enjoy when she talks on Facebook about her travels, and he loudly said, “No!” (Or maybe “Don’t!” – I can’t quite remember.) Everyone laughed politely, but it was essentially an attempt to shut down someone he didn’t agree with. I don’t know if he was pushing back because everyone else disagreed with him and he felt defensive, but it really turned me off. Had the opposite effect of what he was advocating, in my case – I’ve got plenty of nieces and nephews who read, but I don’t have any interest in picking up his books for them.
I’m spending a lot of time on what was really a small bump in the panel. It was otherwise really terrific. Nicholas Sansbury Smith started out as a self-published author (unlike all of the others), and he had some great advice about how to interact with Goodreads, a community I’ve had some difficulty getting used to. After the panel, I was pausing to tweet outside the door and he came out. I ambushed him and told him I appreciated his advice. We chatted for a bit and he offered some more good tips. So this is my plug for his being so nice and helpful – I’m going to try out the first book in his series, Orbs, and you should too! Find him at nicholassansbury.com.
I tried to get into a panel on “Strong Female Characters,” but the line had been capped – Saturday’s quite busy, remember. So, lunch instead. (Both days I brought a sandwich with me – the lines and the prices are not worth it. Pro tip!)
I spotted this delightful woman cosplaying as Ma Hunkel, the original Red Tornado. I am a massive golden-age comics fan so I have to get pictures of anybody I can find cosplaying as a forties hero. Ma Hunkel was a great character and this costume is spot on. She said her husband was the original Flash, and I spotted him later (but didn’t get a picture). He looked great, too.
Then it was back up the show floor for a bit, where I met this strapping young lad.
He can master my universe any time. (Ugh. I hate myself for that.)
Barf and Dark Helmet! Dark Helmet kept calling everyone assholes. But in a funny way.
I promised Kate Danley – katedanley – I would stop by the 47North booth and say hello on her behalf, so here’s a very rare shot of me at the con, along with 47North’s Courtney Miller.
Do you like my shirt? I sort of love it. On Thursday I was dressed for work, and on Friday I wore a nice button-down for the speed dating thing (blergh), so I wanted to be sure to proclaim my fandom on Saturday.
I had to rush downstairs to get to a panel, but I paused long enough for a shot of this villainous duo:
Brainiac and Lex Luthor!
When I say I was rushing to get to the next, what I mean is I was slowly fighting my way through this:
I needed to be at the other end. I just wanted to be sure to give you a sense of the crowd. I know it’s nothing on San Diego, from what I’ve heard, but still. That’s a lot of geeks in one place. Isn’t it great? And a little scary?
As much as I was afraid of not making my panel, I couldn’t just run by a Weeping Angel without looking. That would be foolhardy! Of course, an image of a Weeping Angel becomes a Weeping Angel, so sorry for killing you all.
I made it to the panel on time – “#YesAllGeeks: Let’s Talk About Harassment in Fandom.” Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pics, but it was moderated by Diana Pho and featured Mikki Kendall, Marlene Bonnelly, Emily Asher-Perrin, and Robert Anders. It was a really interesting look at how far fandom, and convention spaces in particular, have come (or haven’t come) in the area of preventing harassment. NYCC has a clearly stated and posted policy regarding harassment, which was a great thing to see when I first walked in, but it’s still a massive problem at cons and in fandom in general, particularly online. The panelists all had great things to say, particularly Mikki Kendall – I made a note to myself to look her up later and check out some of her writing.
Then it was back down to Artists’ Alley for another walkabout, and to take a closer look at some of the artists I had to rush by yesterday. And of course, take some more picture of cosplayers!
Doom! Love the shredded Fantastic Four uniform in his hand – I didn’t notice that at the time.
Jubilee and Green Arrow! He totally flexed for the picture, and I appreciate that.
Classic TV Batman and Catwoman! So much awesome. He had a speaker hidden on him somewhere that was playing the theme song.
Teen Titans! That’s Speedy, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash and Aqualad. I spotted them a little later and they had the full set – there was also a Robin – but I didn’t want to bother them again. (Kind of wishing I had, now.) I like that Aqualad is giving me fish-face.
On my way out I passed Dark Phoenix and Vega (from Street Fighter). I asked for a picture and he started to step away – I made it quite clear that I wanted both of them. I wanted them to know I wasn’t just some creep who only wanted a picture of the hot girl. I was some creep who wanted a picture of the hot couple.
I thought an hour early would be sufficient to get into that day’s Doctor Who panel, but I was laughably wrong. The line was long since capped, so I went to my back-up, “Geeks, Gaymers and Crossplay,” presented again by NYTimesOUT.
From left to right, that’s JP Larocque, Matt Conn, Rex Ogle, Alexa Heart, Joey Stern, and moderator Jude Biersdorfer. It was a nice enough panel. Very white, and also pretty guy-centric, except for the moderator and Alexa Heart. Nothing particularly revelatory, but interesting stories from some fun people. Mostly a lot of talk about how far there still is to go, and lots of gaming discussion, which isn’t really my thing.
An audience member asked about intersectionality and I didn’t think it was handled too well – that was when the whiteness of the panel jumped out at me. Rex Ogle trotted out that trope about gay men all having “a strong black woman” inside them, which made me wince. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for diva worshiping, but gay men calling themselves black women smacks of appropriation. I feel the same when a drunk straight woman at a bar tells me she’s “basically a gay man.” No, honey. No, you’re not.
Other than that it was harmless fun, and it’s great that there are multiple panels about diversity and about LGBT issues to choose from at the con. (I’m moving on quickly because I was about to go off on a rant, and that’s not really what these posts are about…)
Marko and Gwendolyn from Saga! Gwendolyn was the one who asked about intersectionality at the panel. They were sitting in front of me and I had to get a picture. Saga is awesome, and you should read it.
I thought I would never get in to the next panel as it was just about to start, but my luck was changing.
“Women of DC Entertainment” had a star-studded cast. I’ll try to get this right – L to R we’ve got moderator Amanda Salmons, Shelly Bond (editor for Vertigo imprint), Caitlin Kittredge (writer of Coffin Hill), Babs Tarr (new artist on Batgirl), Meredith Finch (new writer on Wonder Woman), Becky Cloonan (artist on Gotham Academy), Gail Simone (writer of Secret Six), Marguerite Bennett (writer on Earth 2: World’s End), Bobbie Chase (DC Comics editor), and (not pictured because she snuck in late) Amanda Conner (artist on Harley Quinn).
This was fine. It was a corporate panel, rather than a discussion like the others I had attended, so it was all about plugging upcoming projects. With forty-five minutes and nine panelists, there wasn’t a lot of time for each person to speak. I came out of it excited for Gail Simone’s new Vertigo project, Clean Room, and for Gotham Academy. I came out less than enthused about the new team on Batgirl, but I’ll give it a chance. And I’m a big Earth 2 fan, and Bennett saying writing Power Girl and Huntress is her favorite part has has me hopeful she’ll handle it well, and we’ll get some actual characterization in between all the disaster porn this title promises.
And that was it. I wandered towards the exit, not really wanting it to be over. One last cosplayer:
I thought at first he was Man of Steel Superman, but the Javitz Center wasn’t a pile of rubble so I think he’s Nu52 Superman.
I remembered I only had one picture of myself so I tried for a selfie:
Meh. I was happy – that’s just what my face does. And that was it. One last thing to do – check out the loot!
Huh. Sideways again. Sorry. Anyway, I was obviously a little freer with my money on Saturday.
Starting from the top left – uh, if you turn your head and pretend the picture is oriented correctly, that is – that’s Flutter by Jennie Wood. I had never heard of her, but she was signing and selling at the GeeksOUT booth and I took a chance. I believe it’s teen fantasy romance with a trans twist, and the art looked good.
Next to that is the third G-Man collection, Coming Home, by Chris Giarrusso. I love his work – he did Mini-Marvels, a comedy strip in the back of most Marvel comics for a while. I had already read this in single issue form, but I wanted to support him, and I already own the first two volumes and wanted the set. Plus, he signed it and drew a sketch of G-Man. And he’s handsome. What else could I ask for?
Redshirts is just a book I bought, no story to tell. I heard good things and picked it up at the publisher’s table. It was pre-signed, but I didn’t meet the author.
In the Blood was free. Don’t know a thing about it. But hey, free stuff.
And S.H.O.O.T. First is another series I’ve already read in single issue format, but it was great and I wanted the trade. The artist was there, and he signed it. Atheists versus monsters – right up my alley! Fighting evil with the power of non-belief. Check it out if you haven’t head of it, it’s really good.
So I left New York Comic Con feeling excited and inspired, and not at all tired. I met some great people and a personal hero or two, had a lot of fun, bought some cool stuff, and, most importantly, got some good advice for my writing. How long until NYCC15?
