I’m in the midst of a con marathon. A conathon, let’s say. Yesterday I attended my second of three cons in three weeks – Special Edition NYC. It’s run by ReedPOP, who also produce New York Comic Con (as well as Book Con, which I went to last week), and it’s sort of a mini-NYCC. It’s a con devoted exclusively to comics, and it’s on a somewhat smaller scale. It wasn’t at the Javits Center this year, but rather at Pier 94. I only decided to go a few days ago, when I saw they still had tickets available. I was getting out of two straight weeks of tech for shows I’ve been directing, and the thought of giving up a restful Saturday was not appealing, but I decided I’d regret it if I let it pass by. I was second-guessing my decision, though, when I arrived and saw the line.
Pier 94 is at W. 54th Street. The con began at 10, and I arrived at about ten of. The line wound out the door, through a small park next to the venue, then out along Twelfth Avenue. It got up to W. 59th Street, crossed Twelfth, and went halfway up the avenue block towards Eleventh. And people continued to fill in the line behind me – I have no idea where it eventually stopped.
That’s a long line. It took me about fifteen minutes to walk from the start to the end of it. It started moving pretty quickly, at least – I assume they opened the doors promptly at ten. The above picture was taken on Twelfth, somewhere in the vicinity of 57th Street. We stopped there for a while, but things picked up again and by around 10:30, I was in!
Well, almost. I reached the building, at least. After another short wait I got to the Will Call line to pick up my badge, and then I was in!
Here’s a shot of the exhibition floor. It being on a pier and all, the hall is mostly one long rectangle. The vendors are toward the front, Artists’ Alley further back, and the dining area at the rear. There were two theaters hosting panels, next to each other, just off to the right. I thought I was going to miss the first panel, but it turned out it didn’t start until 10:45, so I just made it. But first, cosplayers!
Let me just apologize once and get it out of the way (note – I will probably apologize repeatedly) – my camera’s kind of crappy. I usually have to take multiple shots to get one good one, but I don’t like to make the cosplayers wait around for me, so I take one and hope for the best. Sometimes the best is not so hot. But anyway, here’s Blue Beetle and Booster Gold! I love cosplayers, they’re one of the most enjoyable parts of a convention for me. (I was really hoping there’d be some literary cosplayers at Book Con last week, but apart from one half-hearted Harry Dresden, nobody bothered.)
Here’s the line-up for the first panel I attended, “So Where Do You Get Your Ideas…and What Do You Do with Them?” From left to right, that’s moderator Heidi MacDonald, with panelists Alex de Campi, Joe Harris, and Brandon Graham.
I think that’s who’s who, at least. Special Edition’s web site is not great about listing panelists – I get the feeling a lot of line-ups were up in the air until the very last minute. (Brandon Graham is not listed on the site, somebody else who wasn’t there is, but Heidi MacDonald’s Twitter feed came to my rescue.) The panel schedule was very much in my favor, in terms of being able to see whatever I wanted – Theater 1 held all of the promotional panels from the comics companies while Theater 2 held the craft panels. The promotional panels are much more popular, but I don’t care about those in the slightest – it’s all just hype, and I’ll hear anything of interest on some comics news site before the day is out anyway. So all of the panels I wanted to attend were easy to get into, and easy to get a good seat for. The only real problem was that the two theaters were only divided by a curtain, so despite the sound amplification it could be hard to hear over the cheers from next door. A small gripe, and as long as the panelists swallowed their microphones it was mostly fine. I’m not sure how this could be fixed, apart from moving back to the Javits Center next year.
This panel was reasonably interesting. Alex de Campi writes Archie vs. Predator, a series out now that is as absurd and wonderful as it sounds, so I was happy to hear from her. I wasn’t familiar with the other two, but they both had some good things to say about how an initial idea is turned into a full story. I can’t say I really learned anything, but they were full of good advice for the questioners in the audience.
I had a good hour and a half before the next panel I wanted to attend, plenty of time to explore the floor and take more pictures of cosplayers.
Just outside my panel I caught this intimidating/sexy duo, Batwoman and Nightwing. Love the white eyes on the Batwoman mask.
None of the vendors really caught my interest – I don’t buy single issue comics anymore, as my existing collection already fills my apartment. I read everything digitally and buy trades of the stuff I really like, but I can get those easy enough elsewhere. (Although for some reason The Seven Soldiers of Victory Archives – Volume 1 has become my great white whale at these conventions. I have volume two and love it and I want to get the first. Yes, I know I can get it online very cheaply, but it won’t be as satisfying as hunting for it and finding it in a bin. Don’t try and follow my logic, I haven’t got any.)
So I bypassed the vendors and headed to Artists’ Alley, my favorite part of any con. I love strolling through and taking in all the original artwork, and getting a peep at some my comics heroes. Like this guy.
Phil Foglio! I’ve been loving his stuff since the golden age of Dragon Magazine. He’s holding the book I bought from him, the trade paperback of the comic adaptation of Myth Adventures. I was astounded that his table wasn’t swamped – the guy’s a legend!
I wandered some more, and snapped pics of what cosplayers I could.
Spider-man (love the webbing backpack) and Daredevil.
Blurry Huntress. (Sorry.)
Batgirl!
I loved this Plastic Man, I wish I had gotten a better shot.
The Scarlet Witch and the Vision! Who says you can’t put together a good costume with what you’ve already got in your closet?
I grabbed lunch at the cafe in the back – not a lot of selection (hot dogs was it for hot food), but for a convention it was pretty reasonably priced. Somewhat recharged, I made my way back to Theater 2 for my next panel, “#blackcomicsmonth: Diversity in Comics.” This was far and away the best panel of the day.
The hashtag #BlackComicsMonth was created by Miz Caramel Vixen this past February for Black History Month to highlight the lack of diversity of characters and creators in comics. Since diversity is needed 365 days a year, not just 28, she created the website blackcomicsmonth.com to push the message that “every month is black comics month!” Vixen was the organizer and moderator of the panel, and I’m very sorry that I didn’t get a usable picture of her. This was far and away the most popular panel in Theater 2 all day, and I was seated a little further back than my poor camera could handle.
There were so many creators I couldn’t get them all in one picture, but from left to right above is (I hope) Kim Gaines, Alitha E. Martinez, Amy Chu, Greg Pak, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, Valentine De Landro, and Skuds McKinley. Just out of shot is Che Grayson (but you can see her in one of the pics below). It’s a pretty impressive line-up.
And yes, it’s THAT Darryl “DMC” McDaniels. He makes comics now, but I have to admit I enjoyed more his stories about the origins of Run DMC.
It was a great discussion, steered well by Miz Vixen. The overall message was very positive – although minorities are clearly underrepresented in comics, these creators said they don’t receive much, if any, push-back from editors or publishers when they create more diverse characters. Hopefully things will continue to progress.
A short ways into the panel, there was a surprise addition…
Brian Michael Bendis took time out of his all-day signing to join. He told some great stories about the creation of Miles Morales, the Ultimate Spider-man, and what it meant to people when such an iconic character was reimagined as a person of color.
And as if all that wasn’t enough, they also gave out a ton of comics. I got a copy of the first issue of Alex de Campi’s No Mercy, which I had wanted to check out after seeing her on the previous panel. Hooray!
This was the first of three panels in a row I wanted to see, so I just stayed put as the panel got out. Next up was “Publishers Weekly Presents: People in Comics,” which is about as vague a title as you’re going to get. The description in the guidebook suggested it would also be about diversity, so I thought I’d give it a shot.
Calvin Reid (unpictured) was the moderator, with panelists Regine Sawyer, Dylan Meconis, and Natalie Nourigat. I confess I had never heard of any of them, but they all seemed interesting enough. I sat through their initial comments, but I was finding the topic a little loose – there really wasn’t any mention of diversity and they all just seemed to be talking about whatever. Which is fine, and the panel may have gotten more interesting, but I really had to pee and the only men’s room was halfway back across the pier. So I snuck out. My apologies to all of you. But hey, more cosplayers!
Loved, loved, loved this Silver Age Jimmy Olsen. Perfection!
Mera! Also you can see a really good Loki off to the side, whom I never managed to pin down for a pic.
Hawkman! Distressing lack of beefcake at this con so I was happy to stumble upon this guy. (I have high hopes that Flame Con will make up for this lack next weekend.)
Having skipped out on a panel I had a good amount of time until the next one, but I had pretty much already seen everything I wanted to see. I bought two more comics – a self-published anthology from Amy Chu, whom I had really enjoyed at the first panel, and then a one-shot called Bacchanalia by Molly Ostertag. I don’t usually buy comics without knowing anything about them – and I had never heard of Ostertag – but she seemed nice and the comic looked kind of gay, plus it’s about Bacchus, my favorite god, so I figured what the hell.
When you’ve got time on your hands, fill it with alcohol, is my motto. Okay, not really, that’s a terribly self-destructive motto, but I did buy a glass of wine to pass the time. No chairs available, so I just sat down on the floor and chugged it down. I’m classy like that. They were not stingy with the pour – it was a gigantic plastic cup filled to the brim, so I was in fine spirits as I staggered back to the last panel. There wasn’t much of a crowd so I got right up front for “Freelance Like a Rock Star.”
I thought I didn’t know any of the panelists, but the one on the left is Molly Ostertag, from whom I had just bought a comic moments before. Neat! Next to her is Katie Lane, Ron Chan, Cat Farris, and moderator Lucy Bellwood. I really enjoyed this panel, and not just because I was drunk. I can’t say I got much from it – I was hoping for some tips on my own freelance writing career, but the whole thing was very illustrator-focused. Still, all of the panelists were smart, and the topic was fascinating, even if not particularly relevant to me.
There was one more panel I was somewhat interested in, a fannish discussion about movie and TV adaptations, but it was an hour away and I had pretty much run out of con to see, so I decided not to wait. But I did do one more circuit for cosplayers before heading out the door.
Speedsters! That’s Impulse, Kid Flash, and the Golden Age Flash.
Superman’s always gotta horn in on the speedster’s races. It’s like, come on, Superman, you have so many other powers, let them have the super-speed. I don’t know why Superboy’s even trying, he doesn’t stand a chance.
I am living for this Dick Tracy costume. I would wear that out, not even as cosplay.
Hawkwoman! She did not appear to be with the Hawkman I spotted earlier – I wonder if they connected?
And that’s it for Special Edition NYC. Less to see and do than Comic Con, but that also made it a lot less stressful. I’m glad I went, as tired as I was. I’ll leave you with my haul. Hey, kids, comics!
