On the weekend of February 24th, I spent the majority of my waking life at the first annual New York Comic Con. Having just moved to New York from a small town in southeastern Connecticut where the local comic shop was ten miles away, I was pretty much in awe for the first two days.
I had a satchel of comics to get signed, a camera, a voice recorder, a notepad, and I had every intention of doing some quality reporting. When I arrived Friday, I went straight to work. I spent a full hour slobbering at the grand list of people whose work I admired. I must have walked past Brian Wood’s booth ten times before I got the courage together to ask him to sign my first issue of Local.
After the first hour, I managed to pry myself from the convention floor and headed to the State of the Industry panel. Present were Joe Quesada of Marvel, Stuart Levy from Tokyopop, Paul Levitz from DC comics, Michael Silberkleit from Archie Comics, and Bill Schanes from Diamond Comic Distributers. They talked, among other things, about their own companies’ target audiences, the importance of trade paperbacks in bookstores to expand the readership, and the prevalence of superhero comics in the industry. Paul Levitz and Joe Quesada both talked about their efforts to expand their companies’ publications beyond the superhero genre.
Basically, it was pretty boring.
It wasn’t until the Mondo Marvel panel that I started to enjoy myself. A lot of upcoming titles and events were announced. It started with a slideshow, beginning with what Joe Quesada called the “beloved new Spider-Man costume.” The most newsworthy slide coincided with the announcement of a White Tiger miniseries that will be penned by novelist Tamora Pierce.
The panel also talked for a bit about the upcoming Moon Knight series. Joe Quesada described it as “one of the greatest reinventions of a Marvel character in years.” Charlie Huston, the writer of the series, said that it would involve a cast of old Moon Knight characters.
Also, Joe Quesada announced a new ongoing Ghost Rider series written by Daniel Way and penciled by Javier Saltares. Tom DeFalco talked for a bit about the end of Spider-Girl at issue 100, and his miniseries Last Planet Standing. He said that the MC2 universe might end with Last Planet Standing.
After the Marvel panel, I headed to the Vertigo panel and was surprised to see that, unannounced, Jonathan Ames, a favorite novelist of mine, was on the panel. A slideshow cycled through both new and old projects, but just about everything was news to me. Ames, it was announced, will be writing a graphic novel, drawn by Dean Haspiel, called The Alcoholic. From the title, it sounds like it won’t stray too far from the rest of his work. Haspiel will also be drawing the true-life story of Havey Pekar in American Splendor, which is coming to Vertigo.
One upcoming project that particularly intrigued me was Brian K. Vaughn’s upcoming Pride of Baghdad. The series is about a pride of lions which escape from the Baghdad zoo after the initial American bombing at the start of the present war in Iraq.
Two other titles were announced. The Other Side, a comic book from the Vertigo slush pile by first time comic writer Jason Aaron, is about two teen soldiers on opposite sides in the Vietnam war whose stories run parallel and finally intersect. Also, Incognegro was announced by Executive Editor Karen Berger as having one of the coolest titles for a comic. It features an undercover black man investigating the racist lynching of another African American. It looks like an innovative, thought-provoking thriller.
Saturday started with Paul Levitz walking into me outside the convention. It was a great way to start the day.
Shortly after my brush with the president of DC, I went to Joe Quesada’s event, featuring the EIC of Marvel himself. Quesada played a trailer for Civil War, which consisted of a flash animation with Steve McNiven artwork. He then went through a slide show, featuring the announcement of a co-operative enterprise between Marvel and Top Cow.
He also announced that John Romita Jr. had renewed his exclusive contract with Marvel again, and that he would be the artist working on Neil Gaiman’s Eternals. Personally, I’ve had mixed feelings over Romita’s art, but I think he suits the project perfectly, if only because his style most resembles that of Jack Kirby, the creator of the Eternals.
After a few more slides came the question and answer session. Quesada has a good enough sense of humor that this was both fun and informative. When a fan stood up and asked if, in the vein of Marvel Zombies, Quesada might consider doing Marvel Apes, Quesada said that he was genuinely interested.
I skipped the DC universe panel, passing up reporting for having a good time at the Kevin Smith event. I’ve seen clips of Kevin Smith’s talks, and they’ve been hilarious. This one was no different. Kevin Smith simply let the fans line up and ask him questions. He used questions as excuses to perform what amounted to a stand up comedy performance. I won’t even try to be as interesting as he was.
Later, I managed to pry myself from the convention floor and head over to Marvel’s Civil War panel. I got to see the Civil War trailer for the second time that day, and this second time, it got a little boring. Steve McNiven’s art is astounding, and the story looks like a good one, but somehow I think trailers should be limited to movies.
Some slides were shown of the various books leading up and coinciding with the Civil War miniseries. When it came time for the panelists to speak, Brian Michael Bendis outlined his “Disassembled” arc for New Avengers. Each issue of the five-issue story will deal with a specific character and be drawn by a rotating cast of A-list artists. When he was given the mike, Steve McNiven said of Civil War writer Mark Millar, “Mark’s mad. He’s completely insane.”
I can’t wait.
On Sunday, went to the Wildstorm panel because I figured I should do something worthy of my press badge on Sunday. I’ve never read a Wildstorm comic, so I had very little idea what the panel was talking about. They showed some slides with pretty art. Jim Lee announced that he will be doing a Wildcats revamp with Grant Morrision writing. He said that it will be action-packed. So far, he’s drawn the cover and thought a lot about it. He said he likes those thoughts. Hopefully this won’t make All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder ship even later.
After the Wildstorm panel, I ducked to the room next door for the Ultimate Universe panel. The Ultimate universe is how I got into comics two years ago, so I was excited to hear the merry Marvel team talk about what I consider to be their greatest line of books. Unfortunately, not too much was announced. Rumors of a “big crossover” continued through the panel, but what it was and who the artist would be were not announced. The biggest announcement was that Mike Carey and Pasqual Ferry will be following Mark Millar and Greg Land on Ultimate Fantastic Four. Considering the horrible reviews Carey and Ferry got for their Ultimate X4 miniseries, this announcement doesn’t bode well for what has been one of my favorite books published by Marvel.
Also discussed were the Ultimate annuals. Charlie Huston, writer of Moon Knight, will be writing the Ultimates annual—breaking from the tradition of having the writer of the main series write the annual. Brian Bendis also discussed the upcoming Ultimate Spider-Man annual. It features Daredevil, and will deal with the events following the Warriors story arc.
I’m excited, but I was hoping for more announcements from my last panel.
Throughout the convention, when I wasn’t attending I spent my time wandering the convention floor, talking to artists, writers, and dealers who I like to think slobbered all over my press badge. I collected more business cards than my wallet could hold, and got used to asking writers and artists to sign my comics. I even got a few free sketches, though I didn’t have the cash for full blown commissions.
As this was my first convention, I was surprised at how nice most of the creators were. They answered my questions, signed my comics, and a few even granted me interviews. They didn’t mind that I drooled all over their table, or that I ogled at the art they were creating. I had some great conversations and learned a lot about the comic industry, and the process of producing comics.
At one point, I looked over Mark Bagley’s shoulder at the Marvel panel. He was looking at completed pages for the Dark Tower comic by Stephen King. I didn’t get much of a look before he told me I wasn’t allowed to see the top secret Marvel documents, but I can say they were beautiful, and that they do illustrate an expanded version of the gunslinger’s childhood. I even spoke with Richard Isanove about coloring for Stephen King’s story.
Overall, I had a great time. As I’ve said, this was my first convention, and I was more than a little overwhelmed at first. But I had a great time, and I met a lot of people, and I even interviewed some. All together, it was a great convention. I can only hope that New York Comic Con continues for many years to come.
Casey Cosker lives, reads, writes, and occasionally studies at Pratt Institute in New York City. He spends his free time and money buying comic books and novels he can’t afford. He has been a self-proclaimed geek for several months now, and has no intention of changing his ways. He also has a hat.