New York Comic Con 2010 Day 2

This is my third year living in New York and I still managed to ride the subway in the wrong direction for three stops before I noticed my mistake. Thank goodness for the unlimited ride Metro card.

But I righted myself and was outside Penn Station at 10am, just in time to meet Superdog. Superdog's human and I were both late to meet people outside the Javits Center and the crosstown bus was no where in sight. "You want to share a cab?" she asked me (the human, not the dog). I said, "You know, I've lived in New York for two years and I've never shared a cab before? Let's do it!" So I cabbed to Comic Con with Superdog.

Saturday is a terrible day to be at the con. There were 80,000 people attending and the exhibition floor was so crowded that I nearly panicked like on the day of the Mermaid Parade, except here there was no parade barrier I could jump to get out of the seething mob. I just had to keep my cool long enough to get back to Artists Alley, where I got a hand-drawn and signed Batman Kitty from indie comic artist Katie Cook. I popped into the MTV Geek panel long enough to see Stan Lee speak, cuz dude is ancient and each con could be his last. Then I saw some stand-up at the Geek Comedy Tour stage and got one of my Authority paperbacks signed by its writer, Andy Lanning while my friend Reg attended the Voiceover in Animation panel.
While waiting for the Vertigo panel to start, we got sucked into conversation with a cultural stereotype: fat pasty guy who wouldn't shut up about a comic book character he'd created. People like him drag the rest of us down.

And people like Catwoman here lift us up. I hung out with this woman the day that I was an extra on the set of "Bored to Death," and recognized her instantly because of the quality of her costume. She made it herself from the same material and design as Julie Newmar's Catwoman costume in the 1960s Batman show.

The Vertigo panel was kind of boring. Shame--that's the imprint I read most often. I've noticed that the panels with the longest lines aren't necessarily the most entertaining, especially if they're the big name companies putting all of their big-gun artists and writers on stage together. These people rarely see each other, so watching them is like being at a very awkward cocktail party.

No, for me, the best panels are the small niche ones, like Do Zombies Dream of Undead Sheep? because the panelists all know each other and they aren't trying to sell you anything. The Comics Alliance panel was awesome, too, good rapport amongst the panelists, AND they gave out DC-themed Hostess snack cakes to audience members who asked questions. The Flash cakes were okay, basically just a cupcake with red icing, but the Green Lantern Glo-Balls were VILE. First of all, I don't want to eat Green Lantern's balls; and second, the layer of green coconut marshmallow icing smothering the whole thing tastes and feels like chewing on a condom.

I had two.

Spending all day at the con is exhausting. I wanted to leave after the Vertigo panel--Reg and I were both nodding off in our chairs--but there was a panel I desperately wanted to see at 8:30, so I just attended four panels back to back. At least then I could be sitting down. After Vertigo, Comics Alliance, the zombie panel, and the LGBT in Comics panel (which was a lot less interesting than it should have been), it was finally time for my most anticipated event of the day: ItsJustSomeRandomPanel with ItsJustSomeRandomGuy. IJSRG has a YouTube channel where he uses his superhero action figures and some Barbies to act out these Marvel/DC crossover stories he writes with his wife. They are flipping awesome. It was the second-longest line I stood in at the whole con, and it was totally worth it.

To summarize then: Superdog, enormous mob, Stan Lee, zombies, Glo-Balls, guy with dolls. Day 2 of NYCC. View all the photos on my Flickr stream.

New York Comic Con--Day 1

sorry for typos and lack of pictures, but I'm out the door for day 2!

Riding the bus from Penn Station to the Javits Center, I see a stream of people walking into Manhattan wearing costumes, superhero t-shirts, and con passes. It's 6 in the evening and I just got off work to come to the con for the Venture Bros. panel, and so glad I am that it takes place at 8, giving me enough time to dash there from Brooklyn.

Best part of NYCC on Friday night: I go into the convention center through the main doors and immediately run into Doc Hammer, Venture Bros. co-creator and voice actor. Literally. Brother almost stepped on me on his mad dash out the door for either a Starbucks or a shot of whiskey, or maybe a really cute fangirl invited him to her car, I'm not sure.

I get in line early for the Venture Bros. panel--so early that I end up sitting through the Robot Chicken panel before it. While in line, some people in front of my try to start a wave. He gives it about five tries, and each time more people catch on to what's happening, but it always stalls at the same clump of people about twenty feet behind me.

Overheard in the line: "What the hell? You're too cool to do the wave? Dude, you're already here at the con, dressed up as a character you used to fantasize about in middle school, but you can't do the wave because 'it's not cool'?"

In the IGN Theater, it's standing room only. I'm alone--not because I'm a loser, but because my con-buddy can't make it until Saturday--and I spy an empty seat in the packed hall.

"Is someone sitting here?" I ask the thin, pasty young gentleman sitting next to it.

He looks me right in the eye and says, "Yeah, you."

And that's why I love the con. My people.

Neil Gaiman Speaks; Big Island Rachel Swoons

This story begins, as so many of mine do, with a comic book.

The first comic book I ever read was "Sandman," by Neil Gaiman. I was thirteen, and "Sandman" not only started my love affair with the medium, it also started my near-obsession with this eclectic British author living outside of Minneapolis. He's written comics, adult books, young adult books, children's books, screenplays, songs, and poems. If I had to describe his work to others, I'd say he writes "fantasy," but that's not quite right. "Lord of the Rings" is fantasy; Harry Potter is fantasy. Characters and events in regular fantasy exist in universes separate but parallel to ours. But Gaiman's work is concerned with the twilight area where fantasy worlds rub up against the real world, and how things and people are changed by encountering that in-between space.

I can't overestimate how much Gaiman has shaped me as a writer and a reader. Put it this way: before I began reading his work, when people asked me who my favorite author was, I didn't have an answer. And while I am wont to exaggerate and tell bold-faced lies, I am telling the truth on this one. There was nobody before Gaiman.

Last Sunday, I saw him speak at the Director's Guild Theater in Midtown and thanked all the gods that ever were that I live in New York City. It was one of the highlights of my little life.

Gaiman is a fabulous public speaker. (I didn't care much for the woman who was asking him questions, Dana Goodyear, but she knew who we all were there to see and just stayed out of his way.) I took copious notes during his talk because yes, I am a MASSIVE nerd, and I'd like to now share with you some quotes from that magical afternoon:

"I know the Q&A part is going to be very intelligent, this being New York. Well, you all will ask intelligent questions. I'll just waffle. And you'll like it."

"I don't consider myself a prolific writer because I know prolific writers. Terry Pratchett, for instance, since getting Alzheimer's has only written 5 books." [Terry Pratchett was just diagnosed earlier this year.]

"I used to do most of my writing at night. After midnight, everyone in England would shut down, so I'd have to phone an American if I wanted to chat. But then I gave up coffee and cigarettes and failed at being nocturnal."

"America is very strange. Winter can kill you. And no one in the Midwest seems to have a problem with that. Do you people not know this is odd?"

"The universe is perfectly us-shaped."

About the night his Sandman comic "A Midsummer Night's Dream" won the World Fantasy Award. "There can be gradations of unique, damnit! And that night, I was very unique." [That's an English major's joke.]

"I feel bad at signings when I see people with those enormous "Sandman" editions, the dangerously huge books. The smart ones bring wheelie carts. Or children."

To the audience while introducing his newest short film: "Why are we here? Obviously it's to suffer and die and create art. But we're here in New York to screen my film."

About writing a Doctor Who episode. "I remember being three years old at school, and you'd get your one-third pint of milk and put your little bendy straw in it and go 'Exterminate! Exterminate!'" He did a great Dalek voice, too.

And then he signed my comic book. I got a little weepy. Massive nerd, I know. Heaven help us all when I get back from Comic Con this weekend.

On a related note, it's Gaiman Week over at Big Island Rachel's Books! My review of "Coraline" is up now, and will be followed by "Good Omens" (co-written with Terry Pratchett), and then, if there's time before Comic Con, "American Gods."