|
U talkin' to me?
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: NYC Metro
Posts: 556
|
NYCC 2015 Report
**For pics, see my Instagram account at king_ghost9**
My hometown con was once again fantastic. It was great hanging out with friends (Anthony - Behold Gravitas, Octavio - Bishop40, and Vinny - soon to be on SF), as well as virtually with Carlos, David, & Cam. Anthony & I had exhibitor badges this year due to helping out a friend who was set up at the show, so it was extremely nice to get there early each day and walk the show floor & artists' alley before the crowds arrived. The queue lines and crowd management seemed to work more smoothly than ever, especially considering the largest crowd ever this year and the 10-year anniversary of the show.
I had a pretty limited budget going into the show, so my main goals were to get quite a bit of progress made on my X-Men jam page and to snag a few signatures/sketches in my hardcover collections. I managed to arrange a meeting with Luke Ross & Will Conrad (both Marvel artists, from Brazil) on Wednesday to drop off my jam at their hotel for pick-up at the con Thursday. Luke did Archangel, and Will did Beast - both of which look excellent! Good start to the show, given I had two characters in the books before it even started!
Met with Anthony & another friend, John, at 8:30 on Thursday. Got into the Javits early, took a few pics at the DC booth and then headed into Artists Alley. Got to talk to some artists as they set up - old friends V Ken Marion and Jordan Gunderson. After chatting for a while, my main goal was to try to get David Finch on Wolverine on my jam. I was first in his line as the show started, but Dave was a late arrival. Fearing that I might miss out (again) on Adi Granov, Terry Dodson, Tyler Kirkham, and Simone Bianchi, I left the line and ventured out. Tyler didn't arrive until Friday, so I went to Granov and got my head sketch arranged. Talked to Dodson, then went back to Finch's line. At that point, he was there, and of course the line had formed. Dave was doing "wait in line" sketches all weekend, so I decided to try again Friday and not miss out on crucial Thursday set-ups. Visted Bianchi's table and picked up a nice penciled Storm cover pre-lim. Simone is extremely jovial and a fun guy to be around. Very accomodating and easygoing. Afterwards, Anthony & ventured out onto the show floor to try and get the Convention Exclusive (limited to 300 copies) hardcover of Descender from the Image booth. Fortunately, we snagged one, but it was a 30 minute trek there and back to AA. I have never seen the main show floor that crowded on a Thursday, but it was jamming! Stopped by Anthony Snyder's booth to see if Esad was taking commissions. Ribic wasn't there, but got to catch up with Snyder a bit. The rest of the day was spent getting signatures & mini sketches from a few of my favorite artists at the show - Phil Noto, Dustin Nguyen, and Annie Wu. I picked up my Iron Man Mark III headsketch from Adi Granov. Very pleased with the result, and once again Adi & Tamsin prove to be extremely friendly and easy to deal with. I bought a sketchbook from Jeff Dekal, one of my new go-to artists. Didn't get any jam additions done on Thursday, which was somewhat disappointing, but it was only day 1 of 4.
On Friday, I again got there pretty early. Staked out in Finch's line as #1. I didn't use Dave on my jam because the price would have been the same for it and a full stand-alone piece. I opted for Batman, and really enjoyed the next hour (!), watching Dave work and chatting with him & Meredith. Great couple. From there, I went to Phil Jimenez' line at Spencer's (The Artist's Choice) booth. I was second in line & enjoyed getting to know a nice young couple in front of me while we waiting on Phil to get there. He arrived on time and did an amazing Black Cat for the guy in front of me. I was next and asked Phil to do Cyclops on my jam. Phil really took his time with it, and offered a lot of help with the layout of the character. Of course it's always great to visit with him as well. Such a nice guy. Dan Slott was signing next to him, so Octavio & I got to interject in some of his hilarious stories. Next, I took the jam to Tyler Kirkham. My intent was to have him do Rogue, but he was feeling Wolverine a little bit more. Fine by me, so I left it with him overnight. I got a few more signatures, then ventured out on the show floor to look around a bit more before settling into Adam Kubert's signing line at the Kubert School booth. The show floor didn't seem as crazy on Friday as it did on Thursday, but maybe that's because it was later in the afternoon (4:00ish) when I went out. So, I stood in line for Kubert for an hour or so. I was second in line, and surprisingly, there were only about 15 people behind me. Adam shows up and something crazy happens. He hands a small portfolio to his assistant (a guy who just graduated from the Kubert school) and says "These are for sale" to him. The guy opens up the portfolio, notes there are no prices, and asks Adam how much they are. Adam says "five for the larger ones and two for the smaller one". I'm thinking dang, those are nice, but I can't swing $500 for an original Kubert. The guy behind me says he wants the Batman. A guy two back says he wants the Hulk. Then the Lady Loki goes, and I start thinking to myself "how do all these people have so much money?" I ask the guy behind me with the Batman, "So, these are $500 right?" He says "No, $5." I say $5??? So then I turn to the guy with the portfolio and tell him I want the Spidey, and poof that's the last one. I think there were 6 sketches in total, and by God's grace I was able to get an awesome Spider-Man by Kubert for a whopping $5. I was lightheaded and could hardly believe it. Major props to Adam for blessing his fans at the front of the line with such an amazing gift. After this, I met up with Vinny, Octavio, and Anthony and we went to the Con Men panel and then out to an Irish pub for food and beers. When I left to go home, I walked out of the pub and who did I see walking right past me? Frank Miller. Just the icing on the cake of an awesome day.
I had to coach my 6 year old's football game on Saturday, so I didn't end up getting in until around 3:30 that afternoon. I really wanted to attend the Regular Show cast signing and panel, but missed it due to being late. Oh well, at least my son had fun, and they won their game. I grabbed some more money out of the bank (I went 50% over my budget, but there were some great pre-dones that I needed to own) and went to Tyler to pick up my jam. He crushed it with a Wolverine contribution! Love every bit of it. I grabbed a few more signatures and then picked up 2 pre-done pieces by Jeff Dekal and Diego Bernard. Stopped in the charity art auction for a bit before heading home.
Sunday I went in early and stayed all day. Checked in with Dodson, and unfortunately didn't get in. Oh well, my money was thin and he's always fun to talk to anyways. I dropped off my jam with Ivan Reis to do Storm (he had worked me into the back of his list on Thursday after he'd filled up, nice guy that he is). I dropped off my Thor: For Asgard hardcover to Bianchi because he also worked me in. Got a couple quick sketches in my Mouse Guard Legends hardcovers by Ben Caldwell and Jason Shawn Alexander (a seriously good artist). I had time to kill while waiting on Ivan & Simone, so I made a point to walk by and take a look at each and every table in AA. Discovered some new artists I wasn't previously aware of - Stephen Mooney and Edgar Salazar. Putting them in the future commission bank. Also spoke to Vanesa Del Rey (she's going to be big), Adriana Melo (love her stuff), and Ace Continuado (he's another one to watch out for). Picked up my Reis Storm on my jam, and another great contribution. Ivan always puts out great work. This was my last one for the show, so I felt good to get 5 of the remaining 8 characters. I'll finish it up at C2E2 next year. About an hour before the show closed, Simone finished my Thor headsketch in my hardcover book. Just amazing, since I never thought I'd get one but two drawings from Bianchi! Totally stoked. Got on the 7 train and headed home fully satisfied.
Sorry for all the play by play, but I know some of you like to read all that.
A few random notes:
Not too many cosplayers in AA this year. It was very busy in the North Hall, but civilized and with good movement throughout. There was a situation on Friday where they reached capacity, but the staff got it sorted out and then had separate entrance and exits to AA all weekend. That worked better. It was nice to see many artists busy and selling a lot of prints.
Some of the cosplay this year was just insanely awesome - of particular note was the Hulkbuster which I'm sure everyone has seen by now. I'm wondering if this is the same person who has been Bumblebee for the last couple of years. Bravo. Also, I saw more Marty McFly cosplay this year than any other character. Pretty cool.
There are a ton of staff & volunteers working for Reed Pop or the Javits all around. Super helpful and very friendly, which is a feat with that many people there. Overall, the show was run and organized well with only a few minor hiccups.
I'm sure I'm missing a ton of things, but that sums it up pretty well. Needless to say, I had a fantastic time and can't wait until next year! Again, if you want to see my pics, please go to my instagram page at king_ghost9. Thanks for reading.
|
