Sunday, January 24, 2016

Pictures from the 2015 New York Comic Con, part 1: Friday (Rotten Tomatoes, Image party and more!)

Well, I might as well unload the next slideshow on the blog that is apparently all about showing lots of pictures. Now that we're done with the pictures from Comic-Con in San Diego, I guess we'll fly across the country to New York for their annual response! I was able to attend for the Friday and Saturday of the event. While NYCC doesn't stack up to SDCC, New York's show is finally starting to take shape and show off its own identity. I found that I enjoyed 2015 more than any previous year.


It was recently announced that the Javits Center would be seeing a substantial increase in size - 1.2 million additional square feet, including a half million feet of new exhibit space - in the next few years. The convention center will soon have a new ballroom that will rival San Diego's Hall H. Despite the incredible number of people who attend NYCC, the big thing that was holding it back was available space, so it'll be interesting to see if this new addition will help the convention truly rival SDCC, at least in on-site events.


There were an abundance of costumes on display at the show, but not a lot of places to take pictures of said costumes. Many people stopped in the lobby of artist alley. Here's a nice Zatanna.


I have no idea what the Superman dummy is doing on the floor. I'm not sure if I want to know.


Jelly Belly had a display set up in the tunnel to artist alley, and all throughout the weekend there was someone building a mural with jelly beans. They gave out samples, too, and I snagged...a lot.


It's the guy with toy dogs strapped to his face! I saw this guy at Comic-Con over the summer. I still don't get what's happening here, but I guess he's got his own camera crew. He interviewed folks at the FUBAR table for a while.


Among the pieces of original art I saw at the show, here's a Jack Kirby original from Fantastic Four #40 (an important issue)! This page was apparently set to go to auction, and probably brought in more money than I make in a year.


I met Sweden's own Karin Rindevall for the very first time at NYCC! Karin has colored a number of pages for me over the years, and was one of the first collaborators I ever worked with. It was so great to finally meet her!


As the show wound down for the day, I made sure to get to the Rotten Tomatoes panel. My love for RT is no secret on this blog. They do a great job and everyone should check out their panels at either SDCC or NYCC.


Apparently, people are starting to take my advice. The room was a little small for the panel, but it was absolutely packed.


It's great to see these guys every year. There were a number of new panelists involved this time, too.


Here's emcee Grae Drake. Do a google search for her and you'll see her at every major movie award show with some of the biggest actors on the planet. Why does she acknowledge my existence? I have no idea.


And here's Matt Atchity, who runs the whole dang show. He is way too important to be taking pictures with me. And yet, here we are. Bizarre.


Image Comics hosted a party at a nearby location after the show. It's great that NYCC is starting to branch out, even unofficially, into the city. The place, much like the show, was packed.


I went to the show with my brother-in-law. We bowled a few games at one of the many lanes.


We eventually played a few games with writer Jim Zub (Skullkickers, Samurai Jack) before calling it a night.


On the way out, I ran into none other than Paul Tucker! Paul's another friend and collaborator that I had never met in person before. We were able to hang out a bit on Saturday and I'm sure I'm not surprising anyone when I say that Paul is one of the nicest guys you're likely to meet, in comics or otherwise. Paul has drawn a number of things for me over the years, and now he's got a great book out from IDW, "Tet". I highly recommend it.

This concludes the first half of my NYCC pictures. There will be more. I can feel the anticipation building.

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