Pictures from the 2019 New York Comic Con, part 2 (Friday, 10/4)

I was back at the New York Comic Con on Friday of the show. Let's look at some pictures!

"It" costumes have been really popular this year, which isn't a surprise. I think the other character is from the Death Day movies? Are those still a thing? Okay.

This guy has to be a stand-in for Andrew Lincoln on the Walking Dead, right? I mean, I was about 10 feet away from the guy, and there was still a part of me thinking, "i-is that really him?" He's got everything down pat. Good on him for going with it.

The latest X-Men meetup.

One of the displays at the Marvel booth was props from the Jessica Jones Netflix show. Not because they are promoting a new season, but because...they're selling the costumes and other items from the series. You, too, can own a Purple Man suit!

Friday seemed a little less crowded than Thursday, surprisingly. Maybe it was because the weather was nicer and people were spending some time outside.

I don't know if this mashup is a reference to anything specific (The Godfather? Something '70s), but the Red Skull bejeweled mask was impressive.

The Spider-Verse!

One of them probably had a question.

As seen in artist alley...

Midway through the day, I made my way downstairs to see the panel area. Along the way I saw some Double Dare contestants...

...Ms. Pac Man...

...Galdalf (that's Gandalf, right?) and Superman...

...and the DC Bombshells-version of Batwoman. Oh, wait, she's got a baseball bat. I get it.

NYCC has relatively limited programming, and there's not a lot that I feel like I HAVE to catch, but the one that stood out to me while I was there was the Paul Reubens panel. I naturally grew up with Pee Wee's Playhouse, but I wouldn't say that I'm anything more than a casual fan of Reubens (unlike this individual who dressed up in an amazing Pee Wee costume!). Still, I saw the listing and I said, "I have to make it to this panel."

I arrived about 45 minutes early and ended up in the front row in what became a packed room. The panel was different than what I expected - there were very few jokes and there wasn't really a theme or stated purpose to the panel. It was just Paul Reubens telling stories about his career and some of the people he knows.

And even though it wasn't anything like a performance, I still enjoyed the heck out of it. Reubens told a lot of really interesting stories and came off as a very personable guy. And, okay, there was some Pee Wee that snuck through - a press photographer took a few pictures as the panel began, and Reubens looked at him and said, "take a picture, it'll last longer!" And the crowd went wild.

And then it was back to the convention floor to wrap up the show for the day. Here's a good duo costume from Good Omens.

She-Ra and Catra!

This guy's got the scowl down.

The show ended and I helped put a few things away at the New England Comics booth, which was pretty close to this Far Side display (is this comic coming back?? I desperately hope so). So I snuck an after-hours picture.

HBO was promoting the new Watchmen series at the show with a big billboard in front of the convention center, and with these posters that were being hung as I walked by. Could I have grabbed one from the ground and ran? I thought about it.

I'm sure that motorcycles aren't allowed in the convention center. Do you think this Captain America/Black Widow duo were outside all day, waiting for the opportunity to have people take pictures of them? I guess it's possible.

I ended the evening by walking the High Line, the above-ground park that's just a few blocks from the Javits Center. It's my second time there and I really like it.

One more day! More pictures to come.

original Ben Grimm artwork from The Thing #11 (1984)!

After the last day of Comic-Con in July, I had a cookout with some friends at the house I rented for the week. It's a Comic-Con tradition, and honestly one of the things I look forward to most about the show. One friend brought over her Nintendo Switch, and in between rounds of Mario Kart, my pal Ian Nichols handed me this great page of original artwork from the 1980s Thing series.

This page features the one-and-only Benjamin J. Grimm in his human form. It's the final page of issue 11 - page 22 or 30, depending on if you count the ads - as Ben walks off into the distance.

Over the years, most of the word balloons and captions have been lost, and only remnants of the yellowed glue remain. The first panel is the only one that still has any words on it, including the seemingly prophetic, "It would take...years to find such a thing..."

This issue comes directly after the events in the Secret Wars series, where the Thing decides to remain on Battleworld. The series got pretty weird for a while, with the Thing (often as Ben Grimm) fighting a number of imaginary monsters, including Frankenstein.

The art on this issue comes from Ron Wilson and Joe Sinnott, both longtime Thing artists. John Byrne wrote the script.

At the top of the page, we can see the official Thing title stamp, finished off in permanent marker, it seems.

And at the bottom, we find a signature from "Joltin'" Joe Sinnott himself, which adds a lot to this page, I think.

On the back of the page, we have some legalese from 1984.

Here's the issue in question, giving the Thing a new nickname - Rocky Grimm - and setting him up on some very strange adventures.

And here's the final story page as it was printed. It allows us to fill in the missing dialogue from the page, which has Ben basically threatening his new minions in order to get them to search through their endless piles of pilfered goods, even if it'll take 'em years to do so. That'll show 'em!

I'm pretty excited to add this page to my collection. Thanks to Ian for an unexpected surprise! As always, it remains clobberin' time!

Pictures from the 2019 New York Comic Con, part 1 (Thursday, 10/3)

So I guess one of my hobbies is taking lots of pictures at comic book conventions. I don't know why I always feel compelled to do so. But it's just one of those things, I guess. I went to the New York Comic Con earlier this month, so let's see some pictures from it!

I think that this is the first year that I went to the show on a Thursday. Since there are always tickets remaining for this day, I expected it to be less crowded than usual. It was decidedly not the case. I arrived around 1:00 to find a meetup of the spider people. Wait who's that on the edge there, to the right?

IT'S SPIDER-MAN 2099, EVERYONE!!

Then it was off to the Javits Center on another gloomy October day. It had just cooled off the day before and felt like fall.

In years past, professionals had a specific entrance they could enter through, but it seems that it was open to everyone this year. Lines were longer than I had expected.

And the inside was pretty crowded.

Look, it's more folks dressed up in Scoops Ahoy costumes from Stranger Things! I considered trying to track down as many as I could find, like I did in San Diego, but...I decided to let it go. It was for the best. There were a lot of them.

This guy knew that he could pull this Mr. T look off. He was correct.

I was able to sneak into the Marvel exclusives line toward the end of the day. This Spider-Man costume was on display, which is apparently used at theme parks? While I waited in line, I was regaled by an incredibly annoying sales pitch from the main stage that talked all about the new live action Marvel productions happening at theme parks. And yet, I did not once see someone in a Thing costume. So I do not care about them.

Legendary FF creator John Byrne made a rare appearance at the IDW booth.

This was an impressive, albeit somewhat unsettling, costume.

It's the Saga crew!

Captain Marvel!

Look at this thing. Just look at it! The Arcade1Up folks have really struck gold with their affordable video game cabinets. I saw a TMNT one the other day and man, I'm tempted to get it. I think I have to get a game room first.

For the last hour of the show, I hung out at the New England Comics booth, which was located in a new spot in the publisher's section on the floor. Ian Nichols was there with the new Tick NYCC special, which I wrote. We signed a few copies before the show closed!

One nice thing that NYCC does is that it keeps artist alley open an hour after the show floor closes. A lot of the artists set up there, though, head out at 7:00, which kind of defeats the purpose. Ah well. I think that the construction happening at the Javits Center is supposed to be done - let me check - ah, hell, not until 2021? Sheesh. One more year, I guess. Wait, the expansion is set to include a one-acre rooftop farm? Huh. That's interesting.

Anyway, I did make my way to artist alley before calling it an evening. And this person challenged me to a game. What's the harm?

I found Supergirl and She-Hulk before I left.

That's it for Thursday. More to come.