Pictures from the 2018 New York Comic Con, part 2 (Saturday, 10/6)

I took a lot of pictures of the New York Comic Con on Saturday. I took too many to show them all in one post! The post explodes if I post more than 25 pictures - I'll bet that you didn't realize that. But it's true! I'm very concerned about safety. Let's look at some pictures!

I never quite know what to make of people outside of the convention center in costume who just seem to be hanging out, standing by a telephone pole or whatever. Are these people who don't have tickets but want to join in on the festivities anyway? Did Beta Ray Bill feel like going for a walk around NYC in full costume as a lark? Are they just...biding their time? There's not much going on outside of the convention center, is what I'm saying. But I did enjoy seeing Lady Sif and my favorite horse-themed Alien (take that, Comet!), Beta Ray Bill.

Do you think he made this Black Panther mask? It's a really good one.

One of the last Rickmobile stops on the 2018 tour was at NYCC, and I finally got a chance to go on Saturday after missing out in San Diego. I considered driving to Buffalo a few months earlier, but that would've been...a mistake. To my great surprise, there was almost no line for this on the busiest day of the convention (in 2017, I waited about two hours in line when it came to Pittsburgh). I bought the official Rickmobile comic book and a Morty mask.

The classic '90s Superboy pose right here.

Hup-cha!

Does anyone like Waluigi? I hate him.

I'm honestly not sure how I feel about people dressing up as comic book or movie Nazis at conventions anymore. Some people take it too seriously. But, credit where it's due, this is a great Red Skull outfit. The mask is fantastic.

Pretty fancy outfits Skeletor and Evil-Lyn have going on here.

We're at the point where kids who grew up watching "Teen Titans Go!" are coming to conventions dressed as their favorite Titan. Good on 'em.

I will never not appreciate someone with his or her own DOOP costume.

Cap & Peggy.

IT'S HAPPENING, PEOPLE!

In the early afternoon, I was in line at the Marvel booth to get some comics. As I made my way to the registers, the Marvel costume contest was hitting its stride. And Dr. Doom looked on...

Here are a couple shots of most of the contestants.

I was impressed by a lot of what I saw - and a little surprised to hear a number of contestants, as they were on stage, talk about how they had five or six other people on their "team", helping them with different aspects of their costumes and even just getting in and out of the things. I guess it's a profession for some.

Look at all of this. I appreciate the guy who stuck to his guns and went as Reed Richards.

As I was paying for my items, the crowd started to disperse and I got to see a number of costumes up close. Ivy and Joker were perhaps trying to infiltrate.

How many people would put the effort into creating such a detailed Annihilus costume? The Fantastic Four have the best villains. How great is this?

That's it for now. More to come from the rest of Saturday!

DC Comics at Walmart

After years of reading and re-reading a stack of my dad's old comics, I started reading DC and Marvel titles in earnest in 1992, when I was 10 and 11 years old. One of the first new books I picked up was Spider-Man #26 (with a sweet 30th anniversary hologram cover), and the "Death of Superman" story a few months later got me hooked, apparently for good. I'm pretty sure that my mom bought me that Spider-Man issue, but regardless of how it came home with me, I know that I got it off of a spinner rack at a grocery store, where the comics were located right by the entrance and were the first things I saw walking into the store.

It wasn't until I was about 16 when I actually stepped foot into a comic book specialty store with any regularity, and I was in college the first time I signed up for a pull list. In the years since, comics have mostly disappeared from grocery stores and similar businesses, and while online sales certainly are to blame for some of that, I'd say that the industry as a whole has suffered from this lack of an initial exposure point, primarily when it comes to kids. Comic shops are great, and I'm thankful that I don't have to run out to Foodland every week in hopes that they'll have the new Fantastic Four issue in stock, but they don't always attract a lot of first-time customers. You go to a comic shop if you like comics, not if you feel ambivalent or don't really know about them.

In general, this is why I was excited when DC announced that they would begin selling four new books exclusively at Walmart. It allows potential readers - kids, specifically - an opportunity to see the books in a place they might already be. There are more Walmart stores across North America than there are comic shops, so I guess Walmart has just become the biggest comic shop chain in the world? Maybe that's a stretch, but I think it could be the biggest step forward for visibility since, well, the slew of comic book-based movies over the last 20 years.

Even better, these four comics, Superman Giant, Batman Giant, Justice League of America Giant and Teen Titans Giant, are each 100 pages long and cost $4.99. That's a much better value than the usual 20-page story for only a dollar less.

From a collectors' standpoint, just like anything new and unusual, this new program has sent a number of established fans on scavenger hunts to Walmarts across the country in search of these books. So Walmart is getting customers from both sides - comic fans will stop in to grab the new issues (and maybe buy some toilet paper while they're there), and new readers might pick up a book for the first time (while they're already there, buying toilet paper).

I generally try to avoid shopping at Walmart for a number of reasons (all of which are probably too boring for me to write about here). But when the books were released on July 1st, I made the journey to the store and tried to find them, and without too much hassle, I managed to track them down.

The books were located near the self checkout aisles, next to trading cards and other cheaper collectibles. I've love to see these placed with the other magazines by all of the lanes, but I guess this is an okay start. The books are housed in the above display, which I really like and want to own. Do you think that Walmart has, like, five of these in the back? Should I ask them to give me, a grown man in his 30s, one of their comic book displays?

The display isn't very big, and probably holds two dozen of these 100-page Giants at most. I found all four titles, though I grabbed the very last Teen Titans issue. There were more Batman issues remaining than any of the other three titles, which leads me to believe that they had more Batman issues in stock to begin with. It's probably the most popular title, right?

The image underneath the two front spaces is, I think, from Alan Moore and Curt Swan's "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" story. The whole thing is designed very well. I believe that, starting in August, new issues will be released during the first and third weeks of every month.

At this particular store, there were also a few collected three-packs of comics in the stands, which featured the characters from the Giant titles. This is another great offering, as it gives people a smattering of other stories with the characters from the titles they might have just read and enjoyed. And these aren't just comprised of old stock - the title dress is slightly different from the titles that were released a few years prior.

Here's the back of the three-pack bundle. It's basically just...an ad for the comics inside.

Speaking of ads, at least two of the titles have the comic shop locator service listed inside. This should easily be all four, as all of the ads in these titles are in-house and for other collections, and it should be plastered on the inside front cover, but I guess this is a start for now.

Oh, and it just so happened that Planters Cheez Balls just came back to stores on the same day. So this was a heck of a trip to Walmart! Can you believe it? Cheez Balls are back, and comic books are in general stores! Things are looking up. I hope both of these are remarkably successful.

The surprising social conscience of Teen Titans #30

A few months ago, I was rifling through some dollar boxes, picking up some flashy '90s books (Silver Surfer #50) and some silly late-80s books (an issue of TMNT) when I came across a couple early issues of Teen Titans, both from 1970 and both in not-terrible-but-not-great shape.  I'm not a big fan of the Teen Titans in any of their iterations (well, maybe Young Justice if that even counts), but some classic stories for only a buck proved to be too good to pass up.  I expected to read cramped, dated, superhero fare, but what I got was actually a bit of a surprise.  The Teen Titans of 1970 read very much like the famous Denny O'Neal/Neal Adams Green Lantern/Green Arrow run in that there was quite a bit of social conscience on display.

One of the starkest concepts on display in the book was the decision to keep all of the characters out of costume for the entire time; apparently, the Titans had previously lost control of a riot in which a man was killed, so they decided to stop being superheroes, foregoing their costumes and refusing to use their powers until they learned more about their role in the human experience.  This was an interesting idea, though it made it really difficult to tell who the characters were in the book.  Which one was Wally West and which was Dick Grayson?  Who could tell?  The character might have taken their vows a little too seriously, though, such as in the following scene, when Wally West - Kid Flash! - watches a guy get hit by a car.

Okay, I mean, I guess he yelled at the guy to watch out.  But when you've got super speed and let a guy get creamed in the middle of the street on, what, principle?  Then you just might be a jerk.

Later on in the issue, the book proves that even after 40 years, people are still generally terrible as this guy recites a line that I've heard...once or twice before...in response to the Titans trying to raise some money for a charity that helps rehabilitate former criminals:

The hits kept coming, as the book moved on to more social causes, this one even more reminiscent of the O'Neal/Adams collaboration:

To be honest, the story came across a bit heavy handed.  Obviously, I understand that the times might have called for frank storytelling like this, at a time when the Civil Rights movement was in full swing, but it did seem a bit like the creators were checking items off a list.  But even so, it was fairly stunning to see such a socially progressive message in a book like this.  Just to make sure they didn't miss anything, the book later responded to an eye-rolling moment at the beginning of the story where the guys of the team told the girls to stay back while they engaged a group of thugs; Wonder Girl and...uh, whoever the other one is...thoroughly mangle a couple would-be assassins thusly:

Overall, this was an interesting look into the history of not only comics but also the socially progressive movement of the late '60s and early '70s.  If nothing else, it's pretty clear that most mainstream comics today would blanche at the thought of putting such controversial material on the shelves and in front of readers.

In other news, the letters page helped me finally learn how to say Dick Giordano's last name!

Interesting stuff!

Pictures from the 2013 Comic-Con International, part 4 (The Godzilla Experience, Eric Andre, Ben Edlund and more!)

More pictures from Comic-Con?  Fantastic!  Let's get to it!

One of my goals for this show was to finally - finally! - make it into the Hasbro line for merchandise.  Hasbro's exclusives remain some of the most difficult to land because of their ticketing practices: you have to line up early in the morning to get a ticket; if your ticket is stamped, you've won the opportunity to wait in another line for the opportunity to buy things from the Hasbro booth...if they have anything remaining by the time you get there.  To their credit, though, Hasbro certainly does take advantage of the hype that this creates.

The goal made Friday morning an early one for me, as I woke up at 4:45 AM and drove to the convention center.  After waiting in line for almost three hours, everyone was allowed into the convention hall, where I found out that I was already too late to enter the Hasbro ticket raffle line.  The last person to get entrance into that particular line, it seemed, had been waiting since 4:00.

This was all pretty astounding to me.  It seems that if there's anything at Comic-Con that is even remotely popular, you've got to be prepared to camp out at night to have a shot at achieving that goal.  It's something that will probably have to be addressed in the coming years, or the lines will start forming earlier and earlier.

In any case, after the disappointment of the AM Hasbro line, I decided to get in the gigantic line to enter the convention floor.  Above is a picture taken in the moments before 9:00, and below is a picture of the mad scramble to enter the exhibit hall once the show officially opened.

Look at this mass of humanity!  It was, though, fairly orderly and no one, as far as I know, was trampled to death.

It's quite a sight.  I find that I'm just as happy, though, walking in at 9:30 and not having to wait in any lines.  It's a give-and-take, I suppose.

Friday was also the day that I had signed up to see the Godzilla Experience, which was one of the more talked about events outside of the convention hall.  On the way there, I spotted this "King of the Nerds" Cereal Bar.  Whether they were serving cereal inside or not, I don't know.  It would have been interesting to find out.

I reserved my tickets online a few days before the show, and an electronic version went straight to my phone (which is pretty cool).  The Friday at 10:30 slot was one of the few left at the time, and I'm glad I got it when I did.  It seemed that tickets for the first half of each day were given out exclusively online, and tickets for the latter portions of each day were given away at a booth during the show.  These tickets, though, as with most things at Comic-Con, went very quickly, and soon the Godzilla Experience became a rather exclusive thing to do.

While waiting in line to get it, this tricked out "Defiance" car drove by.  We waited in line for about an hour, because right before we were to enter, the director of the new Godzilla movie stopped by and wanted a look at the exhibit himself.  Because of this, they shut the whole damn thing down while he walked through.  This was annoying, but they did give out free t-shirts to everyone who was stalled in line as a result.  Apparently the shirts were only given out to VIP guests...or at least that's what they told us.

The inside of the warehouse was decorated with movie memorabilia and props.

Oh, and Godzilla was there, too.

By downloading an app (and probably signing away your rights forever), you could translate Japanese posters that were in various spots throughout the exhibit.

The event itself was fairly underwhelming, as it took about ten minutes from start to finish.  Perhaps I'd have been more excited about it if I were a fan of Godzilla or if I was looking forward to the new movie, but regardless, it was over almost as soon as it began.  I didn't see what all the hype was about.

On the way back to the convention, outside of Petco Park and Nerd HQ, I ran into Adult Swim's Eric Andre!  So of course I bothered him for a photo.

And then, while walking to the Hilton hotel for the Venture Bros. panel, I saw none other than Ben Edlund, who kinda-maybe-almost recognized me?  We chatted for a minute or two and then it was off to the hotel.

Once inside the hotel, we were directed to the back of another super long line.  Along the way, I saw this menu outside of one of the hotel bars.

Just outside the doors, I came upon these great Venture Bros. fans in costumes.  I've seen them around before...though I guess it'd be hard to miss a full Monarch getup like that.

The line stretched from the Hilton almost back to the main convention center.  Along the way I saw these Adventure Time folks.

The end of the line almost met up with the end of the Assassin's Creed pirate ship.  A full sized pirate ship!  We ended up making it onto the ship the next day.

Giant, inflatable Teen Titans, just 'cause.

These were some very nice Invaders costumes.  Namor pulled his getup off well.  The wings on his sandals looked like actual bird wings up close, which was a little weird.

At the alternate universe Bob's Burgers meetup!  A great time.

Another Zapp Brannigan.  There were a lot of Futurama costumes on display at this show.  Though I don't think I saw Bender at all...

We ended up being about 20 people late to get into the Venture Bros. panel, which was a shame, but it's something that happens.  Cartoon Network was filming some kind of Adventure Time promo (perhaps a DVD extra?) outside of the convention hall.  A little kid dressed as Jake said some lines, then they brought in Marcelene as the giant "C" and "N" danced along.

The LEGO displays weren't just limited to the convention floor.  This is a full size Hobbit home, complete with hobbits and, I guess, Gandalf.

One of the highlights of the trip was the return of the taco truck.  The taco truck is a well-kept secret of the convention, as people just inside the doors pay outrageous sums for mediocre food.  There's never a long wait for made-to-order food at the taco truck, the dishes are outstanding and the price is better than could be expected.  I ate here several times during the show, buying giant $6 burritos each time.  If you manage to make it to Comic-Con in the future, keep this gem to yourself.  I hope to eat here for years to come.

More pictures on the horizon!  Plenty more to go.