pictures from the 2021 New York Comic Con, part 2

Here are some pictures from Saturday at this year's New York Comic Con!

Let's start off with handsome Squidward. 

The biggest booth in artist alley belonged to Scott Snyder and ComiXology. Snyder and artist Greg Capullo signed autographs and gave posters and pins to the long line of folks who waited for them. I snuck in just before the two left.

Did I get some Thing sketches at this year's show? I got three of them! It was great to add some more to the sketchbook for the first time in quite a while. Here's Dane Ault from Monkey Minion Press, holding up his contribution to the cause. Dane makes great posters for different conventions, and I've got a few of 'em from San Diego over the last several years. I was very happy to get this sketch.

There were more comic book and comic art vendors at this year's show - or at least they were more prominently featured this year. This booth was very impressive, and is that the original Bernie Wrightson art from the Thing/Hulk Marvel Graphic Novel I see? Holy cow! 

This was one of my favorite costumes from the show this year. Bravo.

Man-Thing gets interviewed.

The Star Trek Prodigy booth was one of the biggest at the show. I desperately wanted to walk home with a piece of the display, but alas, I did not. Pictures will suffice.

Another impressive booth belonged to eBay, which displayed a number of rare collectibles behind glass. Here's Amazing Fantasy #15! I surprisingly saw several copies of this book at the show this year.

I have not seen Midsommar. Larry tells me that it was weird.

Tony & Peter.

What is this costume? I do not know. Good for this person for going all out, though.

I hate the Joker Who Laughs, I'm ambivalent about Venom, but these are three good costumes.

MOOD! Oh, wait, I mean, DOOM!

I think this guy dressed up as Mr. T a few years ago, as well. But can you blame him for breaking it out again? I absolutely support this decision.

Leaving the show, I was treated to Reed Richards with one big fist.

It has been brought to my attention that I did not mention that my pal Larry came to this show with me. I also found out that I have almost no pictures of him (or me, I guess) from this show. These things happen! But Larry came along and I was happy to have the company at what was a weird, but good, show.

After we left the convention center on Saturday, Larry and I took the High Line over to the brand new Little Island, an honest-to-goodness new island that was built for a quarter-of-a-billion dollars off the coast of Manhattan. It's over an acre big and features walking paths, performance areas, food trucks, lots of trees and some very impressive views. I recommend this to anyone visiting the Big Apple. It was my first time back since 2019 and I really missed it!

I was really unsure about attending this show, for obvious reasons, in the weeks leading up to it. But it wasn't overcrowded, masking was enforced, and it ended up being a fun time. The show lacked a lot of big draws and there weren't nearly as many attractions in general, but I'm still glad that I went. I bought some comics and some art when I was there, got some Thing sketches, saw a few friends that I hadn't in a while, and got to explore New York a little bit, too. I'm sometimes critical of NYCC for how they handle their show, but this one was a good, albeit weird, one. It was good to go to a show again.

What now for the comic industry?

About a month ago, I was in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and of course, I stopped at a comic shop - Comic Kings, to be specific. While I was in Virginia, the national conversation started about the coronavirus in the US (this in itself was a few months too late), and a few weeks later, much of the country is under lockdown, with businesses, sports leagues and, well, seemingly the entire comic book industry mostly closed or on hiatus.

There are many considerations more important than the shipping schedule of comic books right now, of course, but hey, this is a comic book blog and I sometimes write comic books, so...it seems pertinent to talk about it here. This has affected me personally beyond being just a fan - Free Comic Book Day has been delayed for the foreseeable future, which means the Tick FCBD 2020 Special I wrote won't be out in May. I have a few projects that I'm working on that are now up in the air and might be cancelled outright. I'm delaying my Planet Comics Kickstarter campaign and pushing it back to some later date. I was even helping out at a local comic shop on a temporary basis, organizing stock - with shops closed, that's finished.

Wednesday, April 1st, will be the first Wednesday without new comics for non-holiday reasons for the first time that I can remember after Diamond announced that it would no longer be receiving any new shipments from publishers. Comics showed up in stores the day after 9/11, if you remember - though this is a different circumstance.

Organizers are postponing and cancelling comic conventions all over the world. Emerald City Comic Con was the first major show to be pushed back (at least) in March, followed quickly by Wondercon in Anaheim. I am, of course, closely watching for any news on Comic-Con in July. This is a gathering where over 100,000 people show up in a relatively confined space for five days in a row. Unless something changes quickly, I have to believe that this show will be delayed until late 2020 (September or November, maybe?), if it won't be cancelled altogether.

All of these precautions are, of course, good ones. Going to a Free Comic Book Day signing or a comic convention would be a terrible idea during a pandemic, and all of the current social restrictions will be worthwhile if we stick with them. But I still have some disappointment that these yearly staples are in jeopardy while we all stay home.

What does this mean for the comic book industry, though? For one, it shows the vulnerability that exists by having a single point of distribution - Diamond Comics Distributors. That's not to say that things wouldn't (or shouldn't) be shut down right now if there were a hundred different distribution channels, but it does point out how much power Diamond has. If something were to happen to the company - a natural disaster or financial issues, let's say - to the point where it couldn't ship anything, the entire industry in North America would shut down in a day. That's a scary thought.

This also shines a spotlight on digital comics. Comic fans have always resisted changes in format, and moving from a physical product to a digital one is one of the biggest changes you could have. But now, with no physical distribution for the near future, digital comics are pretty much the only way anyone can read new stories. So far, it appears the reaction has been mixed, as some companies are sticking with print-first, while others are releasing a few titles digitally this Wednesday.

As someone who spends way too much of his income on comic books, I've always been mostly ambivalent about digital copies, especially when they're stored elsewhere and you can't copy them to a hard drive. And going digital completely eliminates variant covers - which is kind of a relief, but it's hard to deny that variants are a big part of some publisher's business models.

This also means that comic shops are left in a very precarious place. A hypothetical shift to digital means that a lot of these stores would be left in the lurch and will go out of business - I can't see how that wouldn't happen. Even if graphic novels and collections would stay in print, comic stores could never compete with Amazon. There wouldn't be anything for them to sell, and that, I think, would have catastrophic impacts on the industry.

In the meantime, I'm actually kind of relieved to get a chance to catch up on some of my unread books. I know that I'll never be completely caught up - this is the curse of a comic collector - but not having a pull list that I have to keep up with, when my income is, well, down, is a small silver lining. I cleared out my folder on March 18th and placed an online order for books on the 25th, so I've got plenty to tide me over for now, and I guess we'll see if I can make a dent in my unread pile in the next few weeks. Still, it is very weird to not have any new comic books to look forward to this coming Wednesday, and if this turns out to be a long-term issue, who knows what lasting repercussions it'll have?

For now, stay safe, blog readers, and try to stay inside. The next few weeks and months are sure to be very interesting. Here's hoping that the comic industry can make it to the other side, even if it comes out looking different than before.

Oh, and Comic Kings had this great Thing/Hulk artwork hanging up inside the store. Check it out!

Pictures from the 2017 Comic-Con International, part 2: Wednesday, 7/19

Wednesday night of Comic-Con is only open to those who have four-day passes to the show, and it's titled "preview night", but it's really just a mad dash and a frenzied rush as attendees get a head start on the convention. I have to think that in years to come, hours will expand for this day and it'll become something closer to a full day in most other regards, too. This year, the show floor opened at 5:30, a half hour before the advertised time, so maybe we're slowly getting there.

I showed up a few hours early to finish setting up the booth and to take a stroll around the floor before the doors opened. One of the first in line at the rear entrance was this guy:

I talked to him for a minute and learned that he was a writer for the Bleeding Cool website. His Tick paraphernalia came from the offsite location, which was open to press only on Wednesday. I was, of course, stunned to see all of the gear - he gave me a pair of antennae, which was a nice gesture. The voice of Comic-Con spoke out at the end of our conversation, announcing that the hall was open, but the security guards at the doors didn't seem to hear it and held up this line from entering for a solid minute, which I'm sure drove everyone waiting absolutely crazy.

I grabbed a few things at the starting bell and made it onto social media as a result:

1st ever sale of The Tick Pixel Party toy radly went to The Tick writer @JeffMcClelland! Get yours at booth 1234.#TheTick #SDCC #sdcc2017 pic.twitter.com/XoDemSbSe0

— PIXEL PARTY (@PixelPartyOn) July 20, 2017

The first booth I visited was the Pixel Party booth, where I bought their new Tick pixelated action figure, which I think is really great. I got a chance to talk to a few of the people at the company - all great guys who are excited about The Tick.

Also can't forget to thank the first person to swing by and get a pack of Comic Book All Star Trading Cards! Drop by booth 2547 & get yours! pic.twitter.com/6jJKWGkF47

— comiXology (@comiXology) July 20, 2017

Next I hit up the ComiXology booth to get the third set of comic book creator trading cards (which is as absurd as it sounds). I would go to great lengths to get my face on one of their cards, just saying.

Almost as soon as the doors opened, the place was swamped with backpacked individuals.

I saw Andrew Aydin, artist on the "March" series, at the IDW booth!

Lockjaw made an appearance promoting the new Inhumans show.

...there were more crowds of people...

Near the end of the night, I saw Luke McGarry and got my first Thing sketch of Comic-Con 2017 (in the new Thing sketchbook)! McGarry is probably best known for "Sad Chewie", but I knew him because he drew Weird Al in a Festival Supreme 2016 poster - which I was also able to buy at the booth. I got some great Thing sketches this time around.

Preview night ended up being 3.5 hours this year, which never feels like enough, but I managed to get a good amount done in that time. After walking through the Gaslamp District and getting some pizza, I called it a night.

That's it for Wednesday. I'll post pictures for Thursday soon!

Download FUBAR on ComiXology!

For those of you who like to read your comics on your computer, phone, iPad or whatever, I bring good news: the FUBAR catalog is now available for download on ComiXology, the premier site for digital comics.  This will give you some idea of how long I've been working on the property and the number of books we've put out: I'm not sure if those listed are all the ones we've done.  But it looks fairly complete save for the FUBAR Summer Special (I have no idea why that one's not on there, though most of the stories contained in there can be found in the trade collections) and the newest issue, Better Red than Dead.

There are some great deals to be had, and none better than on the trades.  Volume 3, a massive, phone book sized collection, is only $6.99!  Single issues are only $1.99, and the FCBD issues are there to download for free!

Here's the direct link to FUBAR on ComiXology: https://www.comixology.com/search?search=fubar

ComiXology was recently purchased by Amazon, which adds a fair amount of stability and recognition to the site.  Time will tell if it is ultimately a good thing for creators and fans.  For now, I'm excited that the work we've done with FUBAR is available worldwide like never before.

Action Comics #267: letters page and more

The "Gender Through Comic Books" online class is just a few weeks from wrapping up, and it's been an interesting experience to this point.  The most interesting part of it, to me, has been the weekly interviews with various comic book creators, but not far behind that are all of the books that we're reading.  I am, of course, a pretty regular reader of comics even when I'm not taking a class on them, but I still have enjoyed getting to read some books that I otherwise might not pick up.

Case in point, Action Comics #267.  This book is among a handful of fairly well known Silver Age Superman issues, owing a lot to its memorable cover.  Even though I'm a pretty big fan of Superman in general, I wouldn't have bought this issue if it wasn't required for the course.  I'm sure that most people taking the class, if they bothered to read the book at all, just downloaded a digital copy from ComiXology.  Besides enjoying paper comics more as a rule, I'm glad that I found a physical copy of this book, because some of the extras - the letters page specifically - were worth the price of admission alone.

The book, over 50 years old at this point, is fairly ridiculous from cover to cover.  Robber Baron Lex Luthor, using what amounts to mirrors and wire, brings Hercules to the present from the confines of his prison cell in an attempt to, I don't know, rob some banks and kill Superman or something.  There's real genius in the dialogue, including Luthor's expository description, telling all who might be interested that he learned to speak ancient Latin from a "prison book".  Apparently, though, "ancient Latin" consists of using the word "thee" in the place of "you".  Poor Lex...an evil king (choke!) took all of his gold.

Lois plays an interesting role in this issue.  Well, I mean, she plays the damsel in distress, of course, but she also plants a big sloppy kiss on Hercules after he saves her from a falling fake moon (really).  Afterwards, she blows him off.  "Slow down, fella!  Just because I gave you an open mouth kiss doesn't mean I actually want to see you again!"  That's fairly aggressive for the normally prudish Lois of the 1950s and '60s.  And apparently, upon seeing a picture of Superman, Hercules's clothes fly off.

The issue also includes a backup story featuring Supergirl in which she dries herself off in the above fashion.

The real gem of this issue, though, is undoubtedly the letters page.  I'm a fan of old-timey comic book letters pages for a few reasons, but even if I wasn't, this would still be something to behold.  The types of ridiculous questions that are asked and the level of contempt with which they are answered makes a great show of this letters page.  I have this mental image of Mort Weisinger sitting at a desk in the DC offices late at night, opening letter after letter and just getting angrier with each one.  "These damn kids!", he'd shout.  "I'll show them!!"

You can't go wrong with any of the letters, really, but let's take a look at some of them and see just what Superman fans of 1960 had on their minds.

First off, we have David Judd of Staten Island, New York, who asks one of the classic Superman questions.  Why doesn't Clark, who often leaves for days at a time with no warning or explanation, get fired from his job at the Daily Planet?  Because screw you, kid, that's why.  He can leave the Daily Planet office whenever he chooses.

Next up is John Poppen of Western Springs, Illinois, who wonders why people think that Superman has a secret identity.  After all, it's not like Superman goes around telling everyone that he pretends to be someone else when he's not patrolling the skies.  Well, John, just what the hell is wrong with you?  What, you think Superman is some kind of hermit?  That he doesn't have any friends?  How dare you, sir.

Bill Mason of Ontario, Canada, apparently asks a question that others have brought up before, and the editor is none too pleased to have to be answering something more than once.  I suppose the decision could have been made to just not print the letter, but no, he might as well answer it again for these damn readers.  Bill wants to know why Supergirl's skirt changes colors from red to blue sometimes.  The answer is simple, Bill.  Supergirl gets bored and also has a reversible skirt.  And besides, no one sees her anyway, so what's it to you?  Punk.

This next letter from John Pinette of St. Paul, Minnesota, is perhaps the best letter-and-response combo that I've ever seen - anywhere, ever.  John brings up the painful fact that since Superman and Supergirl are first cousins, they can't get married even though lots of other fans are apparently clamoring for it (which is pretty uncomfortable to begin with).  John, this makes a lot of sense, and you'd think that the Superman editor would appreciate what you have to say.  But no!  The editor rebukes your claim for a solution all his own.  Cousins can marry - and why not?  It's perfectly legal and there's nothing strange about it.  The primary reason why Superman and Supergirl can't get married, it seems, is because Superman is older than Supergirl.  Incest?  No big deal.  But a difference in age?  Hold on now, mister. The fact that the editor takes such pains to explain why two (first!) cousins are legally allowed to marry is eyebrow-raising at best.

"John Pinette" is the name of a fairly recognizable comedian (born in 1964, so it's not the same guy), so there's little chance that this letter writer, if he is still with us 53 years later, will find this mention if he searches for his name on Google.  But John, if you by any chance do, I would like to pass along my greatest appreciation for you in writing probably the best comic book letter I've ever come across.

Charles Johnson of Evanston, Illinois wants to know if DC preserves all of their books with some special type of gas.  No, Charles, they don't.

Here's another unbelievably great letter from Dawn Zamudio from Laredo, Texas.  Apparently, Perry White eats a fish, bones and all (perhaps in a similar fashion to Dr. Zoidberg), in a previous issue of Action Comics.  Dawn is understandably concerned about this situation, and who among us can blame her?  For starters, the editor can.  Hey, Dawn?  It's simple.  Perry White was in a universe where the fish all have edible bones.  Yes, Dawn.  THAT IS THE SIMPLEST AND MOST OBVIOUS EXPLANATION WE CAN GIVE YOU.

Lastly, here's a letter from Janice Gilbreath from Butte, Montana.  I drove through Butte a few years back.   I have no interesting story about it...I just thought I'd mention it.  Anyway, Janice wants to know how Supergirl can keep her handy Supergirl robot stashed in the trunk of a live tree and not have the tree wither and die.  Well, Janice, you're in luck, because the editor has a foolproof answer for you.  Rather than saying that Supergirl has some sort of fake tree setup, he comes up with the much more plausible answer that Supergirl simply tears branches off of live trees and sticks them onto the dead tree trunk, and that she apparently does this all the time.  Of course that's what she'd do!  Why WOULDN'T she do that?

It's interesting to note that the editor lists an address and solicits further letters at the end of the column.  After one such as this issue brought us, you'd think that they'd just announce that the column had been cancelled.  Instead, it's "see you next time, kids!"

What a great find this letters page was.  I think I'm a better person having seen it.