Pictures from the 2013 New York Comic-Con, part 2

I've got a few more pictures to share from last month's New York Comic-Con!  I was only there on the Saturday of the show, but there was still a lot to see.  Let's get to it!

First on the list is this image of Sgt. Slaughter, he of WWF and GI Joe fame.  He's still got the look.  It was interesting to see him on the show floor as opposed to in the lower-level autograph section where there were a few other wrestlers from the same time period, most notably Hulk Hogan.  I suppose that the Sarge was also selling merchandise here, which might explain the difference.

This guy was, understandably, a big hit.  I wonder if he has any idea who Edward Scissorhands is.  I also wonder how a movie like Edward Scissorhands got made and released.

It's never a con without a good Adam West-era Batman costume.  Here we have him checking his Bat-Phone.

I've seen so many Zapp Brannigan costumes at conventions recently.  I wonder what's responsible for the surge!  It used to be all Fry, but now Zapp is coming up strong.  I was very happy to see the Kif costume on display.  You'd think it'd be easy enough to replicate with the green body suits that are so prevalent, but this is the first I've ever seen.  Very cool.

Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.  Quicksilver forgot her pants, but I guess that's okay.

Also along the convention floor was Billy West!  West, of course, is well known for his voice acting and I love him for Futurama.

Next to Billy West (apologies for the fuzzy picture) was...Darlene Love?  That's an interesting choice for the New York Comic-Con.  Love is a '60s pop singer best known for her Christmas music like "Marshmallow World" and the like.

Heritage Auctions, the company that likes to make everyone feel poor by selling great pieces of art to extraordinarily rich people, had a display at the show with some original art that is set to go on sale soon.  Of course, I was drawn to the original Jack Kirby Fantastic Four art, featuring an incredible scene with Dr. Doom and Mr. Fantastic.  The pre-auction estimate for this piece?  $40,000.  Forty grand!  Holy moly.  Obviously, Kirby's work is the most sought-after in the industry, and this is a lovely piece, but wow, I never would have imagined that it would be quite that high.  20k, for sure, but 40?  Wow.

Also on display was this Superman/JFK piece.  Again, I was surprised by the price, but more because I can't imagine that it isn't listed as high as the FF page.  It's by Al Plastino, a classic Silver Age Superman artist, it's a full page, it has a great shot of Superman on it, it's from a well-remembered and well-liked story, it features none other than President John F. Kennedy, and they're "conveniently" selling it around the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's assassination.  It's got so much going for it.

After the show, I read that Plastino was contesting the sale.  You can read the details here - http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/10/24/al-plastino-jfk-superman-original-art-and-heritage-auctions/ - but here's the short version: Plastino said that he originally donated the piece to a Kennedy museum, which claims they never received it.  Now a buyer has surfaced who wants to sell it, and Heritage (who stand to profit from the sale) is backing up the buyer.  I obviously have no idea who is in the right here, but I'll hold out some futile hope that Plastino can regain possession of his work from so long ago.  It'll never happen, greed being what it is, but you can't help but feel bad for a creator in a situation like this.

On a lighter note, HERE'S PAC MAN!

Toward the end of the show on Saturday, I managed to land one Thing sketch for the book.  Here's Derek Fridolfs in the process of adding his rendition.

As I mentioned last time, there were a lot of groups in costumes at this convention.

More Futurama!  That's a great Bender costume.

And Spider-Man 2099!  It's a brave person who wears a skin-tight jumpsuit at a convention.  Love the design.

And it looks like we've got some gender-reversed X-Men here (plus Apocalypse).

I, uh, I have no comment on this last picture.  A neither do any of these hundreds of other guys surrounding this person.

More pictures to come soon!

Dinner and a (Slide) Show

Monday's Free Comic Book Day-inspired comic book panel went off, if I do say, without a hitch.  There were comics, presentations, door prizes and - oh yeah! - free chicken nuggets.  I'm not sure what more you could have asked for.  I suppose that last statement was hyperbolic.

There ended up being around 75 people, not including comic store workers or comic creators, at the New Hanover County public library for the two-hour presentation.  A lot of that time was spent listening to illustrator Tom Fleming recount his career, which was really interesting.  Tom's really had a varied career, designing paint cans, costumes for World Wresting Federation characters, comic book playing cards and Cracked magazine covers, to name a few.  The stories he told went beyond just a list of what he's done - I think everyone there was interested in hearing more.

I gave a 15-minute presentation after Tom was finished, and I talked about writing for comics and questions I hear every so often - a lot of it was based on an article I recently wrote for the Brownsville Telegraph - and I think that it went over well.  A few of my jokes (okay, most of them) fell flat, which was actually pretty funny in itself, but I heard good things about it afterwards, so I imagine that at least a few people took something from it.

After the presentations, those there from Fanboy Comics - sponsor for the event - held a raffle to benefit the creation of a graphic novel section in the library, and then chicken...glorious, delicious chicken.  If you haven't been to a Chick-Fil-A yet, do yourself a favor and go (RIGHT NOW)!  They had chicken nuggets and chicken salad sandwiches, and I had...let's say more than my share.  Delicious.

The event ended with several local creators selling and signing books.  I sold a few issues of Teddy and the Yeti - someone even came by to buy a whole set - and talked with a number of people about T&Y and comics in general.  In the picture above, you can see me talking to a young comic fan and his mom.  She looked at the books and said "Wow!  [Young child], would you like me to buy you one of these books?" very enthusiastically.  The kid hung his head, frowned and said "NO!"  Oh well, maybe next time, fella.

In my opinion, the turnout was great, and I can't thank the folks at Fanboy Comics enough for sponsoring the event.  Certainly, it was nice to make people aware of Teddy and the Yeti (which I mentioned during my presentation more than a few times), but in general it was just nice to get to talk comics with a few dozen fans like myself.  I even had a couple friends show up unexpectedly to hear my talk, which I appreciate to no end.  There was talk of putting together a comic creating workshop for some of the area kids, which would be lots of fun.  I'm sure it'd go off without a hitch - "hey kids, who here likes Teddy and the Yeti?"  Kids: "BOOOO!"  Me: "What the hell is wrong with you?!?"  Good times, good times.