Pictures from the 2018 Comic-Con International, part 3 (Thursday, 7/19)

Okay, it's time to look at some of the many, many pictures I took at Comic-Con on Thursday of the show. There are so many that I'll split this up into two posts. That's just the way it has to be, folks.

Early in the morning, we have see Iron Spiders on their way to the exhibit hall.

The first thing I did on Thursday was head over to the Disenchantment booth and display. Later in the day, I saw that the line stretched all the way around the booth and to the wall, so I'm glad that I, uh, cheated a bit and got in early.

I'm kind of surprised that Netflix, which doesn't advertise its shows very often, had a booth for this new cartoon in the first place. But what better place to have one than at Comic-Con?

I've watched most of season one at this point, and I have to say that I'm really enjoying this show. And I managed to get some free temporary tattoos and a shirt at the booth!

Alas, poor Robin.

Naturally, there were a lot of Rick and Morty costumes on display at the show, but this was one of the better ones.

I spent some time signing comics (and stuff) at the New England Comics booth, which is always a treat. Here I am with artist Ian Nichols, who drew the new issue. Great.

This is a really nice Adam Warlock costume!

This woman does not seem nearly frightened enough of the world-devourer.

Classic.

I really do like the current Captain Marvel costume.

There's always a strong Disney contingent of costumers. But I'd never seen this before.

Who would have thought that the Mantis would be a popular enough character to inspire great costumes like this? Madness.

I appreciate the classic Loki helmet here.

Here's me with someone cosplaying as Leonard Maltin. Wait, that's actually Leonard Maltin. I seem to see him every year.

The first panel I went to this year was the Bongo Comics panel, where I was greeted by this group of Marges.

You have to get one of these pictures every year. Glad to get it out of the way.

I guess Disney owns both of these characters now.

...Disney owns these characters now, too, don't they?

I find this costume to be...acceptable.

A few booths away from mine in the small press section gathered a medium-sized crowd on Thursday, so I decided to check out what the noise was about. It turns out that someone brought a copy of Action Comics #1 from 1938 to display.

The cynic in me finds it a bit of a stretch to think that this is a genuine copy of Action Comics #1. This is mostly because there are only an estimated 100 copies of this book in existence, but beyond this, the copy was only in a regular bag and board as opposed to, say, bulletproof glass, and the copy looked to be in pretty decent shape. That would mean that someone would purposely bring a book probably worth around two million dollars to set out on a table.

But the fan in me really hopes that this is a legitimate first printing, because WOW! I almost asked to smell it.

These fine gentlemen stopped by the small press booth as I was eating lunch. Both of them work on the cartoon Bob's Burgers. We had a nice chat and then they left - but on Friday, one of them returned with a lot of cool Bob's Burgers promotional items, like buttons and stickers. It was great to meet them!

Yes, I see you, Mikey.

Very nice Wonder Woman costume!

If you have a twin, this is the PERFECT costume set to wear! I really enjoyed seeing this Peter Parker/Ben Rielly pair. Excellent job.

Okay, I've got a lot more pictures from Thursday, but this seems to be a good place to take a break. I'll post the others soon!

New England Comics Newsletter #14 - the first appearance of The Tick!

I had a stroke of luck (better than a regular stroke) recently and was able to get a copy of New England Comics Newsletter #14. Most newsletters, especially from local comic shops, aren't anything to get that excited about, but this one is different as it contains the very first appearance of The Tick! Published in the summer of 1986, this pre-dates the "special edition" of The Tick #1 by almost two years, and prints the first comic artwork of Ben Edlund, who would have been a few months short of his 18th birthday at the time.

The front cover uses the template that Marvel did for their 25th anniversary covers from '86. Instead of the barcode, The Tick shows up on the cover, too, along with characters like, um, the Thing.

The Tick's first story was only two pages, and even then NEC put them both sideways to fit on a single printed page. Let's look at each of them a little more up close:

The Tick was originally drawn with a fuzzy suit and with distinguishable toes, as opposed to the boots that he's seen with today. You'll also notice that the character's antennae are kind of droopy. This look carried over into 1988's Tick #1. You'll also probably notice the very obvious appearances by two characters who appear to be borrowed from the Muppets, Bunsen and Beaker. 

So does this mean that The Tick escaped from TWO asylums, as The Tick #1 features a similar scene with The Tick leaving a clinic just outside of The City? Or does The Tick #1 simply re-tell this short with a few edits? Since NEC has made it clear that this is in-continuity, I'd say that The Tick made his way across the country and stopped at more than a few asylums along the way. But why is The Tick punching poor Beaker? What did he ever do to him?!

Perhaps presciently, above the two pages is a note telling readers to hang onto their copies. "And it's not totally beyond the realm of possibility that the Tick may appear in his own comic book one day." Two-for-two, I guess.

That's it for The Tick in this publication, but let's take a peek a few more items to appear at the same time. On the very next page, we see an ad for Watchmen #3!

And here's a quick paragraph on the upcoming Transformers movie!

Highlighted is a short description of Fantastic Four #296, the 25th anniversary issue that featured the return of the Thing!

Here's the back cover.

My copy came with a certificate signed by Ben Edlund, George Suarez (publisher) and Bob Polio (art director). It looks like they printed these things out in 2013.

Since we're here, let's take a quick look at New England Comics Newsletter #16, which I picked up at the same time. I've never seen a copy of issue 15 - does it even exist? Keep your eyes peeled.

NEC classifies this as the third appearance of The Tick, which, I suppose, is correct, because there he is on page seven! This Christmas-themed Edlund drawing is pretty tiny, and it's the only mention of the blue guy (who I suppose wasn't even blue at this point) in the newsletter. And it'd be the last we'd see of him until 1988!

There are a few other interesting items in this issue, including a Batphone drawing by Bob Polio.

Also printed is a comics survey, which NEC hoped people would fill out and mail back to them (but then they'd ruin their copies of the Tick's third appearance!!).

Included in the survey is "What do you think about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?" (Actually, it says "What you do you", but these things happen.)

And lastly, checking out these 30-plus-year-old correspondences, we find this one from Anton Selisky of Truro, MA, who somehow worked up the gall to complain about people hiring Jack Kirby to draw for their books. 1986 was, as mentioned, the 25th anniversary of Marvel (not really, but just go with it), and at the time, some of Kirby's friends were pointing out that the co-creator of much of the Marvel Universe was being kept away from the company. This was an early example of the creator's rights struggle that many people didn't talk about at the time. It's kind of funny that this reader wrote a letter complaining about putting politics in comics, given some of today's more ridiculous positions on the matter. I guess nothing changes!

Pictures from the 2018 Comic-Con International, part 2 (Wednesday, 7/18)

Let's look at some pictures from Comic-Con's preview night, Wednesday the 17th! As usual, I took advantage of my exhibitor badge to take pictures and see stuff before the crowd made its way in!

So they still make Transformers movies. What are these movies like? What happens in them? Does anyone know? Maybe they'll make a Beast Wars movie some day. Anyway, this Bumblebee display was pretty impressive.

Thanos snapped his fingers and MegaBloks disappeared.

I know that this is a video game display. That's the extent of what I know about this.

Time for a few last minute arrangements, and...

...open!

The doors to the hall opened a half hour early this year, at 5:30. And things were actually pretty calm until 6:00, which leads me to believe that only certain lines were allowed in for the first half hour, which was interesting. I naturally ran around like mad and made it through a number of lines before things started to get really crowded.

I can see carpet! What is going on?!

Here's Chris Burnham and Robert Kirkman signing...things.

Snake or dragon?

People do dress up on Preview Night! Here's Mario, Princess Peach and...Toad, before we collectively were no longer allowed to dress as Toad ever again.

I know this character is from an Adult Swim show, but can anyone tell me which one?

Preview Night ended at 9:00, and soon after, I made my way over to the Super7 offsite location! This year's theme was "Hordak's Lair", but I guess they still had the Skeletor's Lair neon sign, so they used the branding for both.

Super7 released the "Laughing He-Man" figure at Comic-Con, and I had to make sure I got one. Like before, they had collections on display as well, such as this lovely Snake Mountain!

And there's Hordak, the man of the hour.

I would love it very much if Super7 one day decided to get a bigger space for their store, because it always takes a long time to get in. I guess that's part of the point - the exclusivity of it all - and once again I was willing to brave the line. But I would be okay if I only had to wait half as long.

What else did I end up with on Preview Night? Well, ABC Studio had quite a few items on sale for the first time that I can remember, including...this Golden Girls mystery box. It cost $45, and it was imminently worth it.

That's it for Preview Night. More to come later!