pictures from the 2021 Comic-Con Special Edition, part 1

Having Comic-Con return in November was a big deal for me. The timing - the weekend after Thanksgiving - was criticized by a number of people, and I get why, especially considering the large circumstances surrounding COVID and the holidays. But as soon as the convention was announced, I knew that I was going to try and be there, so on Thanksgiving day, I got on a plane for the first time since 2019 and flew to San Diego. The next day I went to Comic-Con Special Edition, and here are some pictures from that weekend! 

For the first time, I took the trolley into San Diego. In previous years, I had always rented a car, mostly because I was transporting others and so I could use it as a place to dump all of my many convention purchases while at the show. This time, I went by myself and I knew I wouldn't be buying as much, so I decided to give public transportation a try. It went pretty smoothly! And the train is a common sight around Comic-Con, so it was about time that I took a ride myself. I'm glad that I did.

I realize that the convention center is just a big concrete multipurpose structure, but I love its distinct look. It was great to see this place again.

Unlike most previous years, I attended this show as a professional and not an exhibitor, so I had no early access or special privileges. A few hours before the show floor opened, I made my way to the convention center, where I had to get a wristband that signified that I had been vaccinated. This was a very easy process, after which I went to pick up my show badge.

There were quite a few people walking the sidewalk in front of the convention center, but the number was vastly smaller than in recent years, where the closed-off street in front of the building would be swarming with people.

I picked up my badge in Hall H. I had never actually been in Hall H before! This was also the first show in a long while where people could just walk up and buy badges and enter on the same day. 

Here we are in Hall H. I followed the blue line on the floor to pick up my badge. Look at all of this space! It was incredible to see.

They pulled the Comic-Con photo background out of storage, I see.

I got in line about two hours before the show opened on Friday. There were probably a few hundred people in front of me, and soon the lines grew to the point where the hall was filled. This is the view behind me at around 11:30, a half hour before the show began.

Once the doors opened, I did my best brisk walk (no running!) through the aisles. It was markedly calm.

It probably took over an hour before it started to feel at all similar to Comic-Con. No one was in a rush to enter on Friday. The whole thing reminded my of my first year attending, in 2006. If you wanted to go somewhere and see something, you could do it without a crush of humanity standing between you and your destination.

There were also more than a few empty booths, where vendors hadn't set up yet. 

As you can see, there was no carpet this year at Comic-Con. I'm sure this was a cost-saving measure.

Before too long, though, more people made their way in, and things started to pick up just a little bit.

This show had more displays than, say, the New York Comic Con from October, though they were often more scaled back. I think I've seen this Iron Man before, but I don't care. It was still fun to see some of the Comic-Con extravagance I'm used to!

Some updated Special Edition banners hung from the ceiling.

These hallways are usually packed with people in costume. 

The Comic-Con lines made a modest return, and I did my best to get in some of them. This one is for autograph tickets and wound around the back of the convention center!

There was a total of one big outside banner this year, for the HBO show The Peacemaker.

Perhaps the most important vendor of all returned for 2021 - THE TACO TRUCK! I was so glad to see this food truck. It was like seeing a friend. I ordered a burrito.

I took a lot of pictures of the signs. I do not apologize.

Friday wasn't a big day for costumes, but there were still some to see. Dr. Strange's floating cloak was well done.

Hall A was the most sparsely populated area of the convention center. To fill up some space, the convention set up these canvases to take pictures in front of.

There were still a number of big, impressive displays on the show floor. I have no idea what this one was for, but still...there it is.

Star Trek actor Brent Spinner had an autograph signing for his new book! I was able to get a ticket by getting in line and then going back through the line three times. Spiner remarked at how stupid he felt getting pictures taken when you couldn't see most of anyone's faces. But this was my first Comic-Con in over two years, so hey - we're taking the picture.

There was a big and impressive Pac Man booth on the show floor, there to promote the upcoming Pac Man Museum video game.

The booth had a few displays, but was mostly set up as a way to let attendees play the new game!

This was a popular booth for the duration of the show, and one of the few booths with long wait times to enter. I did get to play the game for a while at the end of one day.

Are...are these...more Stranger Things "Scoops Ahoy" costumes? After all this time? It's like going home again.

For the first time, I finally found enough time to volunteer at the California Browncoats booth while at the show. They're a constant presence at this convention and they had an enormous booth this time around. It was a lot of fun spending time with these folks.

Here's a vaccinated Rosie the Riveter!

Look. I like taking pictures of these signs.

The Funko booth took up the most space on the show floor without question. They had a big chunk of Hall A to themselves, and they made the most of it, with two big display booths, long lines, a gameshow activity area and a DJ that played really loud music nearly the entire time (you could hear it all the way on the other end of the convention hall). I never tried to get a wristband to get some of the more hard-to-find exclusives, but I did manage to sneak in line on Friday, near the end of the day.

And here's a place where you could...slay...some demons. I think.

There was absolutely more Squid Game paraphernalia at the show than anything else. I can only imagine what it would have been like if this were a more normal year. Maybe there would have been actually Squid Games, with actual murdering.

I went to a few panels this year! This one was a Family Feud game hosted by the San Diego public library. I guess I was sitting behind Wayne and Garth?

Here's a guy who kept his mustache, just as Cesar Romero would have wanted.

The weather this weekend was, as you might expect, lovely. It was in the 70s and mild every day. The big difference from this and the July shows is that it was already dark by the time the show ended on Friday and Saturday.

I took a walk through a much quieter Gaslamp district on both Friday and Saturday. The streets were still blocked off most of the way, and there was a lot more outdoor dining happening, which I believe is a new permanent fixture.

Bait, which had the giant Squid Game display on the show floor, also had an offsite shop open during the convention. In true Comic-Con fashion, the line for this place was outrageous and the main store feature was buying things, so I waked by and didn't attempt to get in.

But I did get a picture of this Batman thing in one of the windows!

One of the few outside exhibits was a promotion for the NBC show "La Brea." It was closed by the time I walked by, but here it is, all lit up. I would get to go through the exhibit on Saturday.

This Klingon looks familiar. Maybe he's part of my house? It's always possible. This noble warrior waited for the train like all of us as the first night of Comic-Con came to an end. It was noticeably smaller than in years prior, but I still had a lot of fun (and bought a bunch of stuff, proving that some things never change). There'll be more pictures to come soon!

Is this the greatest Thing costume of all time?

I walked the halls of the 2021 Rhode Island Comic Con and saw the rocky visage of Ben Grimm looking back at me.

The Thing is a tough costume to pull off. It's a big, bulky, full-body costume, with detailed, segmented rocks over most of the figure. I always appreciate it if an attempt is made, and I've seen a number of different tactics: lycra orange body suits with the rocks drawn on, a mask with a hat and trench coat doing most of the work, and exoskeleton-looking armor that clanks around when the person underneath moves. But this costume from this year's RICC is by far the best I've ever seen:

The level of detail, the individualized rocks and the round, somehow natural proportions set this amazing costume apart from any other I've ever seen. The time spent on details like skin tone, fingers and teeth make this a true work of art.

Needless to say, I was flabbergasted when I saw this guy at a relatively small show, looking his orange best and saying hello to all of the passers-by. Our eyes locked. I knew that this was someone I wanted to get to know. He was helping attract attention to a charity booth. I was able to get a picture and chat for a little while, but I didn't want to take up too much his time, so I followed up later when he was out of costume.Thing

Here I am with Bob, the man behind the suit. As you might hope, Bob was a great guy who loves the Thing so much that he decided to make the costume. Bob doesn't have a team of helpers or any professional background - he just went to work with a fabric base and foam accents, using a few layers of spray paint for the rocks.

Bob mentioned that he was local to the area and hadn't traveled much with the suit, but that he had taken it to the New York Comic Con once, and this sparked a memory from a couple years ago. I think it was 2018 or '19 at NYCC: I was riding the train back to New Jersey with several other con-goers, one of whom was playing a video of that year's costume contest. I was eavesdropping watching the video as it played across the aisle, when I saw an absolutely amazing Thing costume on display. If I remember correctly, it was a second-place winner, which is a travesty of justice and very much a revoltin' development.

Bob was really friendly and just an overall nice guy. I asked him if he had any social media channels that I could follow, and he said no - which, if we're being honest, is probably what Ben Grimm would do, too. I was so excited to meet him and wanted to prove my own Thing bona fides, so brought along my Thing sketchbook to show him. If I ever see him again, I have to figure out a way to get him to do something in the sketchbook. Glue a piece of foam? Spray paint some orange rocks? I'm still figuring it out, but I do know that he's a guy who deserves a place in the book, and some wider recognition for his amazing skills with this, the best Thing costume I've ever seen.

pictures from the 2021 Rhode Island Comic Con

The Rhode Island Comic Con was the last show I attended in 2019. I wrapped up the convention year with a table and, of course, not knowing that I wouldn't attend any show in 2020. RICC was back at its regular dates this year, and I was able to get a table once again, so it had many full-circle moments as I ventured back into the world of selling stuff at conventions. 

So how was it? It was weird. But here are some pictures, in the spirit of the grand tradition of this damn blog, which I have been using for like 13 years at this point. That is also weird. Anyway, let's look at some pictures!

The eerie glow of the wheels on Ghost Rider's bike really sells this costume. The lights are a perfect touch.

Low-key Philip J Fry is a nice go-to if you've got red hair. It also works as a James Dean costume outside of convention center grounds.

Here's a look at the main show floor hallway, traveling down the escalator. It's hard to compare attendance at this show to that in 2019. Saturday felt busy at times. It was pretty sparse at moments on Friday and Sunday. I don't blame anyone for not feeling comfortable getting back to regular conventions just yet. I suppose that the crowds came in waves, and in between those waves, the attendance was light.

Okay. So. William Shatner announced that 2019 would be his last year for convention appearances. At NYCC in October, I paid (a lot) for an autograph. At RICC, my pal Ian and I went for one of the photo ops. The plastic divider in the picture is distracting, and these celebrity photo ops are pretty cheesy in general. But I couldn't pass up what will probably be my last chance to get a photo with Captain Kirk.

I posted the picture online, and some random kind soul quickly came back with this edited version. Bless the person who did this. Maybe this will be my Christmas card this year.

I don't know what this costume is! But it is impressive!

This Predator costume was probably the most popular at the show, and this guy paid the price for having a good outfit at a small convention. I often saw him surrounded by crowds for 30 minutes at a time, and he'd eventually have to ask people to let him leave. It's a double-edged sword, my friend.

Some Bat-Family characters.

One of the photo booths on the floor allowed you to take a picture with this really huge Battle Cat. You could sit on it, hold He-Man's sword, the whole thing. I know that this isn't a licensed thing, and I wonder who was in charge of spray painting the tiger model green, but it was still fun to see.

Sometimes at shows, especially small shows, the things I enjoy seeing most of all are the old and very expensive comics. Here's a hefty run of the Fantastic Four that includes issues 1, 2, 4, 5, 52 and others.

I'm here for this Skeletor.

This Little Shop of Horrors Audrey II prop was roped off on the show floor. It looks like someone could get in it and operate it? But every time I saw it, it was just there for display.

Lower Decks is the best Star Trek show currently airing. I absolutely love it. 

I saw more than one couple dressed as Laszlo and Nadja from What We Do In The Shadows, which is also a wonderful show that I've just recently finished watching. It's a great idea if there's more than one person if your group.

I was kind of bummed when shows shut down for 2020 - I was also sad for other, more important reasons, I guess - so I decided that I would get unnecessarily dressed up the next time I was able to get a table. It took two years, but I was finally able to get back to exhibiting a convention in November of 2021. So here's the table...

...and here I am, resplendent as always, at the 2021 Rhode Island Comic Con. Everything about this is ridiculous. 

Also here's Godzilla.

Here's another Laszlo and Nadja. Laszlo is wearing his cursed hat.

Well, now I know who in Pennsylvania has this variation on the Pac Man license plate.

I was able to be on a panel, see some friends, and be bored at a comic convention again for the first time in a while. I'm happy about it all.

David Crane original comic strip artwork from Winslow Mortimer

In early November, I traveled to the Rhode Island Comic Con in Providence. The RICC was the last show I attended in 2019, so getting a table at this show in 2021 was an opportunity to start to feel like things were (maybe?) getting back to some semblance of normalcy. I sold some books and got some pictures, but I also grabbed some unusual original art from a comic strip I wasn't familiar with. Here's a scan!

I obviously have to learn to more seamlessly connect two halves of images in Photoshop, and I should probably try and flatten out that left edge, but what we have here is some art, dated December 31, 1962, from the comic strip "David Crane."

Not knowing anything about the strip, I was still drawn to this art for a few reasons, but mainly because the art is by Winslow Mortimer, a Silver Age comic artist who had notable contributions to a number of DC titles like Action Comics, Adventure Comics, Detective Comics and Superman Family.

The strip itself is mostly unremarkable from a story perspective. Despite Phil saying the word Larry twice, all that happens is one character showing another a car. The art is really lovely, though, and the car in the third panel (as well as Phil's sweater) has not just pencil and ink art, but also a sticker overlay that looks great despite being almost 60 years old.

I tried to find what I could on the comic strip, and it seems that it ran from 1956 to '72. Created by Mortimer, I've found a couple mentions of the artist leaving the strip in 1960. This strip and its 1962 copyright information would seem to dispute that, though I suppose it's possible that Mortimer had a backlog, or that this strip was printed in the Toronto Star at a later date. I'd welcome any other suppositions, if any David Crane expert out there would like to set the record straight.

For most of its run, David Crane was a light action/adventure strip with religious overtones, following a young pastor and his flock. It seems that toward the very end, the strip abandoned this storyline and became a more generic gag comic. And I'll just add this extra bit and see if I can confuse anyone: David Crane served as the inspiration to the Cheers and Frazier characters later on. Maybe? Sure.

It's also worth noting that, based on the writing in the left margins, this strip was #666 in the set. I know it's just a number, but it's kind of funny that of all the pages out there, I picked up lucky 666 from a comic strip about a handsome pastor.

There's a light impression of a stamp in the very bottom right corner of the page that really intrigues me. The image looks like it has a leaf or plant in the center, surrounded by several words, one of which is "artist." What this means, if it was just on the paper or specific to the comic strip, is something I'll probably never find out. But it's something I didn't notice until I took the scan of the full image.

I really like the look and presentation of comic strip art, and I've gotten a few recently. I think this is the oldest piece of original art that I now own. It's obscure as far as properties go, but I really enjoy having it.

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.