New York Comicon: Day 1

The first day of my trip to the New York Comicon was a lot of fun, I didn’t get too much insider info, or attend any of the panels, but I got to talk to a bunch of creators I wanted to talk to, and had a good time wandering around. The show was pretty huge, and while crowded, it wasn’t too overcrowded. I’m guessing tomorrow will be busier, but today had a pretty manageable crowd.

When I first got in, I wandered around for a while, taking in the scene. I’d never been to a con this big, so I took full advantage of the freebies offered by DC, snagging a couple of nice looking Final Crisis posters, as well as a bunch of free comics, comics I actually wanted to read like Young Liars and Northlanders. I picked up a couple of cheap trades as well, then wandered around Artist’s Alley.

Eventually, I got a sketch from Yanick Paquette. He was really great, and spent about a half hour drawing the sketch and talking about working with Grant and Alan Moore. He said that an Alan Moore script is notable because it contains so much, ninety to a hundred pages for a twenty page comic book. In writing, he offers you various options about how to do the scene, and then at the end says “Or whatever you think is best, along with background on the philosophy and history behind the work. So, that when you’re finished reading it, you’ve thoroughly thought the scene through and understand what he wants.

He went on to say how the Grant scripts for Bulleteer were short, about five pages, and would feature occasional random words written in huge red letters. Hearing him speak, it sounded like the whole Seven Soldiers project was a bit out of control and Grant was making it up as he went along because Bulleteer changed so thoroughly from what he had originally been pitched. I think that’s part of what the work was, as it became less seven discrete miniseries and more one large story told in the background of seven smaller ones. But, he said that the short Grant script also made him think because he had to assess the situation more deeply then someone who told him exactly what to draw.

Next I headed over to the DC booth to get some stuff signed by Grant. I had him sign the Bulleteer sketch Yanick had just done, and the aforementioned Final Crisis posters. I told him what Yanick had said about the Bulleteer script and he said that it was insane, he would never write a five page script for a twenty page comic. So, I don’t know what to believe. I got a picture taken with Grant as well, he was very cool. Hopefully I’ll be able to hear him speak again tomorrow, at his spotlight panel.

After that, I wandered around a bit more, eventually stopping at Artist’s Alley once again to get a sketch from Phil Jiminez. Phil draw Ragged Robin for me, a really pretty piece. I talked to him about The Invisibles a bit. He was also very cool, it’s amazing to me that these artists do so many sketches for free. It’s great for fans, I do love that the medium is small enough that you can talk to the people who made these amazing stories. The Invisibles is my favorite work of fiction of all time, and I got the chance to talk to the writer and one of the major artists in the same day. Chris Weston is also supposed to be there, but he’s apparently at the Splash Page comics booth, not his own booth, so I didn’t see him today, hopefully tomorrow.

After that I wandered around a bit more, then the con was shutting down, so I left. I’ll be back in action tomorrow, hopefully I’ll check out a couple of panels and talk to some more people. On the one hand, it obviously is a bit of a geeky thing to go wander around this con, but it’s fun for me, and I enjoyed seeing the people who dressed up and had fun with it. Our real world is too boring, wouldn’t it be cooler to live in one where Stormtroopers and Jedi and Superman walk around with the rest of us?