New York Comicon 2009: Day 1 Report

One day is down at the comicon and so far, it’s gone pretty well. Being at the comicon all day is kind of weird, since time is really nebulous. There’s no windows, so one minute it’s 2:30 and the next it’s 6. Time dragged a bit early in the day, but zipped along at the end.

Today, I didn’t go to any panels, and didn’t really talk to any artists or anything. I spent most of my time sitting at the Sequart booth, talking up our books and just talking comics with some friends of Sequart. Final Crisis definitely remains the contentious topic, with lovers and haters all expressing their opinions in a discourse that features a lot more modified respectful feeling than you’ll typically see on the internet. I think it’s a testament to Grant’s work that he has created a major company event that is so personal and evokes such disparate emotions.

I also got to talk up my Invisibles book a bit to passers by. That book will be in the August previews, so it will come out sometime around October. I saw the preview copy today and it looks good.

Besides sitting at the booth, I wandered around and picked up the Morrison/Millar Aztek and Flash trades, filling in some of the remaining gaps in my Morrison knowledge. I also grabbed a whole bunch of New Mutants and a few 80s X-Men issues to fill in the gaps in my collection for a forthcoming project, on which more will be announced later. I’m hoping to leave the con with the entirety of X-Men/New Mutants/X-Factor and the associated minis from 1974-1991 in my possession, in various forms. Thanks to the dollar bin, that’d doable at not too much money. It’s great to pay cover price on 25 year old issues.

Speaking of Claremont, the biggest announcement out of the con for me was Claremont’s upcoming X-Men Forever series, which will pick up where his run on the book ended with X-Men #3. I believe at some point in my blogging on the series, I suggested a series like that, but who’d have thought it would really happen. Claremont of today is a very different writer than 1991 Claremont, but I’m still eager to see what he does with it, and how he plays off the story that he created, unencumbered by the influence of awful 90s concepts and Marvel editorial influence. It could be great, we’ll see soon enough. I’m hoping to talk to Claremont a bit tomorrow, so I’ll report back on that.

Also, I’m hoping to check out the panel on Torchwood tomorrow, and get an update on the next season of that show. Then, Sunday I’m looking forward to the Joss Whedon and Dollhouse panel, as well as the late con fire sale where I’m hoping to grab some $1 trades. We shall see.