2008 New York Comic Con Review

This year’s comic con was packed full of goodness all around and we also got to have a real photographer who joined the Fantasybookspot team tag along and get pictures that are worth looking at so a big round of applause for Mark Adamoyurka for helping with that.  We also spent a lot longer at the con this year as we rolled up on Jacob K. Javits Convention Center around 9:30 am or so and did not get home until around 7:30 pm, and we still did not feel like we accomplished and saw all we needed to see.  Next year we are going to have to attend at least Friday and Saturday to really hit everything.  Also next year the date is changing back to its original time frame of February which means cold weather but allows us to don our greenjackets.

s always we start with the press information and how nice it is for a show to really allow the press to do their job, we get a place to recover and use our computer in the lounge as well as a press bathroom this year.  The best part of all is always the ability to stand on the press line to get into the show and the ability for us to take pictures that two other guys would not stand a chance of getting.  The only issue this year was that the press passes did not have your credentials on it, so it was impossible unless you knew them already to tell where a press member was from.  It is always nice to shoot the trade with someone and be able to know their name and affiliation right off the bat, maybe again next year.  It was Passover weekend so there were some people that would not be able to make it because of the holiday, but the place was still packed, you can check out the lines at the food and the entrance line in the photo gallery we have over at http://greenjackets.fantasybookspot.com/.

We have a lot to talk about, and being OCD that I am when it comes to articles and outlines, let us break it down for everyone not there, we had the convention hall where we listened to the panels on Battlestar Galactica and Prince Caspian, we had artists alley where we got a chance to meet some of the artists at the show, we got to swing by all the book publishing people, the rest of the booths including the comic booths, and then last but not least the people in costume.  Figure we can get started with the panels and then work our way forward.

We ended up sneaking in at the end of the Disney presentation so we would be on time for the Battlestar Galactica one, but we were not disappointed in the least.  We got to see clips of the Wall-E movie and there was a discussion going on describing each of the clips which was nice, the movie looks fun and interesting for the kids and it will be one we make sure we see in the theatre.  From there Peter Dinklage, William Moseley and Ben Barnes came out to answer questions about their new film coming out Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, let’s not forget the producer Mark Johnson who spoke a bit about how he would love to produce as many Narnia films as possible, which is a great thing.  The trailer was run twice, and it was packed full of action and some nice special effects, it is also on my short list of new films to watch.  The Fans, oh boy, come on people.  Enough with the “will you come down and give me a hug”, and also enough to the guy who asked a question so long that the panel couldn’t even remember enough of it to answer.  William and Ben did a great job answering all the questions of how Prince Caspian and Peter interact through out the movie, and the stunts that William (Peter) gets to perform in the movie.  The panel was interesting and fun, and the actors did a great job providing the audience with some great insight into the movie.  Disney wraps up and then on to the Sci Fi channel presents Battlestar Galactica panel.  Before we talk about the panel though, Sci Fi, reintroduced its partnership with Virgin Comics and we got a neat little tidbit.  Sci Fi and Virgin will be working together to do a kind of pilot where they put a story in a comic and then decide if it might make a good TV show, that is real good news for us.  We also got the morsel that Sci Fi may be producing a show, I think they called Superburbia or something like that, which would be a cross between Heroes and Desperate Housewives, uh, sign me up.  On to the Battlestar Galactica panel, it was real nice to see Michael Hogan, Rekha Sharma and Michael Trucco who play Saul Tigh, Tory Foster, and Samuel T. Anders come on to stage, even if that is who I was not expecting to see.  Michael Trucco is a funny guy, and is a good looking dude, I can admit that.  When asked by fans on how to play Pyramid Ball and some other questions like what would you want from the set, Michael provided some real good answers.  I think there was also a question about the sex scene between him and Katee aka Starbuck (my personal favorite actress on television now).  Rekha was … interesting … she went off on a racism tangent which was kind of out of place and I think a lot of people in the audience were confused of how that question transformed itself into a question on racism, but I digress.  Michael Hogan though stole the panel, he was Saul Tigh. I am still a noob comic guy, the guy from the Simpsons (Comic Book Guy) would be embarrassed to know me, but I feel like each year I not only learn a little more, but I also keep increasing my appreciation for some of these comic book artists. I bought a nice signed print of Elecktra, by renowned comic book artist Greg Horn, (pictured right) he is a real nice guy and had a funny story of how he is such a Mr. Pibb fan that he replaced the Elektra in the picture with a can of Mr. Pibb. It is the nice little stories you get from the artists that really make it interesting to meet them in person. Greg Horn’s G.I. Joe work is sick, crazy sick. Let us see who else we met in artist alley and beyond at the New York Comic Con in 2008. Steve Niles was one of the first and last people we saw as I almost ran the famous horror comic book writer in the back of the con. He was real nice and we snapped a picture with him. I finally got to see one of my favorite comic book artists of all time Kevin Eastman who is one of the Co-creators of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and is the owner of Heavy Metal Magazine, the World’s Foremost Adult Illustrated Fantasy Magazine. Sean Chen, Bernard Chang, and Tommy Lee Edwards were all right next to each other and are super talented, super nice, and Bernard is a funny dude. We chatted up Mark Texeira as well on our rounds, but kind of by accident we ran into Jake Black. Marvel announced he would be the Story Consultant on the Ender’s series…sweet. This guy is really interesting to talk to as he dabbles in a bit of everything, real nice to have met him and hopefully he gets involved in as many things as possible, he lends a nice touch to everything so far he has done. Steven Belledin was also there showing off his fantasy art and the many Magic cards to his credit, he had some nice original pieces for sale as well.

The next two fellas get their own paragraph because they were that cool. Eric Maruscak does his work not with paper and ink, or even computer, he does it with pavement and chalk. The con goers were presented with an awesome picture of Captain America. Eric stopped to chat with us, first to help us pronounce his last name and then to make sure we got a good picture. Talented guy and he has a nice niche. I also got to meet the new publicity / special projects manager of Dabel Brothers Publishing, Derek Ruiz. This guy is a great pick up for the brothers, he is real personable, very nice. You know Fantasybookspot is a big fan and friend of the Dabel Brothers. I am always happy to pub them. Go visit their website and buy their stuff, http://dabelbrothers.com/, their new George R.R. Martin Wild Cards stuff is great. I also got to see some of the preliminary pencils from the new Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein that they are doing. Superb. From a business standpoint these guys are really hooking up with big names and it benefits everyone when they put pencil and ink to paper and tell the story. Ok, I lied, I am going to sneak in some Devil’s Due discussion in here as well. I got to meet the new publicity person from Devil’s Due Brian Warmoth, and this guy is busy with all the new announcements that Devil’s Due has going on. Heroes star Milo Ventimiglia was there to pub his new comic from DD and I am most excited about the new Voltron comic that they are releasing.

The meat and potatoes of the New York Comic con every year is meeting the book people and the publishing companies. This is the part of the con where I get to meet some authors as well as talk to the publicists that I email with during the year. There has been some turn over in the publicity departments which is nothing new so there were people from all the companies that were new to me. We broke an FBS rule in our first 10 minutes there, we agreed to review a self published novel by W.L. Hoffman, “The Soulstealer War”. This guy was just a nice guy and is willing to take whatever review is handed out so I figure why not, plus he has a Boris Vallejo & Julie Bell, that means something, and I would like to hear that story on how he got that. Authors first then publicists, so next on the list is Sherrilyn Kenyon she was real nice and had some cool posters to go along with her book, plus she had one of the biggest banners when you walked into comic con, you could not miss it. She was very nice and we have a contest copy to give away so stay tuned for a Seize the Night signed copy contest which is one of her Dark-Hunter Novels. They did stick her in a crappy booth, it was the size of a phone booth if that. Spectra really made an impression with me as well. I got to meet Felix Gilman author of Thunderer, nice guy but I think he is a little green on the book tour, man that cover is real sweet. Spectra was there in full force, we received copies of Outrageous Fortune and we also got to receive the first issue of Spectra Pulse, this is an awesome magazine, second only to Heliotrope, oh man sorry third after Spinetingler also. Seriously though it has excerpts from Martin, an article by Lynch and short fiction from Catherynne M. Valente amongst other things. We got to meet Michael P. Spradlin with his book “The Youngest Templar Keeper of the Grail”, from HarperCollins Children’s Books, we are starting to get into some real good Y.A. Fantasy. We also made our way into the presence of Del Rey fantasy great, Peter David, who was signing copies of Tigerheart, we also got some great pictures with him. Peter is a work horse and really knows how to sell a book. I want to mention two people behind the scenes that I really enjoy the company of. Dot Lin from Tor is a sweetheart, and she really helped get Fantasybookspot off the ground in its younger days so it is always nice to see her. Second I want to say it was real nice to meet Betsy Mitchell from Del Rey, since Jim Minz did not make the trip. Betsy is a great lady and she went out of her way to make sure FBS had everything it needed before we left the con. Also big ups to DK Publishing as well, they are always helpful. All these books are going to be in a Comic Con Package Contest coming up so stay tuned. Thanks to all the publishers for making Comic Con a real good time.

So what else went on at New York Comic con 2008 you ask. Tons of other stuff. Crazy people. So much to talk about so let us get started. We got to stop by the Duncan Yo-Yo booth, and see some pretty crazy tricks, some two handed do not get too close or you get knocked out tricks. Chromastone from Cartoon Network was walking around as well. Another thing to first time goers, do not even try to get lunch inside the Javits center between the hours of 11:30 to around 1:30 the lines are ridonkulous. The World of Mr. Toast booth was pretty funny, I do not know if it was funny in the ha-ha way or oh boy sort of way, but I did chuckle regardless. The Ugly Dolls were in full force, they would run up on you, try to push you, all in a funny way, the people underneath those costumes did a bang up job. People were asking if I was going to buy one for my kids, I was like my kids are 2 and 4, unless you are coming to sleep with them while they are having nightmares, it’s a no go this year. We got to peak in on Selma Blair and Ron Perlman from Hellboy at the Dark Horse booth which was right at the entrance. They had so much going on every time I went to talk to one of the publicists it was already packed for a signing or announcement, which is obviously great for them. The Comic Car made an appearance this year as always but it had like a side car caboose thing going on. The one thing that I have not seen on the web in the articles so far has been the Stormtrooper dressed up and dancing like Michael Jackson, this dude had some moves. There was also a Chewbacca that I think was better done than the original in the movie and he had a digital voice of Chewbacca to make him super authentic. Obviously there are a ton of people dressed up Cos-Play style and some cuties as well, which you can check out in the gallery. There were also some super life like Harry Potter Dolls, that looked so real, like some mad scientist shrunk down the real actors and actresses. If you were a fan they would be cool to own. There were also some cool dolls called emotes or something like that by Evergrow Limited, based on computer emotes, so for the computer nerd they would be appropriate. Gaia Online was there, but I really do not visit that much, the forum is so packed something you post is on page 5 before you blink. Dead Dick Zombie Detective was there as well trying to launch their comic, good idea see if people like it now though. Fathead had some of its new stuff plastered around the press area, I’m thinking either a Vader or Yoda for my kids’ room. The booth babe at the Captain Action booth was either bitchy or snobby or both, it was real tough to tell, listen companies if you get a booth babe and she thinks she is better than everyone else, you really should think about looking for someone new. It was so bad after our first picture came out blurry we were like oh well, let’s get out of here, we kind of felt uncomfortable around her. It was nice to have that Andromeda Strain Antibacterial Hand Sanitizing Gel after that meeting. Why we did not get a picture of the toxic trash can from The Toxic Avenger Musical I still do not know, and Mark got to meet Bill Plympton from old school Liquid Television fame. Also we got to see Susan Heidi, who does pin-up art of girls, let’s make a note here, the poster child for her company is our high school friend’s sister, it really doesn’t get any crazier than that. Cracked Out Super Heroes, dark satire, I do not think I need to say more, there was a girl dressed up as the girl on the mattress handing out the cards, nice. Molly Crabapple aka Nicola Black Design was there as well, not my style, but I can see the appeal. I also got #52 of the ICv2 Guide to Graphic Novels, this is something I really need to start getting regularly, as graphic novels are my new thing. The cover is done by Greg Horn and it is poppin’. Leviticus Cross looked pretty good, I can not even find a website for it though, is it released in the US yet? Last and not least at all is Vera Vanguard in Bloodrayne a fan film, she is hot, she is sexy and everyone should check out her website at http://www.bloodraynefanfilm.com, I see an interview in her future.

As always I got to meet up with our very own Clare Toohey and her friend, and ours as well Eric Schultz. They are currently shopping around a graphic novel and the preliminary artwork I have seen is real nice. Someone needs to pick this up.

I had more fun this year than my previous years of comic con due to many different things. The first one is that Mark was a real good photographer, but also is more outgoing then the other FBS crew members that have attended, which made for some interesting discussion and some interesting pictures as well. There are a lot of Damon and “someone famous shots” which obviously are my favorite. It was kinda neat to get the pictures of the new life sized star wars figures from the new Clone Wars cartoon coming out. We also had a lot more people to visit this year and talk to as Fantasybookspot continues to rise in fame on the interwebz, which meant that at the end of the day we still had not seen everyone we needed to see, and to the people we missed we apologize. Not having artist alley upstairs was good I think, it meant that you did not have to leave the main area to see the artists, but it sure was packed over that way as well, they are going to have to work on that for the next show. I really got to meet a fair amount of authors and artists this year along with the people that work behind the scenes like the people from Tor, Randomhouse, Penguin and all the other companies associated with them. Grade for this con a solid A. I am also hoping this allows us to put out some solid comic interviews in the next few months as well.

Check out all the pictures here.

P.S. Why I did not split this into multiple articles I have no idea.

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