So after a decent night’s sleep, I made my way back to Javits, to partake of various professional panels and then hit the show floor. But before the panels, I took more pictures! (Man, I love this press pass!)
After exiting the taxi and walking up to the Blue entrance, I noticed this. Not a bad bit of marketing… St. Mark’s gets around Midtown’s megabooth and the competition with all of the other retailers on the show floor. This is across the street from Javits, near the corner of 37th Street.
(Hey… I know Chevy is all over this show, but how much buzz could have been generated with DC’s Justice League Kia’s driving around town?)
After two panels on the Common Core Standards and how graphic novels can be utilized to meet those requirements, I recharged my phone in the press hall, and then moseyed on down to the show floor.
But this guy looks like he’s here to kick ass and chew bubble gum!
Or he’s on his way to Venice Beach…
I wandered aimlessly, just looking around with no particular agenda. While talking with the folks at the Topps booth, I met a family of three, with a middle school son. I slipped into bookseller mode, and asked the parents what they liked to read, what they wanted to see. The father liked science fiction, so I recommended Saga, and then led him around the corner back to 2000 AD! While he got the spiel, I discovered the mother liked Archie, as well as non-fiction. So I recommended 1) her local library, and 2) First Second Books.
Soon after, I needed liquid refreshment, and exited the show floor, heading over to Artists Alley where the food lines would be shorter. A quick snack and a bottle of coke kept me going, as I wandered the aisles.
Up front in Artists Alley is The Artist’s Choice, which has bins filled with well-known artists. I found Keith Giffen’s section, and picked up two pages from Ambush Bug. They are splash pages, but were nicely priced, so I blew my budget there. (Nice lettering as well… John Workman!)
I didn’t realize he would be signing there Saturday, but I won’t schlep it back.
I chatted with some other interesting artists (Sanya Anwar, Jim McCann), then made my way back to the show floor to pick up…
Here’s Mad Rupert (winner of the 2012 “Coolest Name in Comics” Award) with her self-portrait.
Over at the Titan Entertainment booth, they were featuring the Weeping Angels Statue of Liberty and Doctors of many colors. (Wouldn’t that make a cool night light?) I then asked if it were possible to merchandise Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death, the very first Doctor Who episode written by Steven Moffat. Very unlikely, as the celebrity clearances would be difficult and tempermental.
Titan had the last few limited edition copies of Star Trek: The Art of Juan Ortiz left over from San Diego. I discovered the posters when he first began the project, and this edition was bargain priced at $50! Signed and numbered, with a print! The regular edition is $39.95, with is also what a four-poster set of prints would cost. So I charged it to my credit card. (This might be my Christmas present to myself.) Then I picked up my checked backpack, filled it up with my treasures, and walked to Times Square for dinner and blogging.
General opinion: good crowds, but still easy to move around. Tomorrow? ohgawdohgawd’oh! Maybe I’ll just stay up in the Press Room and do Watchtower duty…
Would love to read details of the common core/GN panel you mentioned- does NYC or any other source do write-ups about the sessions? Thanks!
If by, “Quite possibly the best Artists Alley of any convention in North America” you mean from a fan perspective, fine. But, from an artist’s perspective, they need to get this back as part of the main show floor… it literally gets only a fraction of the show’s traffic, as it is a completely separate location about a 1/4 mile walk from the main floor.
Jason, actually I heard sales were fantastic in AA yesterday. We’ll see how that lasts the rest of the show.
I’ve been to all eight New York Comic Cons.
Before the move to the North Pavilion, Reed had no idea where to place AA.
In 2010, it was jammed in beside the autographing over in 3E, in a haphazard L configuration. It was cramped, badly lit, and it was hard to navigate (and find, as construction placed a big wall between it and the rest of the show floor), and it felt like MoCCA Fest was running it. 20 sections. 342 tables total.
(And this is from a fan perspective, but I helped out a friend when the show closed.)
One year, it was crammed into the fourth floor Galleria.
If it is moved back to the show floor, it will be much smaller with narrower aisles. and it will be marginalized. Booths earn more rent than tables. Also, this is the first year that tables were not comped, if the opinions of various professionals are to be believed. (And, as I noticed this year, at least on AA regular spent money and moved to the Small Press area in 3D. If they want better traffic, they can pay better rates. Like Tara McPherson does in The Block.)
http://www.mapyourshow.com/shows/index.cfm?SHOW_ID=nycc13&alt_entry=true&curr_pri=facility&curr_sec=OO
There are 460 tables in AA this year. Aisles are spacious. Lighting is generous. Bathrooms are a short walk away. Loading and unloading is easy, with a convenient entrance. (You go through the doors, you turn a corner, you go down the ramp, you’re at your table. Five minutes, max.)
I did not get to AA today, so I don’t know what the traffic was like. But that end of the concourse was busy, if only with people going from 1A to 3A. But I know people know about it, and DC is advertising their “artists colony” in that space. There is a big banner directing people to AA.
@Dave
I took notes in a notebook (just like a real journalist!), and will have a post up some time within the week.
When I next see Heidi, I’ll recommend she invite two of the local panelists to do a podcast on the subject. Where once we were the camel sticking its nose under the tent, we are now that obnoxious camel roaming the library and school saying “what day is it?” (It’s comics day!)
Wait about five years, and you’ll see comics in standardized testing. They already do it in Ontario.
Thank you Torsten- I’ll be looking for that. You’re right; hard to find info on how big pubs are reacting to CCS. For my title, I’ve had a classroom reading guide created that makes the connections to CCS, but I’d like to know how proactive the industry gets on all of this…
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