New York Comic Con Report

A couple of weeks ago was the New York Comic Con (NYCC) which is the 4th largest event in New York city, just behind the International Orchid show (which I would have rather been at) and the NY Marathon. The NYCC is not really my scene but I had the opportunity to give a presentation during Kids Day relating to Adventures in Cartooning (the graphic novel I co-authored and illustrated with James Sturm and Andrew Arnold published by First Second books). I was psyched to have been asked to speak and excited to do anything to help promote the book. I hopped on a Mega bus from Boston and was delivered to a random corner in NYcity Saturday afternoon. Andrew was nice enough to let me crash at his pad, conveniently located over a Nail salon (just in case I needed my nails done before showtime).



The convention itself was insane. The vibe was kinda man-child-patriotic overplayed with a claustrophobic consumerism and a hint of desperation. Also, it was locker room sweaty.




The first though I had upon arriving at the thunderdome (i.e. Javits Center) was that I am small, insignificant, and I should have brought my lightsaber. Honestly, I saw this guy in the bathroom.


The people at the First Second booth were awesome. I met alot of the people I had only known through emails. It was nice to have a little island to rest at amongst the crush of people at the convention. I don't have a picture of the booth but it looked great and had a good location near to one of the secondary entrances.

Sunday was KIDS DAY at NYCC. So there were alot of cute little spidermen and jedis running around. I gave my talk in the KIDS ZONE which was a large area (one might call it a zone of sorts) separate from the convention floor where all kinds of fun activities were being held for kids. Unfortunately, everything was happening at the same time so it was quite loud. The TMNT were whooping it up on the main stage at the same time as the presentation was going on so I had to use a mic to be heard.



The presentation ended up being less structures than I planned but the kids attending had a good time and drew some really awesome characters. I've given a few presentations and I am always really impressed by the cool and unique characters kids come up with. I guess it's a little cynical, but I expected most would try to draw characters from popular culture but most of the kids draw completely original stuff. It's definitely inspiring.