True(ish) stories from New York...
Sunday, November 11, 2012
New York Comic Con 2012
Day 1 – Thursday, October 11
Originally, we were scheduled to have a
10am flight out of the Savannah airport (what luck! Usually we fly
out of atlanta or jacksonville, quite a drive from savannah!) to JFK,
but the flight was delayed. The airline put us on a direct flight to
newark, though, and while it took off later so we had some extra time
hanging out in the airport, we wound up arriving at about the same
time. Thankfully, because of NYCC and mocca last year, we knew how
to navigate from newark to new york without any hassle (except becca
boarding a train before joseph and I could make it on, and having to
wait for us at the next stop)
I managed to book us a room at the
hotel pennsylvania right next to penn station. Having never booked a
hotel in new york, I had no idea what to expect, but this was the
only place I could find that wasn't at least $300 a night (it wound
up being just under, but split four ways it was less expensive than
staying in newark and taking the train in every day. Also less
hassle.) The lobby was really nice, and the whole place had a very
cool art deco theme, but the hallway of our floor smelled kind of
weird, and looked a bit like something out of Silent Hill.
We chose to get the professional pass
to new york comic con, which included thursday. Thursday is far less
crowded than the other days, and is a good day to talk to other
artists and professionals, as well as editors, without being swamped.
Unfortunately, we got there a little late and were only able to talk
to a few editors – most were either already packing up for the day,
or weren't arriving until Friday. Becca and I met up with Pan and
some of the other graduate students and passed out some work samples
and takeaways, and managed to snag a few business cards of various
editors at the same time. We were encouraged to come back early on
friday to talk to the editors, so after scoping out everywhere and
when we wanted to be, along with any panels we wanted to attend, we
called it a night and headed back to the hotel.
We were staying only a few blocks from
Koreatown, and so we had some awesome food-ventures. While Savannah
has some great southern food, there's nothing quite like New York
City for authentic foods, so we made our way to Koreatown and had
some dinner. (I had something called Bibimbap, it was pretty tasty.
Afterwards, we found a little bakery and got some tasty treats.)
Day 2 – Friday, October 12
Pan and I went a little earlier than
Becca to the con, arriving just before ten when the doors opened –
and man, was it crowded! The line moved pretty well though, and we
were in the vendor area by 10:20, searching for editors. Jill Beaton
of Oni press was unfortunately not there this year, but I did talk to
Calista of First Second and Paul of Archie, and dropped off a lot
more packs of sample work. Unfortunately, Oni Press was not doing
portfolio reviews this year, and DC and Marvel's booths were so
packed we couldn't even get close.
The stuff I handed out at cons - packs of art and books, along with the Sons of Fire pitch book
At noon I met up with the writer I met
at last year's NYCC, Adam Garcia, with our pitch books for Sons of
Fire, and we restarted the
process of visiting editors, this time pitching them our story. By
four in the afternoon, we had hit up nearly every editor we could
find (some were mysteriously absent the whole day) and were sore and
exhausted.
Friday
evening, we met up with some friends Becca had met online from SVA,
and went out for Korean Barbeque together. It was quite cool to see
their work and trade sketchbooks, and we got to talk about our
experiences at our respective schools. Sometime close to 1am we made
it back to our hotel and crashed.
(we hung out and drew some. I was pretty sleepy)
Day 3
– Saturday, October 13
I went
early to the convention again on saturday, wanting to check in with
Marvel, who I had finally managed to drop off some work with. When
we got there, it was even more packed than Friday – so packed that
we were literally pushed by a sea of bodies into the convention
center and up the escalator to the show floor. Unfortunately, the
people at the stop of the escalator weren't moving, and so we managed
to get shoved by the escalator and the people behind us into a solid
mass of people. I made my way to marvel as quickly as possible
(which wasn't very), and had to ask four different people before I
managed to track someone down to tell me that no, I didnt get a
call-back. After that, we quickly made our escape from the show
floor to check out Artist Alley.
In artist alley, I got to check out quite a few artists I really like (Stephanie Hans, Sean Gordon Murphy), talk to people I knew, meet some SCAD alumni, and even meet the artist behind Blacksad (Juanjo Guarnido). I walked away with some really good books, including the Blacksad sketchbook and Punk Rock Jesus. The most exciting part was probably that Sean Murphy remembered me from when I visited the Atlanta campus of SCAD to see him and Eric Canete.
After
exhausting the Artist Alley, we decided we'd had enough of the
convention and getting pushed around by people so we headed out.
(As
we left we found an awesome swap meet/sale happening)
(Also,
saw a guy dressed as the doctor, driving a TARDIS car)
That
evening we spent the night on the town. I needed a nap after getting
smooshed, but Becca and Pan headed to Kinokunia and Book Off, two
japanese book stores. We went out for sushi that evening, and then
walked around town. (Every time I have been to New York I say that I
want to go up the Empire State building, and have yet to do so.
Someday.....)
All
in all, the 2012 NYCC was far less exciting than 2011, and far less
successful. Though I did get some business cards, the lack of
portfolio reviews was disappointing, especially in comparison to last
year, and I didn't get the chance to attend any panels. However,
meeting up with my writer again and being able to pass out pitch
books was certainly a plus, and I got to meet some awesome people
from SVA and some really cool artists in the alley. I probably won't
attend next year, just for the sheer cost of traveling to New York,
but I hope someday I can put my own comics in the artist alley there.
At least I got a few sketches done.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Think More Villainous Thoughts
Hey all! I just entered a tshirt contest over at welovefine.com, and I'm hoping you'll rate my design favorably!
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
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