Saturday, March 3, 2007

NY Con, part 2

Still dragging that flu, but feeling better. So, the second part;

Inside the Center, as ussual, DC Comics and Marvel have the biggest booths up front, but had some serious competition in companies that have comics as sidejobs and mainly deal with vidgames, movies or/and toys

Fox Atomic is one of them. With strong (financial) background and ambracing new techonologies they'll try to take their piece of pie. And they have Heidi McDonald on board and that counts for something!

Vertigo is, of course, part of DC's booth and had lots of their writers and artists signing and promoting their books there. Here are Jason Aaron and Cameron Stewart, authors of 'The Other Side', Vertigo's mini-series which you should definitelly check out because it's a little masterpiece! Aaron is also wirting Vertigo's new monthly 'Scalped' with fantastic R.M. Guerra as artist and first two issues are very promising.


Kevin Eastman and his 'Heavy Metal' are still alive and kicking, although 50% off of the books they're selling might suggest things aren't that great.

On the upper floor there's Artists Alley where you can meet in person tons of artists, who are promoting their self-published books and selling original art and comissions. My favourite there was John Paul Leon, underated genius! Of course I was too emabarrassed to take a photo!

On the lower level there are number of rooms where panels are held. I attended the one where Vertigo was promoting their ongoing or soon-to-be-published books and series. From left to right you can see vague silhouettes of: Karen Berger, Brian K. Vaughan, Brian Azzarelo, Jason Aaron (I suppose), Douglas Ruskoff, Jonathan Vankin (behind him),Becky Cloonan; Andy Diggle (behind), Brain Wood, (can't remember who's the guy in shirt on stripes, sorry), Percy (rapper whose autobiography Vertigo will publish as a graphic novel) and Rick Vietch, the legend!
I've also attended interesting panel about war and comics, but that one has, of course, drawn quite smaller crowd.

People dressed up in costumes became so common things that I didn't even bother to take pictures of them all. Still, when I noticed that Batman is taking a piss right next to me - i was shocked! Of course I didn't pull out my camera then! Would you?

Toys, figures and stautes are getting more and more popular. I must admit some of them are really beautiful and very well crafted, but I'd still rather spend my money on comics and beer.




You can't see the price here, but this piece costs 690$!!!!!

This is not a statue! I think poor creature was looking for his parents...

Brian K. Vaughan was one of the guests of honor (among Stan Lee, Stephen King and others) with schedule of signings, interviews and panels so full that it seemed to me like hard work instead of having fun, what I thought conventions are all about. Anyway, I noticed how incredibly patient and welcoming he was with fans and I simply had to take advantage of it, getting a photo with him and my 'Pride of Baghdad' signed with dedication I'm unworthy of!
Thanks, Brian!



And this would be it, as far as I got it covered with pictures. I must add that I had a lots of fun smoking cigarettes with Italians, drinking with Brits (and a random American), meeting lots of great artists and making Dunja, Vuk and Miran less homesick. Also had some interesting talks with people from Vertigo, you'll read about it here in days to come. At the end I can only say it's been too short. I'll plan it better next year.

Say, what? I promised a report full of gossips, name-droping and self-promotion? Well, welcome to the beautiful world of false advertisement! I did extensive name-droping, some self-promotion, but for the gossips you'll have to buy me a beer when you see me! : )
Cheers!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Je li ti to prvi put da si vidio vaughana licem u lice?

dzuka said...

je, prvi put. doduse, zadnji put sam bio u americi 2001. i moguce je da smo se tada sreli, ali tad jos nista njegovog nisam citao.

Anonymous said...

Flew?

dzuka said...

oooops! ispravljeno! : )
ima toga sigurno jos.

hrvoje said...

to se zove dobar provod!

Anonymous said...

Ima, usual, ali sam mislio da bi bilo previse sve odjednom :)

dzuka said...

kak si pazljiv. : ) a da ja tebi ubuduce saljem tekstove na lekturu? : )