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NY Comicon Report 6 - More Things I Want But Can't Afford Friday is over. I will eventually post my thoughts about the con, and stuff I bought, but here are a few additional things I very much want but are out of my price range. Let me first start here though. This was my after-con drink tonight. A Maker's Mark Manhattan with a slice of bacon. Let me tell you ... this was REALLY good. And then for dinner, 2 patties, bacon, avocado and egg. Combined with the Manhattan, life does not get much better. Okay, so back to the con. I want this Dave Steven's OA. But at $11,000, it will have to find another home. I want this one just as much, Sub and Gwen Stacy by Alex Ross from Marvels. The price is $9000 for the pair. Honestly, if I could just buy Gwen for $4500 I'd do it. The dealer joked the Gwen by herself would be $8999. I get that. Who wants Subby? Next up, It Rhymes With Lust. Priced at $900 from Basement Comics. I was very tempted by this but decided to pass. This book is not as rare as I used to think. I'll throw this one out there. Girls' Love #154. It's a nice copy. At $50 I'd buy it. But $125? Geezy Peezy. I'll say though, that what I'm willing to spend at this con is being impacted by my bids on the current C-Link auction. I'll post more later. Thanks for reading.

Boy I'm so surprised. Congrats on a great book!

NY Comicon Report 5 - Things I Want But Can't Afford Well, the first day of the con is in the books. I got to the con at about 1pm Thursday and stayed until about 430pm (I had to do some work). It is very crowded here, stifling so at times. They also have the con spread across 4 venues. Artist alley, while in the Javits Center, is a long walk from the dealer's room (the walk made even longer by the crowds). Still though, yesterday was productive. I managed to see the 2 artists I most wanted to see, Terry Moore and Joe Benitez. Also, I set up a few commissions. I'm debating whether to get a commission by Tim Sale. He's pricey, so we'll see. Here are a few things I saw that I won't be buying, unfortunately. Anthony has this Steranko on sale. I very much want it. It's perfect for an empty space I have in my wall. But at $12,000 it's way outside what I have budgeted for this show. This Terrific Comics is high on my want list. The dealer has it at $4500. Honestly I'm not sure if that's a good price, but it's outside my budget so doesn't really matter. Crimes Does Not Pay 24 is also high on my want list. I'm actually tempted by this. It's in rough shape but the cover art presents well. The dealer has it at $2000 and he is firm. Seems high to me but it's hard to tell because they are rarely offered. If you think $2000 is a fair price I'd be very interested to know.

And I remember getting Stan's autograph for free, and a head sketch by Archie Goodwin, both at the same small con in Washington DC. Yeah, the good old days.

NY Comicon Report 4 - Planning for Panels (I guess I should call these pre-con reports, but I hate it when they re-start titles at #1, so that's why I'm going with consecutive, uninterrupted numbering.) Tomorrow is the big start of the con. I'm driving up from VA and picking up my daughter in Philly, where she attends college. Then we head to NYC. My other daughter is flying in from Pittsburgh, where she goes to college. We'll spend the afternoon at the con, then go to Quality Meats for dinner. I have to admit I'm getting excited for this con. Well, I get excited for all cons, even the small local cons. But this is more like, SDCC excited. The only other con I've felt this way about was the first WW Chicago con that I attended a few years ago, because growing up the big cons for me were San Diego, Chicago and Atlanta. I've been to Atlanta once, when I was in my 20s. It was okay but nothing like San Diego. I've been to Chicago a few times. It's okay, I had fun. But it's not San Diego. (Also, while it might be the best Wizard World con, it's still a WW con, so while fun, it has a low ceiling on how good it can be.) I guess I would add Emerald City to the list of big cons. I haven't been yet. I definitely want to go someday. So now back to NY. It does have that SDCC feel to it. But the San Diego of a few years ago, where it wasn't impossible to get tickets, and the panels were crowded but not impossible to get into. Also, while I like San Diego, NYC is better, at least for a visit. If I had to pick someplace to live, I'd pick SD. But for a weekend, I'd go with NYC. We'll see about the con. I'll probably be disappointed. But a bad day at a con is still a pretty good day. I'm going through the list of panels, trying to put together my schedule. Something I won't be attending is "An Evening with Mark Hamill." I like MarK Hamill, but it's an add-on pay event and I don't want to pay. Not that he needs my money-- below is the seat map, and you can see it's almost sold out. The cheap seats are $129. If you buy a front row seat (there are 8 left), you get: "Get a Orchestra Row A ticket to this Jedi Masterpiece, and after the show you’ll be able to get an autograph and a photo with Hamill Himself! Autographs can be on a provided 8x10 or on an item you bring with you, and photos will be taken with your phone or camera on stage!" This ticket only costs -- wait for it -- $1499. Uh, no. I love ya Yedi Master but I think I'll pass.

A Dodgers fan and now you don't like onion rings. I'm not sure about you Robot.

I am so sad right now.

If I have time I'm going to Carnegie Deli. Here are my onion rings and corned beef on rye from a past visit. And I love NYC's food trucks. I'll be hitting them for breakfast. Grab a sausage, egg and cheese on a bun and a Diet Coke for a five (with change back) on the way to the con.

I agree with you.

But, I want to go by Trump Tower (not!)

I also like Gil Kane, but Romita is the best. Your drawing is really amazing. An early study of Gwen without the headband. When/how did you get it? The only original sketch of Gwen by John Romita I have is this one, that I got in 2001 at a Megacon. He was sharing a table with his son, JR Jr. To get a sketch from each, you had to get in senior's line, and then Jr.'s line. But the lines were short back then and the whole process took maybe 30 minutes. For the life of me, I have no clue why I had them sketch on a Witchblade cover. That's probably one of the worse decisions of my collecting life. At the time -- and I still do this -- I have artists sketch on the Gen13 "do-it" blank cover. In my view that comic started the sketch cover "thing," and I have a pretty big collection of Gen13s, even one of Batman by Carmine Infantino (pic below). Anyway though, I don't know why I had them sketch on this Witchblade cover. But I still like it, the way an older Gwen by senior is looking down at a younger Gwen by Jr. I have not gotten into Spider-Gwen. I don't like the premise of Peter dying. It would have been more interesting (for me at least) if Peter was still alive with Gwen being a super-hero. I do collect Spider-Gwen though, for the cover art. Here are a few from my collection.

Romita is the master, thanks for posting.

What are you looking for? I'll be at NY and going to Frank's table. If there's something he has on his table that you want, I probably can pick you up a copy. I can't guarantee condition though. and if you're looking for him to do a sketch, I probably can't do that, because if he's will to do a sketch I'll be doing that myself. but if you're looking for one of his comics I can probably pick you up a copy.

I just looked at Il Mulino's menu. I may have to go. From my hotel (green arrow), Il Mulino (orange arrow) is close to Quality Meats (blue arrow) and only a 46 minute walk. I love walking in cities, especially NYC. So QM on Thursday with my 2 daughters, and then IM either Friday or Saturday. My kids will probably dump me for their friends at least one of those nights, so if they do I'll go to IM and sit at the bar (hopefully they have a bar where you can eat).

NY Comicon Report 3 - Gwen Stacy Commissions Well, it's hard to think about comics today given what happened in Vegas, but I guess just as a distraction I'll post this. I've written before how Gwen Stacy's death affected me. I was a kid reading about Peter's romance with Gwen, buying the comics new off the spinner rack in the local drug store as the title approached #121. At the time I was a paper boy, delivering newspapers on my bike to make money for comics. I was going home after delivering my papers. I had hit the drug store and was reading #121 as I slowly biked the dirt road home. When Gwen died I was so shocked I literally fell off the bike. I was extremely upset and 40+ years later I'm probably still not completely over it. Many years ago I started getting commissions of Gwen. I got out of it for a number of years, but I think maybe I might get a commission or two in NY. Here are some I've gotten in the past. First Billy Tucci: Bo Hampton: George Perez: Frank Cho: Nick Cardy: Joe Staton: Ramona Fradon:

Dodgers huh? I guess you're okay anyway (I'm a Nats fan).

Curses ....

Holy cow! I just looked at my copy. CGC says it's Baker! It's rarely offered, so either way this is a great buy. Someone needs to buy it.

No .... are you joking?

this is one of my favorite gga books, but I've already got my copy

let's not wake the sleeping giants

I WILL TAKE THIS

take

shhhh ... Cav and Rick are asleep

take