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cgcworlds ridiculously long (as usual) NYCC report

Started by Guardian Comics,

30 posts in this topic

Guardian Comics

Guardian Comics

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On Thursday morning after dropping off the children at school, my wife and I embarked on a 7 hour drive from the burbs of Toronto headed for Manhattan. A place neither my wife nor I had ever been to before but after the success of the con it won't be the last time either. Against the advice of high rollers such as Harley Yee and Foolkiller who suggested we stay in the city, I decided to cheapen out and stay in Secacus NJ. We arrived in time to catch some dinner, watch Survivor and head off to bed to get an early start to the day on Friday.

 

Althoough we live in the 4th largest city in North America, nothing could prepare for the size and scope when we arrived at the Port Authority station in Manhattan. It was a beautiful day and we decided to hike it to the Javits Center. Upon pour arrival we met with super dealer and friend Stephen Ritter who hooked us up with weekend passes. His booth was a tad different than usual as banners featuring the WWComics logo, his new company were displayed prominently.

 

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He was sharing his booth with Matt Nelson and both were getting prepped for the onslaught of people preparing to arrive.

 

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Stephen showed me the four White Mountain books that he had brought for me and I was estatic to add a a couple of genuine keys to the run I'm building.

 

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We decided to check out the rest of the convention floor. On the drive up, I suggested to my wife that we should go through the dealers bins and see if we could find any White Mountains that are unaccounted for. After doing this at JHV and a small dealers booth, I decided to give up pretty quickly on that pipe dream.

 

We did come across a great booth selling life size statues, and my wife did suggest picking up the Spidey for our home theatre but as cool as they were, $4,000 buys comics that I'd rather have more and they take up way less space.

 

Besides bumping into Brian (Foolkiller) a half dozen times, the only other forum member we ran into was Danny (MutantKeys) and we sat around and shot the for a half hour or so.

 

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We walked the convention floor for eight hours and near closing time we ran into Bob Storms. Who says Bob doesn't smile? Within the first five minutes I saw him crack a smile at least a dozen times and one time I could swear he was even straight up laughing.

 

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He had a killer run of Marvel Mystery books that put almost every others dealers wall book to shame.

 

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As they dimmed the lights for the shows closing, my wife and I realized it was dark and we had no idea how we were going to get back to our hotel. Bob offered to go out of his way and drive us back to Jersey before heading for home in Long Island. We were able to persuade Bob into coming for dinner with us and the three of us sat around for two hours, eating fine veal and discussing the hobby to no end. I learned so much that night about Bob Storms the man and dealer and am happy for this opportunity to sit down and pick his brain. He is a fountain of knowledge and one of the classiest, if not the classiest dealer in the hobby. We said our goodbyes and headed for bed.

 

On Saturday the plan was simple arrive at the show and hook up with KorvacSaga and BigHulkFan. Well Rich was present and accounted for but Bill never answered his cell phone unfortuantely. Rich sold me my first White Mountain and we had quickly become fast friends. We met up at Ritters booth and instantly became even better friends. The three of us patrolled the show together for most of the afternoon. One time we got split up and while my wife and I were trying to find Rich we came across a booth that had two Silver Surfer statues or so I thought. I pointed them out to my wife who quickly corrected me that they were Ice Man statues :makepoint:

 

Around 3 o'clock we met up with Adam Strange who brought some pre hero White Mountains to show me and we struck up some serious pedigree discussion. While we discussed the finer points of 1950's pedigrees, I noticed that our own KorvacSaga took off with my wife and began to wander the convention together. After a good half hour or so or discussion AdamStrange headed out to check out some other booths. I was now on an adventure to find Rich and Barb amongst a mass of people. I don't know exactly what happened between the two but I do know that Rich attempted to point out a Silver Surfer statue to Barb and once again she pointed out it was IceMan dammit :)

 

Around 4 or so, Rich decided to head back home and my wife and I had decided to continue walking the floor. I have been itching to buy a Golden Age book for some time now and decided to pick this one up before somebody snatched it from Stephen Ritter.

 

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Knowing that I wasn't going to come back for Sunday, I said goodbye to everybody that I wasn't going to see at the forum dinner later in the evening. I'm pretty sure we ran into Seth Green who was dressed as the Hulk

 

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We also ran into the best costume I have ever seen at a Convention before.

 

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The costume was perfect with every accessory the proper colour and in place and even though my picture doesn't do her any justice (her face looks pale). This woman was absolutely stunning !!!

 

It was getting late and we decided to head to Carmines for the forum dinner. We got lost and were the last ones to arrive. We sat at a table with my good friend Nik and next tonew ones KC, Spidey on Tilt and Resurrection. My wife sat beside Foolkillers friend Maryanne and the gabbed the entire night. We came, we saw, we chatted and around 11:00 the restaurant kicked us out. Not wanting to end the night most of us headed back to the Sheraton where Brian was staying at and took over the bar. While walking to the Sheraton, Stevie B. was getting out of a cab to come join us for a drink at Carmines, and joined us at the Sheraton after party. While there I got a chance to meet and chat at length with EvilAsh, Golddust and BurntBoy. Around 2:00 we decided to call it a night as we had a rather formidable drive in the morning. Until we actually made it out of the Sheratons doors we had forgotten that we were foreigners in a different land but were quickly reminded as we exited the Sheraton Hotel and five feet away a drunken woman and her other half were engaged in a serious shouting match/fist fight. As we quickly hurried to the nearest corner we qucikly called for a Taxi and enjoyed our first NYC Taxi raping (I mean ride). I asked how much to get back to Secaucus and he very casually told us 60 bucks. Without any alternative I tried to talk him down like he was Ted Van Liew but unlike Teddy he wasn't budging. I agreed and after 7 minutes we were back at the hotel.

 

Waking up early Sunday morning, we gassed up the Buick Enclave for $48.00 and made it all the way home on one tank of gas!

 

So what did I learn from the whole experience? That it is cheaper to drive from New Jersey to Toronto crossing 3 different states and a province than it is to drive from Manhattan to Jersey on a Saturday night as two AM :)

 

Thanks to everybody for making both of us feel so welcome, we've decided to make this an annual getaway for the forseeable future.

 

Jim

 

 

 

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HouseofComics.Com

HouseofComics.Com

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So what did I learn from the whole experience? That it is cheaper to drive from New Jersey to Toronto crossing 3 different states and a province than it is to drive from Manhattan to Jersey on a Saturday night as two AM :)

 

 

That . . . is a great line!

 

Good report.

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adamstrange

adamstrange

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Nice report! Though you did leave out the part about how handsome I am. hm

 

It was fun meeting up with a fellow "mountaineer" and hopefully this won't be the last time. (thumbs u

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Old Fashion PB and J

Old Fashion PB and J

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Next year, get in contact with me earlier and I will help you find someplace easy to stay. That way you can just drive up with me, and not have to worry about that stuff. It was cool meeting you and your wife. And im glad to hear you are coming back. If you ever come back down my way on the East Coast let me know .

 

 

Pat-

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Ares

Ares

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My only question is did you get back in time to pick up the kids from school :)

Canadian schools lock the kids in the basement for safe keeping if the parents dont pick them up in time

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