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Witnesses, How Did NYCC Go?

Started by MedicAR,

28 posts in this topic

MedicAR

MedicAR

Posted
Posted

Okay, the suspense is killing me! I can't wait to hear what did and didn't get done at NYCC. There have been some comments in other threads, but they're spread out all over the place. I'm not asking specifically about my books, but all the books they took in general, so here's a thread to do it in!

 

It's not intended for a con report or anything like that, just how the signings went. Tough signers? Easy to get? No shows? Pleasant suprises?

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Par2ch

Par2ch

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I missed out on Bendis all three days, just couldnt seem to find time to get in line and when I did the line was cut off before me. I also missed out on Jim Shooter (wasnt ever at his table). My sister was really looking forward to meeting Milo from Heroes, she went an hour before the panel and it was already all booked up.

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Joel Elad

Joel Elad

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I've actually been thinking about the New York show since the airplane ride back on Sunday afternoon, wondering the simple question "Did I have fun?" My conclusion so far is that, while I was busy, while I got a stack of books signed, and while it was great to hang out with forum members new and familiar, this show is a LOT of work and not a lot of fun. (My personal opinion only) Now, for me, this year was leaps and bounds better than last year, when I was only in town for Friday and half of Saturday and brought too much to be signed and panicked the whole time with no sleep, switching hotels in the middle, and rushing out mid-day Saturday.

 

The Marvel booth was tough, especially Saturday and Sunday, with long lines and limits. Friday was great, as Quesada was at the end of the day and willing to sign, as long as it wasn't multiple copies of the same book. (He is personally sick of signing Amazing Spidey #583's, so I did not overload him. It did help that I was at the end of the line and they capped it so early that Joe Q had plenty of time for me and Chandler at the back of the line)

 

The DC booth was ridiculous, as they were capping lines left and right, way too soon at times. The only good thing they did was provide a daily guide of who was signing where, which is better than San Diego where they tell you "Look at the TV to see who is signing when." I am not sure why they are so guarded/secretive about their signing schedule. Even Marvel put out a press release w/signing times, why can't DC?

 

Gibbons was tough to get, though he did sign each day at the DC booth. I could've gone Sunday morning, but I skipped his growing line to finish up a list of artist alley targets. Finch was definitely one of the hardest to get, as he had LONG lines all 3 days even though he was in the back of Artist Alley, and I couldn't get to him the whole show. J. Scott Campbell always had a small to medium line, but it moved, probably because he took a sketch list and nobody waited to get a sketch on the spot. When some folks, like Brian Bolland, had a long line (like on Sunday morning) it turned out to be 50% or more SS witnesses trying to get books done. :) We were definitely everywhere that weekend.

 

This was definitely a "hunt and ye may find" show in Artist Alley, as folks like David Micheline were not on the list but squatted at Bob Layton's table, for example. Bob Wiacek, not on the list, but sat 2 tables down from Layton if you were able to find him. Thankfully, not a lot of "switching tables" happened, so if someone was on the list for a certain table number, that is where they were (unless they were wandering around, in a panel or at a publisher's booth)

 

Todd Nauck had a healthy line the whole weekend, spurred by the success of Amazing #583, and I was thrilled to see it since he is a great guy and an ambitious artist. Phil Jimenez, right next door, had a small to medium line when he was there, but I did have to wonder: Everyone associated Amazing #583 with Todd, but not everyone knew it was a Jimenez cover, I saw.

 

Midtown Comics actually had a great signing list, though in my personal opinion, the line got a little unmanagable at times when there wasn't someone to manage the snaking around in the back of the booth. They gave out COA's no matter how many books you got signed, and regardless of whether the books signed were bought in their booth or not. For long lines, they did cap the number you could get signed, but you could get back in line if there was time.

 

I think the toughest signers were folks that were "hidden" in terms of not knowing their exact location, folks like Romita Jr that only had 1 scheduled signing (though he made an unexpected visit to CGC from what I heard) and popular guests of honor like Finch or the Kuberts. I know there was trouble with the Joe Simon signings at Titan on Saturday, but I never even made it over there at that time.

 

I got exactly one sketch done, by Billy Tan, and I realized yesterday, while at home in San Diego, that I forgot to go back to Billy's booth to pick it up! :) Thankfully, I know Billy and some of his inkers, so I am sure it is not lost, I can't believe I forgot, though. I was just real unlucky on Friday, always showing up at someone's booth before they came for the day, and by the time I came back and found them, long lines (or full lists) made it tough or impossible. Actually, I take that back, Billy Tucci did some blank cover quickie Shi sketches on Sunday.

 

Hmm, I think I've rambled for enough time. I love reading the other folks' reports on how the show went, and am floored with some of the sketches produced from this con. What a score! I'm hoping WonderCon will have a better sketch quotient for me. I'll have to seriously evaluate my "haul" of signed books from this show and decide whether to make the trek next October. Thankfully, contrary to some reports I heard, the 2010 NYCC is NOT scheduled on a Jewish holiday, so there's no conflict there, but with the price of attending, and the intensity of the show, I may just send books into other witnesses and conserve my strength. :) Knowing me, however, an amazing guest list will quickly change my mind.

 

Joel

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slackjawcomics

slackjawcomics

Posted
Posted

NYCC -

 

Gibbons - I had 17 books to get signed, and Gibbons was only doing three per person and I was there with one other person. With help from fellow line members I got 16 done. I guess better then nothing.

 

Jim Lee - I could not believe....he was the easiest of the show for me. I got there for the 3 pm Friday signing...20 minutes later, I had all my books signed.

 

Larry Hama - We saw a sign on Friday in the artist alley but no one was there....then the sign was gone. I looked for him for 3 days straight...my biggest disapointment. I heard he did a lot of walking around :(

 

Robert Atkins - Amazing guy, did three Secret Invasions covers for me.

 

David Finch - Only saw 10 people in his line...still a 2 to 3 hour wait, which I could not do. I know him and his wife Meredith, I skipped the line to talk to her about the new addition to the family and she got my few books signed by him.

 

Eric Powell - Might be the nicest guy at the show, will sketch on your books without even asking. Had a few conversations with him and his women.

 

Joe Quesada - Very nice, signed all my comics. We had a small conversation about CGC and SS Books, and how to make things easier. Hopefully I can help Kevin and CGC with him next show I attend.

 

I would like to thanks all the people that sent me books, I got about 80% done, Hama took up most of my time. I would also like to thank Steve (Evilash), Danny (Mutantkey), Shawn (Pitboss) and Gary (Preacher) for all the help and fun time we had. Maybe one day we will have to post the real funny pictures :) ....and video (Thanks Gary!!!)

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EvilAsh

EvilAsh

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It was a tough convention for sure, and I really didn't have a lot of fun at the show itself, but I had a blast at the activities in the evening on Friday and Saturday. This pretty much sums it up:

 

I've actually been thinking about the New York show since the airplane ride back on Sunday afternoon, wondering the simple question "Did I have fun?" My conclusion so far is that, while I was busy, while I got a stack of books signed, and while it was great to hang out with forum members new and familiar, this show is a LOT of work and not a lot of fun.

 

All of the books that I took on for customers got signed, and I spent the rest of the time helping Danny (Mutantkeys) and Chris/Gary (ffcomics) with their submissions. I know that there were a few books from each of them that didn't get signed (Larry Hama being one), but overall, their success rate seemed very high. From my perspective, the hardest signatures were Dave Gibbons and Joe Simon.

 

Gibbons had a signing on Saturday for an hour and Sunday evening for an hour (from what I've heard). Since I was leaving early on Sunday, I opted for the Saturday signing. First of all, you had to wait in line to get wristbands that enabled you to show up later at his signing time and wait in line AGAIN! Then, we come to find that he will only sign three books per person, so it was a scrable to find other people waiting in line who were only getting one or two books signing.

 

The Joe Simon signing was limited to 2 items per person. I was in line early and still hard to wait over an hour!

 

Other than that, most of the signatures went smoothly. There were some guests who were hardly ever at their booths (Shooter, Jackson), and some guests that weren't even mentioned in the program or artist's alley (Ted McKeever) who I had to hunt down. Other than that, everything seemed well-organized and the signings and times were spelled out in advance. The main complaint I have is the strict signing limits that many of the guests had.....

 

All in all, it was a successful show, and very tiring, but I still had a blast when all is said and done :)

 

--Steve

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chainnball

chainnball

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Posted

I'm friends with Shooter and Jackson. Janet was at her table all weekend. She was set up selling the tshirts next to Shooter's table. Jim was there almost all day saturday except at 5pm when he did a 20 minute podcast for a friend of mine. He wasn't there friday or sunday.

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Turtle

Turtle

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I'm not a witness, but I got a few things signed and sketched nonetheless.

 

Joe Simon - I was in line for about 90 minutes. There must have been a lot of chit chat at the front of the line, because he had a 2-sig limit. I was 4th in line (Sally was 3rd) when he needed a break. They gave us numbers so we could come back in 2 hours and skip to the front of the line. Joe never came back :sorry: The sad thing for me was that I cracked open one of my SS Turner books for the signing :cry:

 

Dave Gibbons - He signed at the Titan booth (Same place as Joe Simon), so the people who gave us the tickets told us that we could come back for the Dave Gibbons signing and be first in line. I'm not sure how the other signings went, but for that one you had to buy their $30 Watchmen book and Mr. Gibbons would sign that and 2 other books. We got there an hour early to scope it out and it was NUTS!!! I don't know how crowded the signings at the DC booth were, but the people at the Titan booth said they weren't expecting this kind of response. The signing started at 4 and the show was over at 5. I got my stuff done, but I have a feeling that there were a lot of disappointed fans.

 

David Finch - Long line because he sketches everything right in front of you. I actually prefer he does it this way because otherwise his list for the whole weekend would fill up in the first 10 minutes otherwise and I'd never get anything done. I got in line at about 10:30 on Saturday, he showed up at 11:30 each day, and I got to his table at 2:30. Totally worth it!

 

Secret Invasion - This was the first line I stood in and it was SLOOOOW. Mark Morales, Laura Martin, Leinil Yu, and Brian Bendis. After standing in line for about 90 minutes, they dispersed the line. They started turning people away, but Sally grabbed my stuff and got it all signed. Plus, they gave us a special ticket for a ticketed Bendis signing at the end of that day. I also saw Bendis in AA the next day and got him to sign a few more things with no line. In other words, it was slow-moving to get all these people all at once, but not impossible to get them once they were out of the Marvel Booth.

 

Todd Nauck - Got more and more popular as the weekend went on. By day 3, Todd had a sign that said he'd be back to his table at noon but I passed by at 1 and he still wasn't there. There were a group of people that stayed at his table as soon as he left and were still waiting 2 hours later. He's a popular guy right now. Good for him!

 

Jim Lee - I had a ticket for his 1-2 signing in the autograph area on Sunday. I passed by at 1:05 and he wasn't there yet, but the line was the longest in the area. I didn't have a book for him to sign, so no big loss.

 

Peter Laird - The fans came in waves. sometimes there was a half-hour wait, sometimes he was just sitting there looking bored. Nice guy!

 

Kevin Eastman - Gained popularity throughout the weekend as I'm sure word of mouth spread that he was actually there. On friday, he was sitting down with no line. I got some stuff done then. By Sunday, his line wrapped clear around his booth. Again, nice guy!

 

I'm sure there are others, but there's my 2c

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MedicAR

MedicAR

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I'm not making fun of anybody, but what is the big deal with Larry Hama? I've heard his name, but can't come up with what, exactly, he has done.

 

Also I hate to hear that the show didn't seem like much fun to so many. I understand you were working as well as taking part in the show, but I always like to think the folks that are kind enough to do my legwork get to have more fun than it seems like they did here.

 

BIG thank yous go out to MutantKeys and EvilAsh for getting so many taken care of for me!! You really havae no idea how much I appreciate it!

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Buck Biggins

Buck Biggins

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Posted

I went to see the living legends since a lot of them never do shows outside of NY.

 

Joe Kubert

Had him sign 2 books for me. After I left the line I realized I forget to have him sign my DC archive of Enemy Ace. Oh well, I'll get it done next time. The line was all of 10 minutes as I saw him fairly early. Thanks for waiting in line with me Peter.

 

Jerry Robinson

He was there Friday and Saturday. I wanted to get a sketch by him but decided not to at the last minute. I did have him sign my Batman 37 which he did for free. The line was never too long for him after the initial rush. He showed up late on Saturday and left early.

 

Carmine Infantino

Never really a wait for him from what I saw. I think the $10 per signature cuts back on those wanting his signature. He only did limited sketches on Friday. His back was causes problems from what I overheard. I did see him do one sketch and it looked like it was causing him pain to do it. Felt bad for him. I had him sign a Spider-woman 1 along with Joe Sinnott.

 

Irwin Hasen

Irwin Hasen and Joe Sinnott made my trip. I caught up with Irwin on Friday. Told him how much I loved his Wonder Woman covers from the 1940s and 1950s. He was thrilled to hear that from me. I then got a sketch in my sketch book for all of $35. I thought it turned out great for a 90 year gentleman who had a stroke recently. Better than I could ever do. We talked some more and he asked if I ever read "Dondi." I told him I was aware he did the art on the strip but never actually read the series. He then personalized a copy of Dondi volume 2 and gave it to me as a gift. WOW!!! I read it on the plane ride home and found it to be a great read. My interaction was more than I could have hoped for in meeting him. Also, had him sign my Sensation 99 and 102.

 

Joe Sinnot

His tabled always seemed busy. I got him to signed Spider-woman 1 and asked if he was doing sketches. His son says he had a shoulder injury recently and is only doing limited sketches and is resting his arm currently. Joe asked to see my book and I handed it to him. Seeing I only had like 5 sketches he looked at me funny. I told him

I just started this sketchbook thing. He said he would do a quick one for $50. I told him not to worry about it if his arm was hurting. He said he wanted to do it so I asked for a Thor and it turned out awesome. The guy has skills and is such a nice person. He really loves the fans and made jokes about the people walking by in their costumes.

 

Gene Colan

Nice guy. Had him sign my Wonder Woman 288. Didn't have to wait long.

 

Al Plastino

see my other post

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