I went to N.Y.and got much more then a lousy T-shirt. A brief Con report

[Ze-man]

Where to start?...

I left on Thursday night with the wife to fly out to Albany.

Our plane was delayed, finally made it... we were 2 1/2 hours late,but thankfully as we walked down the ramp to meet up with our ride , I see my daughter...or rather a poster or my daughters head, lager then life size bouncing around the back of the group that was there to greet the new arrivals.

Typical Redhook.. he had Photoshopped a hillarious caption on the poster. I knew my wife and I were in for a good time.

We all met up, traded greetings and took off for Casa Hook.

I wont bore you with all the rest of the personal vacation stuff, short version.. Friday we all went around to see Woodstock, Kingston etc.., we lunched, drank beers, a bit of shopping, dinner, more drinks,great conversation ...then it was off to bed early.. since we were leaving very early leave for NY, and the National on Saturday morning.

 

I must mention during the 2 hour drive to NY... Brad and I did our best to educate and enlighten our wives as we poked fun at, talked about every aspect of comic books, geeks, fanboys, CGC, Cons, and the Forum...

Needless to say.. the girls had ALOT in common(they both married nerds).. and they now want to start a "CGC Widows " room here on the forum.

 

Ok. we are now in N.Y., it is around 11:00 am, as the spouses gladly walk off to go see NY , shop, eat whatever..

We buy our tickets, get our hands stamped, and enter the Con.

Mind you, this is my first time in NY, and my first comic con EVER

 

You walk in the Glass doors, and dead center is escalators that take you up to the comics, but on the first floor are many of the Artists, Colan, Adams etc.., tons of others too .. to many to mention, but they all had a booth, or a table, some big, most small.

We did a quick walk around, and knew we could come back to see them.( I at least wanted to shake Neals hand, and get a book or 2 signed while I was here.)We wanted comics though.. so we hopped on the escalator, and up we went...as you stepped off you almost ran right into a dealer.. he had $3-5,000 GA stuff just sitting flat on a table in Mylars.

You could then turn left, or right.... we went right.

Vincent and Metropolis had a great location, and as you heard.. he just had a few dozen 9.6 comics on the table, and on the wall..were the 7 Batman #1's.. we blinked.. looked again.But he was not in so we prseed on.

Next to Vincent was Conrad Eschenberg.. he had ALOT of really sweet Original Art.. we looked for a bit..then moved on again, we made our way to the ACTOR booth, met Anne,(Flink) and Dave (Dam60), also Brian(Foolkiller).. talked a bit.. decided we would meet for lunch at 12:30.

Brad would not let me buy anything till we spent at least an hour there.... I almost made it.

I went over to the nearest dealer, as Brad sought out Harley Yee's booth since he had some Green Rivers to show him..

My first buys were some DC bronze Horror stuff.. all in all about 7 books.. here are 4 of them.. mostly F/VF stuff.. but got them real cheap.

 

I found Brad still at Harley's looking at a stack of Green Rivers, specifcally 2 early D.D's... he worked out a deal, and we moved on to go find Ted VanLiew at the Superworld booth.

Now this is my early opinion, and I did not buy from every seller, nor see every booth.Blazing Bob also had some nice stuff, but I already gave him my money earlier last month on his website.. so I wanted to see what else I could find.

I personally liked Ted's set up at Superworld, his inventory was nice, as you made your way around the con, it was easy to tell who had decent stuff in the boxes, and who had junk.

Ted had some really decent HG stuff not only on the Wall, but also inside the long boxes.

We hit it off right away, and I let him rip me off on a couple DC Horror books. among them a nice HOM #200 Kaluta cover.

Well, it was 12:30.. time to go meet up with Red's daughters, and the others for lunch.

Lunch was lunch, a nice table for 8, great conversation, comics included. Got a chance to really talk with Brian, and (who was next to you and Dave?)Sat next to Flink, showed her my Horror stuff, and she broke out a neat 1970 Wrightson TPB.

After lunch it was back for more Convention.

We all broke up, and I made a deal with Brad that after 2 hours, if we still did not hook up.. I would meet him at Ted's.

Well I gotta say this now...

I WAS FREAKIN BLAZINGLY HOT , the HEAT was on, and it was about 100 degrees in there.. and I had a long sweater on..

Ok, I went back to the places I passed over my first time through, did some serious digging, Motor City had a few nice copies of Witching Hour I bought.

Talked with all kinds of people, dealers, fans, artists... everyone was nice, and those that were not.. I simply moved on.

I wound my way around the crowds, Cindy Morgan of Caddy Shack, and Tron fame was really nice, and a blast to talk with.

All the other Silicone girls there did not hold my interest.

Back to Ted's Superworld I went.

Well earlier, when I was at Teds in the morning, he mentioned he still had a box of TEC's that he had not priced, or put out yet, he also had an evil glint in his eyes.. so I made my way back to his booth, and looked around.

I looked over all his longboxes, as I listened to him jibber jabber with all kinds of people, and also with quite a few buyers I might add.

Anyhow, I asked about the TECs, and he looked around, and grabbed the box, I plunked it down and pulled out what I could not live without, even though I wanted more.

All of them seem to have come from a single owner collection, or at least stored the same way, really white pages, and clean backs.

These are what I bought.

(As you can see I had Neal sign this one.. always been a favorite cover of mine.)

 

Well, that about shot my cash wad so to speak, so Red and I march over to Harley's table again, and we worked out a deal for 2 more Green Rivers.. this time 2 early Hero T.T.A.'s.

Once done.. we head downstairs, I wait in line to have Neal Adams sign a few things, and talk with Jason Adams a bit.

Our wives show up, they are all shopped out, it is around 4:00.. and we decide to go walk around, find a bar.. sit and talk about our day.

 

END PART ONE

 

 

 

Look for PART 2 soon.. Times Square..The CGC dinner, and more photos.

I have lots to do now, but I at least wanted to try and share my day with everyone, I know what it is like to not go to the Con, or dinner, so I at least wanted to offer my take on the experience.

Sorry for the typos, will try to post the rest soon.

 

Ze-

[Red Hook]

This is the "brief" report?

 

Actually, I was like a leech, feeding off of Zeman's excitement at his first con. But I did recognize one thing...he is a hell of a negotiator, and I dragged him back to Harley Yee with me for the TTA round, to have him act as my bargain boy. I usually get nada from Harley in the way of discounts (never reveal your jones to a dealer), but Kenny actually cut a decent deal for me.

 

Looking forward to Part 2!

 

Red

[Red Hook]

The afore-mentioned poster.

 

[Jayman]

Sounds like you had a hot time, dress in layers next time!

Those TEC's look fantastic especially that 425!

[sfilosa]

Great Report and Great Books.

 

What do you think those Detectives grade at? They look NM from the pictures.

[Ze-man]

Steve, yup I would say on average the books are all a solid 9.2.. perhaps many 9.4 , being gererous.

 

Either way, the books are sharp edged beauties..I must admit, buying in person at a con. is sure alot better then guessing from a scan on Ebay if a book is really is as good as it is listed.

 

Ze-

[Foolkiller]

if you got these from Ted, I think i've seen many of them before. I would say you're right... 9.2s -- 9.4 would be stretching it. some might even be 9.0s

[*paull*]

I had way too little sleep the night before the show on Saturday, but I found myself with a serious headache after a few hours. The blazing heat may have had something to do with it. The comic hunting kept me from thinking about it until I could barely walk around any more.

[Ze-man]

if you got these from Ted, I think i've seen many of them before. I would say you're right... 9.2s -- 9.4 would be stretching it. some might even be 9.0s

 

 

Well never know, since I aint slabbing um.

And from some of the 9.4's Nikos posted in the contest..who knows if a few of these might squeak by and get a 9.4

Where am I supposed to give CGC the extra $100?.. in the submission form, or taped to the Mylar?

 

And unless you think Steve will trust me on the fact that I bought,and had Neal Adams sign the #394 onsite.

 

[Red Hook]

Well, I was standing next to you and saw Neal sign, so I am sure my word will seal the authenticity of it as far as CGC is concerned.