NYC COMIC CON REPORT

I've finally been able to get settled after this past weekend and catch up on a little sleep. The NYC Comic Con exhausted me, lol. I didn't get the time off from work that I usually get and it was straight from work to the Con and then back to work the day after. Overall the Con was a lot of fun and I think we all did pretty well. Of course the best part is always getting to meet so many people. Thanks to everyone who stopped by.

We started the first day a little slow. The show opened at 10am, but that was only for industry people and the general public was not allowed in until 1pm. This was kind of a good thing for me as it gave me time to see some of the Con floor and seek out some artists to do sketches for me. Of course, I went to one of my favorite artists to commission something from her and that was Amanda Connor. Her and Jimmy Palmiotti are two of the nicest people you'll ever meet at conventions. And even though I didn't really even get a chance to talk with them much, they were still really great and very upbeat. I like professionals that are like that. They set the bar high for everyone else. Once I had set up a few sketches, I settled down at my table with Jamie Fay and Rey Arzeno. A lot of people from Deviant Art stopped by and I had a blast from the past stop over and say hello. Back when I was young I was in an APA called Titantalk and one of the members was a guy named Neil Southwell. Neil's art was very influenced by George Perez and he was very talented. Unfortunately for the comic world, he went down another road and didn't get into drawing comics, which he totally could have. We chatted for a bit and it was good to catch up. He was nice enough to purchase all 5 SENTINELS books (Thanks, Neil!) and then we exchanged cards. He showed me some of his art and I hope he starts pursuing getting into comics again. In the afternoon we were joined by Noel Short and he helped us pimped SENTINELS and show off Jamie and Rey's art. We also had our daily raffle and people seemed to like that. I'm looking forward to seeing what Jamie does for those.

Once the show was off and running I got to meet a bunch of Indy creators. Howie Noeldechen, Andrea Grant, Andrew Charipar, James Rodriguez and Bryan J.L. Glass all stopped by as well as new creators like Ben Bishop. This was Ben's first Con and it was great meeting him. He even did a sketch for me that I'll post soon.

There was some interest in SENTINELS by some movie types, but who knows what will become of that, lol. I also got to see another Titantalk alum, Hank Kanalz, who is now in charge at Wildstorm. Hank's super nice and we caught up quickly and it reminded me I need to get in touch with my buddy Micheal McCalister who I haven't talked to in ages as I don't use AOL instant messaging that much at all anymore (Sorry, Micheal!). It's funny how many people started out in Titantalk and got into the comic biz. Off the top of my head, there's Rob Liefield, Hank Kanalz, Devin Grayson, Jay Faber, Micheal McCalister, Mercy Van Vlack, Ken Gale, Andy Mangels and me. George Gustines writes about comics for the Times and George Perez, Marv Wolfman, Karl Kesel, Barbara Kesel, Colleen Doran and Jonathan Petersen were all in the APA but had already gotten into comics. I'm sure I'm forgetting some too, but there's a lot.

Saturday night there were a ton of parties and we intended to try to go to all of them. The big problem was that everyone was starving. Jamie, Rey, Noel and I went and had dinner with Bryan J.L. Glass and his wife, Judy. They're both awesome and we had a great time. Unfortunately, the dinner took forever and it was 10pm by the time we got done. This didn't leave us any time to make it to all the parties. That meant I couldn't get everyone to go all the way down to Chinatown to Howie's Mr. Scootles party. I hear it went really well though.

Sunday seemed to be the best day for SENTINELS with us selling lots of the entire lot of 5 books. This was great and I was really happy that the last day did so well. I guess people were saving their money until the end to see what they had left, lol.

Jamie and Rey each did well and did some really beautiful commissions. I think they took pictures and will be posting them (I hope).

I also have to mention how many people stopped by and asked for NEVERMINDS. They really loved the page samples we had out and commented on how beautiful they looked. Hopefully, Jamie and Rey will start cranking out the pages quicker now that they've seen how much people are waiting for this book. :)

With this post are a few pics from the Con. Not the best but you can see a very sleepy me, Jamie, Rey and Noel. There a pic of Jamie being interviewed by a podcast show and Rey meeting a guy dressed in costume, lol.

Thanks again to everyone who stopped by and bought SENTINELS and to Jamie, Rey and Noel for all their help. I really appreciated it guys!