New York Comic Con 2013

New York Comic Con 2013 was this past weekend at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City.  

First up on Thursday: This was the best day to go to the convention if you wanted to look around and be able to buy stuff. Every other day was so crowded. There was only one panel I went to which was the So, You've Published Your First Comic, Now What? panel. I didn't glean any information from the panel that I thought was breaking news but overall, it was very entertaining. I did like that it focused on trying to make a career after publishing your first work, where panels at cons normally tend to focus on just breaking in to the business. They wanted to emphasize the transitional period after the first publication, but considering everyone in comics has their own story about how they got their foot in the door, everyone also has their own story about how they've transitioned their comics job into a career. Some people who have been published for quite a while still consider themselves to be transitioning. Some people still hold "day jobs" as it provides a certain amount of security. Some people jumped into the business with both feet and dealt with the struggles that came along the way. 

Friday: Rather than have everyone wait inside the convention in a long winding queue, there was a long line outside the convention center that wrapped around the corner. The good thing about this was that it was outside. So there was plenty of fresh air, a nice breeze. The bad thing about waiting outside was that there were no dividing rails to mark the line. I had arrived and joined the queue at the back of the line. As the line was moving, a BIG group of people were seemingly walking to the back of the line when they all of a sudden decided to turn around and basically cut the line as they saw it moving forward. That seriously annoyed me. It was unfair to the people who did the right thing by walking to the back of the line and waited on line. What. The. Hell.

New Villain in The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

There were a few more panels I saw on Friday. I went to the Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds panel. The game is for the Nintendo 3DS and 2DS. Though I like Zelda, I have neither of those platforms nor am I interested in purchasing them so I won't be picking up this game. The best panel was the Bob's Burgers panel, by far. They showed clips from two upcoming episodes. Most of the main cast was there. I felt bad for Dan Mintz, who does the voice of Tina. Every time he began to talk people would burst out laughing. It's so surreal to hear his actual voice is the voice of Tina. H. Jon Benjamin, who does the voice of Bob, was really funny. A baby started to cry during the panel. Basically he said, 'why the hell did you bring a baby to the panel? It's going to cry the whole time.' There was a lot of sass, spunk, and awkwardness, kind of like there is in the Bob's Burgers episodes. I had a great time.

75th Anniversary of Superman panel.

On Saturday I was starting to get really tired from all the walking and standing I had been doing at the convention. It was all good though. Not the 75th Anniversary of Superman though. There were two old men sitting behind me talking so loud that I couldn't even hear what the panelists were saying at times. There were two awesome girls sitting next to me who were also frustrated by the old men who asked them to quiet down. The panelists had nothing to say except that they 'like Superman. He's a good guy.' In waiting for the Cup o' Joe panel, I sat through the Star Wars: Rebels panel. I like Star Wars, so this was cool. This was about a new series that takes place after the Clone Wars saga. The conceptual art was absolutely beautiful. There are a lot more photos from that panel on our Facebook page. If the animation looks anything like the still paintings they showed us, I would love to check it out.

Conceptual art from Star Wars: Rebels

 Sunday arrived at last. There was one panel that I was really looking forward to that turned out to be a bit of a bust. It was the Desolation of Smaug trailer panel. The first thing I did when I got into the convention center was to line up for it. There was another panel just before it so I sat through that and wound up enjoying it more than I did the Smaug panel. This panel was for the "Illegitimates." This is a new comic book created by Taran Killam, actor from SNL, legitimate comic book fan. The story revolves around the illegitimate sons and daughters of a Bond-like character. It's a team book with five main characters. The book will be published by IDW. Four issues have been completed already, they are currently working on the fifth and the book isn't even set to debut until December. They made the great point of wanting to publish a book that would be on time, as so many books nowadays aren't on time which is terrible. This panel was so great. They made mention that the book is not going to be a parody of Bond, like Austin Powers was. It will be serious and fun, similar in tone to the Die Hard movies. Taran took lots of different and fun questions, some about the comic book, some about working at SNL, and it was jokingly mentioned that he and the rest of the team on the book would take questions about the Hobbit.

Taran Killam and writer Marc Andreyko of the Illegitimates.

And then came The Desolation of Smaug panel. It opened with a trailer that had been previously released. Then came the newest trailer which they debuted. I got chills watching them. After that, I found the panel wanting. I hadn't realized it was an unofficial look at an official trailer. The panel was hosted by TheOneRing.net. It was filled with a look at the actors joining this film and mostly speculation about how the movie will differ from the book. They warned everyone ahead of time that there would be spoilers in their discussion. I stuck around because, what the heck, I've already read the book, The Hobbit. I couldn't believe it when they said that TheOneRing is in thousands of dollars of debt from hosting an Oscar party earlier this year.

That was about it. I enjoyed some panels. I didn't enjoy others. The crowds were too big and too smelly with no sense of personal space and boundaries. I was excited at the start of the convention and I was so happy it was over by the end. I'm ready for a good nap now. Until next time, NYCC.

-O.Pelaez