In a world where everyone wore masks, believed science over "that which one reads on Twitter", and where acting cautiously and informed "trumps" acting recklessly and being in stubborn denial, do you know what *I* would be doing today?
Give ya a hint...
Instead, that very site, the Jacob Javits Convention Center where New York Comic-Con is held each year, was pressed into service earlier this year to act as a COVID-19 hospital overflow treatment center... because, at that time, there weren't enough hospital beds in ALL OF NEW YORK CITY to accommodate the sick and the dying! A situation that became all the more maddening, with the release of information (on tape, for any remaining doubters) that the one person in this country that COULD have done meaningful things to mitigate and diminish the suffering inflicted upon New York (...and later in other parts of the country where, ironically, he is more favored) KNEW of the dangers months earlier, but chose to sit on his hands (except when he used them for Tweeting), rather than do anything until it was WAY too late!
But, enough of that... I don't know if the Jacob Javits Convention Center is open and hosting anything on this day (probably not), but I DO KNOW it is not hosting New York Comic-Con 2020!
I also know that, unlike recent years, I will not be taking the Number 7 Subway train to Manhattan's far west side and the relatively new "Hudson Blvd/Hudson Yards" station to the Jacob Javits Convention Center to pick up my badge, and begin my most concentrated day of back-issue comics-shopping...
...Before the convention center starts to look more like this!
But, in 2020, it will NOT "look like this"!
There will be no crowds, no back-issue comic dealers, no cosplayers, no panels, no media presence, no celebration of the art-form we love - and everything that has spun-off from it!
And *I* will be home - as I have been most days, for most of this highly unusual year - releasing this mournful Blog post... and missing even the things I find annoying about New York Comic-Con, much less the things I love about it!
However, two things will remove the sting of "NO York Comic-Con 2020"...
ONE: I ordered a bunch of back-issue comics from Lone Star Comics to coincide with the dates of the Con, lessening that particular aspect of the "sting"! The order was calculated to arrive more-or-less on the con's opening day, compensating for my initial flurry of Thursday shopping! I still get something close to my fill of comics - and am not inconvenienced or otherwise annoyed by a plague of cosplayers! Win-Win... kinda.
TWO: Averi and Cici will be here for a few days... and if THAT doesn't "remove the sting", nothing will!
Finally... Sure, I'm just talking about comic books and a missed convention and such... but EVERYONE (regardless of their personal interests) has either lost something they enjoy - or has had to accept it in some significantly altered form - in 2020!
Much worse, many have even lost loved ones to something that could have been much more containable than it was - and still remains contagious and deadly!
My condolences and best possible wishes to all of have experienced such a loss - even if it's just some inconvenient "alteration" of something you like. It ALL counts! And a lot less of it should have happened!
Anything resembling normalcy is still a LONG way off, but I wish for all of you a better and more satisfying 2021! And maybe there will even be "four special days in October" to celebrate by taking the good ol' Number 7 train!
I'll be happy, even if I don't get a seat!
13 comments:
Uncharacteristic of me, I’m setting a ground rule for this post…
My frustration with “The State of Things in the USA” has caused me to veer into a subject I absolutely HATE… POLITICS! It was done within the greater context of this annual activity I so enjoy – and why it is not being held in 2020. Please view it in this context, as I intended.
As host and comment moderator, I am exercising my prerogative as the latter… and will not publish or even address any comments I deem to be overly political. You can comment to agree with me, or disagree with me, and even tell me why not having New York Comic-Con 2020 is a “good thing” (for the rather obvious reasons, or other factors) – or not! But nothing that is (to my admittedly subjective judgement) overly political in either direction.
Only then, will we continue to maintain the standards of fairness and civility for which this Blog is well-known!
Thank you, all!
And that's if the '7' train is even available!
I'm fine with a politics-free zone! But not fine with you missing a NYCC! :( Here's hoping 2021 is safe to attend and that maybe I can make it again soon too? (Tickets have sold out crazy fast in recent years as you know. I din't even try to get San DIego Con tickets anymore.) That thrill of thumbing through rows of longboxes is not something one ever tires of.
‘Rehab:
I have a feeling that the 7 Train will outlast us all! …As long as the metal girders and track-supports that hold it high above Roosevelt Avenue don’t rust away from lack of infrastructure maintenance – or are blown-up by some extremist group, or invading alien force.
I have taken it as both a daily commuter (most often making that big change to the E and F Trains below Queens Blvd), and as a pleasure rider to Shea Stadium and Citi Field, the Woodside Transfer Point with the Long Island Rail Road, Grand Central Station, Times Square… and New York Comic-Con… at different times from the early 1980s thru last year’s NYCC!
I’ve seen the trains physically improve quite a bit (from those old “red cars” and the ones specially built for the 1964 World’s Fair – which hung in there for a VERY long time), and the extension of the line to Manhattan’s West Side… and my understanding it that it is scrubbed and disinfected every late night/early morning to clear it of COVID.
Unless something has changed more recently and I didn’t hear of it, I believe the only time it is not “available” is that 1-4 AM period when the (formerly 24-hour system) is shut down each night for that wholesale disinfection.
Naw, I’m not at all concerned for the Good Ol’ Number 7 Train! Long may it rumble!
JoeC:
You write: “That thrill of thumbing through rows of longboxes is not something one ever tires of.”
You can say THAT again! …Even now when I’m limited to thumbing through those longboxes in my own house! …Fewer surprises, I’ll admit, but still great fun in its own way!
I gave up trying for San Diego, when it just became too much of a hassle to get tickets – much less hotel rooms – after going every year from 1988-2003, with only two exceptions.
For a short while thereafter during which time David Gerstein lived in the area, I took the train to Baltimore, stayed with him, and went to Baltimore Comic-Con which worked very nicely while he was there, but New York Comic Con became “THE Event” for reasons of it becoming a great show (that “becoming” actually happened a bit more slowly than it might have – but it DID get there) and commuting to it from home!
Now, I’m “commuting to” a box from Lone Star Comics – and “doing it from home” by just walking to the mailbox to retrieve the package! I will further experience my own "COVID-19 Version of New York Comic Con 2020”, by opening the box and taking inventory of its contents!
Sure, it’s small-scale, and no friends are here to enjoy it with me, no dealers to tale with, etc. but at least the hallway to my “comics-room” is not choked with cosplayers and their fawning photographers! …That’s gotta count for something! :-)
So this was an interesting synchronicity: I read this post immediately after finishing my online teaching for the day. And my online teaching was responding to the students' responses to a discussion question about grief during the pandemic. They're reading a book titled "All Our Losses, All Our Griefs" which is precisely about how grief is entailed by *all* the losses in life, not just bereavement. Loss of something familiar, economic loss, role loss, loss due to a change in relationship, intrapsychic loss such as loss of an anticipated future or loss of one's sense of identity, etc., etc. We've all had multiple, simultaneous losses during the pandemic. American culture just barely recognizes the seriousness of grief after bereavement--even that grief is way underestimated. But it really doesn't recognize the seriousness or even existence of grief after most of the other losses of life. And normal grief isn't just sadness: it's also fear, anxiety, shame, guilt, loneliness, anger. I think the huge amount of floating anxiety and anger which is a *normal* part of our *normal* grief at all these losses is attaching itself to our political process, so that the anxiety and anger we might otherwise feel and express around such an election is amplified by all the grief-anxiety and grief-anger.
Which is all to say: true, missing a Comic-Con is not on a level with losing a beloved friend or family member. BUT I think we'd all be better off if we did MORE to acknowledge the range of losses we're all experiencing and to let ourselves be aware of the grief that comes with those losses. So I think it's a public service to name the grief over missing the Comic-Con. If we all did more of that sort of acknowledgement, the temperature of our politics might come down a bit.
That was ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE, Elaine!
I must confess that I had already shut down the desktop computer (where blogging is much easier) for the night, and just checked my phone one more time before ending “Day One of NO York Comic-Con 2020”!
Yes, there ARE many types of grief by degrees and, while a major one such as the loss of a loved one will cause great sadness, a lesser and decidedly (…absolutely, with no question about it) minor one can provoke anger over the needlessness of the loss – or, as I put it, the “alteration” of a routine or anticipated activity.
Now, maybe New York Comic-Con 2020 would not have occurred anyway, due to the prevailing conditions. Conditions that even a more cautious (…or, I say with great word-use-irony) “conservative, and less dangerously radical” approach than the ill-fated one that our present leaders chose to pursue! But, overall, things could have been / would have been better than they are – making the “alteration” of a mere comic book convention far less significant in the greater context of life’s events.
But, as it stands now, since retirement, most of my activities are either of the indoor or “outdoor-domestic” variety. Especially as COVID-19 has served to “shrink” the scope of my world. I am indeed fortunate that my outdoor / in-public exposure is as limited as it is, given the rapid and lethal spread of the virus.
But, the same set of circumstances that have largely served to “keep me safe” also result in magnifying the (again) “alteration” of a mere comic book convention! It’s NOT a major “grief” by any means – but, as I said in the post (and you are saying here), “It all counts!”
And Averi and Cici, unbeknownst to them, did a TREMENDOUS job at keeping said grief at bay! So much so, that I feel somewhat whiny for complaining at all… until I remember the grievous wrongs that have been done to each and every one of us – whether or not certain folks will ever be willing to admit it!
Thank you for a MAGNIFICENT contribution… to which I can only add these disjointed but sincere ramblings!
So, here it is… 5 PM on Sunday, October 11, 2020 – the final day of “NO York Comic-Con 2020”!
And, the proverbial “good time was had by all”! …If, by “all”, you mean “no one but marginally me” - and, if by “good time”, you mean “trying my best efforts to fake it”!
And “fake it”, I did! If you define “faking it” as simulating the experience to the best of my homebound abilities!
DAY 1 Thursday: I received some (well-timed) comics from Lone Star Comics, to lessen the sting of no Thursday comics shopping. Yes, I ordered with this timing in mind.
DAY 2 Friday: I received my copy of the new STAR TREK: PICARD Season One DVD set from Bull Moose, a wonderful small retail chain in Maine that specializes in DVDs, CDs, books, and even records! A purely accidental discovery, I’ve often found Bull Moose to be superior to Amazon in terms of pricing and shipping. In fact, I now compare the two for every DVD purchase I make! It’s really nice to have a significant and often satisfying choice! You can check them out HERE!
I did not calculate a shipping and arrival time for the PICARD DVD around the absence of New York Comic-Con 2020. Receiving this was pure serendipity, but (all together now) lessens the sting of no “Private Label DVD” shopping that was always a staple of my NYCC experience.
DAY 3 Saturday: This is usually the day I spend the least amount of time physically at the con. The crowds are simply too unbearable. I always sleep late on this day, and take the least expensive and most meandering transportation options into Manhattan. That’s usually two busses and two subway trains. Then I leave early, and take same meandering methods to go home.
I also watched the first three episodes of STAR TREK: PICARD to simulate the traditional experience of watching some of the “Private Label DVDs” that I would have purchased on DAY 1 or 2! …And speaking of “meandering transportation”, it took until the end of the third episode for Picard to finally get back into space – and even then for only about the last minute or so! (Sigh!) That’s the way they tell stories today – built for “binging” over “remembering”! But that’s a whole ‘nother topic!
DAY 4 Sunday: Usually spent buying-up some final-day, last-minute comics purchases… and I just ordered three back-issue comics from Lone Star to complete the experience!
It was actually kinda fun, but let’s hope for normalcy (in ALL its forms) next year!
Oh, yes… another staple of the NYCC experience is spending time at the con with the incomparable David Gerstein! An e-mail exchange with him had to suffice for this year!
See, the only thing that would have brought me within spitting distance of such a mob scene would have been the chance to see you *and* David Gerstein at the same time! Though mid-October is usually the time of year when I never commit to any non-essential activity because I am totally focused on foliage. This year, though, there's not much color worth driving to see anywhere in New England, due to the drought. Or, as a young friend of mine would say, "because 2020"....Here I am, with much more flexibility time-wise than usual because I'm largely unemployed, and there's hardly any color worth seeing! I love how you did stuff each day to match what you traditionally do that day at NYCC. And thought ahead to arrange for the Lone Star shipment to arrive on or near Day One. Let's hear it for the serendipity of the Bull Moose delivery!
Other than new comics I find interesting, which were diminishing greatly in number even before the pandemic, the comics I order are all Disney Duck comics from France, Germany or the Netherlands. So they're back issues, but they're all new to me. This summer I found *two* stories where Daisy comes off really well--and that's a rarity, as you know. One is new, by Andreas Pihl, and one is an old Brazilian story by Arthur Faria. In both these stories Daisy defeats Magica! The comics on their way to me now are two issues of Super Picsou Géant with Halloween-appropriate stories in them, yay!
New comics I buy now: Lumberjanes, which I read and then pass on to a girl I know--that's going to end its run in December, and some time soon there will be a TV show on some streaming service I don't have; Star Wars Adventures, the all-ages IDW title, which I read and then pass on to a boy I know; and the new series Inkblot about a woman and a dimensional-traveling cat-like being--I *love* the art on that one. That's about it, except for occasional issues of Jim Henson's Storyteller series. I don't get most of those, but a few of them have been terrific. They're all one-shots by different writers/artists: four issues with stories on giants, four with stories of witches, etc.
Soon I will start re-reading all my favorite Halloween-appropriate comic book stories: mostly Duck comics, but a smattering of others (Mickey, Little Lulu, Ghostbusters, a few of the Halloween Comicfest ashcans, etc.).
Elaine:
"Because 2020" has got to be one of the GREATEST new phrases of the year! In just two words, it so perfectly sums-up everything I’ve spent… um, "…a lot more words" saying in this post – and sums-up the crazy (…and need I say “*unnecessarily* crazy to THIS extreme degree”) time in which we find ourselves! Bravo to your young friend!
Be sure to warn said friend that I am very definitely going to use it when apt! In return, that clever young’un is quite welcome to use “(…all together now)” in reciprocity! …And may also make as many "Legendary Super Pickax" references as situations allow! Generous to a fault, that’s me!
Speaking of reciprocity, please accept my own heartfelt sympathies over the fall foliage situation as I appreciate yours over NYCC 2020. Your loss – or “alteration” – is a little bit harder to simulate or “fake” than was mine. …Though, with a few cans of spray paint… Hmmm!
Joe:
It’s perfectly fair that your desire to keep this blog one of the few civil places on the internet TRUMPS any interest to host political discourse.
I am not a regular con attender, mainly due to the cost, however when ever I’ve gone to a con I had a great time! I’ll never forget meeting Don Rosa at Tampa Bay Comic Con a few years ago.
The things I’m missing rn are seeing my friends/family in person and doing stand up. I haven’t been on stage since March! I’m not a huge sports fan but living in tampa we have a great hockey team, the TB Lightning, and I try to see one game a season. The great thing about hockey is it’s so fast paced you don’t hafta be an expert to enjoy spectating; especially when the players are beating the crap outta each other :p
When this is all over with I’m going to go to a hockey game. Until then I’ll just be BID’EN my time :)
Ah, very good, Clapton!
If nothing else, keep your stand-up comedy skills fresh via writing!
Those Tampa Bay Lightning always seem to be knocking my New York Islanders out of the playoffs… and speaking of that, kudos also to the Tampa Bay Rays, who did it to my New York Yankees last week!
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