New York Comic Con 2024

It's been a (all together now) horrifically busy time since our "16 Covers" mara-blog-a-thon, and I've been forced by multiple circumstances (...most of them occurring simultaneously) to "go-dusk" (...we never really "go-dark" here) for a while.  

While none of these crazy things have actually abated, I am, nevertheless, off to New York Comic Con 2024!  

It's been a while since I've been there!  Last one I attended was 2019.  Stopped going due to the COVID pandemic, and residual COVID concerns in subsequent years.  

 But, I'M GOING NOW!!! 

See you back here, when I return! 

Where Have I Been?

 That's a good question... Where HAVE I been?  

Here, there, perhaps nowhere... eating honey with a bear...

Scarfing bagels strewn with lox, hanging with a Crow and Fox...

Reading comics, some like these...

Reading others that feature cheese...

Or kicking back with DVDs! 

...Many DVDs!  

Go ask LOBO... He might know...

...But here's one place... I DIDN'T GO!  

Not in '20... or '21...

...Since COVID had me... on the RUN! 

Okay, everyone... we all know why I didn't go in 2020... because there was NO con!

I didn't expect to one to happen in 2021 either - but somehow it is doing exactly that as I write this!  And, as much as I LOVE New York Comic Con, in this time of Delta and likely heretofore unknown additional variants, I just can't see myself confined to any indoor space that could possibly look like THIS! 

I'm sad about it, to be sure... but better safe (at home) than sorry!  

I'd be wearing a mask, was double-vaccinated in 2020 - and, within the last thirty days, have received a COVID vaccine booster.  But, I'm still not ready to face this... or even a scaled-down version of anything like it. 

So, for the first time in I-Forget-How-Many-Years, there will be a New York Comic Con without me!  Maybe next year...

Oh, but WHERE HAVE I BEEN?  

Does the answer "Horrifically Busy" count as a "where"?  

Lately, I've been deeper "underwater" than THESE GUYS! 

The Blog and my personal communications, in particular, have gone to hell, and, I'm sorry about that!

But, now as I begin to surface once again, and life begins working its way back to normalcy, I hope to begin regular posting very soon!  ...I also hope you all find your way back, because it's all of you that make this thing fun!  

...And what good is anything without FUN!

"NO York Comic-Con 2020"

 

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... 

Yes, I would be among the teeming hordes at NEW YORK COMIC-CON... rather than looking at the image above and wondering - if it opened today, and were held as usual - how many of those people would get sick and possibly die!  

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...

... Because Thursday is usually the least crowded day - making it the best day to do an initial sweep of the comic dealers' area (...that TOO SMALL AREA at the lower right of my diagram)... 

 ...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!

New York Comic Con 2019: Post Three of 3!

Um... History's first... WHAT? 

Ah, leave it to Uncle Scrooge to cleverly and succinctly lead us into our topic... (Of course, that was back when Uncle Scrooge REALLY DID speak both cleverly and succinctly, unlike the way he does now.)

...But, I legendarily super-digress! 

The phenomenon of the behavior we now call "cosplay", at least in the context of its invading and overrunning what were once "Comic Book Conventions" in actuality - but have now largely become "Comic Book Conventions" in name only - pretty much occurred before my very eyes.  

In the early eighties, when I first discovered comic-cons as a treasure trove of back-issue wonders, cosplayers were a very small subset of the overall number of attendees. 

They were dressed largely in homemade Star Trek uniforms or, a little closer to the con's reason for being, comic book superheroes and villains.  While we comic book readers and collectors may have looked at them slightly askance, they were an unobtrusive sort who kept to themselves - and almost no one photographed them!

Now, they would seem to be more of a "majority" than the people like me who actually READ comic books and accumulate them for the sheer joy (not profit) of it!  

And all that should be fine with me as I am generally a "live-and-let-live" sorta guy, who objects only to things that make life personally more difficult, bothersome, or distasteful to me. 

But, the sad fact is that cosplayers do exactly that, in their (absolutely unintentional, I must add) actions that hinder my focused quest for comics!  

Perhaps few folks photographed the people-at-cosplay in Ye Olden Days, because it meant that you actually had to PHYSICALLY BRING A CAMERA to the comic con - and, if your aim was to "enter light" and "exit heavy" (with lots of back issue comics), you didn't need to increase the load, by carrying a camera.  

Now, everyone has a camera, via their cell phones, and the "stoppage of traffic" to photograph cosplayers has become an epidemic! Aisles are choked to capacity. Traffic doesn't move without great effort, and heaven help us if an emergency should break out!  

The cosplayers themselves, with their over-large, unwieldy, and unnecessarily dangerous props like swords, battleaxes, and even inappropriately broad wingspans, only add to the inconvenience and the hazard.   

Now, if you think this means I want cosplay banned, you're wrong. That "live-and-let-live" thing remember?  

BUT, here's the solution that's good for everyone...  Designate an area - a LARGE area - for cosplay! Plenty of room for prop 'n' costume preening and, most important of all, photography!  Even partitioned cubicles for dressing, so that you may peruse the rest of the con in the greater comfort of civilian clothes.  

Have it it folks!  Pop those flashes, or whatever cell phone cameras do, until your batteries drop dead of exhaustion!  Live your dreams, without interfering with my comics shopping!  

...Ah, but who's gonna listen to an old curmudgeon!  ...Even a legendary super one like me! 

New York Comic Con 2019: Post Two of 3!

I bought my first ever back issue comic books in the spring of 1980.  I made my most recent back issue comics purchase... today! 

That's a lot of water under the bridge, or comics stored in the long box.  And the experience is both very different from - yet very similar to - the way it was almost 40 (!) years ago!  

Today's purchase was made online. The sites that offer comic books as their primary business (Lone Star, Mile High, and others) couldn't make it simpler.  Just enter the issue title and number and, there it is... or, isn't - if not in stock. But what could be easier and more direct?  

Yet, there is still a thrill in comic-shopping at a big show like New York Comic Con... finding a desired comic from a display of many long boxes, holding it in your hand... tossing it up and letting it hit you on the head... Oh, wait... Scratch that one... It's from Uncle Scrooge!  

...Opening it, right then-and-there, to examine it for hidden flaws - something you don't get to do online!  Finally, there is the negotiation on price, which after so many years of READING Uncle Scrooge, and over a decade WRITING him as well, has simply become "part of the process" - and part of the fun!  

But, my experiences at New York Comic Con 2019 and prior such shows reveal some less-convenient aspects to this type of shopping that are becoming growing trends.  

While the overall shopping experience is made easier by NYCC "consolidating" (thanks, Scarecrow!) the comic book dealers into one corner of the vast convention floor...

...Thereby lessening (though, alas, not eliminating) my exposure to THIS... 

...It's beginning to be the DEALERS themselves, who are making the experience less convenient - and less fun - than it ought to be!   

I can't fault dealers for the aisle-clogging, space-monopolizing, impromptu cosplay photography sessions that occur in front of their booths, preventing customer access.  I'm certain they find that to be far more a problem than I do.  But here are a few pet-peeves that, once again, are becoming trends.  

SELECTION:  Obviously, every customer's taste in comics differs but, at a show of such scope, shouldn't dealers bring more varied - and less recent - stock to sell at such a unique event?  

It is beyond me why there are so many dealers at NYCC stocking little or nothing beyond "recent stuff" that you could easily pick up at a comic book shop!  

Why would you take such inventory to a big show like this?  And, in a town with a healthy share of comic book shops like New York, why would anyone come to NYCC looking for it?  

This should be a place where you come to find the unusual... not the everyday!  

LAYOUT:  Okay, this one is largely due to my (slightly advanced) age... but boxes ON THE FLOOR, as opposed to being up on the display tables, pose problems of personal physicality and of logistics.  

Honestly, my back and my knees can't take very much of this - and I'm in good shape for an "almost-official-senior-citizen".  Unless something looks very promising, I just pass floor-boxes up without a sniff.  That's bad for me and the dealers.  

Logistically, with all the crowding of aisles, sitting or kneeling on the floor to peruse such boxes can be hazardous to the person looking through the box, and those whose line-of-sight is not trained downward.  

 Why "look down", when there's so much to "look up" at?  

ORGANIZATION OF STOCK:  More and more, I'm finding boxes that are NOT MARKED OR LABELED AS TO THEIR CONTENTS, save a general indicator of what "age" (Silver, Bronze, Modern - if that) and general price range.  

I'll only speak for myself but, under the crowded and generally uncomfortable prevailing conditions, I REALLY don't wish to look through rows of "un-marked - or under-marked" boxes!  Especially if all I end up finding are things that are of no interest to me!   

If you're going to have a full box of "Nineties Marvel Dross", be considerate enough to mark the box "Nineties Marvel Dross"!  

It's an obvious "Win/Win"!  I don't waste my time, AND I don't block your display from those who weren't originally burned by the overabundance and falsely-inflated values of "Nineties Marvel Dross" and, for some unfathomable reason, want that stuff today!   

Why shouldn't I KNOW what publisher and general era I should expect to find in a dealer's long box?!  ...Seems such basic organization and labeling was almost always the rule, until recently!  

SHARP STIFF MYLAR:  Yes, I understand you want to make your better books "look their best" but, when thumbing through several boxes of comics in "sharp-edged, stiff Mylar casings", I just end up slicing my fingers - and leaving your booth in pain.  Small wonder I keep none of my personal comics in them, regardless of worth! 

OVERSTUFFED BOXES:  Another source of finger-pain is trying to look at each comic in a grossly-overstuffed long box!  Sometimes they are packed-in so tightly, they DON'T MOVE!  And, if they don't move, I can't get a look at each one without taking them OUT OF THE BOX - one-at-a-time, or in large chunks!  

I realize that your optimistic goal is to sell enough OUT OF these boxes so that there is plenty of room by show's end.  But this is just another annoying and discouraging factor, that has made me "move-on" more times, during this show, than I wanted to!  

IN CLOSING: I wish to emphasize that not all dealers at New York Comic Con 2019 are guilty of these practices. I daresay most aren't - or, at least keep them to a less-annoying minimum.  

But, all of these things are, alas, clearly on the increase as the "old time professional dealers" begin to fade away.  

With online comic book sales easier than ever, I would like to think those involved with a grand spectacle such as New York Comic Con would do everything possible to keep the experience "special" (it still is), but also convenient.  

I'd expect one or two more posts on NYCC 2019 before it's all over!  Be here for them, please!  

New York Comic Con 2019: Post One of 3!

If you told me, back in 1980-1981, when I attended my first "New York comic cons" (lower case c's because they were more frequent and went by name different proper names), that I would be writing about New York Comic Con 2019 on my Blog, I would stare at you in utter disbelief... I would also ask you "What's a Blog?"  

Yet here we all are... with you readers waiting breathlessly for my report on the proceedings... (that is, if by "waiting breathlessly" you mean "not giving a hoot"... or maybe just a "small hoot")! 

I attended all four days, filled a bunch of holes in my remaining want list, was characteristically annoyed by the usual things that annoy me (think the classic-era animated, put-upon Donald Duck type of "annoyed") - but, in the end, the now-cliched-but-often-true "good time was had by all!"  

I often wonder why they call these gatherings "Comic Cons", when ACTUAL COMIC BOOKS - the first, second, third, and last reason I attend - are increasingly marginalized!  

New York Comic Con has a tendency to relegate comic book dealers to a few aisles in one corner of the vast hall.  Hopefully, the crude drawing below will give you a sense of what I mean.  

I don't know if the use of the term "ghettoized" is still politically correct to use, but that is exactly what the comic book dealers are... and at an event that supposedly and by-its-very-name ought to feature them. 

The rest is dominated by toys, gaming, apparel, props, art prints, media personality items, media giants, and more non-comics doo-dads than you can shake a stick it.  ...And, if you DID "have a stick to shake", it would probably bump one of the all-too-many cosplayers, and those photographing or otherwise fawning over them!  More on that later... 

On the bright side the... um, er... "segmentation" (better word?) of the comic book dealers makes for an easier comic shopping experience, because there's no need for a hardcore comic shopper like me to traverse the entire space.  

I will always prefer the days where comic books were - by far - the dominant attraction of something that calls itself a "Comic Con". Yes, there's much to be said for "making the tent larger"... but now that "tent" has become too large for comfort!  WAAAY TOO LARGE!  

Still in all, it was a successful weekend comics-wise.  Sixteen issues in all, completing five runs. Virtually all of that was accomplished on Thursday, with one straggler pick-up on Friday, and three more at the close of day on Sunday, when last-minute deals are most likely to be made.  

Highlights include:

ADVENTURE COMICS # 297: My last missing issue from when it ran those wonderful "Tales of the Bizarro World" backups, written by the great Jerry Siegel!  

Four issues of BOB HOPE:

Here is but one. 

Chartlton's JETSONS # 6 (completing that run)...

...With an AMAZING DISCOVERY THEREIN, that I plan to fully highlight on the Blog someday.  But, for now, you may satisfy your curiosity by reading these two entries I made on the GRAND COMICS DATABASE (at which I've finally become a full-member indexer) - HERE and HERE!    

HINT: Be sure to read the "Indexer Notes"!  

And, after nearly 30 years, I finally got a really nice copy of MICKEY MOUSE # 138, to replace the terrible old... er, "ratty" (Sorry, Mickey!) one I've had all along!  

...And for only TWO DOLLARS!  That's a great comic, very likely written by Cecil Beard, drawn by the vastly underrated Jack Manning - and featuring villains Emil Eagle, Dangerous Dan Mc Boo, and Idjit the... the... the... um, "very nasty little person?"  (...Would we even see Idjit today, I wonder?)  

All this classic seventies Gold Key goodness for HALF THE PRICE of those "Fresh and Modern" things the parent company is inflicting on us today! (...Didn't ya just KNOW that was coming?) 

Me?  I'll take vanilla... and MICKEY MOUSE # 138!  

We'll be back with more New York Comic Con 2019 posts!  But, for now... As I used to say when "The Issue At Hand" was a print column... "Good Night and Good Comics Reading!" 

The Comic-Con That Was More "CON" Than Comics!

As readers of this Blog well know, I don't usually discuss things "in the negative" here!

I tend to give every person, place, or thing discussed, addressed, or otherwise reviewed at this Blog the benefit of the doubt - and a degree of respect that is not found in many other places on The Internet!

So, on the very rare occasions where I let loose with a harsh degree of criticism, I must have been EXTREMELY DISPLEASED!  ...And, let the record show that I WAS extremely displeased with the "Undiscovered Realm Comic Con", which I visited on Saturday, May 04, 2019!

After an opening like that, why pull punches?  I'll just flatly say this was the absolute worst comic convention I've ever attended (and I've been going to such cons since 1980!) 

But, let's back it up a bit and consider why it was so, what was involved in the process of traveling to and from the event, the exorbitant admission fee (relative to what was offered), and WHY I WAS EVEN THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE!

Starting with that last one, our friend and fellow "Core Four" Disney comic book "translator and dialogue creator" Thad Komorowski was moderating a panel on one of his great passions... Ren and Stimpy!  

As the author of "Sick Little Monkeys"...

...The definitive book on the subject of everyone's favorite Nicktoon (...whether or not they'll admit it), Thad is uniquely qualified to host this panel featuring the great Billy West and Bob Camp! 

Awww... We love you too, Spongebob!  But, Ren and Stimpy?  They're, you know, "special"!  

And so, with thoughts of this great panel - and seeing Thad again... and (note this, folks) filling back issue gaps at a comic con I never attended before (didja get that?), I set out on what some would deem an arduous trek that involved a bus, a commuter train, a subway, and another commuter train to take me to the Undiscovered Realm Comic Con... with my omnipresent comics want list in my hot little hands!  

I live in the eastern mid-suburbs of New York City, and Undiscovered Realm was in the mid-to-further-northern suburbs.  Thus the many and varied modes of transportation.  But, being born and raised in and around New York, negotiating the vagaries of public transit has never been difficult or unpleasant for me!  In fact, I rather enjoy it, vs. the white-knuckled angst of driving - especially through NYC! 

Joining up with me along the route was my friend and editor David Gerstein and friend Tom Stathes, who were looking forward to Thad's panel as well!  As we walked up to the arena, David remarked on the noticeable "lack of Geeks" lined up, or otherwise milling about, outside the building.

And, while we all took this as something of an ominous sign of things to come, I never imagined this would turn out to be (everybody ready?) the absolute worst comic convention I've ever attended!

If David wondered where everyone was, his answer came as we entered the building!  They were waiting, stuck in a VERY LONG AND SLOW-MOVING LINE TO PURCHASE TICKETS!  Though there appeared to be fewer than 30 people on line ahead of us, I really think my Subway shuttle trip from Times Square to Grand Central Station was completed more quickly than the wait to pay a THIRTY DOLLAR ONE-DAY ADMISSION!

But, I didn't care about that!  Once paid and admitted, I couldn't wait to get at ALL THOSE COMIC BOOK DEALERS!  We had close to three hours before Thad's panel, and I wondered if I would have time to visit ALL THOSE COMIC BOOK DEALERS before the posted start time!  

Reaching for my list, I energetically burst through the doors of the main hall - ready to see ALL THOSE COMIC BOOK DEALERS!

My usual M.O. at comic cons is to go all the way over to one side of the hall (usually the side to my right, as I face the room) and work my way up and down the aisles until finally reaching the opposite side now with a full briefcase of back issues, purchased from (you know...) ALL THOSE COMIC BOOK DEALERS!

There were four (?) lengthy aisles in total, with vendors on both sides of each aisle!  Each, I thought, a potential source for filling those remaining holes in my comic book collection!  With ALL THOSE COMIC BOOK DEALERS, how could I miss?  

So, we walked up and back down the FIRST aisle.  No comic book dealers!  

Oh, there were plenty of booths offering toys, trinkets, doo-dads, shirts, costuming accessories, and tables for artists doing commissions!  But where were ALL THOSE COMIC BOOK DEALERS?!

Fine, if they weren't in the FIRST AISLE, then surely they must be in the SECOND!

Nope!  And same for the THIRD!  Anyone who had any comics on display, it was merely a minor and ancillary part of whatever their business was!  Or, as they say in good ol' NYC... "Move on!  Nothing to see here!"

The FOURTH and FINAL aisle did have two dealers who primarily dealt in comics... but having largely none of the many different Silver and Bronze Age comics that I write about here, and that make up the remainder of my want list!

For THIRTY FREAKING DOLLARS FOR A ONE-DAY ADMISSION to a show billing itself as a "COMIC CON", this is ALL I GET?!  REALLY?!

The promoters of this show ought to be SHAMED... or SUED!  Or, combine the two and make 'em "SHAMUED"?  Yeah, hit 'em TWICE AS HARD! 

In 39 years of comic-con attendance, this is without question the (...all together now) absolute worst comic convention I've ever attended!
 

It would seem that some things that are UNDISCOVERED should REMAIN so!

Aside from Thad's panel, there was but one saving grace to the disappointing day.  That was meeting Ken Wheaton, the artist of this POPEYE comic produced for the special occasion of Popeye's 80th Birthday!  

It's black and white, but very well done!  After all, there are those that consider most of Popeye's best animated moments to be in black and white - so why not apply that to comics?  

It was this AND ONLY THIS that prevented the "Undiscovered Realm Comic Con" from being the first and only comic con in those 39 years, at which I did not purchase a single comic!  And, even this is something of a technicality!

Here is the BACK COVER of the issue...

...And here is interior Page One!

Hey, it's the ONLY COMIC I bought ALL DAY at the (...say it with me) absolute worst comic convention I've ever attended!  Of course, I'm going to show it off!

Thad's panel, of course, was great!

But a serious word to the folks behind the "Undiscovered Realm Comic Con"... PLEASE DON'T ADVERTISE YOUR EVENT AS A "COMIC CON", UNLESS YOU HAVE A FAIR NUMBER OF ACTUAL COMIC BOOK DEALERS THERE!

THE LACK OF SAME - AND NOTHING MORE - IS WHY I MUST (repeatedly and regretfully) DESCRIBE YOUR SHOW AS "THE ABSOLUTE WORST COMIC CONVENTION I'VE EVER ATTENDED!"

...And you don't REALLY want anyone to speak of it like that, do you?  I didn't enjoy doing so myself.  It's not my nature to do so, as my readers will attest.

It may have been a very nice "TOY SHOW", or some-such... but it was NOT a COMIC CON in ANY sense of the phrase with which I'm familiar!

Nothing personal or harmful is intended by these comments.  It is just "a review of the event" by one who paid his admission to what was billed as a "COMIC CON", and honestly felt he received far too little in return.

Funny thing... Of late, I've often wished for a "less crowded con, where the aisles are not choked by cosplayers and those who slavishly photograph them with their omnipresent phones"!  Be careful what you wish for, because "Undiscovered Realm Comic Con" was pretty much that... but with virtually NO COMICS!  (Sob!)

If this ever changes, please let me know, because we can always use another GOOD COMIC CON around here!  ...As long it it REALLY IS a "GOOD COMIC CON"!