This past weekend was the most fun I’ve had since I went to Disney World last summer. New York Comic Con came to the Javits Center, and I was there the whole weekend. Early Friday afternoon, my friends Andrew, Tim, and I arrived at the convention center, checked in, and waited in line for the 1:00 opening. When the giant metal doors swung open, we and thousands of our fellow geeks poured through and scattered across the Con floor. The Con is comprised of two sections: the main floor and the panels. The main floor is home to hundreds of booths for various comic book publishers, retailers, authors, and artists, as well as related media like science fiction print novels, movies and TV shows. The panels are on a lower floor where there are a dozen or so rooms big enough to fit several hundred people. On the same floor is the IGN Theater, which is where most screenings and larger panels take place, seats about 3,000 guests.
Andrew, Tim, and I are especially big fans of DC Comics, so we focused most of our time on the DC panels. Our first order of business was a panel entitled “Superman: Building a Better Tomorrow.” The panelists included the editors, writers, and artists currently working on the various titles in the Superman family of comics. We were really excited because we had the chance to meet most of the panelists afterward. The next item on the agenda brought us back to the Con floor for an autograph signing by Geoff Johns, who writes Green Lantern, will be writing Superman Secret Origins this summer, and until January was writing Action Comics featuring Superman. He is my absolute favorite writer right now, so I had to take the opportunity to shake his hand and thank him for the great work he does. I feel like he is one of the few writers who understands the character of Superman as well as Clark Kent. At that point our friend Vin joined us for the day. He’s not a major comics fan, but he wanted to come along and see what the con was like.
At that point we walked the Con floor for a while, doing some shopping and taking in the sights and sounds from the booths. We met the artists from explosm.net, who were offering free doodles to anyone who stopped by. We took advantage of that, of course. Next, we headed over to the autograph area where we met Peter Mayhew, better known to Star Wars fans as that lovable Wookiee, Chewbacca. It was really cool to meet him and I made sure to tell him how much I appreciated his work. I feel that he is underappreciated just because he didn’t speak in the films and wore a costume that obscured his face.
Next, we went off to the Podcast Arena to meet Sean Whelan and Jim Segulin, the hosts of Raging Bullets: A DC Comics Fan Podcast. This is one of my favorite podcasts and I just wanted to quickly talk to the guys and tell them to keep up the good work. They were very friendly and seemed very glad to talk to a fan. At that point, we headed back to the panel area for the DC Nation panel. We sat in on the end of the Batman: The Brave and the Bold panel, which was especially cool because Phil Morris was there. Morris is best known for playing the roles of Jackie Chiles on Seinfeld and the Martian Manhunter on Smallville. We tried to meet him, but he was in a hurry to get to another panel so we didn’t want to bother him. I did manage to snap a picture, though. Then began DC Nation. Many the major writers, artists, editors, and staff of DC Comics were present. They discussed everything happening in DC Comics, with a special focus on Batman R.I.P. and Final Crisis. There was also an audience Q&A session, which was especially entertaining. At the end of that panel, we were excited to meet DC executive VP and editor Dan DiDio and renowned artist George Pérez. That ended Day 1.
