Well, that was quite the one hour of serialized episodic television.

Let’s just put the jump here and get on with it.

SPOILERS THERE BE
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Some of your out there may remember Nina Paley, an indie cartooner who went on to create the syndicated Fluff, but has lately been pretty much absent from comics pages. That’s because she’s become an animator and her SITA SINGS THE BLUES is playing at this week’s Tribeca Film Festival. Friday’s premiere is already sold out, but tickets are still available for subsequent showings. The film has garnered praise from NPR and the like for its whimsical retelling of the Ramayana interspersed with a contemporary story of a woman following her husband to India, all told with animated shadow puppets, Busby Berkeley-style Bollywood musical numbers and other multimedia effects. Paley animated the whole thing herself. The trailer is above, but here are some stills.

As opposed to the people who had a fun time, Tom Spurgeon says NYCC 08 was “bland and pointless, the kind of event that calls into question the entire enterprise more than it makes a case for the ascendancy of a shining new example.”:

Trying to limit my time at the show to better enjoy New York forced me to make a concerted attempt to get what work I can do at a con out of the way rather than have work come to me at its own pace as I might in San Diego or at a Small Press Expo. Working the show rather than hanging out at one, I found a surprising number of booth workers and company employees to be outright unhelpful when it came to doing rudimentary things that is so easy to get people from other industries to do for you at their trade shows. You know, little things like talk to you, recognize you’re standing there, solicit a question, perhaps even agree to do something reasonable when you ask for it rather than send you to someone else. I was snubbed for photos by roughly a half-dozen professionals that chose to continue personal conversations (in a public space, badges not flipped) rather than take 10 seconds to help me cover them. I can recall three publisher representatives to whom I spoke that whiffed on basic questions like what might be coming out the next season. One benign request for help with a photo led to shrugged shoulders and a request to ask someone “in charge,” but no indication as to who that might be. I visited dozens of booths; I was welcomed and asked if I could be helped at exactly three of them. Two exhibitors picked at the legitimacy of this publication before deciding to answer rudimentary queries about future books, or, really, listen to me at all. It was a long day.

We won’t argue that perhaps there are horrible, negative undercurrents at the show that bespeak an industry in decline, but there is one message that screams out from this: People, please be nicer to Tom Spurgeon!

Big BIG report over at The Comics Reporter as Bart Beaty lays smack down on David Hajdu’s THE TEN CENT PLAGUE:

I read The Ten-Cent Plague with great avidity. Hajdu is a compelling storyteller, and his interviews with some of the key players at the time add important shadings to our understanding of the period. There are places where the book really excels, not the least of which is in the important research on the comic book burnings that began in the 1940s, an area that is often mentioned but seldom dealt with in the depth that Hajdu brings to the issue.

At the same time, however, the book has certain shortcomings, and I’d like to address these over a few posts.

Few posts indeed. Beaty is only up to number two, with more promised!

Related: Eddie Campbell comments, and Steve Bissette comments in the comments.

This particular showdown has become one of the great myths of the comic book (I’m using myth correctly to mean ’sacred story’ rather than ‘falsehood,’ the usual debased meaning given to the word these days). I saw the same thing in Eisner/Miller (Dark Horse 2005)

§ MEANWHILE, Noah Berlatsky responds to some comments by ADD in the new Comics Journal about the state of the direct market:

I think Gary Groth has made a similar argument, and I thought it was silly then as well. The problem with super-hero comics isn’t that the quality is bad. I mean, there’s *lots* of dreadful stuff that have a huge fan base (things like, oh, Scooby-Doo cartoons…or Rolling Stone concerts….or Alicia Keys albums….) Quality isn’t objective, of course, but using any aesthetic criteria, you’re going to find that sometimes quality and popularity are directly related, sometimes they’re inversely related, and sometimes they don’t seem to have any relationship at all. The problem with super-hero comics isn’t that they’re “bad” (though I agree that many of them are bad); it’s that, bad or good, they’re aimed at an audience which is increasingly insular, and that, as a result, the genre doesn’t really look sustainable in the long, or even medium, term.

Tom Brevoort approaches the same thing from a different angle:

Here’s one of the things I’ve realized about this business: it’s all cyclic. The same patterns repeat themselves again and again, from generation to generation–not the specific instances, but the overall shape of people’ reactions.

I’m still reacting in part to some of the people I spoke to at the New York Comic Convention, as well as the e-mails that we’ve been getting. But it’s really driven home this idea of cycling.

For example: it’s not great secret that there are still people upset about the changes to Spider-Man. Fair enough, But in the space of a day or two, I got five-or-so comments lamenting the elimination of Spidey’s organic webbing, and the fact that there’s been no mention of the additional powers he gained during “The Other.”

Which comes as a bit of a shock, frankly, because the overwhelming majority of the reactions we saw at the time those two stories came out were decidedly negative! Nobody seemed to like the organic webbing, and people wrote long treatises about how Peter creating mechanical web-shooters was better, because this showcased his science skills. But just a couple short years later, we go back to the mechanical web-shooters, and it’s like we fire-bombed something.

Finally, Brian Hibbs sums up DC’s current output and it doesn’t look good:

The first real signs, for me, was “One Year Later”, which was about as unmanaged and poorly fitting of an idea as anything I can think of. Virtually every DCU book took a sharp downwards spike in the wake of OYL, as the readership didn’t understand what was going on in the books they followed, and given no real incentive to pick up new ones.

That could have been managed had it not been for COUNTDOWN, “the spine of the DC Universe” — a spine that virtually no one enjoyed, and that had what seemed to be a billion-jillion awful tie ins and crossovers and “spin outs” all predicated on branding and ideas that no one (not even, it seems) the creators were especially enthused by.

One browser crash and one unexpected Scribefire update later and it’s all gone.

Added note: Pretty quiet around here as everyone is still tuckered out from the big NYCC bash. Even Dirk is sick and tired from ignoring the show.

We’re just easing along ourselves, enjoying the nice weather when we can and gearing up for the return of LOST.

Various notes and comments on various aspects of women in comics over the past few days.

§ Reminder: It’s always someone’s first convention panel!. Huffington Post’s Michelle Kung:

I began the fest with a DC Comics cocktail event at the Park Bar, where I was introduced to a slew of writers and more importantly, was given a kick-ass Watchmen movie poster. On Friday, I walked the booths, paid $5 for a small cup of gelato, and wandered in and out of various panels, many of which I found surprisingly lackluster. Sessions such as the Women In Comics panel featured writers already overly familiar with their co-panelists and audience questions, which resulted in relatively rote answers. (Said one female cartoonist: “I’m just waiting for a day when I’ll be recognized as just a comics writer, and not a female comics writer.” Yawn.) My friend and fellow Comic Con virgin Georgia had a more exciting day — when she bought her first ever comic book, she was “forced” to take a shot of vodka by the vendors.

§ At Comixology, Shaenon K. Garrity looks at The Girls of Shonen Manga:

THE DITZ: A childlike woman (often with a very adult body) who leaps all over the hero like a puppy and routinely forgets key articles of clothing. Often the Ditz is a foreigner, to explain her ignorance of concepts like “modesty” and “personal space.” Other times, she’s just stupid. The Ditz is seldom a serious contender for the hero, with occasional exceptions like Ranma 1/2, where Shampoo (an unusually aggressive Ditz) puts up a good fight. Her primary function is to provide random, unmotivated fanservice, and therefore she is essential to harem manga

§ Also at Comixology, Kristy Valenti interviews Aimie Major Steinberger:

This exploit perfectly encapsulates the flavor of Steinberger’s experiences, most of which were mediated by her (and her friends’) fangirlness[1]; but what’s refreshing about the way that Steinberger presents her geekiness is that she’s confidently un-neurotic about it: she’s aware of others’ reactions, but she never lets that stop her from playfully having her fun. There was no sense of oxymoron when she described herself to me in a personal interview as “just a normal geek girl, you know?”

§ At NYCC, DC was giving away this very cool poster by Adam Hughes of the various ladies of the DCU with the headline, “The Real Power of the DC Universe.” Online response that we’ve seen has been positive, and it’s definitely a smart take-off on the Annie Leibovitz Vanity Fair-style covers of the past year. But it still seems so…homogenous. Adam Hughes draws the way he does, so it’s no surprise that all the women of the DCU have giant boobs, identical frames and all appear to be about 5′9″. Not like, say, this:

Or even this:

§ It turns out that large boobs are such an important factor to the superhero life that their absence is cause for a breaking news item in itself:

DC is also launching several titles with an eye toward capturing a younger audience. Editor Jann Jones announced the upcoming Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade, with art that features a flat-chested, prepubescent Supergirl. The upcoming kid-friendly line also includes Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam. DC is excited about recreating the entry-level comic experience, no doubt anticipating the the kids who will grow up to fill future Con audiences. As for Supergirl, the first to be released, it’ll have “all the fun of life in Junior High,” Jones promised, which to me sounds menacing. DiDio added, for the benefit of the room: “And no boobs.”

The new Supergirl will be by Landry Walker and Eric Jones, apparently.

§ Finally, Elayne Riggs deals with the occasional waves of low self-esteem that convention going regularly creates:

That’s when this odd feeling came over me that, after having been involved with the comic convention scene for over 20 years now, I didn’t really fit in any more. As far as Team Comics was concerned, I was the nobody I’d always suspected myself to be. Out of work, out of practice, out of favor, I succumbed to the enemy of every fanboy and fangirl, the overblown sense of entitlement. Everything I experienced was suddenly All About Me, which precipitated a dangerous downward spiral. On some level I knew it didn’t correlate with reality, but I’d managed to make a complete disconnect between “wasn’t that nice finding the pros-only curtained-off area with its own friggin’ oxygen bar on Saturday so we could catch up with Bryan Hitch during his one free half-hour” and “poor poor pitiful me nobody loves me pass the worms.”

Some little news notes that have been floating around:
Zuda news: a second chance for previous contestants to get picked up via the Zuda Invitational and a new strip by Dean Haspiel, STREET CODE which is an “instant winner.”

3. The much talked about ZUDA COMICS INVITATIONAL is on! Celebrating the one-year anniversary of our announcing Zuda at the San Diego Comic-Con we’re going to have a competition featuring comics from the previous years worth of non-winning comics. I’ll blog about this in more detail but basically if it ran on Zuda and didn’t win its eligible to participate in the Invitational. Send your picks for which comics you want to see get another shot at the brass ring to FEEDBACK (in the upper right corner there, by the login)! The Invitational will be our July competition.

§ The Same Hat kids reveal a new project, an English edition of Yusaku Hanakuma’s TOKYO ZOMBIE. The book is planned for September release from Last Gasp but may be out in time for San Diego:

Tokyo Zombie is a self-contained story featuring Yusaku Hanakuma’s two characters Afro and Hage. It was originally serialized in AX Magazine in 1998-1999, and was collected and published the year after by Seirinkogeisha. Seirinkogeisha is an incredbile indie/underground manga publisher, and publish the vast majority of Same Hat favorites including Suehiro Maruo, Takashi Nemoto, Shintaro Kago, Kazuichi Hanawa and many, many others.

§ Similarly Warren Ellis reveals a pair of new books from Avatar later this summer.

Aetheric Mechanics

and No Hero.

Technorati Tags: Warren Ellis

Just a friendly reminder, LOST returns tomorrow in its new time slot: 10:00 (or 2200 if you prefer) ET.

In preparation, here are a couple interviews with the show’s producers, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse.

A/V CLUB

TV Guide interview conducted by Jimmy Kimmel

There are likely plot points discussed in these, so be forewarned if you’re one of those “anti-spoiler” types.

Look for the usual day-after recap by the Beat’s Helper Monkey on Friday morning.

Posted by Mark Coale

[Photo above from los507.]

In about 2 hours 13 minutes and 14 seconds, any mention of last weekend’s New York Comic-Con will be thoroughly passé, as Free Comic Book Day, Iron Man and Stumptown fill the news bins, but in that tiny window I had to get this out of the way, esp. after Kiel Phegley got on my jock about my late con reports. We’ll try to tell this story via areas of the con, using field evidence, i.e. quotes from other blogs.

BIG BOX, BIG PICTURE

Dee Dupuy

BTW, the weather in NYC Thursday through Sunday was absolutely heart-piercingly beautiful. That spring smell on the breeze, daffodils blooming, cherry blossoms in drifts on the wind! The weather magic’ed up everything this trip– it made everything seem fresh and clean, and the people all eager and bubbly. Even a stinky old con hall crammed full of “classic collectors.”

Mike Gold:

Next year, the New York Comic Con will revert back to its February slot – and the first weekend in February at that. This simply sucks: walking towards the Hudson River to get to the Javis Center in winter weather is like dancing in the road show of Doctor Zhivago. Not that there’s a lot of choice: The Javits Center is what it is, and the NYCC deserves better. So does New York, a town that loves to think of itself as the greatest city in the world. If they actually mean it, they should build themselves a world-class convention center that could compete with the likes of Las Vegas and McCormick Place.

Augie De Blieck Jr.

The big talk of the convention on Sunday, though, was the schedule for next year. Someone checked the calendar and realized that it’s on the Super Bowl weekend. If the Giants make a repeat bid for a Super Bowl trophy, the con is going to take a big hit. If the Jets make it to the Super Bowl — wait, no, never mind. That’s not going to happen. What crappy timing for a convention. I guess that’s why they could get the convention center to themselves for the weekend.

So yeah, this year, despite competition from Passover, the timing couldn’t have been better. The first warm weekend of the year sent everyone’s endorphin level soaring, and it was hard to get worked up about anything. Life was good.

Next year? The show takes place not only in winter…but in the DEAD of winter.

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CBLDF PR:

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund scored a victory last Friday when prosecutors dismissed all charges against Rome, GA retailer Gordon Lee. Neil Gaiman announced that Judge Larry Salmon signed off on the dismissal on Friday evening at New York Comic Con.

“This is a victory for Gordon, and a victory for comics,” says CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein. “For more than three years, the comics world has stood behind Gordon’s innocence and now we are vindicated.”

The dismissal comes after more than three years and $100,000 of CBLDF resources were spent to prove Lee’s innocence. The battle was waged against a prosecutor’s office that grossly overcharged Lee at the start of the case, and proceeded to cause multiple delays, including throwing out and refiling charges a year and a half into the case, and creating a mistrial when the case finally went before a jury last November.

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§ Via the comments: The last word in indie vs superhero.

§ Entertainment Weekly has a list of graphic novels that tie in to summer’s big comic book movies. Interesting note: in many cases there ISN’T a direct tie-in. Marvel in particular has a sprawling landscape of reprints that doesn’t necessarily easily lend itself to a table at the front of Barnes & Noble promoting summer movies. No wonder it’s easier to go with the bed sheets.

§ Gary Tyrell talks with Joey Manley and John Boeck of the newly VC empowered ComicSpace/Webcomics Nation:

Fleen: What percentage of the combined companies will be retained by the original owners, and what percentage sold to the investors? And, what was the monetary goal in the investment round?

Manley: Josh and I are individually and collectively the largest investors. E-Line and other investors are minority stakeholders.

John: We are closely held; we didn’t throw things open to a flood of investors. The majority of [ComicSpace investors] have participated here at NYCC.

Manley: The goal was to ‘break even’, which we met. Since closing [on 26 December 2007], both the top- and bottom-line numbers have exceeded projections.

§ Elayne Riggs’ photo journal of NYCC.

§ Anne Ishii takes names:

Speaking of X-Men a la 21st century film franchise…This guy. Cyclops, but with eye-shield worn over his regular wire-frame glasses. Classic. Anyway, this guy had the best of the dorkiest introductory deliveries: I’m about to ask you guys something you’ve probably never been asked before in your life. It’s a favor… Could you pin my jacket to my pants? They’re falling down. Candace obliged our young man. Later, I pinned the note from his mom with their address and emergency contact along with an inhaler, to his forehead.

§ Batman Ice Cream’s dark secret!

§ Innocent little child in Bugaboo kidnapped by Stormtroopers.

Evidently, Marvel sees some promise in this digital thing. PR:

Marvel Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: MVL) has appointed Ira Rubenstein to the position of Executive Vice President of Marvel’s newly launched Global Digital Media Group. In this newly created position, Mr. Rubenstein will oversee Marvel’s digital distribution strategy across all media and platforms. Mr. Rubenstein will relocate to Marvel’s New York headquarters and report to John Turitzin, Executive Vice President, Office of the Chief Executive.

Mr. Rubenstein joins Marvel after more than 12 years with Sony, most recently as executive vice president of Sony Pictures Digital. His appointment reflects Marvel’s commitment to growth in the digital space. He will be responsible for developing and implementing the company’s efforts to maximize the Marvel Universe across all digital media. He will look to extend the reach of Marvel properties into the digital marketplace by maximizing the potential of Marvel’s current proprietary digital consumer destinations — Marvel.com, MarvelKids.com, and Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited – as well as through digital video, animated content, mobile games, casual games and strategic partnerships.

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“It’s so stupid to guess about the future. Biggie Smalls died before he could hear the word ‘blog.’”

–Rich Stevens

Were indies and lit comics squeezed out of New York Comic-Con? Josh Neufeld says yes. Discuss.

I hate to be a hater, BUT I THOUGHT THE NEW YORK COMIC-CON SUCKED! I’ve written approvingly of the con in the past, but it’s been steadily going downhill, and this past weekend was its nadir. When they started the show in 2006, they made a concerted effort to attract alternative and “literary” publishers and cartoonists, which they balanced with an understandably mostly mainstream vibe, and I appreciated the influx of potential new readers.

But then last year, the show began seriously tilting toward the same superhero/manga/gaming/merchandising thrust of the other mega-cons like San Diego and Chicago; and this year, it was full-bore. In 2007, although it was a bit of a pain squeezing through the crowds, I was still able to see friends and compatriots like Chris Staros of Top Shelf, Sheila Keenan at Scholastic, Mark Siegel at First Second, and the like; this year, I couldn’t find any of them. (I know, I know, Sheila is no longer with Scholastic, but you get the point.) Granted, I showed up with Phoebe at about 1 pm on Saturday, which was probably the craziest time, but it was a madhouse, a zoo, a freak show, a … you get the drift. I can’t say enough how unpleasant it is to be jostled, squeezed, and b.o.-bombarded by hordes of Star Wars stormtroopers, flabby people in superhero suits, and wannabe Suicide Girls!

I saw a small Fantagraphics table, but absolutely no other representatives of — or cartoonists from — the alternative industry. Even the Vertigo booth (they were kind enough to provide me a free pass due to my work on American Splendor) was so packed and chaotic, that I didn’t dare venture in there to say hi to editors Jonathan Vankin and Mark Doyle. (I did spot dangoldman, signing copies of Shooting War, and briefly spoke to man_size before he did a panel, but that was really it in terms of folks I knew.) I guess after last year, there was a general consensus by folks with non-mainstream agendas to skip this show. I wish I had gotten the memo!

ICv2 has the March numbers and they are not great, prompting us to steal — for the first of what will doubtless be countless times — Vaneta Rogers’ photos of the Morrison/Jones duo. ICV2 continues:

Sales of comics to the direct market by Diamond Comic Distributors slipped 7% in the first quarter of 2008 vs. the year ago period, the first quarterly drop since Q4 of 2004, when comic sales were down 4%. Graphic novel sales were up 5% for the quarter, ameliorating the over-all decline to 5% for the quarter in combined comic and graphic novel dollars. Q1 2008 was also the first over-all decline since Q4 of 2004, when combined comic and graphic novel sales were down 3% vs. the year ago period.

March was the ugliest month of the quarter for comic sales, with a 15% drop in comic sales vs. March 2007. Graphic novels were up 4%, bringing the over-all annual rate of change to a positive 4% for the month.

The comparison is a WEE bit unfair, since last March was the month of the Captain America $26 insanity — but a drop in sales is still a drop in sales. More:

Periodical analysis
Top 300 comics
Top 100 graphic novels.

Artist Stuart Immonen reports on an annoying internet rip off:

Yesterday, my pal Darren Di Lieto, from The Little Chimp Society website, emailed with some upsetting news. Turns out someone scraped the contents of his website and published it into a 350-page book being sold online for $100. You can read more on this post in Darren’s blog.

This book — which reprints without permission several dozen artist interviews which Darren had posted on the LCS blog — transcribes these interviews word-for-word, including the artwork, and was “published” under the title “Colorful Illustrations 93°C”. The book even includes a CD with all the illustrations from the book, all lifted off the site as well. Here’s a link to a gallery of scans that Darren made of each page of the book, with a close-up below of one of the two spreads which feature the interview Darren did of me (I can’t help but notice the thieves omitted the illustration of the two big gay muscle Daddies, chickens!):

More details in links.

The Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship was founded to remember the last King Features editor. Coloumbia born RISD student Juana Medina is the first winner, E&P reports:

A sophomore at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) has won the first annual Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship from the National Cartoonists Society Foundation (NCSF).

Juana Medina edged out almost 200 applicants for the award, which includes a $5,000 scholarship and a trip to the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Award convention in New Orleans. She’ll receive her award at the Reuben banquet on May 24.

Special Beat Correspondent Steve Bunche went to the closely-watched “Women Who Kick Ass” panel and explains what happened:

Is there any more tired panel that gets regularly dusted off at comics conventions than the totally-beside-the-point “women in comics” forum? When it comes to creating comics, and most other things for that matter, gender is irrelevant and the main factor to consider is the validity of the creator’s vision and intent rather than whether or not the talent possesses twig & berries or “the Holiest of Holies,” as Pulp Fiction’s Jules would put it. Honestly, I’ve long thought the only way to kick start some life into that moribund mainstay would be if I were to put on a taffeta ball gown, pad my bra a little — believe me, it wouldn’t take much — and haul my high-yellow tuchas onto the podium and began to rail on about how Stan Lee was an unsung feminist whose unknowing depiction of females was actually a subtle call for empowerment. Of course that’s complete and utter horse hockey, but then again so was the “Girls Who Kick Ass” panel at the Javits Center’s New York Comicon.

Billed as a sounding board for women in the funny books biz, the panel garnered a bit of controversy for its placement of former adult film star Jenna Jameson among the likes of Colleen Doran, Louise Simonson, and Amanda Conner. Jameson, a funny and intelligent speaker, is quite lively in her own right, but her presence was guaranteed to detract from the other panelists and attract a legion of devotees of “one-handed” cinema, many of whom couldn’t have cared less about the creative process of comics and paid their admission fee in hopes of worshipping at Jameson’s tenderloin flick altar. I have absolutely no problem with Jameson’s porn past, in fact I’m a staunch advocate of such fare, but the inherent sensationalism that comes with her simply doesn’t jibe with a panel aimed at women being taken seriously in the medium. No matter how sincere her intentions may be, the vast majority will most likely not be able to embrace Jameson in any real capacity as a creator and see her as anything other than a “tainted” woman who splayed her naughty bits on camera for the, er, amusement of folks living in a hypocritically anti-sexuality culture. Just ask Traci Lords.

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You must see high quality photo streams by

Kevin Church — above Bully!

And Seth Kushner in a new series he calls “Fandom.”

Some more: Marion Vitus with some great photos including the above that shows that the range of diversity in hair color on display from Women in Comics is greater than ever before!

Dave and Raina.

Finally, our favorite costume of the show, Yorick and Ampersand from Issue #2 of Y THE LAST MAN. Photo by Steve Bunche.

Blogospheric round-up:

§ Paul Levitz:

The best part of the con, as always, was simply hanging in the DC booth and walking the halls, talking to old friends from the 95 year old Joe Simon to the 9 year old Nick Pappas Jr., and hearing how people feel about the work I’ve done or that DC’s doing today. Very few people have the good luck to keep in touch with as many folks as I’ve had the privilege to have in my diverse professional life, and cons serve me as a sort of perpetual high school reunion: who’s doing what, how life’s treating people, and how people feel my team’s treating them. We had more people at DC’s main talent party than were working in the entire comic book business when I started, and it’s incredible to hear about all the projects in motion either with us or elsewhere in the field. We got some good press on some of our announcements (I’m still checking the web to find out what we broke at the show—the gang doesn’t always tell me), and I met some of our newer contributors and touched base with some of the veterans.

• Jog:

I had no trouble getting in, at any time. No wait whatsoever. There was a very healthy mix of genders, and a solid diversity of race. There was no more odor than I’d expect from a ton of people stuffed into a single space. There were a lot of young people of obviously varied interests, although you’d also spot the occasional 50+ year old wearing a Yancy Street Gang sweatshirt. There was not much in the way of sensory overload. I wouldn’t call it cramped, but the show floor was a bit smaller than I’d expected. I’ve never been to San Diego, which is the gold standard for this type of show, but I kept hearing about how New York was the new 2nd place, so maybe my expectations were out of whack. The presence of non-comics media was obvious, but not overbearing; it was clearly a comics show, with some video game and movie/television stuff tossed in. I’d say manga alone wasn’t a big presence, but ‘overall J-culture’ definitely was. Neko hats were fucking huge.

§ Liz Baker of the Kyle Baker Travelling Experience

In a final note, as some exhibitor’s in our vicinity learned because I filed a police report: a mysterious fellow exhibitor stole a 72″ x 30″ white table from our booth during set-up (I had borrowed it from a friend’s construction site on the UES).

Juggling a booth and four young children for three days was hard enough, but then to have another exhibitor take our table was really disappointing. The comics industry is small, so if you took the table (or know who did), thinking that Javits provides them (they don’t) kindly replace it and I will cancel the police report. Thank you.

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Click for more.

The Beat: I can’t wait until tomorrow!

Future Mr. Beat: Why? What’s happening?

The Beat: Absolutely nothing!

[Photo by John Nee]

Don’t laugh: it was magical.

NYCC was magical. A lot of it had to do with the weather, which was completely utterly magical. A full moon, dry crisp air, flowers in bloom. Sparkling lights, a bracing breeze that promised adventure. Sunlight that promised laughter. Yesterday morning as I walked to catch a cab, apple blossoms were falling down like a warm, spring snow…it’s a magical time of year in New York City, and New York Comic-Con managed to ride the crest of the wave.

We’re working on our own wrap-up report, and catching up on 3,492 blog postings about the show. For now some of the most astute observations from other observers.

Valerie really nails the big movement in youth culture now.

If the big theme of San Diego Comic Con last year was regarding its “Hollywoodification,” this year it must have been its heavy Japanese/youth culture influence.
The biggest thing that struck me about this convention was the heavy manga/Japanese culture presence, and how successful it was. I remember seeing this gigantic line bisect the convention floor, and wondering who everybody was waiting for. Neil Gaiman? Jim Lee? Ron Perlman?

No, they were waiting for Japanese pop singer T.M. Revolution. A good portion of those in line were Japanese, but certainly not all.

This DESPITE there not even being a particularly big manga presence at the show. TPop, CMX and Yen were there, but Viz had only a lounge on the floor — although plenty of big announcements and movie screenings. No matter — there were cosplayers EVERYWHERE, and the Japanese influence is bigger and wider than it has ever been. This is the mainstream.

But there were other voices as well, Chris Mautner of Blog@ reports:

I did notice a large percentage of what I would term the “Old School” or “Classic Collector” fan at the show. These were the people (usually middle aged or older, though not always) eager to have get a few words with Mort Walker or Jim Sterenko, or stop by the Classic Comics Pressbooth and gush about how much they love Leonard Starr and not so much concerned about the Secret Invasion blah de blah. There was apparently a long line for Mark Evanier’s signing of his new Kirby book, for example. Oh, by the way, Classic Comics Press is planning on publishing the daily run of Roy Crane’s Wash Tubbs and Captain Easy, which is awesome news.

Tom Spurgeon makes a mockery of my own scrambled mental state with no less then 50 cogent observations on the show. I find Tom’s thought particular interesting since he has (rightly) been skeptical of some of the support for the show despite the disasters that befell the first year. His report is mostly positive, but it didn’t have to be. This show was relatively big disaster free although there were plenty of small ones.

Indeed, the show as a gestalt seemed to overwhelm the components. I’m not entirely sure what the big story of the con was, or even the big announcements. The news headlines on the mini sites announce panels, not what was said on the panels. If there was one big log-line for the show — and I heard this from ALL levels of the industry — it’s that comics themselves were the draw. The movie stuff was important but it didn’t overwhelm the rest of the show. I heard scattered accounts of what did well and what didn’t — a lot of people made money BUT booth costs were very high. But there were crowds, and fans and buyers and costumes for ALL kinds of material.

After my side trip to Bucks County, PA on Saturday I arrived back at Penn Station around 7:30 just as the show had let out. The train station was full of people wearing con badges, wearing costumes. As we went out on the street there were even more con related people. The Tick Tock diner was chock full of people from the show.

For the first time ever in New York, you got some of that San Diego feeling where the con takes over the town and you can run into anyone on the street. Obviously, New York is bigger than any convention, bigger than any concert, bigger than the Pope, bigger than dirt, really. But this show did a good job of ranging from the Lower East Side to Midtown to Hell’s Kitchen. It really was a New York show. And it was about comics, first and foremost.

I’ll leave you for now with this shot of JG Jones and Grant Morrison, surely the best dressed big comics event creative team.