Sunday, February 08, 2009

New York Comic Con Report

So Charlie and I hit the road at 4:30AM and made it to the Javits Center around 9:30 or so, at which point we had been in five states in five hours. Which may not be legal.

There was a massive line of people waiting to get in, but it seemed shorter and moved faster than last year. There were an impressive number of costumes, some unfortunate, some obscure, and one Spock whose ears were so well done they may have actually been a birth defect.

I actually managed to forego lunch while I was there, subsisting on bottled water and granola bars, so by the time we hit the 4:14 train back to Jersey I was pretty wiped out, being on my feet with several heavy bags for a good seven hours. But at least I decided to leave my Absolute Watchmen at home.

Especially since Dave Gibbons wasn't signing til today.

So here's the highlights:

I spent a good portion of the first hour trying to get a couple of things for Maria. I'm still not quire sure what they are. Go visit her. She can tell you.

Picked up a handful of books: The Brian Azarello Joker graphic novel, the second volume of Darwyn Cooke's Spirit comics, and Ben Templesmith's book about The Presidents.

Met Templesmith and got a quick sketch of the tenth Doctor for Mathilda.

Began my ridiculous quest to get the 20th Anniversary Sandman poster signed by as many of the artists as I can. So far I've gotten Colleen Doran and Kevin Nowlan to sign it. More at Baltimore in October.

Got the remainder of my Final Crisis issues signed by JG Jones and a quick pencil sketch of Wonder Woman for Mathilda. Refrained from telling him that his contribution to Final Crisis 7 was the best part of the issue.

Looked in vain for Darwyn Cooke.

Forgot to actually see how long the lines were Garth Ennis.

Met Jerry Robinson, who may or may not have created The Joker. Got two editions of The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told signed for a friend of mine and a copy for me. Also got him to sign one of my teaser posters for The Dark Knight.

Also got the Dark Knight poster signed by producer Michael Uslan (At this point it has been signed by one person named "Michael" and another named "Robinson." Go figure.). Also got it signed by Bill Sienkiewicz, who did a lot of character design for The Joker, and picked up his sketchbook of the work he did for it.

And I got presents for Tilda.

DC was giving away Wonder Woman tiaras to promote the upcoming animated movie, so I picked one up for her.

And I got her a huge remote-controlled Dalek. It is belligerant and it kinda freaked Tilda out a bit when I showed it to her this morning by having it go towards her screaming "Exterminate!" as she came out of her room. But she was smiling, so it's all good.

But I am exhausted and my eyes are still bloodshot.

And I'm still taking Tilda to Coraline this afternoon.

Can't wait to go back to work tomorrow.