Linko! LXI - NYCC Edition!

So the 2010 version of New York Comic Con was quite possibly the most exhausting con I've ever worked. I was literally falling asleep at dinner Sunday night, and I had precious little time to hang out with anyone I wanted to see socially, though I'm glad I found a way to fit the most important folks in, including the CKT crew with special guest star Matt Powell. Anyway, since we've all been recovering while working full time since the show wrapped, I planting a flag with this special Linko! of everything the crew worked on over the show as the place where we (and by "we" I mean "maybe I") get back on the horse with our bloggery and what not. Let's do it!

* Being that it's my job at CBR News Editor not just to do a select number of panels and on floor interviews but to kind of cover whatever pops up during and around the convention. On that front, I kicked-off my show coverage proper with an interview with NYCC Head Lance Fensterman about the show and his expectations for it. Another big piece of "pre-show" news was the breaking bit about Marvel's partial price drop from January on, which I covered out the gate at the ICv2 Conference. In between multiple BBQ meals with Jonah Weiland, I filed a much more detailed report of everything at the Digital Conference days before all the audio from the thing just ended up on the Beat anyway.

* After the aisles of the NYCC floor were clogged and crowded with thousands of cosplayers, hug-givers and assorted people trying to trick Marvel into giving them work, I spent most of my time at the show in the bowels of the Javits Center reporting on panels. Luckily, most of my work was live reporting, meaning whatever I could fit into a story in the hour it was actually happening was all I had to do (a stressful process that pays off with less transcribing that night). In chronological order, I covered Marvel's X-Men panel, their unstoppable Avengers panel, the inaugural Marvel T&A panel, the famed "Cup O' Joe" affair and finally, Marvel's Next Big Thing wrap-up from Sunday. The Cup O' panel was particularly crazy as I spent most of it wishing they'd wrap it up so I could sprint to a bar immediately after to watch the end of my Michigan State Spartans' radical football victory over the hated University of Michigan Wolverines. NYCC, you'll never know the hate I hold in my heart for you after making me miss most of that game.


* I suppose the biggest piece of newsy news I covered as the show went along was DC Comics across the board price cut on monthly comics to $2.99. I spoke during the weekend with Co-Publishers Dan Didio and Jim Lee about the move – an interview which gave me more time than I usually get for these things. That was encouraging. Also, once I made it back home, I filed a report from another panel involving DC's evolving strategy for sales: The DC Nation Town Hall where Didio and Lee took fan questions on pricing, digital and everything else under the sun.

* It's no secret that the intersection of my job and these shows is built around publishing announcements from various players inside the mainstream industry. Over the course of the week, I did a few chats with folks on new comics unveiled at the show including a talk with suddenly very in demand writer Nick Spencer about his upcoming Iron Man 2.0 (AKA War Machine) series, a pre-show talk with Adam Beechen on Batman Beyond's extension into an ongoing series (and personally I think it's kind of genius the way they've been able conceptually tweak that concept to sell said series to the die hard Batman fans) and a rundown of the newly-reformed Atlas Comics with its two biggest players where they reveal the first creative team for an ongoing title.

* I know this doesn't technically qualify as NYCC coverage, but since I conducted and wrote up these interviews during the show, I'm placing them here: me and Grant Morrison on Batman & me and Scott Allie on Buffy.

* Oh hey, I also did two video interviews at the show, both of which turned out all right. They're with writer Marjorie Lieu and T&A themselves. Check them out below:



* OK, enough about me! I'm sure it'd get really annoying if I just went through and also posted up everything we did on CBR, but I wanted to at least draw y'all's attention to some of the news items that caught my eye at the show:

- First up, somehow this got largely ignored by a lot of places, but Archie Comics made a number of announcements at the show which were interesting – not the least of which was a new mini series for highly publicized gay character Kevin Keller – and you can read about everything they announced in the great Brigid Alverson's panel report.

- Brigid also crushed in on this Darwyn Cooke spotlight – "The Outfit" was one of the few big books at the show – and this Will Eisner remembrance panel – one of the more "New York" panels at a show you'd want to be chock full of them.

- On that same front, I dug Joey Pangilinan's write-up of a gathering of Golden Age greats at the show...the kind of thing we all really need to appreciate the hell out of while we can.

- Was also happy to see Disney Publishing out in force with not one but two panels announcing new initiatives and products. People seem to forget that that unit's been around for three or four years now – probably because they weren't getting many books out onto the market before now.

- Props also to my boy Dave Richards who killed it on the Marvel beat all weekend even though he was in Michigan the whole time. Two features he did that came out really nice: Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Oeming on their new all-ages series Takio & Bendis and new Ultimate Spider-Man artist Sarah Pichelli.

- Oh hey, Josh Wigler did it up in fine style on the Image beat as well, particularly on this story on Nick Spencer's new Infinite Vacation mini series.

* Finally, warranting his own bullet point is the CKT's own Kevin Mahadeo, who despite being lost somewhere in America right now filed stories on Scott Lobdell taking the reigns on Aspen's Fathom not to mention JT Krul continuing that publisher's Soulfire series and a rundown of Archaia's video game tie-in Bleedout.


* On the other side of the convention center's Skybox row, Benny Ben was holding down the Marvel.com video beat live on the air. I guess they'll be posting up what previously could only be seen as it happened, so if you want to watch Ben play Regis to Grace Randolph's Kelly, you should head over to Marvel's NYCC homepage.

* Oh hey, it looks like Kevin talked to Andy Diggle about Astonishing Captain America for Marvel.com as well. You two-timer, Kevin!!!

* I should probably also note that Rickey was all over the show despite being pretty sick, but since his job involves hanging on the floor at the DC booth and being super awesome to fans who walk up looking for Geoff Johns' autograph, but I can't link to that experience online. Sorry.