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Six Weeks Late.  Enough time had elapsed since I went to the New York Comic-Con that I wondered whether it was worthwhile to write anything about it at this point.  But, after thinking about my blog and remembering that I'm basically writing about comics that I bought 20+ years ago, I decided that I really shouldn't let the passage of a few weeks stand in the way of writing about the convention.  New York Comic-Con was the first comic convention that I had been to in a number of years.  My most recent comic convention before that was a Big Apple Con at Madison Square Garden, but the quality of that show was enough to put me off comic conventions for a while.  Notwithstanding that experience, I'd been wanting in vain to attend San Diego Comic-Con for a long time, so I thought that a big-budget event with a brand name backer and strong sponsorship like New York Comic-Con with would be worth trying.

I bought my ticket online a couple of weeks before the convention for opening night on Friday, March 24th, so I had a print out with my receipt and a registration bar code that I brought to the show with me.  After hiking all the way from Grand Central Station to the Javits Center in the bitter cold, I was a bit dispirited to see the size of the line that had formed outside the building.  It basically looked like the line for the first showing on opening day for a Star Wars movie.  When I found out that the line was only for those people waiting to buy tickets, my concern faded and I went right inside and picked up my badge in the short line for those people that had pre-registered.  Given the wait that I had mentally prepared myself for, I felt some combination of good fortune and smug satisfaction to have made it into the convention so easily.

All things considered, I had a great experience at the New York Comic-Con.  I think Reed Exhibitions did a fine job of setting up the Javits Center for the convention and making sure that the show had great sponsors, exhibitors, artists, writers and other featured guests, and all the other things you need to make a show like this one successful.  The event had a great energy level among everyone there and people were definitely having a good time.  I was particularly impressed with the turnout of comic and original art dealers as well as the strong showing of artists and other comic creators.  I should note that I only attended the convention on Friday night and had the benefit of pre-registering, so my experience wasn't colored by the crowds, delays and lockouts that many people complained about on Saturday and Sunday.  I suspect that next year the hosts will be better prepared with respect to space and crowd control for the onslaught of fans.

Meeting David Mack.  My first stop at the convention was Artist Alley to see which comic artists and other creators were in attendance.  There was definitely a good showing for a Friday evening, but I didn't see any of my favorites during my first pass.  After walking around the convention floor for a while, I found a booth for David Mack, whose work I first discovered during his Daredevil run and later enjoyed on all the covers to Alias.  I initially went through the same "process of discovery" with David Mack's art in Daredevil that I had with Bill Sienkiewicz's art when I first picked up New Mutants #18 in 1984.  "Wow, this is striking, but what the hell is going on here?"  It was a difficult transition from Sal Buscema's traditional comic book pencils to Bill Sienkiewicz's art - especially for a 12 year-old - but I loved it once I figured it out.  Seinkiewicz's work on the New Mutants is one of my all-time favorite comic book runs, but I'll save that topic for another entry.

David Mack is a remarkably versatile artist who can credibly produce anything from traditional comic book art to cubism and seemingly everything in between.  I don't know how to describe David's core style other than to say that he combines painted figures and backgrounds with mixed media such as photographs, acetates, ribbon, etc. in order to create a finished product that is both beautiful and compelling.  His storytelling is rich in substance, complex in detail and subtlety, and immensely satisfying to read and understand as it plays out.  In addition to his own unique style, Mack's Daredevil run showcased his ability to flawlessly emulate the style of artists like Joe Quesada in order to show shifts in time or perspective in the context of his stories.  His art is certainly great in its published form and it's really amazing to see the original paintings as I've found with the Alias covers and all the other great art that he had at the convention.

David Mack's original art is hard to find insofar as he doesn't list a specific inventory on his web site and it is rare to find collectors or dealers listing it on Ebay or other auction sites.  I purchased one of his Daredevil pages from another collector a couple of years ago but hadn't had any luck beyond that.  So, needless to say, I was excited to find that his booth had a great selection of his art from Daredevil, Alias and Kabuki, including a number of Alias covers.  I ended up buying two of the Alias covers that he had at the convention, although I didn't have enough cash on me, so we ended up consummating the transaction the week after the show.  Along with the Alias covers, he was kind enough to send me some of his Kabuki issues, which I'm now starting to enjoy.  I have to say that in addition to being incredibly talented, Mack was very responsive and a pleasure to deal with overall.

Meeting David Banks.  My other great meeting at the convention was with David Banks, who is a liaison for the Omaha, NE-based Capitol Bindery, which binds comic books into bound volumes for fans like myself.  The bindery is an old-line family-owned shop that primarily binds volumes of legal documents, corporate papers, etc. like many binderies around the country.  Through his relationship with the bindery's owners, David started having Capitol Bindery create bound volumes of comic books a number of years back and has had most of his collection bound into hard cover books at this point.  David was willing to share his experience and started helping other collectors get their comics bound by Capitol Bindery a few years ago.  I saw samples of his books on his web site and started with a single volume including the full run of John Byrne's X-Men: The Hidden Years.  Three years later, I am now approaching 150 volumes which probably represent a total of more than 3,500 comics.

I had the pleasure of meeting David Banks at the New York Comic-Con.  After corresponding via email and shipping comics back and forth for the past couple of years, it was great to finally meet the man responsible for my binding addiction. I really enjoyed walking around the con with him, checking out the various booths and meeting the different dealers and professionals. It was interesting to me to see how many of the people we met said "Oh, you're David Banks." He definitely has brand name recognition and it was remarkable how many of the dealers and pros that we met had sent or were planning on sending binding projects his way. He's a real fan with a true love of comics. That really shows in the hard work that he does for his fellow collectors and the painstaking attention to detail on every project.

My First Convention.  This blog entry wouldn't be complete without some nostalgic reference to my personal Golden Age of Comics.  My first convention was one of the Creation Conventions in 1983 at the Park Plaza Hotel in Boston.  Oddly enough, the thing that stands out most in my mind about that convention is the fact that my mom brought me to it.  I had been looking forward to the convention for months and was supposed to take the train into the city early in the day, but my friend Spike and I got bamboozled into raking the leaves in our next door neighbor's entire yard (1/2 an acre or so) for $10 apiece.  I'm sure that $10 sounded like a lot of money at the time - hell, that was 17 comics back in the day - but the two of us ended up working all day to get the job done.  That wasn't even close to the minimum wage of $3.35/hour at the time! %&#% neighbor....  In fact, if we hadn't figured out that we could dump the leaves at one end of the yard over a fence into the neighbor's woods, then it probably would have taken a day and a half to finish.  We'll chalk that experience up as a good life lesson.

So, my mom felt badly that I was going to miss the convention and drove me into the city for the last hour or so of the event.  Needless to say, that was a very cool thing for my mom to do.  She actually was very supportive of my interest in comics and drove me all over the Boston area to places like The Outer Limits, Newbury Comics, New England Comics, Million Year Picnic, etc. in connection with her various errands over the years.  I don't remember too much about the Creation Convention other than that I was really excited to see all those comics, toys and other cool stuff in one place.  I bought a sketch of Magneto from some semi-professional artist and a black and white Adam West Batman photo from the 60s series, both of which hung on my bedroom wall for years after that. 

I went to a number of other Creation Conventions over the years while I was in grade school.  At that time, the big draw of conventions for me was the huge selection of back issues.  It was hard to find full runs at any particular comic retailer in those days.  Another big draw was simply the opportunity to be at an event celebrating the comic hobby and filled with fellow collectors and other enthusiasts.  While the internet has changed the utility of conventions for me as it relates to finding things like back issues, original art, etc., I still like the idea of an event celebrating my hobby and providing the opportunity to interact with comic creators and other fans.  I look forward to many New York Comic-Cons to come.

*I should note that I didn't actually bring a camera to the New York Comic-Con, so I found the pictures of the Comic-Con crowd and David Mack and Mandy Amano on the web thanks to the miracles of Google.  I also couldn't find the ad for the first Creation Convention that I attended, so I scanned another one just so I'd have an image.  Worst graphics sourcing in a blog ever!  On the topic of great photos that I found on the web, I can't believe that I missed seeing this guy at the convention!