I had to work on Thursday, so I missed the NYPL panel, but on Friday I attended NYCC on behalf of the Library. I went Saturday and Sunday on my own, though really I'm never not looking for interviews for my blog or shooting Instagram pics for the library.
Friday
I was going to attend "Texting With the Stars: How Fan-Favorite Characters Reach New Audiences" but sadly it was cancelled. Instead I hit the floor a bit, scoping things out and talking briefly with Paris Themmen who played Mike Teavee about maybe doing an interview. Then I headed down to "The Unholy Children's Books Massacre" where panelists read parodies of Dr. Suess, Goosebumps, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and Choose Your Own Adventure books from The Devastator press. It was wacky fun and the final reader was Frank Conniff from MST3K. After the panel I spoke with him about doing a blog interview (and tell him how awesome MST3K was). After that I met up with my friend Erik who used to lend me a pass for a day before Comic Con put an end to sharing. We wandered the floor before splitting off to see different panels. |
Mine was for Titmouse, INC. one of the largest 2D animation studios in America. I’ve been a fan of their cartoons for years, actually a bit longer than they’ve existed since founder Chris Prynoski worked on Beavis & Butthead and Daria before creating Titmouse. Adult shows like Venture Bros and Metalocalypse, Disney shows like Kirby Buckets, and more recently the Fox live action/animation mash-up Son of Zorn are a few of their productions.
I hung out through an extended Q&A and then spoke with several of the panelists about doing a What is Titmouse Reading Blog, and I geeked out a little bit over the fact I was talking to them. Exactly a month later I heard back from the awesome Christy Karacas who's interested in talking to me for the blog.
I hung out through an extended Q&A and then spoke with several of the panelists about doing a What is Titmouse Reading Blog, and I geeked out a little bit over the fact I was talking to them. Exactly a month later I heard back from the awesome Christy Karacas who's interested in talking to me for the blog.
I met back up with Erik and we tried to get into a panel on The Infinity War, but an hour before it opened they had shut the line down, so we went back to the floor, checking things out and taking photos. The show People of Earth had a weird attraction where you got in a mirrored room where an alien was projected on the wall, does a little schtick and then tells you if you are special. I was, and walked away with a really weird T-Shirt. We covered almost the whole floor before heading out around 8.
Saturday
Highlights:
| Saturday my girlfriend came along for her first day at a Comic Con ever. Being Saturday it was all sorts of crazy, and after fighting our way through the thick crowds on the floor for an hour she was pretty happy when we headed into the "Spotlight on Berkeley Breathed: Bloom County & Beyond" talk. I've been a Bloom County fan for literally most of my life: it was a Sunday Funnies strip of one of the characters being attacked by outlandishly large bed-bugs that is my earliest memory of anything in the world of comics. I think I was 3 or so. This talk was something I was incredibly excited about. After a video montage, Breathed talked about the origins of Bloom County, his cartoon style, his success at wresting control over his comic strip back from the publishers, his pen pal relationship with Bill Watterson who was attempting to do the same with Calvin and Hobbes, and why he has returned to Bloom County. |
After the talk I chatted him (and his wife) up about doing an interview and he was very interested, but said they’d be on the road for a while. We traded info and once it is out I will link it here and you can learn, among other things, how To Kill a Mockingbird was a major influence in the creation of Bloom County.
Later we managed to find him finishing up a signing at a booth and I got a personalized Opus!
Later we managed to find him finishing up a signing at a booth and I got a personalized Opus!
As we wandered the chaos that is Saturday at Comic Con, we found ourselves at the American Library Association Booth where Tina Coleman gave us a badge ribbon (nod and a wink to anyone at ALACC).
I tried to find Lloyd Kaufman at the Troma booth, but he wasn't there. Instead we stumbled on professional wrestling legend Mick Foley at a nearby table. Sock puppet and all, he and his wife were signing autographs and giving out hugs. I hit him up for an interview and he said he has a Christmas book coming out and would love to talk about it.
I tried to find Lloyd Kaufman at the Troma booth, but he wasn't there. Instead we stumbled on professional wrestling legend Mick Foley at a nearby table. Sock puppet and all, he and his wife were signing autographs and giving out hugs. I hit him up for an interview and he said he has a Christmas book coming out and would love to talk about it.
We met up with Erik and briefly with another of our friends who was making his way across the floor in the other direction. We headed off through the crowds and chaos to the Image Comics area where I spoke with a few people there about conducting a mass interview for a What is Image Reading blog. Last week they wrote back and asked who I would like to include. I'm looking forward to hopefully getting a large and interesting reading list from them!
We walked the floor until about 4 when we all three split to see different panels. Nicole had a good place in line for "Fashion, Comics and the Rise of Geek Chic" and I headed over to see if I could get into the "Cartoon Network Presents: The Powerpuff Girls" panel. I used to watch the old show in college and was interested to see what the new incarnation had to offer.
The panel did a read-through of an episode and discussed the show, the new direction it was taking and took questions. I shot a lot of photos and hit their publicist up for interviews which I recently finished and which will be published at the end of November.
We walked the floor until about 4 when we all three split to see different panels. Nicole had a good place in line for "Fashion, Comics and the Rise of Geek Chic" and I headed over to see if I could get into the "Cartoon Network Presents: The Powerpuff Girls" panel. I used to watch the old show in college and was interested to see what the new incarnation had to offer.
The panel did a read-through of an episode and discussed the show, the new direction it was taking and took questions. I shot a lot of photos and hit their publicist up for interviews which I recently finished and which will be published at the end of November.
One of my coworkers also attended the panel and we hung out waiting for Nicole to get out of the fashion panel. They chatted for a while while I shot some of the crazy cos-players around us and then we found Erik and headed out into the rainy night.
Sunday
By Sunday we were dragging a bit, but there were panels and maybe last minute deals to be had! Plus I wanted to show Nicole that it wasn’t always as crazy as it was on Saturday, which kind of worked, but it was kids day, so there were a lot more strollers and little kids. At least they were often in cool costumes. It is the nature of conferences that the panels you want to attend overlap. Our final day presented us with a choice, and I wasn’t sure which it would be until we got there. There was an “IDW Publishing: Indie Books On The Rise” panel, but it lost out to the “Jaffee & Roth talk Kurtzman and Playboy’s Trump Magazine” panel. The choice seems insanely obvious in retrospect. |
I was always a fan of MAD Magazine, and grew up with odd and random zines, but I’d never heard of Trump Magazine. To be fair, this was a bit before my time: in 1956 Harvey Kurtzman was pushing to make MAD go color, but William Gaines didn’t want to spend the money. He was chatting with Hugh Hefner about it and Hefner said "I like the idea. Quit MAD and I’ll give you whatever you need to make a full color humor magazine." And so he did, and he took Will Elder, Al Jaffee, Arnold Roth, Mel Brooks and Jack Davis with him.
Sounds awesome, right?? So why haven’t you heard of it? Welp… it lasted 2 issues before Hefner’s bankers got nervous and pressured him to put a stop to it. That was it. That’s all she wrote. The magazine folded and all but disappeared. Many of them headed back to MAD which eventually did decide to go with some color features. Now Dark Horse and Kitchen Sink Books are putting out a collection for the first time in 60 years.
Al Jaffee talked about inventing the MAD Fold-In: All the other magazines were doing fancy, full color fold-outs. “What could I do that would be the antithesis of that?” he thought to himself. “I know: we’ll do a crappy, black and white fold IN instead!” He didn't’ think the higher-ups would go for it because it meant kids would be mangling the magazine, but they loved it. “They mangle one and then they’ll buy another for their collection” was their response and from then on he had to come up with a new fold-in for each issue and has done every one since then.
Sounds awesome, right?? So why haven’t you heard of it? Welp… it lasted 2 issues before Hefner’s bankers got nervous and pressured him to put a stop to it. That was it. That’s all she wrote. The magazine folded and all but disappeared. Many of them headed back to MAD which eventually did decide to go with some color features. Now Dark Horse and Kitchen Sink Books are putting out a collection for the first time in 60 years.
Al Jaffee talked about inventing the MAD Fold-In: All the other magazines were doing fancy, full color fold-outs. “What could I do that would be the antithesis of that?” he thought to himself. “I know: we’ll do a crappy, black and white fold IN instead!” He didn't’ think the higher-ups would go for it because it meant kids would be mangling the magazine, but they loved it. “They mangle one and then they’ll buy another for their collection” was their response and from then on he had to come up with a new fold-in for each issue and has done every one since then.
They ran out of time so there was no Q&A but I managed to get cards into all the panelist’s (Al Jaffee, Arnold Roth, Denis Kitchen and a very hungover looking John Lind) hands to see if anyone would do an interview.
Fun Fact: MAD was a comic book until the comic books ratings system took hold and everyone had to clean up their act. MAD decided that wasn’t for them, so they became a “magazine”.
Fun Fact 2: Playboy was the first to come out against open air testing of nuclear weapons. “Well sure…” people said. “If anyone wants to live it'd be those guys!”
Fun Fact 2: Playboy was the first to come out against open air testing of nuclear weapons. “Well sure…” people said. “If anyone wants to live it'd be those guys!”
After that we took one last loop around the floor. Saw a lot of great costumes, and a Michael Jackson wax sculpture that went far beyond the uncanny valley (see below). I managed to corner Lloyd Kaufman and he gave me a card to set up an actual face to face interview which is awesome. I need to reach out soon.
All in all it was three days of craziness, fun, and a LOT of interview opportunities.
All in all it was three days of craziness, fun, and a LOT of interview opportunities.