Once again, Geeking Out About was at the New York Comic Con, which was held at the Javits Center in New York City. Our review of the show will be uploaded later, but for now I’d like to present to you some highlights from how I spent my Saturday and Sunday. Complete information and links can be found below:
- Kevin Bolk is the head guy behind Interrobang Studios, whom we’ve profiled before. If you’re interested in checking out the pages of Daddy Daughter Ninja Day: My First Ninja Training Manual, Bolk has generously uploaded some of the illustrations here.
- Anime USA 2011 will be held this year from November 18 to 20; other guests at the con include voice actor Wendee Lee, the visual kei band BLOOD, and comedian Uncle Yo.
- The two artists that Jane mentions in the “Art for Hope” book are Jacques Pena and Dave Guertin, and their pieces are pretty sweet. After the show, Jane said by email, “The anthology will be available December 2011 (pending Apple approvals). It will be available for a limited time only through the VIZ Manga apps for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, as well as through VIZManga.com” and “People can donate directly at Architecture for Humanity.”
- Anne Cain’s work is more awesome in person than on the screen; you can find her DeviantArt gallery here where she has some digital photography as well. You can also see her sister Deb’s work here under the name Studio Mia, where she has sequential pages up. Hey, DC Comics, why haven’t you scouted these talented ladies yet?
- The Starfire controversy has been widely covered by the comics press, but I think it was this blog post by author Michele Lee wherein she asked her 7-year old daughter’s opinion of the art and depiction which went the most viral. The official DC response (via Twitter) was: “We’ve heard what’s being said about Starfire today and we appreciate the dialogue on this topic. We encourage people to pay attention to the ratings when picking out any books to read themselves or for their children.”
- Laura Lee’s website is here, and her galleries are a joy to browse through. And while we’re at it, the trailer for Page by Paige is below:
- I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize profusely to the always-awesome Dean Haspiel, whom I interviewed last year at NYCC, but I fell into a hole after a relationship ended and I never uploaded the interview. In addition to his numerous graphic novels, you can also see Dean’s work in the “Super Ray” comic (PDF) from HBO’s “Bored to Death”; elements of the Ray character are loosely based on him.
- I started reading comic books back in the mid to late 1990s, and the first stories I loved were the stories of the Chris Claremont-written Uncanny X-Men. When I saw him in Artist Alley, I had wanted to do a quick interview with Claremont, but I decided instead to get audio of him explaining his “Mekanix” miniseries featuring Kitty Pryde to some of her 9th grade female fans who wanted him to sign their comic books. Hearing this old comics vet sharing his work with female fans was just wonderful to me. The woman who laughs at the end came all the way from the Czech Republic to meet him!
- The questions I had wanted to ask were about the preview piece Claremont had on his table, Wild Blood and how it felt going back into the prose world 20 years after having published First Flight and its sequels. I’ll also add that when I first read them, I totally loved the books and his Nicole Shea is the template upon which I’ve based my female Shepard.
- Writer Jared Axelrod wasn’t at the table, but artist Steve Walker was, and I was glad to hear him talk about their graphic novel The Battle of Blood and Ink: A Fable of the Flying City which will be coming out in May 2012 from Tor.
- As always, that snazzy intro to the podcast was “Roma Pt. 2” by greyguy, which I found on ccMixter.org.
- By the by, if you’re interested in either recording a bumper for the show or advertising with us, please email us at geekingoutabout@gmail.com, and we’d love to work something out.
Stay tuned for “Voices from New York Comic Con” Part 2, which will go up as soon as I finish editing it, which features a very special interview which I got at the very last possible second while NYCC was ending on Sunday.
