People have been asking me whether I was in attendance. No. Originally I had no plans to go because I was going to be driving up to Cheektowaga this weekend to bowl in the PBA Pro/Am with Ariel and my brother, Wally, and his kids. But blowing out my right knee made that inadvisable. So I could have gone, but I figured either it was going to be incredibly underattended or incredibly overcrowded. I was pretty sure it was going to be one of those two extremes, and I wasn’t wild about facing either one. So I skipped it. From what I hear, it was the latter.
PAD
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Hope you get well soon, Peter.
Great seeing you at Wondercon and thanks for signing my copies of Imzadi and Q-Squared.
Steve Chung
Oh boy was it crowded. They even shut down the main hall for a short time in the afternoon to get a handle of the crowd flow. (I was in the Kevin Smith talk at the time and missed all the fun)
If people insist they saw you, they may have seen Chris Wyatt, one of the producers of NAPOLEON DYNAMITE, who was there screening two short films that Aaron (Napoleon’s beother Kip) Ruell had directed and which Wyatt had produced. I didn’t think of it at the time, but he does bear a resemblance to your PAD, but with longer hair. The shorts were entertaining and I had a nice chat with Wyatt as we both tried to find our way out of the Javitts Center at the end of the evening.
Oif. Now I’m kinda (Sorta) glad I didn’t go. I had no clue the ‘con was this weekend until my wife handed me the Newsday article, with one Saturday event circled, and said “Umm… I’m sorry in advance…”
Knowing what a big fan I am of Milla Jovovich, she was tempted to cut the article out of the paper, because she knew how much I would scream upon seeing that she’d be appearing Saturday from 5-5:30. And knowing that if I wanted to see her in person, I’d have to battle the crowds, see her for a half-hour, then try to hop a train back to Islip to hopefully be in time for my 7:00 shows at a local community theatre.
You know what? I think I’ll scream anyway.
Ðámņëd theatre. Always a sacrifice for art…
Shìŧŧÿ, man. Hope your knee gets better. Remember: no pain, no gain!
… what that has to do with anything, I don’t really know. Still, hope the knee thing works out.
Yikes – feel better soon, Peter! We tried to get in, but arrived too late. Pro or not, it made no difference to Reed Exhibition employees (who have no concept of “professional” versus “civilian” as they’re unfamiliar with the industry), everyone was turned away, even those who’d prepaid. We’re going to be there at 8:30 this morning, God help us, mainly because of Leah Adezio’s son – they came all the way up from PA to attend.
To be fair, it wasn’t their choice. The FDNY came in and threatened to shut them down if they let any more people in. They had state troopers posted at the entrances. Not knowing any of this at the time, I stepped off the con floor to get cash from the ATM, and found a line of a quarter of a mile just to get back on to the floor.
Of course, I said “Screw that” and sneaked into the front of the line.
But no question about it, Reed Exhibitions is to blame. They should not have sold more tickets for Saturday than the floor could hold. Greed, pure and simple.
Still, I wish PAD had been there. Virtually all my other favorites were… Marc DeMatteis, Keith Giffen, Tom DeFalco, Chris Claremont, Walt Simonson, Neal Adams, John Romita Jr, Mark Bagley, etc.
I’m prepared to give the organizers a little bit of slack as it was their first year and hey really didn’t know how many people would show up, but those problems need to be resolved next time. From what I understand, now that they know how many people they’re pulling in, they’ll take a lot more exhibition space next year. I think space was the biggest problem; the Artist’s Alley was much too narrow (have you seen the average girth of some fans, and with backpacks as well?) and I also think some of the major exhibitors such as Marvel and DC need to take much more space.
My best story from yesterday was when I was standing on the upper level near registration, reading one of the giant schedule boards to see what was going on, when I was approached by a security person who told me I couldn’t stand there. But I was reading the schedule board I responded. Doesn’t matter, you can’t stand on that section of the carpet; it has to be kept clear. When I pointed out it was virtually impossible to read the boards without standing there- not to mention the fact that the schedule boards were placed there for the very purpose of being read- his eyes glazed over with that cloud of stupidity that comes about when a security guy has to grapple with a complicated thought. I don’t know about that he said, I’m just security, as if that explained it all.
I do feel sorry for the people who either couldn’t get in or couldn’t get back in having left the convention floor, but I think it wasn’t a bad first effort. Certainly the professional day on Friday was the best time to go (at least as far as I was concerned). A lot of the pros were already there, as were most of the exhibitors, so it was a great time to do some networking. I was really glad to finally meet some of the people I had interviewed for Comics Scene years ago, and there weren’t the same kind of crowds that came in Saturday morning. But taking your knee problem into account Peter, you did absoluely the right thing by not going.
I suppose to look at this in a more positive way: this bodes well for the future of NY having an annual event. Now they know what to expect and will hopefully have a better handle of it next time. NY, like Chicago and San Diego, definitely deserves a convention to call its own.
Fortunatelty, there’s room to expand at the Javitts, as the Con wasn’t the only thing there. There was also a JEPORDY contestant search going on on Saturday. Hopefully the promoters will be able to grab a few more halls for next year to handle the crowd.
And I agree with Joe- what was up with the remarkably small booths for DC and Marvel? Especially compared to Tokyo Pop’s and some other smaller publisher’s setups.
Kevin, I totally agree that the response definitely bodes well for future conventions; I just feel sorry for the number of people who were turned away (including people who already had tickets) on the day. That meant if you showed up early in the morning without a ticket, you got in. If you showed up later in the day figuring there was no great hurry because you already had a ticket, you could well have been turned away. There seems to be something wrong there, but conversely, I’m not sure the organizers could anticipate that problem and precipitated some negative feeling as a result.
I was in NYC that Saturday, but as I was running a Gaming Session, and generally low on funds, I decided to pass. (I was happy to visit Jim Hanley’s Universe during their 25% off EVERYTHING sale — got the 2 latest issues of KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE and the collection where they revisit Scream of Cachooloo!) While it’s good that it was such a success, don’t be surprised if they move it to NJ: The rates there are generally cheaper, and it’s close enough to Manhattan to draw New Yorkers the extra distance.
Looking forward to meeting Peter David at I-CON. (And Getting Randy Milholland to autpgraph my card “Rocks Fall, Everone Dies.” And if you don’t get the reference, get yerself MUNCHKIN and MUNCHKIN DICE a.s.a.p!)
I was there it was not one of the better shows and many of the artists and writers seem to be turning into jerks and taken the readers for granted.
heh Cheektowaga,
gotta love Iroquois names
I was there on Saturday (I got there early, had a pre-bought ticket, and got in no problem).
I was on the floor from opening to about 3:30 and had some great conversations with creators (including Giffen/DeMatteis, Colleen Doran, Mike Oeming, Phil Jiminez/Andy Lanning, Kevin Maguire).
I had an unbelievably great time at the show. Everyone I talked to was very nice.
I met Bendis, but I was one of the last people to meet him before he had to dash off to the Marvel booth at noon. He was in a rush, but still took a few seconds to chat about the Spider-Man Animated DVD I brought for his signature (Oeming, sitting next to Bendis, was ammused to find out Bendis did commentary on one of the episodes.)
I know a lot of people are upset by what happened, but I had a great time. I even walked away with an Orbiter page from Ms. Doran and a Johna Hex page by Tim Truman (I didn’t meet Mr. Truman, I got that page from a vendor).
I hope this is the first of many shows in NYC’s future.
Me and my wife decided to go the Saturday show at the last minute. We got to the Javits Center after 2:00 PM. There were other people who got there about the same time and we found out that they were not going to let anymore people inside. I wasn’t too upset, I didn’t what to make a big fuss about it. We just went to the movies instead.
Sorry to hear about your knee PAD…
Believe me I went to the convention and in the words of Comic Book Guy “Worst Convention EVER!”
Aside from the long lines it was just unorganized. I mean I got in to the convention and they didn’t even check my ticket. But once I was inside I did get to shake hands with Chris Claremont, and John Romita Jr.
The assortment of upcoming SG-1, Marvel and DC toys was enough to make me GEEK OUT.
I just hope that the show coordinators learn from their mistakes this year, and apply that knowledge to the next NYC Comic Con.
Oh and lest I forget…Milla (Resident Evil) Jovovich did a great Q&A session.
I hope that you can make it next year Peter.
Regards:
Warren S. Jones III
“I was there it was not one of the better shows and many of the artists and writers seem to be turning into jerks and taken the readers for granted.”
I wasn’t there and I don’t know who the artists and writers in question are, but I can tell you this: I’ve been to shows that are incredibly overcrowded,understaffed and unpleasant, and conditions such as those can turn just about everyone into “jerks.” Creators get cranky with the fans because it’s nonstop, fans get cranky with the creators because of the huge lines and inconvenience, and it just builds upon itself until it becomes one big jerk fest.
PAD
Peter, I think you’ve put your finger on the situation. By the time I left the actual convention floor on Saturday afternoon (knowing full well I wouldn’t be able to get back in), tempers were running high pretty much everywhere. A group of state policemen was literally shouting at people waiting to get in, ticket holders were pìššëd øff because they weren’t allowed to get in, and certain areas of the floor- notably the Marvel and DC areas and artist’s alley- were hugely congested, people couldn’t move about, and it all became a recipe for disaster. I have no doubt that most or these problems can be eliminated next year if the convention organizers take over more space (which a couple of people have assured me they will be doing) and some of the companies like Marvel and DC take more exhibition space. Plus the aisle space for artist’s alley has to be doubled to allow two-way traffic.
Having said all that, every industry professional I met over the weekend without exception were quite friendly. I got to speak to Mike Oeming and Brian Bendis on Friday afternoon, and after I mentioned that I had done one of the very first major features on Powers for Comics Scene a few years back, they insisted on giving me a copy of the Powers hardcover, both of them signing it on the spot. Needless to say, that pretty much made my day.
If I have any regrets (aside from the obvious crowd-related ones) it’s that I didn’t get to speak to more people when it got really busy. I would have loved to speak to some of the comic strip people like Mort Walker that King Features brought to their table for example, but there was just no way to get close. We’ll just have to see what happens in 2007.