This time last week, I was in New York, the city that never sleeps, and a place so good they named it twice, etc etc. It’s also one of my favourite cities on Earth, and I’ve not been there enough. This time, I was attending my first ever New York Comic Con, and I had an absolute blast.
As is often the case, I was travelling with my partner in crime, George Mann. Here we are in an elevator. Yes, dear reader; this post is going to be a thrill a minute rollercoaster. Strap yourself in!
Things will get better, I promise. There are going to be Star Wars videos, and everything…
This was one of the first things I saw when we arrived at the Javits Centre on Friday – a huge Star Wars Adventures wall at the IDW booth. Just look at it! Derek Charm’s wonderful art writ large.
OK, it has some chump standing in front of it, but you can’t have everything…
I would like to bring your attention to this fellow. Derek needs to draw Jar Jar Adventures, right?
After a quick sweep of the floor, I hot-footed it to Madison Square Gardens to meet Robert Napton of Legendary Pictures who had got me into the Pacific Rim Uprising panel. I am so excited for this movie, (although I really need to work out a new selfie face…)
It was then back to the convention centre to appear on the Lucasfilm Publishing panel with the great and good of the Star Wars book and comic scene.
Hosted by Michael Siglain, Lucasfilm’s Creative Director of Publishing, Tales from a Galaxy, Far, Far Away featured Timothy Zahn, Ben Acker, Christian Blauvelt, Drew Daywalt, Delilah S. Dawson, Jason Fry, Claudia Gray, John Jackson Miller, Daniel José Older, Charles Soule, Elizabeth Wein and me!
It’s since been made available on YouTube, so you can watch it from the comfort of your own fully-armed and operational battle station…
That evening, I headed to the DC Comics party in the Empire State Building, courtesy of the brilliant Michael Moreci, where much fun was had, and the goodie-bag included a Spy vs Spy whoopee cushion. What’s not to love?
The next morning, it was back to the con – only slightly bleary-eyed – for a panel the size of a small moon. Star Wars: From A Certain Point of View panel featured one book and n-n-n-nineteen authors! It was a monster, but a lot of fun.
First up, we all had to sign the special convention edition of the book that attendees were taking home with them. Here’s the pre-signed pile…
They were so precious that Assistant Editor, Tom Hoeler even wore archivist gloves to pass them to us!
Here’s Adam Christopher adding the very last signature to the last book…
(Incidentally, if you got that one, a few of us hid secret messages throughout the book!)
The final result makes for an interesting game of match the signature to the author!
The panel itself was master-minded by our Supreme Leader, editor Elizabeth Schaefer and the team at Del Rey. Organising nineteen Star Wars authors is like herding Kowakian monkey-lizards, so hats off to Elizabeth, who provided the following picture…
Hosted by Pablo Hidalgo, the panel included (top to bottom) Adam Christopher, Kieron Gillen, Elizabeth Wein, Mallory Ortberg, Daniel José Older, Ben Acker, Charles Soule, Mur Lafferty, John Jackson Miller, Zoraida Cordova, Chuck Wendig, Delilah Dawson, Jason Fry, Pierce Brown, E.K. Johnson, me, Meg Cabot and Claudia Gray.
Audiobook narrator Mark Thompson was also on hand to give a reading, and his interpretation of Obi-Wan and Yoda has to be heard to be believed! And the good news is that you can hear it, as the entire 90-minutes panel has also been posted on YouTube…
It was an incredibly exciting event to be involved with, so thank you to everyone who came along, and also to Pablo, who was a brilliant host.
As an aside, we all returned home to the news that From A Certain Point of View has made it onto the New York Times Bestseller list, which is a well deserved-achievement for Elizabeth and the team.
#FromaCertainPOV is a NYT Bestseller! Definitely not crying happy tears at my desk. Nope. This is not me right now: pic.twitter.com/KVJhUKEVDP
— Elizabeth Schaefer (@eschaefer) October 11, 2017
As Pablo said, this makes all of us 1/43 NYT Bestsellers. I still think we should combine, Voltron style to form one giant bestseller!
Back at the con, it was time to slip from a Galaxy, Far Far Away to nip onboard the TARDIS. I joined George and superstar artist Rachael Stott for a Doctor Who: The Lost Dimension signing on the Titan booth.
While we were there, Rachael met some pretty awesome cosplayers…
😍😍😍😍 pic.twitter.com/dDk0Eskbku
— Wraithchel Rott (@RachaelAtWork) October 7, 2017
Then it was off to do a TOP SECRET THING. Yes, I know… how mysterious… and I can’t talk about it… yet.
But I can talk about the appearance I made with artist Derek Charm to talk IDW’s Star Wars Adventures on the Live Twitch Stage. I must admit that, being old – as Racheal Stott continually reminds me – I had no idea about what Twitch actually was, although they did give us some rather fetching headsets…
You can watch this on YouTube as well, you lucky, lucky people. It’s almost like you were there…
When the Twitching was done, I universe-hopped back to the Titan Doctor Who and Torchwood panel, appearing with editor Andrew James, George, Nick Abadzis, Simon Frazer, Rachael and Alex Paknadel to talk Timey-Wimey stuff.
(Thanks to Krystal Zamora, whose photo I blatantly stole from Twitter!)
Phew! That was quite some day, rounded off with drinks courtesy of Del Rey, where I made the mistake of not having a beard for photos…
Sunday was quieter, which gave me a chance to actually walk the floor. I did have one last official duty to perform, a Star Wars Adventures signing on the IDW booth, alongside Landry Walker, Derek Charm, Elsa Charretier and Pierrick Colinet. It was very cool to have so many kids come up with their parents to get their books signed. That’s the next generation of comic fans, right there!
And thanks to Derek for this amazing sketch for my daughters. They loved it (and so do I!)
So, that was New York Comic Con.
Of course, the were loads of other people that I saw, but didn’t get to spend enough time with; Si Spurrier, Rob Williams, Al Ewing, Ram V, Ryan O’Sullivan, Dan Slott, Jon Sommariva, Denton Tipton, Bobby Curnow, Sarah Gaydos, David Hedgcock, Alex Segura, Marco Lesko, Jason Inman, Ashley Robinson, Lucy Ripper, Will O’Mullane, Ricky Claydon… I’ve probably left someone off that list and, if so, I apologise.
It was a mad, crazy, intense weekend, where I drank far too much coffee, which turned out to be a surprise to Elizabeth Schaefer who thought us Brits only sipped tea.
Of course, I didn’t want to reinforce such stereotypes, but still found myself with this in front of me THE MOMENT we cleared customs at Gatwick…
I’m nothing, if a cliché.
Until next time, New York, until next time…
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