NYCC/NYAF

The final day of New York Comic-Con 2016 dawned with much rain and wind. I am somewhat relieved it waited to the final day for this. Luckily, I had an umbrella, so made it over to the Javits in order to catch my first panel, which was about how books are turned into audiobooks. It had 3 actors who narrate audiobooks as well as two authors of said audiobooks. (They hadn’t met each other before, which says a bit about the way the business is conducted.)

On the author side, we had John Scalzi, famed for his many science fiction novels, and R. A. Salvatore, best known for the Forgotten Realms series. On the narration end we had Fred Berman, who has narrated The Walking Dead audiobooks among other things; Allyson Johnson, an actor and singer best known for narrating the Honor Harrington series; and Victor Bevine, an actor who has also written his own works (one of which he did the audiobooks for), who has done Salvatore’s books and also Dan Simmons’ Hyperion books.

There was a lot of great discussion at the panel. Both Scalzi and Salvatore say they now think of how the audiobook will sound when they write, which was not in their heads at all at the start of their careers. Scalzi added that overusing the word ‘said’ – which in prose is fine, as a reader won’t really notice it – becomes more of a problem when the narration hammers in the repetition. All three narrators agreed they noticed when an author repeated words. Scalzi has a forthcoming short story that is in interview format, with Q and A, and will have to ask the audio team for multiple actors to carry that off.

The authors don’t really get much say in who narrates their books, though it sometimes happens. That said, they trust their publisher to get someone solid, as of course the publisher does not want to ruin the audiobook. Bevine said that he once won a fan competition to narrate an audiobook. It then got into the technical process of how they prepare to read the book – Johnson used to make notes on filecards and annotate the books so that as she read them she wouldn’t have to worry about things like where to pause for a breath; it would all be marked out. (These days she uses a spreadsheet for some things.)

They also discussed name pronunciation. All three work in a genre where there can be weird alien or fantasy creature names, and sometimes that means asking the author how a name is pronounced. R.A. Salvatore has fun with this – his most famous character is named Drizzt, and he says that he doesn’t like to confirm how it’s pronounced because he enjoys watching people argue about it. Scalzi, who is close friends with one of his narrators, William Dufris, once wrote a character named (and I approximate here) Btbtbtbtbtbt, and then said it should be pronounced like the finger between the lips insane pose from old cartoons. Once Salvatore was surprised to find one of his short stories narrated by Ice-T, who did not appreciate the difficult names i n the least. Still, as authors, they don’t have to pronounce their own names!

There are many ways to narrate, and this was gone into as well. Some narrators strive for clarity and some for effect; neither are wrong, but you should know which one would be most effective for your book. Some narrators use their own voice throughout the book, some try to use different voices for different speaking characters. Fantasy and SF gives the narrators an ability to stretch out – Bevine asked Salvatore if he could voice his dwarfs as drunken Irishmen, which delighted the author. Johnson says that she comes from a musical background, so pays close attention to the rhythms of the book, comparing it to a symphony.

They talked about the difference between one narrator and a book with a full cast; it’s more than just “you don’t get to read all the parts”. The narrators agreed that you need a strong leader for those books to pull the cast together, but that doesn’t always happen, so frequently the actors are seen comparing notes to ensure that it is as smooth as possible. Fred Berman also discusses the difference in style between his night job as a theatre actor (he’s in The Lion King on Broadway at the moment) and his day job doing narration. In theater you have to hit the back of the house, whereas narration is up close to the mic. (I loved that they all praised Bing Crosby for being the first recording artist to use the mic as a tool.) And they also listen to their own narration as they do it via headphones at times, both to see how it comes across and to fix mistakes in post-production so that it’s not jagged.

There are more female fantasy and SF authors than there were in the past, which all agreed was a great new development – Salvatore also said there were more diverse fans as well, thinking back to his signings in the 1980s which were all teenage white boys. Johnson had never read science fiction till she began to narrate – she has a low alto, so thinks they like that she can do “male” voices as well, though sometimes this can backfire – Honor Harrington is a soprano, something that book mentions a lot, so using a different register there can be tough. It was asked how they remember the voice of a character – the authors find it quite easy to slip back into an old character’s speech style, though Johnson said she keeps an index of all speaking characters for series she does, in case they show up six books later.

It was asked if they ever rejected doing any books? Bevine said he had once rejected a couple for being too sexually explicit, but for the most part the answer was no – if they don’t like a work, they can use a pseudonym. And they still put their heart into it, as even if they don’t like the book, they know there are fans who will. You focus on something that you like in the book. And of course they talked about the current boom in audiobooks – it used to be they were all in one section in the bookstore, competing for space, and would go out of print quickly. With the advent of new technology, that’s not happening. Best of all, audiobooks don’t cannibalize the market for regular books – the two mesh well with each other, and a good audiobook can sell as well as a hardcover.

The question and answer period had a few people thank them for making books available to those with difficulty reading – either because of losing their sight or for dyslexia, etc. Someone asked the narrators what scenes they found difficult to do, and they said that while big battle scenes were fun to read, they could be hard to narrate. The authors all agreed that a lot of the fun of narration is seeing how the book is interpreted by someone else, and urged authors not to try to micromanage the audiobook narrator. Someone asked how long the recording process takes, and it seems to average about twice the length of a book – in other words, if your book takes 10 hours to read, the recording process will be about 20 hours. This also includes going back to fix any errors in post-production. They also take it in sections, of course, no one reads the whole book though.

It was a terrific panel all around. I didn’t have anything else for a bit, so decided, as I often do, to go to the panel before the one I wanted to see. This was a great decision, as it was the panel devoted to the 10th anniversary of First Second Books, the alternative comics publisher who have put out 160 books in that span. Present were Mark Siegel, the founder and president; Scott Westerfeld, author of The Uglies and Leviathan, who is doing a new graphic novel with First Second; Pénélope Bagieu, who has written Exquisite Corpse and is doing a new book about the life of Mama Cass before she joined the Mamas and the Papas; Box Brown, who did a book on the life of Andre the Giant, and whose new book is on Tetris; and Sara Varon, author of Robot Dreams and other masterpieces.

They discussed what’s different about the market since First Second began; it’s very different. Back in 2006 booksellers were reluctant to stock graphic novels by First Second, and it was only after their books won multiple awards that they began to soften up. These were the days when newspapers would have the standard “Hey, comics aren’t for kids anymore!” article, which made everyone ill. They did have a big group in their corner, however; librarians, who were big champions of their works. In fact, the last bastion of “why are you reading that garbage” is parents, who still tend not to regard comics as real books. That said, they’ve already lost the battle, they just aren’t aware of it yet.

Westerfeld mentioned the manga explosion leading to a whole new readership, as mainstream comics weren’t all that welcoming. The explosion has died off a bit now, but there are still those readers out there to be won with good quality graphic novels. First Second gives their artists creative freedom to do what they’d like, without worrying about things like “Are the heroine’s boobs big enough?” as with Marvel or DC. Everyone agreed that comics need more badass women – real badass, not a male fantasy of a badass woman. Bagieu admitted she didn’t read comics growing up in France, as Tintin and the like were all very male-oriented. She wouldn’t even have considered writing a book in the comic medium till First Second.

There was discussion on how to make people realize comics can also be literature. A good comparison was made – what if all movies were James Bond movies? You’d get people saying “Oh, I just don’t like movies”. And comics offer a way to tell stories that other mediums can’t match – in Westerberg’s story he’s currently working on, a young woman is the narrator, but we also have her sister, who doesn’t speak – except, as the comic reader can see, she talks in thought bubbles with the doll she carries around. This isn’t something you could carry off in a prose book without awkward shoehorning, but in comics it’s easy to convey.

Comics and graphic novels in North America are compartmentalized a lot more than they are in Europe – Bagieu had to learn about this, as in France they have no issues with comics being for everyone. Whereas here we have librarians getting into huge arguments about whether a book belongs in the adult or children’s section of the library – vehemently. Indeed, until cost became an issue, illustrations accompanied books all the time, simply as part of the work. Can we bring that back? A fun panel, and all agreed that they greatly look forward to seeing what First Second does in 2017.

My final panel of the con was one I had been excited about all weekend. Denis Kitchen of Kitchen Sink Press was here to discuss the next volume in their Essential Harvey Kurtzman collection, which was dedicated to Trump Magazine (not related to the Donald, I promise), which Hugh Hefner financed as he loved Mad Magazine and wanted a similar one for the Playboy brand – with an unlimited budget, which was a big reason why Kurtzman agreed, as he’d been begging Gaines to let him print in color, and hadn’t gotten anywhere. On the panel, besides Denis and John Lind, the other editor of the book, were legendary cartoonists Arnold Roth and Al Jaffee. I knew of Jaffee from Mad Magazine, of course, where I grew up with his fold-ins, Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions, and somewhat terrifying grinning self-portrait pasted on all his books. As for Roth, his varied career includes work for TV Guide, Sports Illustrated, Playboy, a long time contributor to the British Punch magazine, and editorial cartoonist at The Progressive. Though no spring chickens (Roth is 87, Jaffee 95), both were highly entertaining and talkative throughout.

They began with a brief discussion of Kitchen Sink Press, and how it managed to survive the shuttering of many other underground comics publishers. It’s done Eisner reprints, a reprint of L’il Abner, and many Hurtzman titles. The first Essential Kurtzman was The Jungle Book, A collection for adult readers that features four long-form satirical works. Trump will be the second such collection. Trump only lasted two issues, with a third in production when it was cancelled. Roth suggested that, rather than Hefner’s joking answer that it was because Kurtzman overspent his unlimited budget, that it was simply because a LOT of magazines died in the 1950s, with the advent of television. Even Colliers folded at that time.

Kurtzman began with a title called Hey Look!, which was included as filler pages in Timely Comics, for which Stan Lee was the editor. Nobody was doing what Harvey was, and whenever he would drop off a comic everyone would rush to see it. Jaffee admitted it was the same when they were all in school together – he and Will Elder were at the High School of Music and Art, learning painting as cartooning was absolutely forbidden. They did it anyway. Then one day someone told them to “look to their laurels” as this new freshman just posted a cartoon on the bulletin board that was amazing. If was, of course, Kurtzman, who had drawn a parody of the Freshman Boat Race which blew them both away. Kurtzman later met both of them and said one day he wants to hire them to work for him. Kurtzman was 15 at the time.

When Kurtzman left Mad Magazine to start Trump, he asked Jaffee to join him. But Jaffee was working on Patsy Walker at Timely Comics, and didn’t really have the financial stability to quit and go work on a newbie humor project. Since his titles weren’t filled with violence, the new Comics Code, which cause Mad to become a magazine rather than a comic, didn’t affect him either the way they had Kurtzman. And Playboy was still a new title at the time. Arnold Roth discusses a party he went to with various highbrow men belittling the magazine, while also showing off how much they must have read it closely in order to belittle it so well. Roth answered them by saying that Playboy was the first magazine to take a stand against nuclear proliferation – no one had a good response to that.

As for Trump itself, Roth learned about it through of all people, Paul Desmond, the alto sax player with the Dave Brubeck Quartet! They were friends, and the musicians apparently read Mad while on the road. Kurtzman, of course, was also a good talent spotter. Since Trump had a budget, adn also worked in color, it was attracting artists who might not otherwise have signed on. Jaffee, after a joking argument with Stan Lee that led him to realize that he genuinely wanted to move on, also ended up with Kurtzman, saying that “Harvey was a mensch”, and was much better at establishing good relationships than actual business sense.

Jaffee was asked about the color paintings he had in Trump, which went into far more depth and detail than his other works. He admits he learned that type of art in school. A parody of one of life magazine’s ‘gatefold’ pictures was shown, which Trump magazine gamely parodied, complete with folding out the pages to see the entire piece. Jaffee later with Mad thought about the opposite, a fold-in, where you folded the page in order to see the true picture. He handed it in as a joke, and says “Don’t publish it, because kids will ruin the magazine when they buy it!” Bill Gaines, who always had terrific business sense, said “Absolutely publish it – they’ll buy a second one to replace it.” The second one he did had Rockefeller and Goldwater debating, asking who the winner would be – of course, when folded in, Richard Nixon was the answer. Jaffee is still doing those fold-ins for the magazine, even to this day!

Trump Magazine had very minimalist covers for its two issues – Hefner wanted it to look “sophisticated”. That said, the third issue, had it ever come out, featured a parody of a Saturday Evening Post Rockwell cover, showing grandparents looking on fondly in their garden as a young boy feeds a frog to a Venus Flytrap. In fact, by the third issue they were going to be parodying magazines more – this was something you could really do well with color pages, and a Sports Life magazine parody had a chilling yet amusing picture of a “bullet POV” which showed the photographer’s terrified face in the reflection of the bullet.

Roth and Jaffee both delivered work to Kurtzman differently. Roth liked to turn in finished product, and hated rough sketches. Kurrtzman usually accepted these, and when he did ask for corrections, Roth would usually abandon it and deliver a completely new piece. Jaffee, on the other hand, was constantly getting many, many corrections and suggestions, which would be far more irritating if they didn’t always, always make everything better and funnier – Kurtzman’s eye for detail was simply stunning. He worried about perspective, how things would fall naturally, etc. He also has a box of nipples in the attic, which I think is so amusing out of context I won’t bother to give it any.

The panel ended with a reveal of what the next Essential Kurtzman would be – a collection of Hey Look, the comics that first made Kurtzman a big name, at least among other cartoonists. And with that I had finished with what I wanted to see, and made my way back outside, where the rain had just ended, to head home. Despite a few hiccups, mostly (as always) bathroom related, it was a great con. Every year I find something new to enthuse over, as those who see how long I’ve been going on can tell. Trust me, it’s not just a giant ‘come see the stars’ media event – there’s gold to be found.

My apologies to those readers who expect that a manga-oriented blog would confine itself to manga events, but that’s never been how my NYCC coverage rolls. As a result, I missed the Shonen Jump panel this year, which is sad. I do hear they licensed the RWBY manga which is being put out in Ultra Jump, drawn by the creator of Dogs: Bullets and Carnage. Several of my friends are big RWBY fans, so I’m sure this news will please them.

As for me, I began my day at BookCon, the offshoot of NYCC devoted to prose publishing. It’s about a block away from the Javits, in a building on 36th and 10th. I was there for a panel on Nostalgia and Reboots in Literature, which had as panelists many writers who specialized in that type of work. John Jackson Miller moderated, and noted his tie-in work, including a Star Wars book that suddenly became the start of the New Book Canon.

There was also horror author Paul Tremblay; Max Brailler, who has done Pick Your Own Path books (which are absolutely not the Choose Your Own Adventure books, he reminds us over and over again); Jonathan Maberry, another horror writer who’s also worked in the X-Files universe; Gareth Hinds, who does graphic novel adaptations of classic works of literature; Christina Henry, a fantasy writer who has done works based around Wonderland’s ethos, and has a new book giving Captain Hook a backstory; and Elizabeth Eulberg, whose works include Prom and Prejudice and The Revenge of the Girl with a Great Personality. She has a new Holmes pastiche coming out starring a 9-year-old girl Holmes who’s addicted to sugar.

Adaptations of movies based on prominent works began the discussion, and how they’re not really watched by fans the same way you’d watch a normal movie. It was described as going to church, where you see how the holy word is interpreted and argue about doctrines. In fact, this sort of thing began with Conan Doyle, who was wretched at remembering his own canon, so Holmes fans began to try to create a canon for him. Eulberg got the idea for her own Holmes book watching the BBC Sherlock, and seeing he had the immaturity of a typical 10-year-old girl, so why not makes Holmes one? Also, the sugar addiction (rather than cocaine) is a good example of making a retelling your own story and not the source.

Christina Henry’s Alice-related books are scary, more like Alice in Nightmareland. Even kids who’ve never read it know Alice, of course – it’s embedded in the culture. You can use retools like this as springboards for your own work. She also discussed her Captain Hook book, where she tries to be closer to actual canon – unlike the Alices, the Hook book is an actual prequel, so she can’t stray as far.

Gareth Hinds then discussed his graphic novels, and I was pleased to see they mentioned the old Classic Illustrated books, though they noted the art was not good and they were too staid. He has to cut the books to fit, of course, particularly Shakespeare who is so dense. With Shakespeare he tries to avoid using words or lines not in the original, but with something like The Odyssey he has a bit more leeway. Schoolteachers are big fans, though they always regret the one scene he has to leave out.

Maberry’s works are a bit different, as the creations are not in the public domain. There had already been a series of successful X-Files comics, and he had asked if there was a way he could do a fiction anthology. The publisher apparently scoffed, and didn’t think anyone would want to do it. He began e-mailing, and 45 minutes later he had filled three anthologies. And since there were stories with both young Dana Scully and young Fox Mulder, those became the Origins series, which can lead up to canon. Chris Carter still has to approve, of course, and in general the writers recommend “treating the franchise like a natural park”. (As an old Doctor Who New Adventures fan, this amused me greatly – Who was more Jurassic Park.)

As I said before, Brailler has apparently felt the roar of lawyers at his back, and made a running gag out of saying “choose your own adventure” and then correcting himself. He had written a bunch of great beginnings, most of which them petered out, a common writing flaw. And he then talked to the creator of the original CYOA books, who said they came from old War Games scenarios. His first book, based on a zombie apocalypse, had very disparate endings, but Highway to Hell, a newer book, has to all come together in the end, so he needed a giant chart to keep track.

Tremblay tried to update The Exorcist, as he saw vampires and werewolves getting modern updates, but no possession stories beyond bad Hollywood ones. The horror genre makes it easy to riff on common themes. That said, the themes don’t always have to be common. He noted he tries to keep his books very contemporary, and doesn’t worry about how they’re going to read in thirty years. It strengthens connections with the current readers. At a Q&A after the panel, I asked how far back they felt this repurposing of common stories went, citing King Arthur and The Bible. Maberry said that he imagines two guys sitting around a fire talking about elk – that’s how far back it goes. It’s always happened.

After this I went over to the Javits and got right in line for the next panel I had to see. I’ve been a Bloom County fan almost since it began in 1981, and have many fond childhood and teenage memories of it. As such, seeing that Berkeley Breathed was making a rare East Coast appearance to discuss his bringing the series back last year, I absolutely could not miss it. It was opposite Jump, but Jump will return, while Breathed may never do so. And it was a wonderful panel, with no moderator needed – Breathed hosted it himself.

He began with a film presentation, featuring panels from the 2015 Bloom County. In between those were two “pilot” attempts at an Opus cartoon, which had never gotten off the ground. In one, Opus is being directed by the voice of John Cleese, and has to deal with a scene where he’s ravaged by sharks. In the other, he has the voice of David Hyde Pierce, and has to struggle against the temptation to de-pants two people with low-riding jeans in front of him. Both were quite amusing, also showed why they had not become series.

Of course, he’s here to promote the new book, and new strips. He says he returned for three reasons. First was the disaster that was the attempt to film his book Mars Needs Moms, which Robert Zemeckis and Disney took and made entirely too serious and sentimental. The original book was an allegory, based on a real life incident where his son had said something horrible to his mother and stormed off. Breathed did to, to his workplace, and this book was the result. But the movie… wasn’t the book.

The second was Donald Trump, who dominated the early 2015 strips, but whom Breathed has now vowed not to use anymore in the strip. He feels that Trump is a “reverse canary” – his rise once more showed that something new was in the air and it was time to come back. The third reason was the most interesting, though – it was the release of Go Set a Watchman, the sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird that Harper Lee had written (before she wrote Mockingbird) and buried. He feels the publishers did this without her real informed consent, and that the result tarnishes the legacy of the original book, which was a huge influence on Breathed as a child.

In fact, Bloom County was based heavily off of the rural small towns as seen in TKAM. As child, he was told to draw anything he wanted. He drew a spaceman whose head had just exploded gorily due to helmet decompression, and received an F. His father looked at the picture and suggested adding “Gesundheit!”, and he realized that’s what he wanted to do – art and words combined to make humor. A year after beginning Bloom County, the first collection, Loose Tails, came out. He suggested 10,000 copies was a little low and was told to shut up and be grateful. It’s currently sold over a million.

He then showed off another letter he got in 1989, when he announced the end of Bloom County, begging him not to abandon these beloved characters. It was from Harper Lee. And coming back to that while helping compile the IDW reprints of the Bloom County Library made him realize he did have more he wanted to do with these guys. It was interesting re-reading the old work to see what he still found funny – he was writing them so fast back in the day he never really took in what he actually did. (In fact, at the signing afterwards, I mentioned one of my favorite BC memories, the Bill the Cat dies of acne strips, and he didn’t even recall them.)

Now that he’s releasing the strips via social media, he doesn’t have to worry about editors, and can mess with the format as much as he likes. He does say, unlike the old strips, he’s avoiding celebrity humor now, mostly due to meeting Barry Manilow years after mocking him shamelessly in the old strips. When Breathed broke his back in an accident, he got a huge bouquet from Manilow, and it wasn’t even sarcasm but genuine get well wishes. It reminded him that celebrities are also people with their own lives. (Politics, on the other hand, still seems to be OK – minus Trump).

The other book coming out is The Bill the Cat Story, which is a very unlikely children’s book given that its star is Bill the Cat. It shows Bill as Binkley’s cat back in the day, before getting taken away and going on a series of increasingly ridiculous adventures, and Opus eventually finding him and taking him home. It looks amazing. The panel ended with a series of drawings by Bill Watterson, who was penpals with Bill back in the day. He doesn’t actually have permission to publish these, and so I won’t go into great detail, except they were utterly hysterical, and the last drawing (Breathed’s addition to Watterson’s) had to be flashed by at lightspeed as there were kids present!

I went to the signing, which I don’t normally do, and managed to get in line early enough to not only get the new Bloom County book signed, but also The Academia Waltz, IDW’s hardcover collection of his college strips. I was pretty much done for the day after that, but wanted to take in one more panel so as not to disappoint you, the reader. As a result, I went back to Bookcon and walked in and sat, then checked to see what the panel actually was.

It turned out to be husband and wife team W. Bruce Cameron and Cathryn Michon, there to discuss his bestselling book A Dog’s Purpose, and the movie of same that is out in January, with the dog’s thoughts voiced by Josh Gad. The book came out in 2010 and was a huge hit, and Cameron has become something of a dog spokesperson. It’s about a dog who learns the true meaning of what he can do for humans by getting reincarnated as various dogs. The trailer looked excellent.

He came up with the story after Michon’s dog died, and he told it out loud to her as they drove on a long trip. Interestingly, the story barely changed from that telling to the page – there was almost no change needed. She hadn’t wanted another dog after the first one passed on, but now they have Tucker, who they also got through a rescue group, which they are huge fans of. Cameron says he was asked about reincarnation and spirituality a lot, and it was mentioned that this was reminiscent of Defending Your Life, as the dog has to learn what really matters.

The adaptation was also discussed – they removed part of the start of the book as it was a very harsh beginning. It was important it be a live action film with a real dog, and that, thoughts or not, the dog had to act and think like a dog, with all the limitations that comes with – a different vocabulary, a heightened sense of smell vs. vision, etc. They compared the narrative voice to the Forrest Gump movie, that sort of simplicity. The dog actors in the movie were also fantastic, not being trained with treats but with affection, so they weren’t always looking to the side for a payoff. As for Josh Gad, they were delighted to get him, as he has “joy in his voice”. (I was also amused that they had to change the end dog, as black Labs are too hard to film!)

He had not intended it to be a series, but when the popularity exploded, his agent convinced him. It takes him about a year to write a book, and he mocked his own abilities to write, with Michon coming in and correcting him, saying he’s really very disciplined. He paces his writing, whereas Michon says her best work is done when she’s in a panic. The panel ended with Q&A, as we discussed the fact that it was written for adults but he loves that it appeals to families, as will the film. He wishes we could all be happier, the way dogs are, as we move through life.

And thus ends my eventful Saturday. Tomorrow I have two panels I want to see, but they’re both in the small rooms, so we shall see.

The theme of Friday’s NYCC was lines, lines, and more lines. Usually one can avoid lines by room camping, provided you don’t mind sitting through some things you didn’t expect to see. Not this year. Between Marvel Comics and Mythbusters, camping was out of the question. And so, the line.

After waiting in line for a while, they let us into the Viz panel, which is good as it was first panel of the day. It’s Viz’s 30th Anniversary, and as you’d expect was pretty big on hype, not underserved. There’s a wall of tribute art on the show floor from Japanese creators, and it’s a sight to see. They put out 342 volumes in 2015, not all of which were reviewed by me.

They did have some new announcements as well. Legend of Galactic Heroes had only had the first three novels licensed, with others dependent on sales. Well, sales were good enough that we’re now getting Volumes 4-6 of this series from Haikasoru! As a political space-opera, it’s a terrific page-turner.

After Hours had been announced just before the con. It was described as yuri, though they weren’t too quick to hype that, so I wonder. It’s about the modern nightclub scene, and two girls meeting and falling for each other. It runs in Hibana, which is the replacement for Ikki that Shogakukan started, so falls in the seinen genre.

Anonymous Noise is a Hakusensha title, so you know I’m excited. It runs in Hana to Yume, and is from the creator of Nosatsu Junkie (which Tokyopop put out some of) and Monochrome Kids. It’s about love and music, and has a lot of hype.

They also mentioned the Tokyo Ghoul Re books, but I think that too had previously been announced. The one title I had not heard of at the panel was Golden Kamuy, an award-winning series from Young Jump set during the Russo-Japanese war. It also features the Ainu, and looks really awesome. Oh yes, and we’re also getting the Boruto manga, but who’s really surprised about that?

The last two big announcements were a Pokemon artbook, which should appeal to fans of both Pokemon AND artbooks, and Vampire Knight Memories, the sort of prequel, sort of side story continuation of Vampire Knight which Hino-san returned to after Shuriken and Pleats sort of bombed. Still, I enjoyed the Vampire Knight aesthetic.

After this came the first big line, as I’d decided to go to Aniplex before the Spice & Wolf writer’s panel, but there was a giant Marvel panel prior to that, so wait in line it was. Aniplex reminds me (and humbles me a bit) at how much more fans at these events care about anime rather than manga – they were hyped, and cheered on even titles that cynical forum users have long abandoned, such as SAO or Asterisk War. It was very nice to see.

Speaking of SAO, the movie is being released in 25 different countries on February 18, and apparently that includes the US as well. The new announcement was a movie called I’ve Always Liked You, based off of a Honey Works music series. There’s also an anime version of March Comes in Like a Lion, which no doubt gives Honey and Clover fans hope that Viz will p;ick up the manga. In more in-your-face news, the supernatural hero story Occultic Nine features a girl with breasts so large she could easily have appeared in Eiken. It was then followed by the trailer for the 2nd Kizumonogatari movie, which could have done the same thing, but Hanekawa’s appearances were kept to a minimum.

Yen Press didn’t have a panel this year, but they did have Isuna Hasekura, author of Spice & Wolf, and his editor. I somewhat shamefacedly admit I haven’t read it – it began pre Yen On and I never picked it up, then when I realized it might interest me it was already too long. And the 1000-page omnibus seems a bit too crippling to me. It’s also incomplete, as Kurt announced the license of two new series – one is a direct sequel following Lawrence and Holo, and then other is about their daughter. Both will be multi-volume.

Hasekura proved to be a quiet but confident speaker. He says he got the idea while researching the Crusades, and became fascinated with the idea of medieval commerce. He was also reading the mythology of The Golden Bough, and also Sakuran, Moyoco Anno’s manga about an oiran. This combo led him to what became Spice & Wolf. He thought of Holo while reading a scene from Sakuran, and wanted to write his “own version” of that character.

Lawrence is a foil for Holo, who’s good at running scams and manipulating people. Hasekura-san says he’s not as good at reading people as Lawrence is, so the writing took awhile. As for why Europe and not Japan, I think he finds European History more exciting – it’s the era of dragons! I was very amused when he was asked how he researched the period – he went to the University Library. See? Libraries are important!

The character of Holo also helped him show off the old gods vs. new technology, and how he wanted Holo to be this sort of sad (but cute!) girl who is faced with obsolescence. He later admitted that he thinks the light novel artist gets this dichotomy better – the manga artist’s Holo is more excited and energetic. As for where he learned about economic theory, it was self-teaching – he didn’t take it at university. He just reads a lot. In fact, when he tried stock trading, it went badly – this was at the time of Lehman Bros.!

If you want a more apocalyptic take on economics, he’s also written World End Economica, which many in the audience cheered. But perhaps 17 whole volumes of Spice & Wolf was enough – he admits that he sometimes worried he would not get through the entire story due to a simple lack of mental energy, and found himself seriously praying to any god who would listen! He knew it was time to end it around Vol. 14, and began to use then last three volumes to move towards the ending that he’d already worked out by Vol. 2 or so.

He then moved on to his work habits, and he mentioned he can write in a home office, a restaurant, or a hired rental office – in fact, he has to move around as he gets bored easily! I laughed when he discussed how he became a writer – he mentioned ‘8th Grade Disease’, and I think was startled the audience, who had all seen Chuunibyou in various anime by now. He was asked about the definition of a light novel as compared to a normal one, and talked about how it lets you do things in a more varied and non-regimented way. In Japan, light novel readers can be as old as their early 30s! (This made me feel old, but hey, it’s not about me.)

The manga and anime adaptations were discussed. He seems to have let the creators do their own thing. He did discuss then manga artist liking big breasts, which is not his own preference (hence Holo’s flatness). He talked about the popularity of Spice & Wolf in Japan – it’s not really a series with fights or battles. Instead, the battles are intellectual. I was impressed to hear this was his first published series, though he did doujinshi before this (non-erotic, he hastens to add). Besides the S&W spinoffs, he’s also researching Mediterranean culture for a possible book, and working with a VR animation company.

Possibly the best first question I’ve ever heard at a Q&A – why was there no name for Lawrence’s horse? It’s sad but true, the horse has no name. He was asked if any of the anime seiyuu changed how he thought of the characters, and said Nora is a case where this happened. He mentioned how he liked Ben Bernanke, and thinks people are too mean to him. There are also other non-Hasekura economic books now, which makes him feel both pride and humility. It’s also worth noting that when he discussed how to get published, he said this was his first series, but it took him years to actually get a work accepted to be published.

He was asked about series he likes – it was hard to hear, but I think it was Hakumei to Mikoshi, a yokai series from Enterbrain’s fellows! Magazine. As for why a scantily-clad wolf girl was in a series about medieval economics, he admits that he just can’t imagine writing a slice-of-life book starring a girl like Holo. Lastly, he discussed religion in Spice & Wolf, which is loosely based on the Christian church, which like many other Japanese creators he got fascinated by through Evangelion.

After this came another long, long line, this one for the creator of Assassination Classroom, Yusei Matsui. This was in the big panel room, and rightly so – it was packed to the gills. We also had Matsui’s Jump editor come along, Murakoshi Shuu. Matsui was quite different from Hasekura, very extroverted and talkative. He was an assistant on the gag comedy Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, before getting his first big hit with the popular but sadly unlicensed Neuro manga. He loves New York – both the big buildings and the big blondes.

He grew up in a very strict household where he could not watch anime or read manga, but he still managed to get some excellent influences – JoJo, Parasyte, Dragon Ball, and soccer manga Captain Tsubasa. He never wanted to be a teacher, though he likes the idea of passing on his experience. Nor was Koro-sensei based on any teacher he had The idea of Assassination Classroom came when he envisioned what became the first three pages of the manga, with the students all trying to kill their teacher, and then tried to imagine what teacher could survive that… and what school would let a class do that.

He didn’t have too many issues with editorial, who are used to eccentric teacher manga from many, many other examples of the genre (I’m thinking GTO here). Simplicity was the goal here – both the basic idea of the assassinations, and Koro-sensei himself, who is an octopus drawn as a circle – very easy to draw, as there are no joints or hands. But he still loves to eat octopus! When asked about then secret to drawing a hit manga (as Neuro was also, in Jump terms, a huge hit), his response was “I won’t say!”, which got a big laugh.

We then saw him ink a sketch of Koro-sensei as the Statue of Liberty he had done earlier. While this happened, we got some questions for both his Japanese and American editors. Murakoshi-san was asked what he does as an editor, and in addition to shaping the story and researching (which he doesn’t have to do much, as Matsui is very good), he makes sure the series keeps its internal continuity, and oversees the merchandising of the series, including overseas. As for the US editor, she wants to make sure that the story is told well without people realizing they’re reading a translation.

Given the series is about a group of kids who try to kill their teacher, you’d think that controversy would have come up at some point, but neither the Japanese nor American editor noted any problems at all. The bigger problem over here is that some of the references and jokes are too Japanese – Jump manga here has a semi-unofficial policy against endnotes, so they have to find a good way to adapt it. As for life lessons learned from Koro-sensei, the idea that the journey is more important than the result came up, and I heartily agree.

The anime has already finished, while the manga is still (in North America) coming out, so there was a lot of “don’t spoil it” hemming and hawing – especially as the editor of the American version wants to not spoil herself! He worked very closely with the anime team to make sure that his vision was not compromised, and he advised them on how it should end. The ending was very important, which is likely why the anime rushed some of the middle episodes – they were not allowed to make up an ending like many other shonen titles.

His favorite episode was the one with Kayano’s giant flan (it amused me that he was using the English loan-word Pudding, but the translator insisted on ‘flan’, as the Viz manga had it), which expanded the details on how a huge flan would be made. He was also asked which character he’s most like – he said Koro-sensei, as he too is weak to boobs. (For those hoping for less boob obsession from Japanese creators, this was clearly the wrong con.) Hed also mentioned a love of Powerpuff Girls!

And thus ended the panel, and my day, as I walked back and boggled at the amazingly long line to get into the Hammerstein Ballroom, which extended past my hotel. I’m hoping Saturday is less packed. (What am I SAYING?)

Another NYCC dawns. Another long run of panels in a row, long bathroom lines, walks along the show floor, and coming back to the hotel room exhausted only to realize you have to type up all your notes. Today was a lot of fun. What did I do? Well…

For starters, we had the Kodansha Panel, which thankfully proved fairly easy to get into. They had a giant pile of new licenses, so let’s break them down:
— Regarding my Reincarnation as a Slime, a title they say is not finalized, and I hope is made less awkward, is another ‘based on a fantasy RPG light novel’. Like many recent licenses of that nature, this is more of a parody of the genre. It runs in Shonen Sirius.
— Fairy Tail: Rhodonite, a spinoff which stars Gajeel, and has Levy on the cover of a volume, so I’m in. Gajevy ship tease, maybe?
— Love & Lies may be familiar for those who use the Mangabox app, as it runs there. It’s a “dystopian romance”.
— Lily Hoshino, who did character design for Mawaru Penguindrum, has a shoujo title from Nakayoshi called Kigurumi Defense Squad, a somewhat ridiculous magical girl parody featuring pretty boys dressed as amusement park-style mascots. Seems like great fun.
— Also looking fun is Kiss Me At the Stroke of Midnight, a Betsufure title about a girl who secretly loves sappy stories. The facial expressions of the girl are the prime reason to buy this.
— Possibly the title that most excites me, Frau Faust. It’s by the author of The Ancient Magus’ Bride, and runs in Itan, a josei fantasy magazine. Badass female scholars, yes please!
— Wake Up, Sleeping Beauty is one of two Dessert licenses, and is a supernatural romance, because I hear those do well.
— Waiting For Spring also runs in Dessert. Seems to involve basketball hotties, and has been called cute by those in the know.
— Ahogaru – Clueless Girl is a rare 4koma license by Kodansha, as they admitted they rarely find them funny (I sense a swipe at Seitokai Yakuindomo here). This one makes them laugh, though. It’s in Weekly Shonen Magazine, and involves… well, a clueless girl and her friends trying to save her from herself.
— Lastly, we have Land of the Lustrous, a fantasy series from Afternoon that deals with a race of gemstones, but is not much like Steven Universe at all. It’s won multiple awards.

I note that all four main manga genres were licensed here – yay!

After that came other news. A Silent Voice has a live-action film out in Japan soon. Princess Jellyfish is performing MUCH better than expected, and they could not be happier. They quickly went over the previously announced titles coming out this fall, including works by the creators of Soul Eater and Shaman King. Appleseed Alpha is delayed to June 2017, but as consolation will be hardcover. And the Akira and Ghost in the Shell del.uxe reprints look first rate.

This took up most of the panel, so sadly the Kodansha editor that came over did not get as much time to talk as planned, but he made the most of what he had. He works in the seinen genre, which he readily admits does not sell as well here. He’s edited Inoue Takehiko’s Vagabond, which comes out via Viz here but is a Kodansha series in Japan, and he talked very amusingly about Inoue-san’s workplace habits and how they brainstorm. He’s also edited Anno Moyoco, and talked about Sakuran (licensed here by Vertical) and Hataraki Man (sadly unlicensed). She apparently is known for tearing up her rough sketches when she gets different ideas, which can be frustrating. We also saw some rough sketches of Inuyashiki, but the panel had to end there.

After that, I ran into Erica Friedman, who was only going to be at the con today, so I hung out with her for a bit. I wanted to get back to the panels to get in early enough to make the Attack on Titan Anthology panel. As with most years, this meant I room camped into a panel where I had no idea what it was but it ended up being a big surprise. In this case, it was The Future of Comics in New Realities, a panel hosted by Madefire, a motion comics app that has turned a lot of heads.

On the panel was Christina Mancini, who’s in charge of Franchise Development at Fox; Ted Gagliano, who is also at Fox and is in charge of Post-Production; Nick Hooker, head of Frame Store visual effects; Matt Hooper from Oculus; and much to my surprise, Dave Gibbons, who was the artist on the old Doctor Who Weekly/Monthly comic strips back in the Tom Baker and Peter Davison days, and yes, also something called Watchmen, I guess. I did not get to ask him if he was nicknamed Funky Gibbons as a teen, which is probably for the best.

The panel talked about the impact virtual reality is having on creation, both in the comics medium and outside it. The use of comic narrative is as old as the hills (indeed, some hills contain cave paintings). It doesn’t have to be totally realistic, which allows it to be more powerful. And with VR, you can actually shift your perspective of the art away from a 2-D image. Indeed, with the arrival of comics on a tablet, the idea that print is a necessity is becoming a thing of the past. A comic artist doesn’t need $100 million to create their vision the way that, say, a visual effects studio might.

The other discussion of the panel was how to engage content that helps the brand of whatever Fox is merchandising. That’s what Christina is in charge of. I found this fascinating, coming from old-school fanfic writing which always had disclaimers out the wazoo and would never, ever be part of a corporate platform. But Fox is reaching out to find ways to make this work, and virtual reality can be a shared bonding experience. It can also be a tool for women and people of color to work in genres traditionally ruled by straight white men and sometimes co-opt them for other uses.

You’re also getting new, up-and-coming artists ho find that virtual reality is the best way to express themselves as craftsmen. Every new medium brings new ways to draw in both fans and creators – Gibbons talked about comic strips being used as a way to get readers to buy the newspapers, and they also mentioned Twitch TV’s recent marathon of Bob Ross, where the comments flying across the screen almost became an artform of their own – content commenting on content is a very new thing, and it uses new mediums such as concepts of virtual reality. It can be difficult – sometimes creators try to hard to be special or go above and beyond, when simpler ideas can be very effective by themselves. They then had an announcement that the Madefire App was going to have Motion Comics, the first ones to use virtual reality as a platform, with some nice panorama work.

After this came the Attack on Titan Anthology panel, with several of the creators involved. In addition to editors Ben Applegate and Janine Shaffer, we had Genevieve Valentine, Brendan Fletcher, and Jorge Corona, each of whom did excellent work in the Anthology itself. Most of them were drawn to the project through the anime, and Genevieve was drawn to the period before it began – the 100 years of peace they had before the Outer Wall was breached. For Brendan, this also conveniently came between the end of his team’s Batgirl run, and before they began a new project with Image; in fact, doing nice gory Titan art helped focus them on their new stuff as well.

This is not an anthology for the squeamish; in many ways, it’s even more brutal than the main series, and Ben joked about telling the writers and artists to kill more people in more horrible ways. One of then reasons people love AoT is that you’re never quite sure if the cast are safe or not. After discussing their love for the series, we got Q&A, and much to my amusement we had a guy who’d never even read or seen the series, but now wanted to pick it up! My favorite question was about the approval process from Japan, and Ben said they had no issues with the dramatic stories, but the comedic ones were more difficult, as Japan has a different relationship with violence and humor together. Ben apparently sent them Deadpool comics to show what it’s like here!

My final panel of the day was one on Marketing Yourself on Tumblr. Being fairly active in various Tumblr fandoms, I was quite curious about this. There were three Tumblr staffers there, as well as three creators – and this was very much a panel designed for the creator of content rather than the casual reblogger. Nick Tapalansky is a comic writer, Kendra Wells draws, and C.B. Cebulski not only is a talent scout for Marvel Comics (for which he uses Tumblr), but also has his own Tumblr foodie blog!

Microblogging is, of course, why most people use Tumblr. There are many ways a creator can both analyze their core audience and reach out to them. There’s Tumblr Analytics, which can tell you which posts are most popular. Suggested Artists and Tumblr Radar also help guide you to other, like-minded Tumblr blogs. You can also queue our posts so they don’t get spammed tol someone’s dash all at once (I am very bad at this, I will admit.)

Art theft was discussed, and it mentioned how copyright theft (someone took my art from another site I control and put it on Tumblr) is different from misattribution (someone took what I put on Tumblr, took my name off it and posted it as theirs). Tagging was discussed, and how monumentally important it is to gain readers and followers. You can use tags to ‘lure’ readers into your demographic, but don’t go overboard – that’s just spam. If you like site design, you can design your Tumblr site to look however you want. If you hate site design, use Mobile, where all sites look the same. You can have multiple Tumblr blogs linked to the same account, and art blogs are popular, along the lines of ‘Ask (Character XX)’. Most importantly, the best way to get popular on Tumblr is to do what you do – if you love your work, it will get noticed.

I had to leave early so missed the Q&A, but overall four very enjoyable panels, and I got to walk around the show floor when it wasn’t a madhouse (i.e., Saturday).

By the final day of NYCC, I was pretty wiped, so I decided after a quick tour of the show floor to say hi to people I would find a panel or two, sit, and then take off. I wanted to see the Wabbit! panel at 12:15, so walked into the one before it, and ended up being one of the last folks at Scholastic’s Goosebumps/Baby-Sitter’s Club joint panel. Those series are a bit young for me, but it was nice to see the crowd’s enthusiasm at seeing legends of their childhood on stage.

The panel consisted of R.L. Stine, who was highly amusing throughout; Dave Romans, who does some Goosebumps graphic novels; Ann M. Martin, the author of The Baby-Sitter’s Club; and Raina Telgemeier, who’s doing a graphic novel of that. The authors agreed that one of the most gratifying things about the job is hearing adults come up to them and say that Goosebumps or BSC inspired them to become writers, or editors, or librarians. The two series both suffer from parents not considering them ‘real’ books, so they think their kids aren’t readers even though they’re reading every day. Goosebumps, of course, has a movie out this week, so Stine discussed his having to do 25 interviews in one day to publicize it. He was also amused at people trying to find a moral lesson in Goosebumps – he thinks the basic moral is “Run!”.

Sometimes listening to fans can backfire – Stine kept hearing people ask if he would write a horror novel for adults, so he did – and it bombed. He also discussed the use of cell phones in modern horror making it far more difficult to isolate and panic people. “Who is the one calling me?” doesn’t work as well with caller ID. He was asked about the most scary Goosebumps, and he admitted it was probably the first, as he didn’t have the horror/humor down yet. Martin was asked what the best BSC books are, and she said the most serious ones usually. They also talked about controversial books – Stine had written a Fear Street book called Best Friend that ended with the bad guy winning, and the outrage was huge. Martin said it was a book where one cast member moves away – she had to have them move back as she got too many letters. We also got Stine saying his wife said he was too old to play himself in the movie, which was highly amusing. An excellent panel, and fans were pleased.

After that I attended the Looney Tunes panel, debuting an episode of the current show Wabbit!. Unlike previous efforts to update Looney Tunes that tried to change the formula, this seems to be basic cartoon shorts simply set in 2015, and I was more entertained than I expected, given how much of a purist I am. The animation is looker and occasionally has a Ren & Stimpy feel, and the voice acting is smooth, not trying to slavishly imitate Mel Blanc. There’s a new character called Squeaks who speaks in gibberish, there I think to be a younger sidekick to Bugs. I felt it was a good, solid update.

After that we saw one of the directors, Gary Hartle, and three of the voice actors; J.P. Karliak, Bob Bergen, and Jeff Bergman. I was pleased to see Gary mention that Bugs sometimes needed to be a “stinker”, and they are taking care not to make him too all-powerful or smug like later Chuck Jones Bugs could be. Bugs can also be a sore loser when he’s paired off against people more confident than he is. They also discussed how this new series went back to the basics they did in the 40s and 50s – they think of a premise and then come up with gags and pin them to a wall, as opposed to writing a full script. This allows the plot to be more modular and fluid. The goal is to entertain. They also have voice actors working together more often than they used to, so that they can play and build off of each other.

These aren’t your grandparent’s Looney Tunes; there’s also a desire to fill them out as characters. Bugs has different sides to him, as does Daffy Duck, who they’re deliberately trying to walk back to being Daffy here, as opposed to “Bitter, Jealous Duck”. QUA asked how they come up with stuff for the various characters to do – they said they come up with ideas and see who the best fit would be for them, casting the characters like actors. Speaking of which, Bergen said they still do have to audition, and come in with two monologues each to do AS their character. They also had highly amusing anecdotes about how they met Mel Blanc – they stalked him, essentially, and had to tell the audience multiple times DON’T DO THIS. All in all, I’m pleased with the hands Looney Tunes are in.

After that I went over to the Bookwalker booth, but I’ll talk about that in a separate post. And then I departed. NYCC this year was a fun experience for me, with a lot of panels I’d never really tried before. The sheer scope of the diversity track was amazing and thrilling, and I urge everyone to follow their advice: if you want to change comics, do it by buying the things you love. The manga and anime tracks were also good this year, and there was less of a sense of it being off to the side as there has been in past years. I hope that these posts have given you a taste of what you can expect at this event – just imagine me with 155,000 more people around me and you’ll get the gist.

Saturday at NYCC was well-balanced between the manga industry panels I am actually here for and the diverse comic panels I’ve found fascinating all week. It began with Yen Press, who were in the smallest panel room of the con, so naturally it filled up 15 minutes before the start. They opened right off with new licenses. Saiteihen no Otoko is a Gangan Joker title about a loser guy who sees a new transfer student who is more than she seems. Yen is calling it Scumbag Loser, which given the cover seems entirely appropriate, and it’s in one big omnibus. The author may be best known for Gun x Clover.

Corpse Party: Blood Covered is a 10-volume series based on a visual novel that features a cast of kids getting brutally murdered, so I can see why Kurt at the panel said it was for Higurashi fans. I’d argue that it’s survival game fans who’d get the most out of it. It ran in Gangan Powered, then Gangan Joker. Space Dandy is based off of the anime, and runs in Young Gangan – it looks pretty servicey. Also in Young Gangan is Dimension W, an 8+ volume series that’s a cyberpunk alternate history where Tesla won. The author did King of Thorn and Cat Paradise. Lastly, Unhappy Go Lucky (just ‘Unhappy’ in Japan) is a Houbunsha title from Manga Time Kirara Forward, a sweet comedy about schoolkids trying to change their bad luck. It’s for the K-On! Crowd.

Yen On also had some new licenses. Psycome is better known as Psycho Love Comedy, and as a man falsely accused of murder get sent to a prison where all the girls are also murderers… and falling for him. This is from Enterbrain, and looks very, very silly. Overlord is also from Enterbrain, and is another in a line of ‘trapped in a game’ series. It’ 9+ volumes. They also picked up the manga, which is a Kadokawa title from Comp Ace. Lastly, The Boy and the Beast is a novelization of a movie by the creator of Summer Wars and Wolf Children. And they have a manga tie-in for that as well, from Kadokawa’s Shonen Ace.

Q&A discussed finding the right balance between properties when licensing, Kurt again promoting Yen On to the hilt, a discussion of digital rights and why some obvious series (SAO and Index novels) don ‘t have them – often it’s the author’s own choice. Emma was praised, and Kurt mentioned how difficult license rescues are. He also chided Index fans who want to be caught up all at once, which is simply impossible in today’s market. Translation was talked about, and how to make it readable while keeping the author’s style – I’ve discussed this with Index.

After is I went to see Kodansha, and was so excited to meet several of the editors and licensors that I left my notebook outside (later I was able to retrieve it. Yes, I write longhand at cons – it helps me remember better). So the Kodansha panel was on the tablet. The actual licenses were just two, but they were quite exciting. Spoof on Titan is a 4-koma parody that ran on Mangabox last year, and Kodansha has secured the print rights. I Am Space Dandy seems to be the Mangabox version as well, which Kodansha released last year in Japan.

After a rundown of previously announced titles that will be coming out next year, and the big news that the next Vinland Saga will have a 4-koma done by Faith Erin Hicks, they discussed their digital line, available on various platforms. They had partnered with Crunchyroll for a few big series that did not really justify print – we’re n ow going to see these in volume format, still digital only. This includes Fort of Apocalypse, As the Gods Will, Fuuka by my nemesis Seo Kouji, My Wife is Wagatsuma-san, and the cult favorite Space Brothers.

After this was the main event, as we had Noragami’s editor, Yohei Takami. (No, not the artist, he’s busy making the manga.) He discussed the origins of the title, and the concept art of a failed god in a tracksuit, which was actually created for something else. We saw the rough sketches of several pages, something very rarely shown off to casual readers – they were indeed very rough. The pencils were more of a finished product. I asked about how one breaks into editing and got a very fun answer about being first in the office and picking up the phone when an artist calls – allegedly how Attack on Titan’s editor got his gig!

After this I went to Prism Comics’ panel on queer autobiographies, which had, as you might expect, quite a diverse group – Ariel Schrag, L Nichols, Sina Grace, Morgan Boecher, Carlo Quispe, and A.K. Summers. They all had a wide variety of ways they fell into telling their stories as a comic – there’s no one clichéd way. L Nichols is a “Southern Baptist” raised queer, whose title Flocks describes budding realization of sexuality at church camp and Bible School into transitioning. Morgan also discussed coming out as trans to friends, and how the reaction was not as expected – his female friends felt devalued at first. It was mentioned that with the comics art it’s easy to show off bodies in transition.

Carlo Quispe’s comics are far more political, deliberately so – he thinks comics can help push a political message without making it obvious and can use the medium to avoid showing a specific gender or race. He wants to change the minds of those who disagree with him the most – an impressive goal. Summers has a comic called Pregnant Butch, whose plot matches its title – it’s her experiences as a butch lesbian who is now pregnant, and the question of whether that’s even possible for a butch. She had to decide what to put in – it’s all very well to write an autobiographical comic, but there are other people in your life who might not want to be in it. And she discussed that fact that, well, she looks like a pregnant Tintin, something which seems to amuse her greatly, particularly given the historical Tintin’s unfilled-in sexuality as a boy living a man’s life.

Ariel talked about some of the pitfalls of the genre – you can use pain to help you write comics, but it can detach you from real emotion and make you too obsessive. It may also not want to be something you do WHILE it happens – perspective is a wonderful thing. Sina Grace agreed, and said it wasn’t healthy to imagine your life as a story while it’s actually happening. The goal is to capture the moment, not relive it.

Q&A was broad. The nature of autobiography and comics was developed, and some noted the internal state of the characters being easier in comic form – indeed, sometimes it’s easier when the “you” you create is a caricature. This is also a hard type of book to sell – Pregnant Butch didn’t sell till it was put up as a webcomic, despite much trying beforehand. And Uranus, Carlos’ book, as from an artbook publisher who didn’t want to mention it was a comic! They were also asked about the recent success of Fun Home, and whether that might help others to break through. Lastly, Prism discussed their new anthology debuting at Wondercon, with over 40 contributors.

I had not seen last year’s Women in Geek Media, so was happy to get into the sequel panel. Alicia Grauso was the moderator, and said the panel was specific to women but also useful for anyone who wanted to break into geek media. Also there were Jodie Hauser, Katrina Hill, Jamie Broadnax, Sam Maggs, and Deb Aoki. The panel was filled wish advice for the aspiring geek. Promote yourself. Network. Use social media properly. Try to get in as a contributor to a site, then write articles and find your own voice.

Of course, this can be difficult, particularly in a Gamergate world. You need to recognize what’s an honest dissenting opinion and who’s just being a troll. And learn to listen to the honest disagreements with equanimity as well. You should be professional – never air your dirty laundry in public. On the other hand, you absolutely can be angry about the ongoing lack of diversity. Think about what the best use of your time is. I haven’t mentioned who said much in this recap, but that’s mostly as the whole group were all on the same page. Diversity does not have to equal mediocrity – it should strive for the best. Also, everyone hated Season 5 of Game of Thrones. Even the GoT wiki owner.

My last panel of the day was far more relaxed, and also offered free coffee. Coffee, Food and Comics turned out to be equally balanced between titles with food and artists discussing their own need for food/coffee during creation. They discussed favorite food titles, both Western (Starve, Lucy Kinsley, The Comic Book History of Beer) and manga (Oishinbo, Drops of God, Toriko). It can be hard to market a cookbook comic, though – cookbook publishers don’t want comics and vice versa. That said, there’s never been a better time to self-publish. Interest is at an all-time high. The panel continued in a relaxed state, which extended to the Q&A, discussing things like the recent retirement of the Cinnamon Toast Crunch mascot, which I only mention as it had the word cerealpomorphic.

The theme of today, and indeed the entire con, is this: if you want more than just white male superheroes, support people creating them with your money. That’s something everyone agreed on no matter what the panel. I suspect Sunday will tell me that as well.

Friday was the day that my planned schedule just blew up. And I’m happy that it did, as I got to see some really great panels. I started off at 11am with “From Blackface to Black Panther”, an examination of the role of black characters in comics over the years, from stereotypes such as the Imp and Ebony White to more modern-day characters. It started off with a brief history, discussing the debut of blackface in the 1830s and the creation of minstrel shows which created the stereotypes still known today – the “Stepin Fetchit” roles, etc. This then transferred to film, cartoons, radio and TV. Civil Right helped to change America, and it led to changes in comics – be it via All-Negro Comics, William Gaines taking on the comics code over a central character being black, Lobo (the Dell Comics version), or Black Panther for Marvel.

The panel then started in earnest, noting that if people get discomfited when racism is discussed, that’s a good thing – dialogue is good. The panel was very diverse, with comic artists and creators but also comic shop owners, a pastor, and the chaplain at a Hospice. They discussed when they first became aware of racial stereotypes. The difference between John Stewart and Luke Cage was mentioned, Gabe Jones in Sgt. Fury, and how it was shocking to realize that was a fantasy – there were no integrated WWII units. Looney Tunes were mentioned, with Bushy Hare, where Bugs mocks a Australian Aborigine, being singled out as particularly reprehensible. Black characters whose story begins with them stealing, or having a desire to be heroic for money rather than ideals.

It was mentioned that a lot of black characters are still mostly written by white guys, and it tends to show in dated lingo showing up in supposedly modern comics. Many characters who are black still tend to be from the streets or the ghetto, as opposed to a lot of modern black youth. Most interesting was the pastor mentioning how he always hated Black Panther for going on about not doing good if it meant risking his kingdom. It wasn’t till he grew up that he realized that Black Panther was protecting it from encroachment by whites.

They then discussed the challenging aspects of writing for black characters. Some are the same as all writers – how to make a character interesting. It can be a challenge this type of character, as it’s hard to “avoid avoiding stereotypes. One big problem is the fact that Marvel and DC still rely on 40-50 year old heroes – we need more original black heroes to take off. (DC was mocked a lot in this panel for their backwards views on many things.) More to the point, we need more black creators at all levels of production – creating comics and in editorial/publishing. It extends to film and TV as well – even in a TV show with a mostly black cast, the staff behind the camera tends to be white. And most importantly, folks need to BUY and show their support – money talks.

After this came a panel on gay, yaoi and yuri manga in Japan and North America. Deb Aoki moderated a panel with Chris Butcher of the Beguiling comic store, Erica Friedman of Okazu, Ann Ishii, who is behind the Massive gay manga anthology, and Ed Chavez of Vertical Comics. First terms were defined, as BL is not written by or for gay men, whereas gay manga is. As for yuri, it’s defined by the audience preconceptions – if they want it to be yuri, then it is. That said, does any of this reflect reality in modern Japan?

There’s been an uptick in Japan recently in realism or essay manga – simply drawn life stories that appear in josei or seinen magazines. A lot of those discuss gay and lesbian themes. A slew of creators were mentioned, including Tagame, Jiraiyah, and Nakamura Ching of Gunjo fame. Some titles mentioned that are out over here include Blue (out of print from Ponent Mon), and Seven Seas’ yuri titles, most of which tend towards the male yuri fan, with adorable moe girls meeting in all girls’ schools.

Ed admitted Vertical hadn’t gotten many requests for BL or yuri, though What Did You Eat Yesterday? is an obvious exception. It was mentioned how hyperrealistic Yoshinaga is trying to make it, possibly as “penance” for doing unrealistic BL for so long. Things are getting more mainstream in Japan now, though – josei is starting to do stories with more realistic lesbians, and Futabasha’s Manga Action, a seinen title, has Tagame’s manga about a man dealing with his brother’s husband, who is not only gay but – horrors! – Canadian. There are also a lot of AIDS awareness book,s in Japan with manga-style art – which shows that gay and lesbian folks in Japan can still be otaku and like moe stuff.

Q&A discussed avoiding popular series where a character is under 18 – it’s very hard, particularly in North America, to avoid the “gay = pedo” negative stereotype, and so they take no changes as they would be branded with a label. There was also a discussion of something that had been mentioned earlier, with yuri publishers worrying if too many female readers read their titles. Someone wondered if the same might happen in reverse? All in all, a fascinating panel with a lot of discourse.

As this was going on, Viz were announcing a pile of things in their own panel. Seventh Garden is a Jump Square title about a man forced to become the servant of a demon. Black Clover is a new Jump series from the creator of Hungry Joker with magic and wizards and grimoires and coolness, as you’d expect from a Jump title. Monster Hunter – Senkou no Kariudo is an Enterbrain series from Famitsu Comic Clear, and as you’d guess features monsters and those who hunt them. Not Elves, though, that series is too old.

Totsuzen Desu ga, Ashita Kekkon Shnimasu is a new “Josei Beat” series that Viz is releasing as Everyone’s Getting Married. It’s from Petit Comic, and will be rated M, so is along the lines of Happy Marriage and Butterflies, Flowers. The lead doesn’t look like a pushover – looking forward to this. Then they brought out the biggies. Akatsuki no Yona is a 19+ volume Hana to Yume series whose recent anime finally garnered enough interest to get Viz to pick it up for Beat. I can’t say enough about how awesome it is, particularly its lead. You may recall the author from the series NG Life. This is better.

Do you like sports manga? We have not one but TWO Jump sports manga titles. Kuroko no Basket has been running for a looong time, and has 3 anime series and a big BL fandom. Now that it’s ended in Japan, and Via has finished Slam Dunk, there’s room for a new basketball title. And Haikyuu is a volleyball manga that has an anime as well, with many themes common to other Japanese sports manga. These are both big deals, and if you want more sports titles you should support them. Sadly, still no Medaka Box. (I kid because I love.)

Back to panels I did attend with Asian-American comic creators. There was a lot of big talent on this one. Greg Pak was the moderator, and we also had Amy Chu, Ethan Young, Janice Chiang, Larry Hama, Marjorie Liu, and Wendy Xu. They discussed who they were and what motivates them to draw comics in general and comics with Asian-American characters in particular. These ranged from simply wanting to touch people with their comics to wanting to see more Asian-Americans they could relate to, to grappling with the identity of being Chinese-American or Korean-American.

The manga boom was mentioned as an obvious new source of readers – they wanted more Asians in their comics, and weren’t getting them from Marvel or DC. Things are changing, yes, but it’s not immediately obvious or “big” – Larry mentioned asking DC why they still colored Asians as yellow, and the answer was “Oh, we’ve always done that”. It doesn’t even have to be conscious – when he mentioned they should stop that, they were quick to do so, but he had to speak up. There was also discussion of stereotypes such as the Fu Manchu Yellow Peril, or Asians as cowardly. (I was amused by Marjorie noting her grandparents honest to God owned a Chinese laundry.)

There were some very interesting stories regarding what publishers said didn’t sell. A Romance publisher told Marjorie to change her name as Chinese named romances didn’t sell. Larry once wrote a Chinese noir story and was told that genre didn’t have Chinese heroes, possibly forgetting Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto. And of course there’s the white guy worry that things are getting TOO diverse – “whoah, we already have two Asian-Americans! There’s no room for a third! We’re full!” And again, as in most panels I’ve been to this con, the audience was told to affect change by buying stuff.

Stereotypes are hard, as sometimes you do want to use them – can you write a kung-fu book without it getting into negative stereotypes? You get self-conscious, trying to avoid Chinatown, or yakuza, or Dragon Ladies. And there is the burden they feel about needing to “represent their race”. Things ended with a Q&A, which got into the Yellowface fiasco of Avatar’s movie, the balance between ‘Asian’ and ‘American’, and how the panel all agreed that New York City has some of the best positive diversity in the US. A terrific panel.

Speaking of terrific panels, Archie Comics is always a highlight of every NYCC, if only as it has the most talented public speakers. Archie Comics is 75 next year, and there’s a big series of events to commemorate that, starting with a new book that as 75 stories, one from each of Archie’s 75 years, narrated by Archie himself, in-character. There’s also the new Jughead reboot, and creators Chip Zdarsky and Erica Henderson were both there to discuss the challenges and joys of creating it. Archie has an advantage over most comics, as its being available in so many grocery stores, chains, etc. and being obviously oriented at young people makes it most readers’ first comic book. It can thus be tricky to honor the series’ extensive past while still moving forward.

After launching the reboot of Archie and Jughead, Betty and Veronica get one next year, drawn by Adam Hughes. There’s also the Riverdale TV series inching closer to production, which will also have the Josie cast, Cheryl Blossom, and Kevin Keller. Kevin is mentioned as, along with Afterlife with Archie, one of the things that changed Archie Comics in a substantial way. Afterlife showed that you could take the Archie cast and put them in a Cthulhu horror series. And the new Sabrina is apparently one of the most terrifying horror comics on the market.

Questions included discussion of the Archie musical, which will be a Funny or Die production with a book by Adam McKay. As for a Sabrina movie, they clearly have some oars in the water but couldn’t say anything. I asked about Jughead and asexuality, as well as Melody from the Josie series being touted as bi in fan circles. Is it only original characters like Kevin who can be open about it? John Goldwater said they did not close off the Archie cast to anything like that as long as it was handled true to their character. Chip says he DOES see Jughead as asexual, and said there would be no romance in his comic. It was a good response, and another great panel.

My last panel of the day was Vertical Comics, with Ed Chavez and his Powerpoint Slides. (Sounds like a ska band…) He had no specific new manga to announce, but did run down their recent releases and the near future. Gundam the Origin has done better than most expected – a lot of folks expected it would be a disaster, but no. Kizumonogatari is still awaiting cover art, and so has been moved back 3 weeks, but is highly anticipated. Nichijou also got a big response, and Ed touted the series’ weirdness over its typical 4-koma schoolgirl humor.

The big news was at the end, when Ed announced new audiobooks of Attack on Titan: Harsh Mistress of the City and Kizumonogatari. These will have professional voice actors, SFX and background noises, and will be close to dramatizations. We heard some demo clips from both titles, and they sounded very intriguing. This is Vertical’s first foray into this type of work, and I’m interested to see how it does.

After that I walked through the rain back to the subway (yay for new 7 line!) and the hotel to type everything up. Tomorrow is just as packed – one wonders how close I’ll stick to my schedule this time.

The first day of NYCC, as always, bore very little resemblance to my posted schedule, but was also highly entertaining. It began with even the press line outside and going around a block, but there was no issue making it to my first panel, which was about needing diversity in comics. The moderator was a librarian, and the audience seemed to be composed primarily of librarians as well. The panelists were Karen Green, a curator at Columbia University; Eric Dean Seaton, who has directed numerous TV comedies, including That’s So Raven; Vishavjit Singh, creator of Sikh Toons, who came to the panel wearing his own Captain America outfit – with turban; Ivan Velez from Milestone Comics; and, arriving late, Alex Simmons from Archie Comics and Blackjack.

It was noted right away that most comics – still – are white males, and that most of the panelists didn’t see themselves reflected in any comics they read as a kid. It reinforces the idea of the minority reader as Other. This is mostly referring to Marvel and DC Comics, of course, as well as the very white Archie Comics. Even children’s books back in the 60s and 70s weren’t all that diverse. And, of course, there’s still the problem of people of color being written in only to be killed off. Even science fiction in the future is very white. And male, as women have little to relate to as well. Karen mentioned Little Lulu, but pointed out that’s for young kids.

The creators were also asked if they suffered prejudice in the creation of their work from others in the business? There was an obvious reluctance to get into specifics, but it was described as being like the only minority in a white office – you feel “surrounded by the enemy”. There’s also myopia by choice – one creator was told their title would only sell in Bed-Stuy and Watts.

Vish Sihngh also talked about his experience in a post-9/11 world, where he could not even leave the house for two weeks without getting screamed at by others, just because of his beard and turban. He wasn’t even a cartoonist then, but when he saw the famous ‘spot the terrorist’ editorial cartoon, he decided to try his hand at it. He discussed dressing as a Sikh Captain America after a piece in the Seattle Times when he discussed a Sikh superhero was met with anger. He dressed in his costume and walked around Manhattan – people loved it, even people in uniform. When the costume came off – e was attacked with slurs again.

So, how do we diversify? This is a media problem – the world is diverse, the media is white. Alex discussed Archie Comics interviewing him and talking about diversity – they had “that one guy” for every minority. Alex pointed out that all of their background, nonspeaking characters were white kids. Creators these days have the imagination, it’s editors and publishers that are reluctant. And readers, even at NYCC, sometimes want only Marvel or DC or they don’t care.

Q&A brought up the old “there are only 7 stories” myth, and how that’s a load of bull – and patriarchal. DC and Marvel continued to come under fire, particularly for the lack of financial and copyright support they show to creators. Karen pointed out that back in the 30s, these companies were all created by Jews trying to assimilate, which is one reason they tend towards the whitebread. Crowdsourcing was also mentioned, though it was recommended you try to build a body of work first. Some audience members ran into the “SJW” problem – they felt when they started to discuss diversity they were tuned out as making a political statement. Lastly, the panel did note how far they’ve come – there are villainous people of color, allowed to be evil. And there’s also Ms. Marvel. A very satisfying start to the con.

After that, my ankles hurt, so I found a room and collapsed into it. It turned out to be Dark Horse, though I arrived late. They did have an announcement of some interest to manga fans – Lone Wolf and Cub is getting a new 2100 series, by Western creators, along the same lines as the manga but with a modern bent. There’s a new Tomb Raider series by Mariko Tamaki, author of This One Summer. And they’re teaming up with Kitchen Sink to do giant Sin City omnibuses with more art and extras. They also announced they have licensed the Moebius Library, though actual titles are not ready yet.

Tor’s panel, moderated by John Scalzi, was less about the books his panelists had written and more about a “Would you rather” style game show. John is an excellent raconteur, so this was a fun change of pace. There were elephants.

Dark Circle, formerly Red Circle, is Archie Comics’ superhero line, currently being rebooted with darker, grittier stories. The creators were quite happy to be allowed to get as dark as they like, and allow the old titles such as Black Hood and The Shield to deal with more up-to-date issues like obsession and patriotism. They’re also starting a new YA comic called The Web, about a teen cosplayer who finds she has superpowers. I’m not a dark and gritty fan, but it did sound interesting.

Then came the big Attack on Titan announcement panel, which was standing room only. And for good reason. No, not a 2nd anime season; an anthology of Titan-themed stories, done by Western creators. Just the fact that Kodansha in Japan signed off on this is amazing. The creators already announced will boggle your mind – Faith Erin Hicks. Gail Simone. Scott Snyder. Cameron Stewart. This will be out in the Fall of 2016, and will have a broad remit – prequels, humor, tragedy, the main cast, original characters – it’s a true anthology. Oh yes, it’s also full color. This was a truly big announcement, especially for this con, and I can’t wait.

After that I felt a bit under the weather, so sadly missed a few panels, including Crunchyroll. They had some manga announcements. Gugure Kokkuri-san already has an anime on CR. The manga runs in Gangan Joker, and is a supernatural comedy. Cuticle Detective Inaba, a GFantasy title, is also a supernatural comedy, and as silly as its name implies. The big news for me, though, was Arakawa Under the Bridge, a truly bizarre comedy from the creator of Saint Young Men Arakawa is a seinen title from Young Gangan, and had two anime series. I can’t wait.

That’s it for today, and I hope to be feeling better tomorrow, as there’s lots more to do.

Last year’s NYCC plans bore laughably little resemblance to what I actually did, due to the long lines for absolutely everything. Let’s see what I’m interested in, regardless of whether or not I’m able to attend it. And they remind everyone they do not clear rooms.

Thursday, October 8:
11:00 – 12:15 We Need More Diverse Comics (1A05)
1:45 – 2:45 The 7 Archetypes of Comics Shops (1B03)
4:00 – 5:00 Attack on Titan panel (1A18)
5:15 – 6:15 Sir Terry Pratchett (1A18)
5:15 – 6:15 LGBT in Comics (1A21)
6:45 – 7:45 Crunchyroll Industry Panel (1A24)
8:00 – 9:00 Fangirls Lead the Way (1B03)

Yes, obvious conflict there – not sure how packed Titans and Pratchett will be, and I also really want to see the LGBT panel. The comic shop one is simply as I get my manga at a great local shop in New Haven, so am interested to see if manga comes up. And there’s two good break points to tour the DR and meet people. You’ll notice I’m not doing the Kishimoto panel – I just never got into Naruto, and going to a Main Stage panel requires a lot of hoop jumping.

Friday, October 9:
11:00 – 12:00 Star Wars: A Galaxy of Fandom (1A24)
12:15 – 1:15 Viz Media Panel (1A24)
12:30 – 1:30 Gay Manga Panel (1A05)
2:45 – 3:45 Banned Comics! (1B03)
4:15 – 5:15 Archie Comics (1A05)
5:30 – 6:30 Vertical Comics (1A05)

Not sure I’ll get into Star Wars, but Viz will also be packed, so… Conflict with the Gay Manga panel, sigh. Archie will also be hard to get into, if past years are a good example – 1A05 does not look like a very large room. A surprisingly early night!

Saturday, October 10:
11:00 – 12:00 Yen Press (1B03)
12:15 – 1:15 Kodansha Comics (1A01)
1:45 – 2:45 Clueless 20th Anniversary (1A10)
2:45 – 3:45 Women in Geek Media (1A01)
4:15 – 5:15 Food and Comics (1A05)
7:45 – 9:15 Doctor Who Fan Screening (Empire Room)

I see Yen’s in the tiny room again. Going from Yen straight to Kodansha will be tough if there’s a line.

Sunday, October 11:
12:00 – 1:00 Heroic Counter-narratives (1A05)
2:30 – 3:30 Culturally Queer (1A24)

There’s a Classic Who panel as well, but it’s at 4pm, and there’s just no way, I’ll be fried. In any case, that’s a lot of stuff I want to see. I hope to be able to meet everyone there!

The final day of New York Comic Con had the fewest amount of panels I was going to, as usual, but was not without interest, particularly after I did some more room camping and ended up seeing panels I would not otherwise have seen.

The first ended up being a Doctor Who panel – I got there an hour early, which was fortunate, as the line was so big many were turned away. This didn’t have any of the cast or crew, however. It was a panel with several SF and fantasy authors discussing how Doctor Who influenced their work and what it meant to them. As I expected, most of the discussion involved the new series, though a couple of the authors noted experience with Classic. When asked about what they took away from the series, they mentioned the character-driven stories, the philosophy the program has explored, the ethical questions it finds itself embroiled in, and how it prefers cleverness over brute force. One author, Mike Cole, seemed to be only a casual fan, and in fact discussed how his dislike of chaos and love of efficiency has led to him siding with the villains much of the time!

After this was a panel run by Kickstarter, discussing how to crowdfund your comic book, with several people on the panel who had done just that. Kickstarter was emphasized as a place to build communities, and as an added bonus you can get publicity that isn’t all self-generated. Kickstarter by its very nature lends itself to comics and small press publications – there are 4700 projects that are comics related on the site. It also helps gain an audience of pros and editors, who do pay attention to things like this – new talent is appreciated.

When asked about advice, one point was hammered down over everything else – think about your shipping costs. When you offer stretch goals, think about what weight is added that may put your calculations over what you assumed. For that matter, think about your stretch goals, period – they can make or break a project. Most Kickstarter projects get their money in either the first or last weeks of the funding period, when it’s either getting new eyes or when people on the fence make a decision to pay. All the panelists were clearly enthusiastic about this as a way of getting their work out there and noticed.

After that came a panel that was more in line with my actual coverage, Kodansha Comics. They had four new titles to announce, all of which are exciting. I may have had my issues with Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, but if CLAMP can get past the morass of plot kudzu it became and make it more like the start of the series, then Tsubasa World Chronicle, coming out next year, should be a treat. As for Fairy Tail: Blue Mistral, it was a fairly obvious pickup as well, being a shoujo spinoff focusing on cute young Wendy and her magical adventures. There’s also a brand new series by the creator of Gantz, called Inuyashiki. It’s so new Kodansha couldn’t tell us much about it, but it comes out in Fall 2015. I wasn’t the biggest Gantz fan, but it certainly sells well, and barring Kodansha licensing Hen or HEN – both highly unlikely – this is the next obvious choice.

The big surprise for me was the pickup of L♥DK. Not really because I didn’t think it fit the company – after Say “I Love You” and My Little Monster it’s an obvious choice. No, it’s more due to the fact that it’s 15+ volumes. The author has had several other series in various Kodansha magazines over the last few years, mostly in Betsufure, which is also where L♥DK comes from. But I believe this is her first title over here. It did have a live-action adaptation come out this past year. The plot is not really anything new – school prince ends up being forced to move in with our heroine, a fact they have to hide even as she falls for him. If you like any of the recent shoujo Kodansha has done, this will be right up your alley.

My last panel of the day was Crunchyroll Manga, though sadly they were unable to announce any new titles, although they said it should be ready to announce in a week or so. So we got to see some of the editor’s favorite titles, including ones she wish got more clicks such as Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen. They’ve also recently updated both the web and mobile applications, making for a smoother reading experience. A relatively quiet final panel allowed me to duck out during questions (which tended to be of the “have you guys considered licensing title X’ variety) and head over to an amazingly packed Artist’s Alley before leaving.

NYCC has grown exponentially over the years, to the point where I think this year it passed 150,000. It’s not a con for the casual or the introverted. That said, it was gratifying to see they sorted out many of the tiny room issues (lines were still prohibitively long, but well-policed, and there were few arguments that I saw) from last year. The fans were enthusiastic as well – I had several long conversations about cartoons after the early panel Saturday, and spent Sunday talking with a 16-year old Doctor Who fan and a young woman babysitting her 13-year-old charge, a huge Attack on Titan fan, and had gone the extra mile for him by dressing up as a Survey Corp member herself. The con may have been packed, but everyone was having a lot of fun. And that’s really all that you can ask of a con this size.

Saturday was a day fairly light on manga, but that doesn’t mean there was not a great deal of things to experience at this third day of the con – and the busiest in terms of sheer bodies.

I began with Tom Cook, an animator who worked with Filmation in the 1980s, who was discussing both his career and the way Saturday morning cartoons worked back in the day. He’d grown up with early Hanna-Barbera TV titles – Top Cat was a favorite – and through luck and talent managed to get a job working for them as an animator, which was very much learn as you go. They started work at an airplane hangar in Burbank, as the regular building was still being built/renovated.

After a few years, he got wing of H-B threatening to move all their jobs overseas and switched over to Filmation, whose big selling point was they said they would never do that – it was all in the US. Of course, the drawback was they had to compete with larger budgets, and also do larger shows – 25% of each He-Man had to be recycled footage. Not because they were too lazy or had no budget – for the sheer number of shows they had to do, the budget did what it could.

After a discussion of how ACME came into being (it came from the peg boards used to hold down their drawings, made by a real-life ACME), he ended the panel by walking us through how a typical cartoon was made in those days. Mattel asked for He-Man to sell their toys, so a good script was essential. After that, they moved to voice recording, followed by storyboarding and the model sheets. From there the animation happened, followed by backgrounds, then the actual filming on a camera, then the editing, and finally adding the voice and sound to the film.

Next up I saw a panel discussing comics journalism, with several names familiar to the manga crowd, including Deb Aoki and Brigid Alverson. The panel discussed how each of them found themselves in the field, and what makes comics journalism so rewarding. Some of the topics discussed included misogyny and hate in the comments of blogs and message boards, and how moderating these has simply gotten too time-consuming and exhausting. Most sites have comments active as it fosters a sense of community, but you should never be afraid to ban jerks.

There was discussion of the recent debate about “is cosplay killing comics”, which the whole panel agreed was ridiculous. Comics journalism is also finding new competition these days, from sites like TMZ or Nerdist, and it can b e hard to make your own site known. Much like real life politics, the internet comics scene is dealing with polarization and fragmentation (Tumblr is a good example here), and you have to move with the times.

After a brief line wait, I ended up in the IDW artists panel. Much of this panel was used to plug the various artists’ titles, but each was given a good discussion and going over about why it was so popular and fun to read. Gabriel Rodriguez discussed Locke and Key, his co-created series, s well as titles based on old properties such as the new Little Nemo reboot, where all artists are nervous about following in the footsteps of Windsor McCay. He enjoys drawing licensed titles as well, and Sarah Gaydos, the editor and moderator, helpfully added with regards to what studios want: “They have to be realistic, but also hot.”

An artist who goes by Menton3 also does licensed work, and finds that the ‘original is better by default’ crowd gets too pretentious. He said the real danger was in being bland – both in licensed and original works. Menton3 also does a lot of oil painting and also meditates, which is likely how he’s able to get away with lines like “externalizing the internality”.

Derek Charm does Powerpuff Girls, and was also good enough to do the recent IDW crossover series, Super Secret Crisis Wars, which brought the PPG together with Samurai Jack, Ed, Edd and Eddy, and other CN creations. IDW also took the time to announce they would be doing anotehr of those soon.

Andy Price discussed My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, and how he had to argue to Hasbro to let him use his own, more ‘comics’ style rather than simply imitate the show. He enjoys making fun, experimental layouts, and says MLP is good for that as the show is already so fluid to begin with. He also had his range noted – we saw by some art of Hulk and Wonder Woman that he can draw more than just ponies.

Alan Robert got to talk about his Killogy title, which brings together characters from Goodfellas, Heroes and the Ramones in a horror comic title. He’s also done another popular series called The Shunned One, and said it was important for each title to have its own voice. After this, with minimal time for Q&A, the panel was asked to give comic advice. The best advice was Andy Price’s: draw everything. Don’t just stick with your favorites or what you’re good at.

Sailor Moon was in the same room in an hour, so I just stayed (which turned out to be a good idea – SM fans were getting turned away from the immense line). As a result, I saw Del Rey’s panel on the new Star Wars books. This really isn’t my fandom, so I didn’t get much of what they were talking about. The new book on Grand Moff Tarkin sounds interesting. And the Lords of the Sith cover was hilarious – the panel jokingly called it a “Darth Vader and Palpatine go on spring break” book.

As for the Sailor Moon panel itself, Viz played some dub clips for us – Stephanie Sheh makes a terrific Usagi, even to my dub-hating ears. We also got to hear the debut of Amanda Miller as Jupiter – this hasn’t been released yet. She sounded quite good. The other big news, which actually broke on Thursday, was the 2nd S1 box set, due out this February.

Lastly, Vertical played to a packed house, much to the surprise and pleasure of Ed Chavez. He went through some of their recent releases, then gave us the two big announcements, neither of which should surprise those who follow Vertical. They’re publishing Vols. 2 and 3 of Before the Fall as an omnibus together next fall, and this is the arc that was made into the manga Kodansha is releasing. They also have the brand new Harsh Mistress fo the City novel, which only has one volume in Japan, but will also be a 2-volume omnibus by the time it’s out here. It’s a good time to be a Titan fan.

The other big news was that they’re splitting the manga imprint into its own line, Vertical Comics, separate from Vertical Inc. which will continue to publish its non-fiction, crime novels, etc. Witchcraft Works and The Garden of Words are the first to bear that imprint, with more on the way. Ed is excited for this, as the separate focus will allow both Comics and Inc. to work harder at reaching out to their own distinct audiences.

This day wasn’t quite as involved as the previous two, so this writeup is smaller. Tomorrow will be smaller still, but both Kodansha Comcis and Crunchyroll manga should both have interesting things to say before everyone head home.

Friday was another busy, busy day. To be honest, there are no more light days anymore, now that this is an official Day 2. It began with the Crunchyroll anime panel (they have a manga one later). They rolled out cute chibi-art of the staff, along with the fan mascot, chosen from a contest. Then they plugged a few new announcements.

Future Diary and Switch Girl will both get J-drama simulcasts. Future Diary should be familiar to anime fans. Switch Girl is a manga title I’ve suggested before, with a premise similar to Kare Kano – a girl who is a princess at school but a slob at home gets caught one day. On the anime front, they had Bonjour Sweet Love Patisserie, an adaptation of an otome game with an all-star seiyuu cast; Ultraman Max, a new sentai incarnation of the beloved franchise; and Case Closed, the long running anime/manga series.

They reminded everyone they are still very much in startup mode, and they are hiring new employees – see their website. They also discussed the complications involved in licensing – there’s a lot of moving parts most folks don’t see or know about.

After this, I room camped again, and thus got to see the Image Comics panel. It was a lot of fun – Image has come a long way in the past 25 years or so. Much of the start was intros and plugging titles. There was Madam Frankenstein, sort of a pastiche between the classic novel and My Fair Lady. Ghost is dark and bleak, sometimes even more than the author really intended – he discussed a scene where he had added a few jokes into a dark scene and the editor asked him to get rid of them.

Umbral is a dark fantasy, with the interesting concept that the dialogue balloons for magical incantations are actually magic sigils/patterns. They wanted to convey the idea that it’s not something understood by normal people. The Fuse is a straight up police procedural, but with SF elements – “what if Homicide: Life on the Streets crossed over with Battlestar Galactica?”. Nailbiter is a series that was rejected by several other publishers before finding a home at creator-driven Image.

Rocket Girl was the title that interested me the most, a period SF piece which stars a teen, but is not really written for teens – the adults reading are to be reminded what the mindset was like back when they were that age. As for The Wicked and the Divine, it’s apparently quite popular, and the moderator discussed the idea of “pop comics” – like pop music, having a broad-based, non-genre appeal.

Question time. Many on the panel also did work for Marvel or DC, and the difference between work for hire and your own creations is considerable. With work for hire, it can be a job to find a way to make yourself care. With your own work, it’s inverted, needing to see it made broader and more accessible to others.

At this pointy, Chip Zdarsky walked in with his banner and joined the panel, naturally talking about his work Sex Criminals. Chip added many moments of levity to the proceedings, as both the panel and the audience felt free to mock him. Meanwhile, the panelists mused on what other title they would “cross over” with if they could – given my general lack of knowledge of Image titles, I missed the gist, but the crowd seemed pleased.

For manga fans, the most interesting question might have been talking about Print vs. Digital. Anthony Johnson noted that he feels the manga boom was a huge influence on the way people read comics, and that the manga readers looking for something else seem to turn to titles along Image’s lines rather than superheroes in spandex. The newer, younger readers are also more digital oriented, so naturally the market is adjusting. Though there can be issues – Chip noted his title was banned by Apple from the iPad for content reasons.

Other questions that sparked discussion included whether the time period you write in makes a difference (with a side discussion on the cliché of “I’ve got no signal” for cell phones in horror movies, now a hallmark of lazy writing), how to write humor into dark, serious works without having it come across as forced (make it come naturally from the characters you create), and finding time to write on a busy schedule (make time).

After that, Yen Press had its panel, and they had a slew of announcements, though for once none of them were light novels. They did have several LN adaptations, though. The manga of Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? runs in Square Enix’s Young Gangan, and just began last year. Index fans rejoice, the manga of A Certain Magical Index is finally coming to our shores. This is a Shonen Gangan title, and at 12+ volumes as much of an investment as the LN was – Yen is pushing Index hard.

Trinity Seven is a title from Fujimi Shobo’s Dragon Age, so expect a lot of fanservice. It also has a lot of fantasy tropes that may seem familiar to followers of the genre, but it got a huge crowd reaction. The artist is also known for Psycho Busters, an old Del Rey work. As for Chaika: The Coffin Princess, a Kadokawa title from Young Ace, I could not help but remark on its similarity to another Yen series – it was joked that they considered calling it Shoulder-a-Coffin Chaika. The author of this LN adaptation is best known for Scrapped Princess.

Kodansha’s Aria magazine has proven a fruitful shoujo breeding ground over the last year or so, and we have another new title coming from there, First Love Monster. A 15-year-old girl falls head over heels for the boy who saves her from death… only to find he’s still in 5th grade! The artist has also done adaptations of the Book Girl manga, though that has not yet been licensed by Yen.

The next license was the most surprising, as there was a lot of Twitter chat recently about how it wasnt going to be licensed anytime soon. Prison School is from the creator of Me and the Devil Blues, but goes in a very different direction – comedic fanservice galore, as it features five guys in a former girls’ school where they’re hideously outnumbered. At 14+ volumes, I was very surprised to see it myself. It runs in Kodansha’s Young Magazine.

Then there’s Kaoru Yuki’s latest, Alice in Murderland. It just began in Aria this year, but features plots very dear to North American buyers – Wonderland, survival games, etc. Lastly, and possibly the biggest news, they’ve license rescued Emma, the old Victorian Maid romance. It will be released in deluxe hardcover editions, and is an absolute must buy. (Oh yes, it ran in Enterbrain’s Comic Beam.)

One last title, an English-language one, is Svetlana Chmakova’s new work Awkward, which is about the titular awkwardness found in childhood friendships, and looks incredibly cute.

I missed a lot of Q&A due to having my own questions. I asked about the paucity of digital rights for the new light novels they’re putting out. They do try to get digital rights for everything they license, but it’s complicated – sometimes it’s the author blocking it. I also asked about End of the Golden Witch, the next Umineko arc. Still being discussed, so expect another break after Alliance finishes. And they have no comment about Durarara!! LNs or anything else they didn’t already discuss, of course.

My next two panels were more “casual” ones, with fewer notes. Bryan O’Malley was in fine form, and had a lot to say about Seconds, Scott Pilgrim, and being a famous Canadian. Also discussed was the commodification of hipsters, how to “turn dark thoughts fun”, when to visit Halifax (August – I have to agree there), the influence of shows like Sliders and Quantum Leap, and whether college is a necessary choice these days. Oh yes, and plugging the book Love: A History, complete with “ontological rootedness”.

I also caught half a panel discussing women in comics, from creators of new incarnations of Captain Marvel and Red Sonja. It was a very lively panel, with lots of good advice and quick wit.

Lastly was the Takeshi Obata panel, which did not have much overlap with the Jump panel from yesterday. He was asked about his start as a manga artist – like many, he began to submit works while still in high school, and won a Tezuka award, to his total shock and disbelief. His earlier series were also written by him, including his debut Cyborg Jii-chan G, a comedy manga starring an old man, unusual for Jump. This made him realize that he enjoyed writing with a partner much more, as he could concentrate on the art.

The editors were also asked how they got into the business – applying for a job and working your way through the ranks seems to be a good way, thought it was also noted that having no talent at being a manga artist might also nudge someone in that direction. One intriguing fact – Ohba and Obata rarely met in person for Death Note, as both are very reserved and preferred to give notes through the medium of their editor.

Obata’s art was discussed. His adaptability was praised, along with his arrangement of panels on the page. Obata is the sort who is a manga artist rather than an illustrator – and that’s definitely a compliment. The collaborative process was discussed – for Death Note, Ohba did a storyboard and sent it to Obata. Obata then did his own storyboard, got approval from Ohba, then spent 3-5 days inking it. He also brought out his materials, including the ever-popular G-Pen.

He designs characters after getting inspired by the writing. The initial image in his head, i.e. the instinctual one, is quite important, and he also likes to know what “color” they are – yellow for the star of Hikaru no Go, for example. Speaking of Hikaru no Go, it was mentioned that this was a more realistic series to him, but he said he was drawn to it by the supernatural aspects of the ghost. And yes, portraying Go that well involved an awful lot of research.

Death Note’s popularity stunned both him and his editor, as it wasn’t a “typical” Jump title. At the time, Jump was trying to reach out to older readers, but the title still had to be accessible to their normal kid readers. Amusingly, he’d had Light’s design in his head for years, waiting for a series he could use it in – he was delighted to finally break it out. L’s eyes were one of his best features, and in fact Obata calls L his favorite of all the characters he’s drawn.

Bakuman was a title that unnerved him a bit, as he was nervous about showing the “underbelly of the industry”. But it turned out quite well. He was also asked what in-series manga he would like to draw in real life – unsurprisingly, Otter 11 was his choice. They also briefly discussed All You Need Is Kill, and trying to adapt a novel by choosing which moments would best be shown off visually in a manga style.

After a brief question on what it was like being an assistant to Makoto Niwano (author of the infamous Bomber Girl), which he enthused about, the panel was called for time, and I got to make my trek back to the hotel to type up a very long day. Tomorrow gives us IDW, Sailor Moon, and Vertical, Inc. Halfway done!

This is the first Thursday that’s been a real, honest-to-god full convention day, with all that is entailed. It’s traditionally the lightest day, but at NYCC that’s only a matter of degree. The place was jammed, from start to finish. This ended up being one of my busiest panel days, mostly as I was worried about the lines for the two big panels I needed to do, Viz and Shonen Jump. As a result, I did a lot of Room Camping, with the result that I saw many interesting panels I would not otherwise have gone near.

Therefore my first panel was a documentary on Superman Lives, the aborted Kevin Smith/Tim Burton movie that was to star Nicholas Cage. The reputation of the movie has been somewhat savage online, so it was fascinating hearing how it could have been tremendous. Holly Payne and John Schnepp are the filmmakers, and they were quite entertaining. John discussed how he had seen concept art online and began to get curious, hunting down more and more.

There was some discussion of how a small documentary project became larger and larger, with the addition of interviews with Smith and Burton. In fact, the documentary is still being edited, with an estimated release date in 2015. Burton has apparently said he didn’t want this movie to be what Batman was, and wanted a lighter tone. Also, at the time Nicholas Cage was still an A-list actor rather than the meme he is today.

We saw a 20-minute rough cut clip (which will be edited to about 5 in the film), mostly discussing the concept art and how they tried to make the suit look like real muscles and not a guy in a muscle suit. There was a lot of enthusiasm for the project all around, and it sounds like a great documentary for any Superman or Burton fan.

After this was the Mary Sue’s Fight What You Know panel, which had a few speakers who weren’t listed on the NYCC page. Susannah Polo was a good moderator. Brenden Fletcher writes Gotham Academy and Batgirl for DC. The big surprise for me was Amber Benson, who was there to discuss her new mythological fantasy novels. Wendy Xu writes books dealing with immigrant experiences, including the upcoming The Undertaking of Lily Chen. (There was a 5th writer whose name I did not get – Danica? Apologies.)

The panel discussed the oft-used “write what you know” cliche, and how it tends to be an excuse for white guys to write other white guys. It was pointed out that writers should write from empathy, and one of the first steps there is figuring out how to write what you don’t know. For once Google is your friend here – a lot of useful research can be gained by using not just the search engine, but also Images and Maps. Traveling to places you plan to write about was also discussed, and a Historical Society can be useful as well.

Then there’s just asking someone from another culture. This can be an issue for many writers, who might be introverts or nervous about someone taking it the wrong way. Email helps there, and Wendy also mentioned Tumblr as a good resource. A lot of the best info is simply getting anecdotes or stories about life in a culture not the writer’s own; even if it can’t be used in a story, the backstory possibilities help to enrich the character you write.

Admittedly, sometimes research can show you that the idea you thought of isn’t viable, but the beauty of it is that you get five more ideas along the way. You can either use this in your story later, or save it for the next one you write.

(At this point, the panel briefly detoured into a discussion of Victorian mummy pornography. Trying to describe this could not do it justice, but we did see Amber wrap her scarf around her face to stop herself saying naughty things several times.)

Critiques were discussed, and while they are valid and should be listened to, at the end of the day the writer has to write things they themselves like. Take the bad criticism equally with the good – don’t get a swelled head or get too depressed.

Questions asked included how to balance between representation and character – being diverse isn’t really impressive if it’s just tokenism. The character comes first, and hopefully diversity can build from there. Also discussed was the difference between the writer’s viewpoint and that of the lead character or narrator, and how to convey that without making it sound as if the writer believes everything that character says.

It was a terrific panel with a lot of active discussion, and Buffy wasn’t even brought up once. :)

Next up was the Viz panel, and they had bunch of free manga they were giving out around the room. They discussed new titles out in the next month or so, such as Kiss of the Rose Princess and All You Need Is Kill. (“If you want to see Tom Cruise die 100 times, go watch Edge of Tomorrow.”)

They also had two new licenses. So Cute It Hurts (aka Kobayashi ga Kawai Sugite Tsurai!!) is from Shoujo Comic, and is 7 volumes and counting. A gender-bender sort of title about twins who switch places (though not apparently bodies, for once) and get into all sorts of amusing and romantic scrapes. It sounds like a lot of fun. The author did a longer, 18-volume shoujo called Suki Desu Suzuki-kun I think I licensed recced back in the day.

The more popular title with the audience was Tokyo Ghoul, which had an anime air recently. Complete at 14 volumes, it ran in Weekly Young Jump, and sounds like it will appeal to those who like titles such as Gantz. It’s about a boy bitten by a ghoul, who thanks to SCIENCE becomes a unique, half-ghoul entity. Definitely more in the horror genre.

The remainder of the manga portion was devoted to talking up Viz digital releases, as well as the Jump Start program (see below). On the anime end, in among a slew of discussion of simulcasts, new Naruto and Bleach DVD sets, and Blood Lad’s box, we got a new announcement: Sailor Moon Box Set 2, with the last half of the first season, will be out on February 10th. There are lots of extras on it, mostly original to Viz and discussing the dub release. Any anime fan worth their salt should be preordering this.

I left during question time, which involved the standard “have you considered licensing this?” “We can’t comment.” rigmarole. After doing a brief wander, I decided to room camp again, and walked in in the middle of the Hatsune Miku panel. The virtual idol had just appeared on Letterman this week, and her popularity has never been higher. I will admit, the new song played to us was quite catchy, and the concert clip simply stunning. I’d never really paid much attention to Vocaloid before, but might look into it after seeing this.

Next was a definite room camp choice, as I’d never really enjoyed the movie Revenge of the Nerds, and had no idea it had been turned into a reality TV show. That said, Curtis Armstrong and Robert Carradine were enthusiastic, and the audience ate it up. They also had a professional cosplayer, Yaya Han, who had appeared on the show before and was cheery and personable. I still have no desire to see the show, but it looks perfect for its target audience.

Next was the Jump panel. The major guest here was Takshi Obata, artist on Hikaru no Go, Death Note, and Bakuman, as well as the new All You Need Is Kill. We also had two of his editors from Japan, as well as the usual gamut of Viz employees. There weren’t any new print licenses, but they did discuss Jump Start, which gives readers three chapters of each new series Jump debuts, as well as Jump Back, featuring classic Jump titles such as Death Note. (Any chance of Gintama?)

They then presented some questions to Takeshi Obata. When he was first presented with Hikaru no Go, he boggled – he thought drawing shonen battle go would be impossible. But he was drawn to Sai, and discussed the movement of the go stones as becoming almost Naruto-esque. He was asked about Ohba, and said he first saw him as a “cool, mysterious adult” but found him quite easy to write with – they editor says they had good chemistry, and he paired them for Death Note due to Obata’s love of the gothic aesthetic. As for his newer editor, when he first met Obata his hands were shaking he was so excited, but he’s resolved to make his titles Number One in Jump.

Obata came up with the designs for Bakuman, wanting to make it a deliberate contrast to the Death Note style. Then there’s All You Need Is Kill, which being a seinen title allows Obata to try things that would not be allowed in Jump – unfettered, as it were. He was then asked about various character designs. He used the word ‘hen’ (strange) to describe L about 5 times – I suspect no one would disagree. As for Ryuk, his appeal is that he looks scary but can act quite cute.

The Viz folks also threw in his portrayal of Yoshida, a Jump editor featured in Bakuman. He cheerfully said it was based on the Yoshida sitting next to him, who praised Obata’s ability to remember small details and bring them back later – things like what kind of wristwatch someone was wearing. We then saw even more of his attention to detail, as he did live drawings of Ryuk and L – with a sharpie, no less!

There were a few questions. He was asked about his heroes as a boy, and mentioned Sherlock Holmes. He has very little free time, like most Jump mangaka, though notes he does karate – even if he’s the weakest student at the dojo. Lastly, the whole panel was asked what they thought the future of Shonen Jump was, both in Japan and North America. Responses included keeping the artists competitive among each other, more originality and parity, and, naturally, we the audience were also the future of Jump.

After this, I was frotzed, so skipped the LBGTQ panel, which I had seen last year, even if I was curious it they had an answer to last year’s asexuality discussion. Instead, it was back to the hotel for a long-awaited dinner and typing this up in my postage stamp of a hotel room. What will tomorrow bring? Crunchyroll’s anime panel, Yen Press, and more Obata!

This year the Thursday that used to just be “Pros and Press” has become a full-blown day, meaning it’s just as busy as the others, if not worse. I also note with trepidation that almost all my panels are in the small panel rooms from last year. Sigh. As always, this is what I have as planned to go to, but it may not reflect what I actually get to.

Thursday:
1:00 – 2:30 Big Hero 6 preview (Main Stage)
2:15 – 3:00 The Mary Sue Presents Fight What You Know (1A14)
3:15 – 4:00 Viz Media Panel (1A14)
5:00 – 5:45 New Simon & Schuster imprint (1B03)
6:00 – 6:45 – Weekly Shonen Jump (1A10)
7:00 – 7:45 LGBT in Comics (1A10)

I may duck out of Big Hero 6 early, as I want to see the Fight What You Know panel, as well as Viz, which is in the same room right after. The new S&S imprint may also fall prey to the dreaded “I have to eat sometime” rule, not to mention the Jump panel will have a huge line. This is a very busy Thursday, but at least it ends for me at a reasonable hour.

Friday:
11:00 – 11:45 Crunchyroll Industry Panel (1A21)
1:15 – 2:00 Yen Press Industry Panel (1A14)
3:15 – 4:00 Damsels in Distress Need Not Apply (1A01) (warning: Gillian Anderson)
4:15 – 5:00 Archie Comics Panel (1A05)
5:00 – 5:45 Takeshi Obata panel (1A10)
8:00 – 8:45 Sailor Moon Panel (1A21) (?)

The questionmark is because I’m not sure if this panel is just a screening. If it is, I’ll skip it. The warning is because “celebrity = very, very long lines”, so it will likely be hard to get into. Yen has, at least, been moved out of the tiny rooms at the back, though the rooms are still small – manga fans, be warned! I suspect I won’t be able to do the Archie panel and the Obata panel.

Saturday:
11:15 – 12:00 The Art of Animation and Saturday Morning Cartoons (1A01)
2:15 – 3:00 IDW Artists (1A14)
3:00 – 3:45 Harrassment in Fandom (1A21)
4:15 – 5:00 Official Sailor Moon Panel (1A14)
5:15 – 6:00 Vertical Manga Panel (1A14)
8:15 – 9:00 Ranma 1 /2 (?)
8:15 – 9:00 Doctor Who Fan Screening (Empire Stage)

Usually Friday is my biggest day, but this year it’s Saturday. You’ll note the same questionmark next to Ranma – if it’s a screening, then I’ll go to see Mummy on the Orient Express, which is what I assume the fan screening is. It’s a packed day from 2-6, but otherwise I should find time for the DR and AA.

Sunday:
2:00 – 2:45 Kodansha Comics (1A18)
3:00 – 3:45 Crunchyroll Manga (1A18)
4:15 – 5pm – Toon Tunes (1A01)

A surprisingly late Kodansha panel, but being my first panel of the day I have time to do everything I didn’t before. Toon Tunes sounds fantastic, but if I’m burned out and just want to take the train home, it may be jettisoned.

Wireless connection allowing, I will be doing daily posts regarding the con every evening. I hope to give you all a lot of great info, news and tidbits about NYCC!