New York Comic Con 2009 - Friday

So I was up with the lark on Friday morning and got in Joe's way until we were ready to catch a cab to the convention centre. Joe picked up some Dunkin Donuts as we left, and I'd already decided which one I was going to steal before we got there - screw the Con I was hungry...

The Convention Centre is HUGE, and not only was the NYCC going on (with a reported 60,000 tickets sold for Saturday) but the Travel Show was also in the same venue, and that was equally as massive...to put it mildly this was my dream venue - I would KILL for a job in a place like this. Ho Hum..

So we trekked to Podcast Arena, the part of the Con that Joe was in charge of as I found out, and got in Joe's way until he sent me off for coffee :D
Meeting the other podcasters was pretty surreal, some i'd listened to before, some i hadn't - but i certainly will be now - they were all thoroughly lovely chaps (and one chap-ess) and were very friendly and approachable: Comic Geek Speak, Dafixer's Hideout, Indy Spinner Rack - all of who/whom (?) I've heard but never met....CGS are like the royalty of the podcasters, after all it's their forum we sit under, but they were dead nice, especially Bryan and Murd....the other podcasters were very cool too - I've never listened to Raging Bullets but I will be now..and the other guys were (of course) Comic News Insider, Geeks Unite, and Comic Timing - all guys I've met before and continue to be lovely.
I was reprimanded for not bringing any Comic Racks flyers to promote us but that was a conscious decision, cuz I just wanted to buzz around the con and pimp CNI when i was asked to :)
My first wig-out was when Lou Ferrigno walked past Podcast Arena ...I made an OOOOO face and he sped up when he saw me :D I ran around to tell some of the guys and got a few 'oh dude he is like here EVERY year'...sob :(
Anyhoo one of the best bits of the day ever was meeting Geektress!!! These girls are bloody awesome and lovely and friendly and they swear as much as me!!..and it was really wierd meeting them cuz I've been playing their podcast for weeks now :D After introductions, we split up for a bit and then met up for lunch, and on the way to lunch I ran into the awesome CONN who it is always a total pleasure to see - if you haven't come across Unemployed Skeletor where have you been??
I also ran into Erica Hesse who was looking as peachy as ever (the swine) and was only there for the Friday so i didn;t get to hang with her much :(
I'm getting confused as to what panels were on which day, but i'm pretty sure that today I went to the Vertigo panel with the fabulously awesome Chris, and got to gape at Peter Milligan who is a Brit who has previously worked with Jamie Hewlett years and years ago so is therefore just bloody brilliant by default :D I can’t really remember who else was there (a woman with a weird cape thing was sat there but I have no clue who she was) Brian Azzerrello (?) however was the donkeys conkers – I’d heard of him but never seen him before – he dealt with hecklers very well indeed. (for hecklers read – whiny fan boys) J

I know I did more on the Friday but I’ve forgotten half of it – ooo I did make Jimmy escort me to Mike Norton at the Cadence Art booth where I nearly hyper-ventilated but managed to cling on to a few strands of self control and got Mr Norton to sign the original page from Gravity that my fantastic husband bought me :D :D

The last big thing that happened that day was the Wonder Woman premiere!!! Nathan Fillion and some other famous but not so cute people did the voices, and it was written by Lady Simone (so we know it’s going to be brilliant already!) a big whoop went up when we saw her name on the screen – man I wish she’d been there :(

The film was bloody brilliant and funny, I thought so anyway..i think a few of the hardcore nuts thought it was too different to WW’s usual pace but ppfftt to them :)

I was determined to stay for the Bruce Timm panel but I was literally dead on my feet so I watched him come on, cheered and fled the auditorium :)

Had dinner with Joe and the lovely lovely Mike and crashed again – no parties for me :D

New York Comic Con 2009 Thursday

I should have written this when I got back cuz I'm bound to forget stuff, but I was sick (damn plane germs) and also lazy.

So I've been back almost a week and I kinda can't wait to drag my boy off to next years :D He didn't come with me this year which sucked huge amounts of arse and I missed him every day :( I must have entered about 50 contests for a trip FOR TWO to NYC and the one I win? ONE flight to NYC...for which I still pay nearly £200 for the taxes etc, £42 for the coach trip to Heathrow, and £50ish for the insurance...but yes, still tons cheaper than going as a pair and getting a hotel for a few days.

I stayed with my gorgeous friend Joe who looked after me really really well, and was a great host. He was also responsible and sensible, so had me home by 10 or 11 each night - which for NYC is early!! Bloody glad he did though cuz I was knackered all the time :D

So, my trip started with a coach at 2330 from Cardiff, which got my to Heathrow around 3am...i was supposed to sleep on the coach but as I dozed off somewhere outside Newport, the coach slid slightly, I looked onto the road and HELLO I was awake - the roads were thick with snow, so for the next 2 and a half hours I was wide awake convinced we were going to crash and i would never get on my plane.

Surprise, I over-reacted :D Got to the airport only about 20 minutes late and waited for THREE hours until my Terminal woke up and I could check in - then I hung around for another two hours wildly debating buying a box of matches so I could prise my eyes open...well Heathrow is a slightly scary place at night with people randomly asleep in the middle of corridors and shop fronts.

Plane ride was cool, still couldn;t sleep though, and I was sat next to a scary reverend dude from one of them new-fangles churches who was trying incredibly hard to convert the woman sat on the other side of him...I think he sensed my 'F*ck Off' vibes when he sat down next to me, so didn;t bother me all flight - hurrah!! Even when i jabbed him in the ribs he ignored me - sweet :)

The lovely Raph (Wraithmaker) met me at the airport and took me back on the bus to Midtown - after Paul Cornell blanked me for the first of four occassions over the weekend. I rock. We did a little sightseeing in Times Square then met my host Joe who took us on a mini shopping expedition then onto Jimmy's for a very swish dinner then home for zonking out. Maaan I have never wanted sleep more :D

Shoes I want - what? I'm a bird :)

Things that annoy me today

In no particular order:
1. Iggy Pop advertising car insurance
2. Cannabis being put back into the Class B catagory (don't smoke anymore but the 20 year old me is outraged)
3. Finding out what my Vice Chancellor gets paid per year & then getting an email from him stressing the importance of 'living within our means'. Smug git.
4. Dealing with an events organiser who is RUBBISH at her job
5. It's not Friday
6. Not being able to take my husband to NYC with me next week :( :( :(

www.cymrucon.co.uk

That's whats keeping me busy and active and excitable right now :) My 'real' job sucks balls in hell (I'm an events manager but i currently do events/student projects 40/60 which sucks) but being given the opportunity to help organise something like this is pretty bloody awesome.

So far me and the guy in charge have got a very cool guest list - and we are really chuffed at the amount of people who have already said 'YES' to an unknown Con, and it's really cool getting feedback off friends about a new con...it's probably not the best idea in the current economic climate but as long as the money is in place and the creators & exhibitors turn up it should turn out to be a bloody good show...

So we've got James Barclay, Barry Kitson, Rufus Dayglo, Jock, Emma Vieceli, Rob Williams, John McCrea, Mike Ploog, Mike Collins, Dylan Teague, Kev Sutherland, Liam Sharp, Tony Lee, Mike Carey, Barry Kitson and Ian Churchill.

And that's just so far :)

I know you either love or hate him but this Whubble strip made me wee a little :D

http://www.bohdate.com/whubble/index.php?start_from=4&ucat=&archive=&subaction=&id=&

Wot I am reading innit

I'm a bit shit at reviewing stuff when i'm on Comic racks so I figured I'd start writing shit down (which only dawned on me as I was scribbling stuff on the SFX forum wall - which is brill...the forum,not my scribbling).
So here's the last three I read - last night in bed at 9.30 pm on a Friday night - yes, I was very hungover :)

Short Stack #3
written by Shawn Gabborin (Angry Gnome Comics)

Like the first 2 collections, this is 13 horror/creepy stories, 1 writer and different artists for each (un-connected 2 page stories). I'd recommend it for people who really like very short stories, but some may get a little frustrated (in a good way) at not seeing the stories progress further.
I got it through IndyPlanet.com

The Surreal Adventures of Edgar Allan Poo Vol 2
Dwight L MacPherson (writer), Avery Butterworth (artist)
I picked this up after reading Vol 1 and loving the storyline and awesome art by Thomas Boatwright - he's not doing the 2nd volume which I was initially disappointed to hear but Butterworth does a bang up job and the colour work lends itself to the surreal, spooky, dreamy themes of the story.

Dock Walloper #5
I think i got really hooked on this when it first came out because I'm a 30's gangster film nut, and that's exactly what this is - i picked it up by chance and heard that it had originally been touted as a film script by Ed Burns but no-one wanted it. I know Virgin comics got a lot of slack for picking up comic book storylines this way, but i'm flipin pleased they did cuz I've really enjoyed it - i think this is the first Jimmy Palmiotti stuff I've picked up (yeah I'm quite a noob) so I'm off to find some more.....