New York Comic Con 2017: Day Two

Tony Esmond reports from New York Comic Con... lucky man!

Day Two at the New York Comic Con 2017 opened early as I realised that I can actually see the Javits Center from my hotel room. I headed down for breakfast with the normal cronies and spotted a possible love connection between one of them and the steroid swallowing waitress (I shall take the secret to my grave!!!)

I headed down without Mr Harrower today (he's off doing some art stuff in Harlem) and lined up again. I've been really impressed with both the security here and the speed they get you pushed through onto the site. All the staff so far have been friendly and professional.

The Shadow with art by Giovanni Timpano published by Dynamite Comics

I headed straight to Giovanni Timpano's table and had a chat with him about his Shadow/Batman series. He showed me some of the inked pages and they look superb. I've been a fan of this guy's work for a long time. It was great to see him and his art up close. Definitely an artist to watch out for.

Find out more about him at www.giovannitimpano.blogspot.it or follow him on Twitter @GioTimpano

On the left, Mr Brent Schoonover and on the right, the Mighty Siuntres

During the weekend I also got to catch up with Wordballoon's John Siuntres. This is a podcast that I have been listening to for a bonkers amount of years and I always try and search John out and thank him for what he does. I highly recommend having a try. It is, in the main, an interview show with some of the best in the industry.

I managed to introduce John to Christian Wildgoose and we chatted about a possible  Wordballoon/Awesome Comics Podcast crossover event!

Check it out on iTunes or follow the podcast on Twitter @johnwordballoon

It was also great catching up with old pal Sarah Woolley. I bought her book Charlotte and the Quiet Place, written by Deborah Sosin, a couple of years ago for a friend's kids and they absolutely loved it!

We chatted about her newly released art in Bitch Planet: Triple Feature. Search her out online and buy some of her work. Top stuff. If you are at the convention, then head over to Booth L-10 in Artists Alley.

You can find her online at www.sarawoolley.com or follow her on Twitter @SaritaJeanine

With the change in layout after the knocking down of the building that used to be a home for Artists Alley I've noticed that things, events or signings seem to be cropping up in all the nooks and crannies of the Javitts. The DC/Vertigo booth is down on the ground floor at the far end. It's got a small signing/queueing area and a small exhibition of the Justice League movie costumes.

It seemed a little out of the way and out of place somehow. Jim Lee was sat on his own at a table (and you don't see that often). Later in the day, David Finch looked a tiny bit lonely?

The United Kingdom was, as always, out in force at the NYCC. The Titan Comics booth was looking spiffy and after spending a couple of minutes only at the 2000AD booth, I began to suspect that there may be a few sore heads from the previous night's larking about. That's a tradition I am proud to say continues.

I also bagged myself a copy of the Steve Dillon Memorial Charity Sketchbook (for sale for $10 at the 2000AD booth) that is being sold to raise money for the Hero Initiative. As previously reported on downthetubes, it boasts a heartbreaking image of Steve himself by Bill Sienkiewicz and contains art from a who's who of talent on interiors.

You can buy a copy or donate to this worthy cause at www.heroinitiative.org. It will also be on sale at the MCM London convention on 27th – 29th October.

Garth Ennis tribute to Steve Dillon is here on downthetubes.

I closed the day out with a panel - and it was a cracker. Run by IDW, it was split into two parts. The first dealt with the new Shelly Bond spearheaded Black Crown imprint and featured spotlights on some great books. It was brilliant to see Peter Milligan (who will be at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival next weekend) taking centre stage and talking about his upcoming series Kid Lobotomy. Then Shelly introduced some pages from Punks Not Dead with art by the mighty Martin Simmonds - I can't wait to see what comes from this company that is shaping up to be the new Vertigo!

There's more about the Black Crown imprint here on the IDW web site, and they have posted their Black Crown ashcan here (note the various "adult content" warnings if you decide to view this direct on Issuu).

Then we heard about the new quarterly comics/magazine hybrid, Full Bleed, that has been killing it on Kickstarter. Bob Fingerman chatted about his water coloured portraits of scurrilous politicians with real passion and humour. I can't wait to get my hands on this new series.

You can find the Kickstarter for it here.

Titan Comics stand at the con

For those Original Art junkies, here's a selection of the pages I leafed through today....

If only I had a bigger bank account!!!

I also captured Batgirl meeting her artist at Christian Wildgoose's table in the afternoon.

I'm not at the con tomorrow as the Saturday is like ramming your head into a rugby scrum for ten hours, so I'll probably just post photos of me in a robe on my Never Iron Anything blog at the day spa for the report tomorrow...

Many thanks for reading.