January 7, 2017 by Billy Henehan

NYCC’16: Sitting Down With Matt Ryan and the Team Behind Justice League: Dark

This January, DC Animation is spotlighting the occult heroes of the DC universe in Justice League: Dark. Like the team in the comics, this team deals with cases in the magical realm, cases that the main Justice League team isn’t adept at handling. Executive Producer James Tucker, Director Jay Oliva, Batman voice actor Jason O’Mara, Constantine voice actor Matt Ryan and character designer Phil Bourassa held a panel on Saturday on NYCC’s Main Stage and also sat down with The Beat beforehand to talk about the upcoming animated movie.

If there is anything about Justice League: Dark that people are talking about, it’s that Constantine TV series star Matt Ryan was cast to play Constantine in Justice League: Dark. When asked if it was difficult to play Constantine as a voice actor as opposed to live action, Matt Ryan replied, “Ultimately the DNA of the character is the same. I love the character so much. There is so much more to explore with him. With a character like that, I just feel lucky that I had the opportunity to play him. I thought about taking a trenchcoat with me to wear in the booth. I feel blessed to play him again.”

If Matt Ryan could play any other DC character? “Wonder Woman.” That’s right. Wonder Woman. You heard it here first.

Director Jay Oliva felt very lucky to get Matt Ryan cast as Constantine. He elaborated, “I never know what I’m going to be working on until they drop a script on my desk. They said you’re going to do Dark, and I asked if Swamp Thing was in it, and they said yes, and I asked is Constantine in it, and they said yes, and I asked if I could get Matt Ryan, and they said yes.”

Speaking of Swamp Thing, Jay confided that “We were trying to do a Swamp Thing direct to video for years and it never came to be,” so he was very happy to be able to include Swamp Thing in this movie. Designer Phil Bourassa did about a dozen concept drawings when coming up with the look of Swamp Thing for the movie. “I was just having so much fun with it. Finally, I had one I really liked and that’s the one I pitched to James Tucker and DC, and that’s the one they went with,” Phil said. Would he change the look for a Swamp Thing solo movie? “If we were to do a solo film with Swamp Thing, we might take a different approach. With these characters, they’re the freaks and the monsters. They’re more off the wall and bizarre. There’s much more latitude, like when we’re introducing villains. but we turn it on its head because they’re the heroes,” he elaborated.

As for the designs of the characters, “With Dark, I wanted to show what I would like to see in a live action version of these characters.” In regards to the special effects designs in the movie, Jay Oliva said, “I’m a huge Final Fantasy fan, so for the look of the magic, I looked at my old video games and took what I liked from them.”

Batman is the Justice League main team member who is also on the Dark team. Batman voice actor Jason O’Mara has played Batman in seven animated movies now. When asked what separates his portrayal of Batman from others who have donned the mantle of the caped crusader, O’Mara responded, “It’s the only one where he’s a father. In the Justice League, Batman can give out orders knowing that they’re adults, but sending your own son into danger, that’s a different thing.”

Who is Jason O’Mara’s favorite portrayal of Batman on-screen? Michael Keaton. O’Mara elaborated, “I always felt that Michael Keaton had a great balance. He was dark, but had a wry, mercurial sense of humor. I felt the other actors either went too much one way or the other. In Justice League: Dark, there’s a lot of opportunity for Batman to throw out some glib comments. I like my Batman. It’s in its own little corner. We’re in uncharted territory right now, in regards to his relationship with Damian. I’m interested to see where we’re going to go next with that.”

Executive Producer James Tucker with the promo poster for Justice League: Dark.

James Tucker said that his goal when taking the reigns of the animated DC universe from Bruce Timm “was to bring in more characters into TV. The best way to do it was to introduce them in existing titles. That’s the goal of using the main headliners to jumpstart the other franchises.” Will we see other mystical DC heroes like Lucifer brought into the animated universe anytime soon? James Tucker said, “Lucifer? Buy this one. We’ll get a sequel, and then yeah, sure. Yay, devil.”

January 7, 2017 by Billy Henehan

Stranger Things Panel – NYCC 2016

If you need proof that everyone and their mother is into the Netflix original series Stranger Things, then all you needed was to be at New York Comic Con’s Main Stage 1-D on Friday morning. Despite it being the first panel of the day, it was an overflow crowd in the largest panel room at the Javits Center.

There were only two guests at the panel, Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven) and David Harbour (Hopper). Not that the crowd minded. Each received a standing ovation. The moderator led them through a conversation behind the scenes of making season one of the hit Netflix original series.

When asked about the audition process, Millie said, “Eleven talking? No. I didn’t have to stare. I cried a lot in the audition. And that was it.” When they offered her the part, they told her. “We’re going to cut your hair off. Your name is Eleven. And you’re going to relate yourself to ET.”

David Harbour wore a hat to his audition. “I never do that,” he said. “But I thought this is a guy who likes to hide. The casting director said, “Hey man, do you want one without the hat?” And I said, “No, I’m good.” Obviously the hat worked.

In regards to finding the character of Eleven, Millie said, “When we were on set, I was like, I don’t know what to do, and then I was like, “I know what to do to break someone’s neck!” And Matt said “Never say that out loud again.” Good advice.

Millie had to have her head shaved on the day of the table read. Millie said that hair had gotten everywhere when they shaved her head, and she spent the entire table read scratching herself like a crazy person, because the cut hair that had stuck to her clothes was causing her to itch like mad. Though at the table read, her only lines were “Ugh” and “No.” Millie said she spent a lot of time thinking, “I’ve got to look like a child, but scary.”

Out of all the scenes, Millie said, “The bathtub scene was hard. I was like, “There’s a lot of salt in here.” But the most difficult shooting experience was with the Demogorgon. The suit that the actor wears who plays the Demogorgon is very thick. Because the suit was so thick, he couldn’t hear or feel anything. When Millie had a scene with him where she had to touch him on the back, he couldn’t feel her touch. The Duffers yelled at him to react, but he couldn’t hear him. Millie said something to him to get him to react and nothing, because he couldn’t even hear her. Eventually, they had to have someone kneel next to him and pinch his feet when it was time for him to turn.

Speaking of the Demogorgon, there were two toddlers on set, including Millie’s younger sibling. The Duffers had to tell the toddlers the Demogorgon was only a monster from Monsters Inc. And the toddlers said, “Okay!”

On the timing of Eleven’s nosebleeds, Millie said, “We’d load it (her nose) up. I’d say to the Duffers, “I’ll call action.” And I’d feel it (the blood) coming and say, “Action!” The timing was so good.”

In regards to playing a child from the 80s, Millie said, “It was good having David, and Wynona and Matthew Modine on set to tell me about the 80s. I was like, why don’t we just call Will on the phone?” And they were like, “No, Millie! You couldn’t do that back then!” The conversation then switched to the differences between how television is consumed now vs how it was then. David Harbour reminisced, “You know what I remember, when I was a kid, Michael Jackson’s Thriller video came out on MTV and my friends and I huddled around the TV for an hour waiting for it to come on.”

David Harbour was a huge D&D guy growing up in the 80s. Millie was surprised. “Wait, you placed D&D?” David responded, “Yeah, I’m a nerd. I’m a cleric. I’m a holy warrior of the light. A book in one hand and a big mace in the other.” Dungeons & Dragons is not Millie’s thing. “Dungeons and Dragons, can I relate it to Pokemon? Because I’m a Valor. It’s 2016. Be present. We play Pokemon Go now.” When asked if the cast played Dungeons & Dragons on set, David said, “If there was, I wasn’t invited!”

David commented that the cast and crew were amazed that Millie could put Eleven away when not filming. On the other hand, Hopper was close to David throughout the entire shoot, even when the cameras weren’t moving. “I don’t do the Jared Leto stuff of sending dead pigs to people. But I do have to carry it around with me. Atlanta is an easy place to be sad and lonely. I would just go home a lot and smoke cigarettes and dread my days. But it was good for the character,” said Harbour. Millie countered, “Your character is very sad and lonely, but you like coffee.” David questioned, “That’s happy thing?” Millie smiled while imitating him as she said, “But you always say, Flo get my coffee.” David then explained to the audience more of his method with acting around the kids off-camera. He said, “People ask about working with the kids. The first interaction I had with the kids was in the school telling them not to look for Will. That day, I was like, get my chair away from them. I don’t want to talk to them. At the time, they thought I was an angry weird dude.”

While the Upside Down looked creepy AF on the show, David said that in reality, “It’s super dorky. It doesn’t look like it does on the show. On the show, it’s amazing. On the set, there is bunch of purple piping that pulsates, so you feel like you’re in a bad haunted house. For the spores, there was a guy with a pillowcase filled with dandelion spores.”

Someone asked if the Stranger Things set was near The Walking Dead set. It turns out Millie is a HUGE Walking Dead fan. “I would have died if I was anywhere near the walking dead people,” she commented.

When asked which character from the show they would cosplay as, Millie said, “I might dress up as Poppa,” while David said, “I want to dress up as Barb.”

Speaking of Barb, David Harbour was very adamant when he said, “We won’t tell you anything about season two, but we will tie up some loose ends. And we will pursue justice for judge. I will assure everyone here that Barb is very much dead.”

David and Millie have a great give and take relationship with each other. This panel was a complete treat for any fans of Stranger Things lucky enough to get in the room.

October 7, 2016 by Billy Henehan

Jack Gleason Spotlight – NYCC 2016

Welcome to King Joffrey’s court! This panel was billed as a look back on Jack Gleason’s life an career, all twenty some odd years of it.

Jack said that his love for acting began because his two older sisters acted in the local community center, and he became interested. Jack joked that “if the community center had karate classes instead of acting classes, I might have got really into karate.”

The moderator brought up his first movie, the Matthew McConaughey movie, Reign of Fire. Jack immediately called it a “really mediocre movie.” When asked, “You can say that?” by the moderator, Jack responded, “I mean, who’s going to care?” Jack pissed himself on set, but thankfully no one noticed.

The moderator asked Jack about playing the part of Little Boy in Batman Begins. “He was christened Little Boy. His dad was John Boy.” How did that role come about? “As an actor you go to a lot of auditions, and sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don’t. And I got lucky.”

And then you got cast on Game of Thrones. “I thought you were going to talk about Shrooms, the Irish indie horror flick. I didn’t play Little Boy. I played Lonely Twin. Let’s not get into it. It’s not a good movie.

He said that at the Game of Thrones audition, he thought that it went well, but didn’t want to get his hopes up. He almost lost the part though, because filming of the pilot was supposed to take place during when Jack would have been taking the Irish equivalent of the SATs, and he couldn’t miss that. He thought he’d have to

Jack was asked if he read the books before they started filming? “I read the first book before we filmed the first season, but before I auditioned, I never had never heard of it. Because I’m an idiot.” When asked why he didn’t read past first book, he said, “Because I don’t have the attention span to read those kind of books. I was already studying Philosophy in University.”

When asked about his best scene, Jack responded, “I don’t know if there’s a scene where I did my best work, but the final scene that I appear in, Joffrey’s corpse is lying in the sept, and I just got to sleep for the whole day. That was amazing. I would literally fall asleep. They put those ceremonial stones on my eyes. I’d fall asleep and realize I shouldn’t have been, and there’s this acting going on around me. And I was like, (stiffens up). I don’t know if it was my best acting, but it was my favorite.”

“Shhhh, I’m trying to sleep here.”

Jack was asked if he looks up Joffrey’s demise. He responded that he did, immediately. Jack explained, “One of the first things I did when I got the part was, I looked up the Wikipedia entry on the character. When you get a job, if you know you’re going to get fired at some point, you would look up online when it would happen.” Was he upset to leave the show? No. He explained, “Four seasons is enough. Three seasons, two episodes, that was enough. I think everyone in the cast still loves performing and acting in the show, but my dad says to leave the party early, and not be the last at the party. I feel like I left at the right time.”

On Joffrey’s death scene, Jack said, “It’s very hard to try to pretend to choke to death. Has anyone here choked to death before? It’s hard to do that and make it convincing.”

When asked if which role he would have wanted to play besides Joffrey, “Probably Hodor. From an acting point of view, you only have to learn one line.”

Jack never watched Games of Thrones while he was on the show, because he doesn’t like to watch himself on screen. Did he pick up the show after Joffrey died? Jack joked, “No, it’s too much to catch up on. Even when I got the scripts, I would only read my own scenes. I’m selfish. Maybe I should get into it. I hear it’s good. It always wins Emmys. Maybe I should give it a shot.”

May 19, 2016 by Billy Henehan

Stan Lee to Make His Final NYCC Appearance

New York Comic Con announced yesterday that this year would be Stan Lee’s final appearance at NYCC. No reasons were given, and this news coming so quickly on the heels of Darwyn Cooke’s death immediately had me fearing the worst. But hopefully Stan is doing well and at 93 years of age just wants to kick back, relax and escape the grind of constantly touring for conventions.

How does this affect your personal NYCC? Are you going to make it a priority to get Stan Lee’s autograph this year? I’ve met Stan twice and have his autograph on three comics, so getting his signature again isn’t a priority for me. That said, I know I will definitely be signing up for a photo with Stan if it’s offered. And yes, I will be wearing my Spider-Man costume from The RPC Studio. Hmm, I better start doing some situps. That spandex outfit DOES NOT hide a belly.

All the best and excelsior, Stan! We hope you’re in good health!

May 17, 2016 by Billy Henehan

NYCC 2016: How to Buy Tickets

Written by David Henehan.

In an effort to deter the rampant scalping of tickets that has plagued New York Comic Con in recent years, show promoter ReedPop has announced some big changes the NYCC ticket buying process for 2016.

The biggest news is the implementation of the new Fan Verification System. Similar to the system that is in place for tickets to San Diego Comic-Con, this new system requires that everyone who desires to buy a ticket for NYCC first set up a user profile. That profile will be good for buying one ticket for each day of NYCC. For example, Groot wants to buy tickets for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. He could either buy one 3-Day Pass or buy individual tickets for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. What he won’t be able to do is buy both one 3-Day Pass and one Saturday ticket, because that would violate the one ticket per day rule.

What if you need a friend to buy you your ticket? That’s not a problem, as long as you first set up your Fan Verification profile and give your friend the email address attached to that profile. For example, Rocket needs Groot to buy him his ticket. Groot wants a 3-Day Pass and Rocket wants tickets for Saturday and Sunday. Once ticket buying begins, Groot puts in an order for tickets, and associates his profile for his 3-Day Pass and Rocket’s profile for Rocket’s Saturday and Sunday tickets. This will all be done on one order.

When are tickets going on sale? We don’t know yet and NYCC has no plans to publically announce when tickets go on sale. Fans who set up a Fan Verification profile will be emailed with the timeframe in which they can buy tickets 48 hours before they are able to purchase tickets. Monitor your inbox closely!

Do you usually buy your NYCC ticket at Midtown Comics? You won’t be able to this year. Newly announced for 2016 is that online will be the ONLY place to buy your ticket. We were headed in this direction over the past few years, as comic books stores allowed to sell NYCC tickets dwindled until it was only Midtown Comics. I’m guessing Midtown Comics doesn’t mind losing out on selling NYCC tickets. I have no idea what their commission was for tickets sold, but the managing of that line that stretched blocks and saw people lining up a full day before tickets went on sale was a daunting and thankless task. Plus, getting rid of retail sales makes it harder for the scalpers. Last year, there were reports of scalpers paying people to stand in line for them and then fronting them the cash to buy the max number of tickets.

Another big piece of news, but one that only affects a small segment of NYCC attendees: There will be no VIP tickets this year. If you’re someone who buys VIP tickets every year, this is huge news. Despite their cost, VIP tickets were always the first to sell out every year. The tickets were pricy, but had nice perks baked into them: exclusive signing sessions with top creators like Scott Snyder, the ability to get onto the show floor before other fans, and a VIP lounge where you could rest up and check your coat and bags. I’m surprised NYCC is getting rid of these tickets, but my guess is that with the new rolling tickets buying process, getting rid of the VIP tickets was easier than figuring out a way to allocate such a small number of tickets for each on-sale session.

The big question is: will the new fan verification process work? Will it stop a large segment of scalpers? On the one hand, what’s to stop scalpers from creating dummy email accounts and fan profiles to still buy lots of tickets? Under the new system, if a scalper wanted to buy 12 tickets, he would need to make 12 separate email accounts. And really, how hard is that? On the other hand, by requiring the Fan Verification profile to be setup in advance, NYCC is knocking out the scalpers that are late to the game, the ones who jumped on NYCC ticket sales day-of because they heard they were easy to flip.

Yes, there are more hurdles to climb to buy a ticket. The new NYCC ticket buying process seems more stress inducing than before. But hopefully it works, and tickets end up in the hands of fans, not scalpers. Overall, I think these changes will be for the better and not for the worse. Good luck, everyone. We hope to see you at NYCC.

More information on the new NYCC ticket buying process can be found at the official New York Comic Con website.

October 22, 2015 by Billy Henehan

Mom at the Con

Written by Sarvenaz Tash. You can follow Sarvenaz on Twitter at @SarvenazTash. Photos by Graig Kreindler.

This is my fifth year attending New York Comic Con…but my first one attending it as a parent. This was monumental for two reasons. 1) It was the longest amount of time my husband and I have spent away from our 11-week-old son. (This means my babysitter/sister got to liberally and appropriately use the poop emoji as we texted back and forth: always a win). But more importantly 2) we now had a pint-sized excuse to go shopping at the con!

Our first purchase was the thing we both knew we wanted…if I have to be honest, even before he was born. What little boy or girl doesn’t need a plush Link to cuddle up to while dreaming of their own 8-bit adventures?

Next, it was time to fulfill the Harry Potter contingent and these Pop! Vinyl figures fit the bill. Naturally if I was going to get him a starter kit, I needed the power trio in all their glory.

I was also hoping to pick up the brand new illustrated Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone but, alas, was unable to find a copy at NYCC. We were also a little disappointed at the dearth of clever/geeky onesies (take note for next year, vendors! Nerdy parents need appropriately nerdy clothing options for their little ones too.)

On a logistical note, we were actually hoping to take our little one to the con on Thursday for a couple of hours but he wasn’t feeling well. (We even had a Daenerys and Drogon costume on hand for just such a scenario, dagnabit…). Looking around the Javits with a parental eye, I think using a baby carrier would actually have been okay for him but a stroller might have been too difficult to maneuver (on the other hand, there are brave folks in super elaborate costumes that are way bigger than me + stroller and I realize it definitely is possible. I just like to be as unencumbered as possible when roaming the crowds at Javits).

My other goal at this year’s con was to visit the Simon & Schuster booth where they were giving out these exclusive Geek’s Guide to Unrequited Love postcards.

What is The Geek’s Guide to Unrequited Love you ask? Why it’s my upcoming YA novel (coming out on 6/14/16) pitched as Pretty in Pink goes to comic con…and it, in fact, takes place at NYCC! (What can I say? I am very inspired by the creativity and passion that I’ve seen there year after year).

And as a bonus, my amazing friend Dave cosplayed as the main character of my book.

Yup, that is true friendship.

So I will now leave you with the description of the book. I already can’t wait for next year’s NYCC when the book will be out and hopefully at the show because I’ll let you in on a secret: it’s my favorite thing I’ve ever written!

Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy…
Archie and Veronica…
Althena and Noth…
…Graham and Roxy?

Graham met his best friend, Roxana, when he moved into her neighborhood eight years ago, and she asked him which Hogwarts house he’d be sorted into. Graham has been in love with her ever since.

But now they’re sixteen, still neighbors, still best friends. And Graham and Roxy share more than ever–moving on from their Harry Potter obsession to a serious love of comic books.

When Graham learns that the creator of their favorite comic, The Althena Chronicles, is making a rare appearance at this year’s New York Comic Con, he knows he must score tickets. And the event inspires Graham to come up with the perfect plan to tell Roxy how he really feels about her. He’s got three days to woo his best friend at the coolest, kookiest con full of superheroes and supervillains. But no one at a comic book convention is who they appear to be…even Roxy. And Graham is starting to realize fictional love stories are way less complicated than real-life ones.

And if that interests you, I’m happy to announce that the book just became available for pre-order!

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October 20, 2015 by Billy Henehan

Tuesday Night Comics Podcast 94 – More NYCC! Plus The Best Comic You Didn’t Buy Last Week!

Dave and Billy recap their favorite parts of NYCC, review The Flash of Two Worlds episode of The Flash and a whole slew of books including a comic you probably missed last week but should definitely pick up this week, play the TWENTY (where they stick to a $20 budget and pick out the best of this week’s new comics) and talk A LOT of comics news! It’s a packed episode!

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October 16, 2015 by Billy Henehan

Diving in the Deep End of Cosplay

Photographs by Graig Kreindler and David Henehan and @dirkmanning. Written by Billy Henehan

My journey into cosplay has been a slow one. My first cosplay was as the 11^th Doctor. Tweed sports jacket, dress shirt, bowtie, suspenders and skinny jeans? No problem. That’s practically what I wear to work on Fridays. This was my regular cosplay for a few conventions. Fans know what you’re doing, but to anyone on the subway, you look like an average 20 or 30 something Brooklynite. How normal does the 11th Doctor outfit look? I interviewed Mike Tyson at NYCC 2014 in it and nobody batted an eye on how I was dressed, except for the one publicist who said I always dress snappy for interviews.

This year though, I wanted more. I wanted to dress up every day of NYCC and I wanted my cosplay to be more than my usual office wear paired with a sonic screwdriver. So I plotted and planned and ordered maybe one too many spandex outfits.

Here’s a big tip for anyone planning to cosplay to NYCC (or any big convention) next year: order far in advance. The companies that specialize in cosplay get hit hard during convention season, and what might be a 3 week turnaround time for them during the winter becomes a 12-16 week wait when SDCC and NYCC are nearing. I found this out the hard way. I ordered a very high quality Spider-Man suit from The RPC Studio. I was psyched for it to arrive. Sadly, NYCC has come and gone and my suit is still being processed. Bummer, I know. But I don’t blame RPC. I should have ordered sooner and not at the edge of their delivery window.

Marty McFly was my Day 1 cosplay for NYCC. This had many benefits: no mask, plenty of pockets, and Pepsi was giving out the very, very limited edition bottle of Pepsi Perfect from Back to the Future 2 to fans dressed as Marty. When I heard this, I was tempted to abandon my other cosplay plans and dress as Marty every day. Okay, not really a big step from the 11^th Doctor. Dressing as Marty McFly gets you zero second looks on the subway.

Dr. McNinja was my Day 2 cosplay. Dr. McNinja is very easy to put together: black pants, lab coat, ninja mask, prop sword – your whole outfit is one reasonably priced Amazon order. I really thought this outfit would get a lot of love. Clearly I have overestimated the size of Dr. McNinja fandom. The people who did recognize my outfit really loved it; one guy gave me a high-five, but I’m guessing more people though, “I don’t know, anime something.” The amazing thing is, when I stopped by Joe Prado’s table in Artist Alley, he immediately said, “What’s up, Billy?” I WAS IN A FULL NINJA MASK. How did he know? “You have very distinct eyes.” Why, thank you, Joe Prado!

It was on the weekend that I went for the deep dive. Thursday and Friday were the training wheel days. Pants with pockets. Outfits that easily helped me blend in with a few minor changes. Not so on Saturday and Sunday. I went double-Deadpool Saturday and Sunday. I really wanted a Deadpool costume, but Deadpool might be the most overplayed cosplay at conventions, so I decided to dress as Deadpool, but not the standard, Rob Liefeld designed outfit. On Saturday, I dressed as Zenpool, Deadpool’s AXIS-shifted peaceful persona. I even took a picture with Zenpool co-creator Gerry Duggan! He seemed psyched that people were dressing as Zenpool.

On Sunday, I wore what ended up being my most popular outfit of the weekend: Green Lantern Deadpool. A LOT of people stopped to take my picture, I think mainly because the Ryan Reynolds line in the trailer for the upcoming Deadpool movie where Deadpool requests that the costume just not be green, an obvious dig at the Green Lantern movie Reynolds starred in. I had that line thrown at me A LOT on Sunday.

It’s funny, this was a total last minute costume and I wasn’t even sure how good the quality would be. I ordered it from a dirt cheap seller somewhere in Asia on eBay. I just needed something to replace the Spider-Man costume that didn’t look like it was arriving on time. The Green Lantern Deadpool people were great. They rushed my order at no charge and I had my costume the Monday before NYCC. I think I ordered it 10 days earlier. The quality was great. The Green Lantern logo is actually sewn on, it’s not a dye sub. And the price couldn’t be beat. The green boots that I ordered off Amazon were the most expensive part of the costume. The major downside of this costume though was having no pockets. I was constantly worried that someone was going to take my wallet and phone from my backpack. Next year, I need to invest in green Deadpool belt.

UPDATE (December 2015): The Spider-Man costume finally arrived and it is AWESOME. The RPC Studio gets my highest possible recommendation! I can’t wait to wear it at SE: NYC 2016!

October 15, 2015 by Billy Henehan

NYCC 2015 Charity Art Auction Report

Once again, the Charity Art Auction at New York Comic Con was my favorite part of NYCC weekend. Attendance at the art auction shot up noticibly this year. In years past, it was easy to find a seat. This year, I found myself holding seats for four friends who were running late, which meant I also found myself catching some serious side-eye from the standing room only crowd.

I went into the Art Auction with a specific strategy this year. I would pick out a few pieces to seriously aim at buying during the viewing that preceded the auction. In previous years, I found myself price enforcing pieces of original art that I felt were going way too cheap, and found my cash supply too low when later in the auction when something I really wanted hit the auction block. Not this year. The problem was I had to keep reminding myself of this throughout the auction. There were many times when I was tempted to bid, and a few times when I did bid, on things I thought were too good a deal to pass up. Thankfully, I was able to restrain myself and let myself get outbid on those items.

Because that meant I was able to go home with a seriously nice piece of original art. The cover to Action Comics #43 by Aaron Kuder. I love this cover. It has such a cool design. I love the vertical panels separating Superman and his supporting cast. I was a fan of this cover before it was in the art auction. When I saw it was going to be one of the pieces auctioned off, I knew I wanted to make a serious attempt to get it.

Unfortunately, that meant letting A LOT of really nice original art pass me by. Once again, Mike Negin, the Talent Coordinator for NYCC and man in charge of the Charity Art Auction, assembled a museum-quality collection of modern comic art. There were too many VERY nice pieces. I had to choose my spots. Anyone who attended had to.

What was great too, was that this year, friends were bidding as well. In past years, friends would join me to watch the bidding action and view the art, but forego bidding and look at me with slightly exasperated looks when I’d get caught up in a bidding war. Bu this year, I had a friend in company for the bidding. Alli, our occasional fill-in co-host at the Tuesday Night Comics podcast, may have been my favorite attendee of the art auction. When I say he got into his bidding, I mean he really got into it. At one point late in the auction, Alli was pacing up and down his row shouting out new bids on a piece he wanted for his girlfriend. At one point, he yelled out a bid and then yelled out another bid, getting into a bidding war with himself! It was great and Alli walked away with that piece.

Once again, the big pieces of the night were the Walt Simonson Thor sketch and the Adam Hughes piece. Both went for many thousands of dollars and helped the Art Auction raise a sizeable amount of money for The St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. By the way, Adam Hughes is an awesome individual. Personal issues prevented him from attending NYCC 2015, but he sent over a gorgeous piece just for the art auction. Hughes is really committed to helping raise money for charity at NYCC. Besides making sure the art auction received what is always the most sought after piece in the auction, when Hughes is at a convention, he regularly donates the money from the sketches he does at the convention to charity. The guy is a cass act all around.

I’ve said this before and I will continue to say this: if you are not attending the Charity Art Auction at NYCC, you are missing NYCC’s best event.

October 15, 2015 by Billy Henehan

The Quest for Sketch

Anyone who has attended a comic book convention with me in the last decade and a half knows that my favorite thing to do at conventions is get sketches from my favorite artists. The recent blank sketch cover phenomenon is the best/worst thing to happen to me. It’s the best because I love them! How cool is it to get a one-of-a-kind cover drawn just for you on a comic? It’s the worst because I have WAY TOO MANY that are still blank. Between NYCC And SE:NYC, I can get maybe 2-4 sketch covers drawn on each convention, depending on time, price and artist availability. I have well over 30 blank sketch covers sitting in my apartment. That’s years of conventions to get them all illustrated, and that’s if I stop buying new ones cold turkey (Spoiler alert: That ain’t gonna happen).

Anyone who has attended NYCC with me knows that I cannot let a NYCC go by without getting a sketch from Tood Nauck. I’ve been a fan of Todd’s since I first encountered his work in the late 90s on Young Justice (which is an awesome series that you need to track down and read). When Secret Wars: Age of Ultron vs Marvel Zombies #1 was released with a blank sketch variant, I broke my “No More Blank Sketch Covers” rule, because I knew exactly what I wanted on that cover and who I wanted to draw it. Half Ultron/Half Zombie Ultron in full color by Todd Nauck.

Spider-Man is my all-time favorite superhero. I have a Spider-Man sketchbook that is, surprise, surprise, filled with sketches of Spider-Man. I have slowly been filling in the Spider-Man sketchbook since _______. It currently has ____ drawing of Spidey in it, including the four I added this year.

At Special Edition: NYC this past year, I managed to get a sweet Spider-Gwen sketch on a Spider-Gwen #1 blank variant cover from Invincible artist, Ryan Otley. But what I really wanted was an Otley Spidey in my sketchbook. One problem – I left the sketchbook home that day. Thankfully, Ryan came back to NYC for NYCC and was doing sketches. Spider-Man sketchbook in hand, I walked away with this beauty this weekend.

Do you follow Des Taylor on Instagram? Do yourself a favor and go follow him right now. My biggest regret about NYCC 2014 was being unable to find his table and get a sketch from him. His table was somewhere out on the show floor. I still have no clue where he was located. Thankfully, this year he was in Artist Alley and very easy to find. Check out this Spider-Man and MJ I commissioned from him.

I love Phil Noto. I have wanted a Phil Noto Spider-Man in my sketchbook for years. I kept missing out on getting a sketch from him, but on Saturday, I rushed right to his table in Artist Alley as soon as the doors opened, and was first in line for a sketch. Yesssss!

I saw a friend in Artist Alley and said hi. He pointed down to the table in front of us and said David Lloyd was doing sketches for only $5. David Lloyd!!! David Lloyd is a legend! He’s the artist on V for Vendetta. Five bucks?!? I couldn’t pass this up. And now I have a David Lloyd Spider-Man in my book.

If you ever get the chance to get a sketch from Yanick Paquette, I highly recommend it. He doesn’t use pen and ink for his convention sketches, but rather paints gorgeous illustrations in watercolor. Here’s the Batgirl of Burnside I purchased from him on a blank Batgirl cover.

When I first met Breno Tamura, he helped me stop an art theft from Ivan Reis and Joe Prado at NYCC 2012. I’ve been following his career since 2013, and man, like Des Taylor, he is another artist to follow in Instagram. His style has been evolving over the past few years, and it’s been a pleasure to watch his talent progress. DC and Marvel, HIRE THIS GUY! Here’s the 70s era original five X-Men sketch I bought from Breno this year.

On top of these sketches, I scored a VERY sweet piece of original artwork at Saturday’s Charity Art Auction. I can’t wait for SE:NYC and NYCC in 2016 to see what sketches I’ll come home with then!

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