Day one of my 2016 NY Comic Con experience was different than it was in past years. For starters, 2016 was the first year I attended on a Thursday and what a difference that makes. Not that a great deal of people weren’t in attendance because there were (this is, after all, New York City) many people. Just that things were a tad subdued. I was able to stroll through the aisles at a more leisurely pace, which were not nearly as crowded as Friday or Saturday.
I soon saw one of my favorite things at Comic Con – the sign below about photographing Cosplayers. While I appreciate the hard work and amazing artistry put into some of the costumes the fans wear, it is ultimately extremely frustrating when 30 people surround a Harley Quinn and Deadpool pair in the middle of the aisle.
The first place I visited, after checking in and grabbing the free lanyard (this year’s features Yu-Gi-Oh for some reason beyond my understanding) was the Crown booth which was situated in the Random House Penguin family of booths. I wanted to get some books signed by Mr. Robert Jackson Bennett, one of the great voices in Speculative Fiction today. He recognized me from last year (and my twitter profile as we follow each other) and commented on my Usidore the Blue T-shirt, and we both agreed that Hello from the Magic Tavern podcast (where Usidore originates) it is a better fantasy novel than many fantasy novels published today. He was kind enough to sign American Elsewhere and The Company Man for me.
After that, I roamed the floor a bit until I made my way over to the Mercantile Exchange Building, which is about a block away. You see, BookCon (another convention organized by ReedPOP, the company who runs NYCC) is having some special panels off site. It is a nice idea to have a specific portion of the programming dedicated to prose work and books, but the logistics of it are still a bit challenging. Not so much because of where the off-site facility is located, but more so getting back into the Javits Center after a BookCon panel.
B
e that as it may, the panel I sat in on Thursday happened to be the first BookCon panel at NYCC – A World Unlike Any Other: The Importance of Setting in Fantasy and Sci-Fi. This one was moderated by my pal Colleen Lindsay (who is quite possibly the best moderator I’ve seen) and featured writers Robert Jackson Bennett, Elizabeth Bonesteel, Julie Kagawa, D. Nolan Clark, Drew Magary, J. Patrick Black. I’ve read Bennett’s books (see above), Bonesteel’s debut The Cold Between and J. Patrick Black’s recently published debut Ninth City Burning. I’ve yet to read the others. Yet.
It was a fun panel and the authors seemed to mesh fairly well together, but I will say that Drew stood out as the author who projected his voice the most. The panel was about an hour and Colleen kicked it off by saying that while each of the authors wrote on different subjects, the theme of home was strong in each of them. That led to some really insightful discussions form each of the writers. There was about 15 minutes for Questions and Answers at the end.
When I returned to the Javits Center, I once again strolled through the aisles and snagged a copy of Peter Newman’s The Vagrant which the fine folks at the HarperVoyager booth were giving away. I bumped in to Chuck Wendig and Christa Faust and felt compelled to pick up Christa’s new comic Peepland. I met up with my Brother-in-Law again and we were just checking out the various booths. All in all, as I said, a rather subdued day. We left a little early since he’d seen what he wanted and I knew I had three more days ahead of me.
