Recap: New York Comic Con 2010

Even though New York Comic Con happened a week and a half ago, I am still in recovery from running around and also exhibiting at Pittsburgh Indy Comics Expo this past weekend. If I was to use one word to describe NYCC 2010 it would be: MASSIVE. This year's show felt much larger and the crowds were excited to discover new things and dress up. There were so many people in costumes! Overall, we had an amazing time. I would describe NYCC as Times Square for comics and pop culture in terms of sensory overload. I will break down this blog entry into each of the three days below.


Friday, October 8, 2010
We started our Friday by driving up around 3 AM. We were already running on very little sleep and the only thing to keep us going was the energy of the show. Joe drove and we also brought along Brian Sarvis for the trip. It was great to have Brian because it was his first time in New York and he assisted us each day of the convention. Once we got into the city, the first thing on our agenda was to park, get our materials into the convention, obtain badges and set-up the table in time for our panel, the first event in room 1A21. This required a lot of rushing around and getting things together very early in the morning and running on the convention high. While I was getting the table together, Joe and Brian were busy getting A/V ready for the panel.


At 11:15 AM, our panel "The Other Side of the Table: Lessons from Creators" started. Joe and Brian hooked up the camera to project into a large screen for the audience to see. We had a excellent crowd turnout for early Friday morning during professional hours (the convention opened to the public at 1:00 PM). I felt like our panel provided encouragement and amazing stories from the panelists: Jimmy Palmiotti (Painkiller Jane, Jonah Hex, The Pro), Raina Telgemeier (Smile, The Baby-Sitters Club), Bryan J.L. Glass (The Mice Templar, Thor: First Thunder) Carla Speed McNeil (Finder) and myself - Carolyn Belefski (Curls, The Legettes). Many of the audience members found the Curls Studio table later during the con to thank me, introduce themselves and say they enjoyed the panel. A couple people even showed me their portfolios. The panelists had a fun time as well and I'm glad we were able to have a panel and kick-off NYCC. Even though it was Friday morning, I'd rather have it be then than compete against M. Night Shyamalan! Everything really worked out well and we will be posting film and audio from the panel soon, so pay attention to this blog!

Join up at "The Other Side of the Table: Lessons from Creators" Facebook page to continue the conversation: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Other-Side-of-the-Table/158861870794106


Another really cool thing about the panel was the opportunity to give away a book donated by Dave Sim, "Ultimate Cerebus Guide to Self-Publishing." The book was signed by Dave Sim along with all of the panelists. It was very hard to give away the book because all of a sudden we were flagged for one minute left from a NYCC volunteer and then had to wrap everything up quickly. I wanted to make sure the book went to someone who asked a question, so we made that happen and I hope that one lucky audience member enjoys his book. I wanted to get a photo of him with the book, but things were coming to a close as we had to leave the room. Brian said he caught the winner on camera though, so that is good. Special thanks goes out to Dave Sim for the book. It really is an amazing guide, yet it is important to find out what works for you. I purchased a copy of the book for myself several months ago and treasure that book.


On Friday I was also visited by Nick DeStefano, who is in Carnival Anthology, and Stacy from Comic Fusion, who picked up my original art for Wonder Woman Day 2010. On Friday evening, Joe, Brian and I attended the Riese Web Series panel and got to see Allison Mack, who plays Chloe from Smallville. Joe and I recorded an episode of our podcast all about meeting her. It is already getting a lot of action today from Allison Mack fans on Twitter. You can take a listen here. We also attended the Spotlight on James Marsters event and he sang to the audience.


Saturday, October 9, 2010
The foot traffic on Saturday was out of this world. I stayed at the table most of the day, but left to attend the "Your Highness" panel which featured James Franco and Danny McBride. It was awesome to see James Franco because Freaks and Geeks is my favorite TV show and seeing him made me one step closer to the Apatow Circle. At the table, I met some really amazing people and a lot of people were excited to discover The Legettes. On Saturday night we hunted down authentic brick oven pizza and showed Brian Times Square and the theater district. Later we checked out the NYCC Indy After Party, hosted by Dave Ryan, which featured a performance by Gordon Gano & The Ryans (singer/songwriter of the Violent Femmes). We hung out with Andrew Pepoy, who I recently met at Baltimore a few months ago.


Sunday, October 10, 2010
Joe and I split table duties on Sunday as I saw M. Night Shyamalan and Joe saw Bruce Campbell. MTV hosted a discussion with M. Night about the 10th anniversary of his film, Unbreakable. They played the soundtrack before the discussion started, which provided and eerie tone to the theater. I enjoyed this program the most from NYCC because Night is so smart and I enjoyed when he left the stage and got close to the audience to showcase his storyboards on the large screens. I also won a signed Unbreakable movie poster... which is amazing. M. Night rules. Joe filmed the full Bruce Campbell event in seven parts, which you can enjoy on his Astray Productions YouTube account. Please post a comment if you like it. Sunday ended with a mad rush as everyone exited the Javits Center. We went to eat in Brooklyn with a friend and spotted the orange Conan blimp!

Thank you!
NYCC was such a blast. I enjoyed being able to attend the convention as a panelist, organizer, fan and creator. I am glad to have met a whole bunch of new faces this year. Our business cards were eaten by NYCC and our mailing list grew. Thanks to everyone who went to "The Other Side of the Table: Lessons from Creators" panel and all those who stopped by the Curls Studio table. We really appreciate all the moments we got to spend with you.

XOXO,
Carolyn

You can see more photos of Curls Studio at NYCC 2010 on our Facebook Fan Page. Jimmy has super white teeth - glowing like Jon Bon Jovi. See for yourself.

June 7, 2011 - UPDATE: I figured it would be a good idea to provide links to our "The Other Side of the Table: Lessons from Creators" panel. You can find the recap, audio and video of the panel here: http://curls-studio.blogspot.com/2010/12/other-side-of-table-lessons-from.html

Enjoy!