A new Valiant readers NYCC experience - Lots of photos

[Matesamo]

I did not want to hijack anyone else's thread so I thought I would share some thoughts on the NYCC from a the perspective of someone new to Valiant comics along with a ton of photos.

The Valiant booth was centrally located and was in a prime position to catch attendees attention. They were constantly hawking the free preview book and there was always a creator or two there to sign free books or do sketches on the flip sketch book variants.


Speaking of which here is Manuel Garcia sketching on my Bloodshot sketch cover...


...along with the finished sketch.


Emanuela Lupacchino sketching an A&A cover for me:


And the finished product:


Khari Evens was pretty burnt out by the time I got to him for the Harbinger cover sketch so he asked if he could take it with him overnight to work on after a nap, which was fine with me.


And this is the cover he gave me the following day. I was so impressed that I wound up shaking his hand excitedly for so long while looking at it that he finally had to forcefully pull his hand away from me, lol.


Cary Nord was the last artist I needed to complete set of four but he was delayed until the early evening of the Saturday show. When I asked him for a sketch he told me that he had three comics ahead of mine to do. I told him that I had a bus to catch in a few hours and did not mind if he simply drew a smiley face and signed it. I think my "up against the clock" despiration weakened him and he drew this quick sketch for me to complete the set of four.


My Valiant haul, minus the preview book which I forgot about when I took the photo. I have two of those, one signed by Justin Jordan and one unsigned.


I got to see a copy of the upcoming Bloodshot hardcover, it is top notch and very nice looking. The paper inside was pulpy and the bonus features looked cool. The added story by the original creators should be well received by you long time fans. I am still not sure about the price point though.


And finally one of the board members here, brucehartshorn, sent me two huge boxes of classic valiant comic books to start my collection. Since he could not make the con I picked up this book for him as a thank you. I wound up picking up two copies, one for him and one for me. Only one creator asked me why I was getting two copies signed, he did not really seem to believe that I was getting a second one for someone else, lol.


Overall I had a very busy show conducting interviews and reporting on panels for First Comics News but I did enjoy the Valiant booth and panel. The booth had the most consistent schedule of creator appearances I had seen at the show. You could literally stop by the booth at any point during the show and get some signatures or talk with a creator and judging by the crowds a lot of comic fans did just that.

I got to the panel early and there were only two people in line ahead of me, this was a round half-an-hour before the panel started and made me a little nervous about a low turn out. They shared their love of Valiant comics with me, even after I dissed the last season of the Walking Dead in front of them (they were huge fans a she was planning on lining up five hours early for the panel the following day).

My initial attendance fears were dispelled when the room filled up in the last five minutes before the panel started. I sat in the third row and it turns out that I was sitting next to the publisher, Fred Pierce. We had a very nice conversation before the panel started about the old Valiant, what their plans were and how things were going.

The panel was very entertaining of course and the knowledge of the fans in the room was impressive. (You can read my full panel report at the FCN web site, cough cough). Everyone LOVED that Quantum and Woody may be coming back, it is the only Valiant/Acclaim comics that I bought back in the 90's so I was pretty damn happy as well.

I had a great time at my first NYCC and I will certainly be there again next year. Next up for me is the Rhode Island Comic Con, followed by PaxEast and then the Boston Comic Con. -Whew-

-Matthew

[Rufusharley]

Nice!

What is that piece under the shadow man poster with A&A and eternal warrior ?

[Matesamo]

It is an Archer & Armstrong w/Eternal Warrior print, I made that photo larger so you can see the items a little better.

[tchalla8]

I think I might be jealous of your trip more than anyone else...

[pixierosa]

Thanks for sharing! Really wish I could have been there.

[Rufusharley]

It is an Archer & Armstrong w/Eternal Warrior print, I made that photo larger so you can see the items a little better.

Where did you get it?

[Matesamo]

They had them out on the table when someone related to A&A was signing at the booth. Since I was getting a sketch along with two Summer of Valiant books signed I did not want to ask to get it signed as well.

[Rufusharley]

They had them out on the table when someone related to A&A was signing at the booth. Since I was getting a sketch along with two Summer of Valiant books signed I did not want to ask to get it signed as well.

[Jac13]

Pretty cool haul! Nice sketches too.

[caxiotis]

Thanks for sharing. Those are awesome

[FormerReader]

Thanks for sharing!

[caniac]

Awesome...looks like you had a stellar time!

[Pariah]

Nice!!! Another Rhode Island Valiant fanatic!!!

I will see you at our little con in a couple weeks!!!

[betterthanezra]

Those items LOOK Amazing!!!

Thanks for sharing.

-Brian

[depluto]

Another great report ... nice job getting all those sketches.

[jmatt]

Great report! Even with all the booty I snagged, now I'm wishing I'd gotten a few sketches for my flipbook. Those are simply awesome!

And I'll backup the report of relentless signings; I was there every hour on the hour and there were always two creators available for signatures. I think they had Manuel Garcia chained to the table below the table skirt, he was there so much. I ambled up at one point to hear him and Arturo Lozzi having a conversation, one speaking Spanish, one speaking Italian and lots of English in between.

[MoonChild]

Thanks for sharing!!

[Matesamo]

Thanks for all the feedback guys!

I had a blast, my only real regret was not buying all the 1st printings they had available but funds were tight.

I also thought about buying a Valiant t-shirt but writing reviews for a comic site, I felt like that would not be appropriate.

Here is to the next convention!

-Matthew

[Matesamo]

Nice!!! Another Rhode Island Valiant fanatic!!!

I will see you at our little con in a couple weeks!!!

Indeed, keep your eye out for the 6-3 guy in the FirstComicsNews shirt. Shouldn't be too hard to find me.

Where you do you pick up your Valiant stuff in RI?

[Blood of Heroes]

jesus *SQUEE* christ!!!

you did pretty good.

[Savant]

Cool stuff, thanks for sharing.

How much do sketch covers tend to cost? Does it depend on the artist doing the sketch, or were they all priced the same?...........I'd probably ask for something zany, like X-O's head, with the armor on, facing forward but with an irritated look on his face, with his eyes going to the side, and Armstrong making a big lick on X-O's face/armor on the side X-O is drawing his eyes to.......Kind of like how Bono licks The Edge's face in the "Lemon" music video.

[Matesamo]

Cool stuff, thanks for sharing.

How much do sketch covers tend to cost? Does it depend on the artist doing the sketch, or were they all priced the same?...........I'd probably ask for something zany, like X-O's head, with the armor on, facing forward but with an irritated look on his face, with his eyes going to the side, and Armstrong making a big lick on X-O's face/armor on the side X-O is drawing his eyes to.......Kind of like how Bono licks The Edge's face in the "Lemon" music video.

Well... Since you asked, it's time to show off some more great NYCC swag!

For the Valiant double sided sketch books I posted about above, the books were $15 each or two for $25 and included the sketches for free. To illustrate what an amazing deal that is, Manuel Garcia was doing paid sketches if you wanted something else drawn. It was $25 for a pencil headshot, and $50 for an inked headshot, $50 pencil full body and $75 inked full body.


and you can see part of the price sheet in this photo of his drawing the sketch:


There was plenty of free sketches to be had as well... Here is one from the artist of the new Unit 5 comics:


Topps was having a Mars Attack promo where they had artists at their booth drawing a 1/1 sketch card for people. I waited in line for one but they had to bring in the next artist right before it was my turn so the artist told me to go to his booth and he would do a free sketch for me:


Speaking of the sketch cards, I did manage to snag one from a different artist, I just happened to be walking by while he was setting up, lol.



So there you go, prices range from free to $25 to $100.

-Matthew

[Crow331]

Nice haul dude!

and Emanuela Lupacchino looks kind of