Saturday, consistently a very very busy day.. for any and every convention. and for this year.. so much conflicts.. I ended up with so much conflicts of choosing this and that. In summary, I chose this time around to go for a more professional slant of panels.. rounding out an evening of book publisher events.
People complained that Saturday was insane with the crowds.. and it was. I was weaving in and and between crowds.. and my mind was on a lot of other things. Morning, I spent a while getting an autograph, the only one I wanted from this con. James Marsters.
First panel I was able to make it to on Saturday, Comics, Graphic Novels, and Manga for Adults. It was of interest, since Graphic novels are often categorized as mainly young adults reading material, but that age group is growing up, and therefore are there manga/graphic novels for adults then? Now, currently the difference in graphic novels for adults and adolescence is the existence of sex in the images, but then again, not everything is about sex. What happens when the title doesn’t have sex in it, but is not age appropriate or of interest to some fans, what can it be classified as? So the panel had some interesting discussion about the importance, and practically of having a graphic novel collection. Graphic novels also gets to be archived within a college library setting. I was hoping that there would be more recommendations for what graphic novels are more appropriate for adults, but with the emphasis on the fact that adults can also be reading this genre, then there is a message for the usefulness of libraries then.
Second panel for me was Special Topics in Graphic Novel Librarianship: A Roundtable. This was a specific librarian targeted panel, that I stayed in half way to listen. Cataloging graphic novels is quite confusing in the public setting, only dealing with the format of cataloging. Even in academic there is an issue of ignoring format, and concentrating on subject. Is that useful for library users? Also is it safe, as for some libraries to now place all graphic novels in one specific section. The panelist of this panel was filled with librarians, cataloger authority, and a Comic Book Legal Defense Fund representative, so it was interesting to hear them point out challenges and issues with graphic novels.
I stayed half way into this panel, and then moved on to the Del Rey and Spectra Books panel. With the earlier news of Del Rey folding as a graphic novel publisher, initially there were plenty of audience at this member to listen to any manga updates, but Del Rey pointed only to go to their booth at the exhibition room. Del Rey had a lot of other fantasy, science fiction books in their upcoming catalog to announce, and this they did. I wasn’t able to take much notes of this panel, but check out what this blog has to say summing up their experiences from that panel.
The last panel for Saturday I attended was for Vertical Press, and it was pretty informative, as publisher announces new and old updates. Continual publishing for Black Jack. Speeding up publishing for 7 Billion Needles, Twin Spica, and slowing down publication for Chi’s Sweet Home – as well as a web portal in development for the much beloved cat series! Following up publication for The Worry Free Bakery with The Worry Free Kitchen. Much of this panel was a slight repeat from their Otakon 2010 panel, of which Anime News Network has a listing of what was discussed. Some new things though. The Book of Human Insects, is said to be a sequel to Ayako which is one of Vertical’s Tezuka titles. Also they announced license acquirement of No Longer Human which they later retracted as premature, so we shall have to see what will happen in the next year then.
So that was Saturday for me. Sunday came.. and after a weekend of continual movement, and off convention sites events. My voice and speaking was an issue. I was able to attend two panels on this last day, an Archie Creators Tell All, and a Culinary Manga one.
Archie Creators Tell All was a slight tell all and reveal for fans and audience of the various artists, and company personnel, for the company’s works. Check out this blog for some facts of what actually happened. Since I read Archie comics as I was growing up, this panel was somewhat nostalgic for me. I was actually interested in how the artist spoke about how the various manga adaptation of Sabrina was a response to the market, and that it was an interesting experience. Also saw images of a more teen age Li’l Jinx, so that was quite interesting. There was a lot of Sonic questions thrown at the panelists though.
Culinary Manga was run by Erin and Norah of The Ninja Consultants Podcast and Sam Kusek of A Life in Panels. This panel was great in mentioning about the various different food themed manga that has limited available titles in English, but for a huge part – make up a larger more interesting insightful market in Japanese manga market. Imagine a manga about a natto parfait? How about exploring Japan’s best ramen shops? Then there is the widely popular Oishinbo, an Italian chef manga. (sighs) Then there is the already available in English Kitchen Princess, Yakitate!! Ja-pan. My mouth drools as I think of all the food manga that is only available in Japanese.
With this panel ending, it ends my official coverage at New York Comic Con this year. Official numbers for this con’s attendance is 96,000, which is a 20% jump in attendance. Here are some post con thoughts from NYCC own blog. Convention dates for NYCC and NYAF is going to be October 14 – 16, 2011.
Check out NYCC/NYAF photos on Flickr, and a forthcoming entry on photo diary from Eric M. Chu’s camera on the convention floors.