Mel V.'s New York Comic Con 2016 recon

What Up CHU? Mel V. here with my long overdue New York Comic Con review and recon. Man what a week, NYCC is the premiere event on the East Coast taking place at the Jacob Javits Center in Midtown Manhattan. If you guys have never been, I highly suggest you go, there is something there for everyone.


My comic Con experience started a day early, on Wednesday, as me and my good friend Beau aka Mintymancavecomics (who made the trip from Arizona) and I, had the pleasure of helping out Joshua, Sebastian, and Daryl from the mighty Stranger Comics. These are some of the most stand up guys in the business and I want to personally thank them for the kind things they did for us this weekend, Man I can’t wait to tell you the big news about Niobe.
But before that Niobe news, I have some things I can tell you now, is about an up and coming project I’m very excited for called Ruining Christmas which is slated for a 2017 holiday release. It is best described as Bad Santa meets I hate Fairyland. Joshua from Stranger told me that the Cupid character is based off me and my buddy Shaun L. I can’t wait to read this book. Untamed 2 is coming with some cover art by the legendary Jae Lee. Untamed #1 sold out on the last day of the con, it is a beautiful hardcover.
Stranger comics has another big property based on Vampire Hunter D and I gotta tell ya this is going to be great, it had major buzz at the con, and there was a Vampire Hunter D Preview Book available at their booth with art by Michael Broussard which is visually sexy and gritty, keep your eyes out for that one.
After we helped set up the Stranger booth we were allowed to walk the floor and meet up and talk with several creators. The first one was my buddy Jeffery Kaufman of Big City Comics where he was promoting his two new series, Scary Fails (which is excellent by the way) and Killing Mars. Killing Mars is about a former CIA op who is on the run and the only ones that can help him are these crazy female assassins. Jacob Mars appeared in a book called Whore and the assassins were first introduced in Terminal Alice. Not only was issue one of Killing Mars action packed but it had some funny parts as well.
Scary Fails was one of my favorite reads of this year. Issue 1 is slated to be in stores the last week of October. He had a “RISQUE” Variant limited to 10 (YES only 10) called the secret variant which is a sight to see. How can I say this… Um.. It has some of the best drawn “EYES” I ever seen, seriously the cover was amazing.
We ran into Brendan Deneen from Scout Comics shortly afterwards. Scout Comics became a heavy hitter on the Indy scene almost overnight. Books like Henchgirl and Once are Land have helped put their name on the radar. Check out Tony’s article for the future titles that are coming soon. One of the things I like to ask creators is if they have any media deal ties because I like to see how they feel about the prospect of seeing their work on the big screen, Brenden told me that Henchgirl and Solorman are in ACTIVE PRODUCTION. I can’t wait to see how those turn out.
Last but not least, on Wednesday, I met up with my friend Adam Cormack, and he was telling me that his brother Alex has a book coming out, and when I saw the cover, I knew I needed this book.The Book is called Sink written by John Lees (that dude is full of energy and is a riot) and it’s a series of one-shots set in Sinkhill, a forgotten East End district of Glasgow.
The first chapter, “Blue Van Country”, is based around the infamous Glaswegian urban legend of the psychotic clowns who drove around in a van snatching lone children.  I absolutely loved the first issue. Loved it so much I’m giving it my indy book of the show award, if you’re a fan of horror comics then I highly recommend this
Day 2. The first thing I noticed was that there were way more people there on a Thursday than last year and the Cosplay gets better and better every year. Some retailers are worried that the comic business is ending, but I don’t think that’s the case I think it’s going to pick up a lot in the next few years, but we as readers have to support the indy books because that’s where the future talent of the business resides. there are some great artists and story tellers on the indy scene (ok rant over.) Thursday was more about the buying and exclusives as soon as I got on the floor I headed over to Graphitti Designs to get some foil covers. Big mistake I should have been in the Black Mask Studios line as BLACK was a huge hit. The Black #1 Red Variant sold out within minutes. Rumor has it there was almost a fight on the line. I’m very proud of the creators of Black for making such a successful and important book. I wish those guys nothing but the best of luck with all their future works. Kwanza Osajyefo and Tim Smith were a pleasure to meet, very down to earth people.

The sneaky NYCC Variant that could have the highest value in the long run could be Reborn #1 Sketch NYCC by Greg Capullo. I read that book as well and it seems as if Image may have yet another hit on their hands.
So after snagging all the great variants of NYCC It was time to hit the bins and dealers. Now, I’m still kind of new to the dealer vs buyer relationship but I want to get your thoughts on dealers who have unpriced books who then go on eBay to check prices that they quote as their price. Leave it in the comments section below.
Some of the things I noticed Pink Harley Quinn #1 Bulletproof Variant was a $500 book at a lot of vendors.
Not a lot of vendors had Seven to Eternity #1 (Larry’s Comics were the only ones who seemed to have them, shout out to Larry and Josh, fantastic dealers) let alone the blank sketch variant. The only person I saw that had the blank sketch variant was the artist Jerome Opeña. Speaking of Jerome Opera, he had a Sketch Book, which is doing crazy things.
One vendor had Once Our Land #2 listed as 1st Henchgirl… I don’t even understand the logic behind that. Catwoman Adam Hughes are starting to gain steam but I was able to find them at a great price. Some of the stand out vendors Larry’s Comics of course, nice selection knowledgeable staff, they work with you on prices and has a great selection. The Next Generation based out of Islip Terrace in NY had a box full of GOLD, their variant section was top notch and I do mean top notch. Shout out to those guys, check them out at www.facebook.com/nextgenerationnewyork. Another fantastic vendor was Bobby over at Searchlight comics, he had a ton of gems for fantastic prices if you see their booth at any con, hit those $2 bins up. He always has new stuff at every con. But I have to give “booth of the show” to the fine guys at COMICDUNES, man these dudes are the best up and coming vendors, kind of new to the game, but I predict this store will be major players on the east coast within two years. Fair price wall books, key wall books at that, bins are very organized and has enough space when you can look through without books getting damaged, and a separate section just for variants. They are very down to Earth, I enjoyed talking to Jeff and his boys as much as I did digging through the bins, tip your hats gentleman get ready to enjoy even more successes.
DAY 3 – By Friday my feet were killing me. My wife told me to take an aspirin, I dunno what was in those aspirin she gave me but I was RECHARGED. Day 3 was a chill day for me, taking pics of Cosplay, and walking around artist alley, I missed Justin Jordan but I did pick up the ashcan of Family Trade. I think next year I will set aside some money for commissions.

I went to the Diversity in Comics panel, which I really enjoyed, this was my first actual panel, and it was good to see the amount of diversity in comic readership. I didn’t think the panel would be as packed as it was but I’m glad to see it was.
Day 4 – Saturday, I took off. I had some family things to do so there was no con for me.
Day 5- Sunday, closed out the con running around searching for more comics and more variants.
All in all, NYCC was a fantastic con if you have never been I do suggest you go because it’s something there for everybody.

In closing, I really want to thank Tony for everything he has done for me, if it was not for him I would not be living this incredible dream of doing something I actually love, I haven’t been this excited about a hobby in a long time, I love talking and writing about comics and Tony was the one who gave me my first shot at doing this and I will forever be indebted to him.
AGENT POYO It was an honor to meet you I wish we all could have hung out more and I wish I was around to meet Tyson B.
Shout out to Mintyfreshcomics we had a blast brother, see ya next year.
RAY FROM RJ COMICS AND TOYS http://www.rjcomicsandtoys.com/ – I can’t say enough great things about this dude, Thanks for everything to a true class act
Shout out to the cool dude at the NECA booth,I didn’t know him from hole in the wall and we spoke about horror toys for 20 mins. I felt like I knew him for ages, didn’t even get his name.
Shout out to all the artists looking to show off their work keep grinding never give up on your dream one day you will be headlining Comic Con
OK SEE YA NEXT YEAR NYCC and see ya soon readers thanks for letting me share my exploits with you