Daily Thoughts 10/8/2010 (New York Comic Con)

Anna Brassey (nee Allnut) (1839-1887)[1] was an English traveller and writer. Her bestselling book: A Voyage in the Sunbeam, our Home on the Ocean for Eleven Months was published in 1878. This illustration is from that book The daughter of John Allnut, she married the English member of parliament Sir Thomas Brassey (later Earl Brassey), with whom she lived near his Hastings constituency., 1883

Daily Thoughts 10/8/2010

I did get to New York Comic Con at 10:00 a.m. this morning.  It was very different than I expected.  There were a lot of computer gaming companies there.  Playstation, Wii, Nintendo, and others.  Because it was a combined show with Anime East, there were a lot of people in cosplay costumes.  Many of the costumes were of computer game characters or manga characters.  Costumes of Mario and Naruto characters were very popular.  I even took a little break and played a few turns of  the computer game Civilization V by Sid Meier.  There were a lot more big screens than last year showing films or live shots of multiplayer games.  This included the new Final Fantasy XIV online game.

Another thing which I saw was an exhibit for the new Intel computer chip as a chip for computer gamers.   They were giving out an Intel button with a picture from the new film from Dreamworks called Megamind.  Ford was also selling their Ford Fiesta in a comic book show.  I found the product placement to be a bit odd.  There was also a Green Hornet mobile with missiles and guns which was a little odd looking.  They are coming out with a Green Hornet film in January of 2011. http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/thegreenhornet/



I looked through the copy of the latest Diamond Comic Previews magazine which I got at the show and they have a multi-page spread with a new Green Hornet.  It looks completely different than the Green Hornet I have read.

Booth #434 was where the American Library Association was.  They had some material on graphic novels in libraries plus a whole bunch of material on gaming in libraries.  I picked up an http://www.ilovelibraries.org/ button to wear. I missed the group photograph, I was off looking at things.  I met one person who regularly attends the board of trustees meetings at the library and I met another gentleman who is a patron at our library who was shopping around the comic book he was creating.  He talks a lot about comics when I talk to him.  He suggested that we might want to get the anime Black Lagoon which is a little like Cowboy Bebop.

I walked a lot and looked at the booths and the artists.  There were a lot less booths than last year.  You could see the economies toll on the comics industry.  You could also see changes in the industry.  I saw a few people with Ipads.  There were also a number of displays for digital comics.  On the cover of Thor First Thunder being given at the Marvel booth, there was advertising for a free comics app http://www.marvel.com/marvelcomicsapp  whch is an application for the Iphone.

I also saw a few local organizations.  Brooklyn has a yearly animation blockparty.  http://www.animationblockparty.com/ I have not gone to it, but it looks very interesting.

There were a decent amount of free comics.  IDW gave away a free Dungeons and Dragons comic.  I especially liked the Darkhorse giveaway of Falling Skies which is based on a television series on TNT network.  Orbit Books gave away a copy of Gail Carriger's Blameless.  I am going to add it to my libraries collection.  I also picked up a button with the words Parasol Protectorate and a pink octopuss.  The Parasol Protectorate is the name of Gail Carriger's series.

While I was looking at science fiction books, I noticed that Avon Eos was using Netgalley http://www.netgalley.com/ to create a book with free samples of their work online.

I also saw the Museuem of Comic and Cartoon Art New York booth.  The museum is doing an Al Jaffe Art Exhibit from Oct 5, 2010 through January 30,2011.  Another organization which caught my attention was the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. 

One comic that caught my attention was an anthology called Reading With Pictures. It is from a nonprofit organization that uses comics as a tool for literacy.  There was no separate booth for them, but a lot of booths were selling the book.  http://www.readingwithpictures.org/

I picked up two things while I was at the Abrams Comic Arts Booth;  A poster for the book by Audrey Niffenegger for her graphic novel, The Night Bookmobile which I had a chance to look at the New York Comic Con booth. It is about a lady who finds her way to a bookmobile at night and chooses to work there.  I have it up in my room.

I also picked up an Advanced Reading Copy of Empire State A Love Story (Or Not) by Jason Shiga.  I read this on the train home and enjoyed it very much.  It is about a very close friendship between a man and a woman.   The man travels to New York from Oakland California to visit New York to see her and find a job.  It is a slice of life comic about relationships. 

I wandered around looking at booths.  There were were some other interesting books which I saw.  I had gotten an invitation from For Beginner Books to look at their books.   I liked their new graphic novel, Poetry For Beginners.  Beginner Books does nonfiction graphic novels.

There were a few other booths which caught my attention, http://www.shilongpang.com/  which is about a wandering shaolin monk.  It won the Xeric Award.    Midtown Comics was handing out 25% off cards.  There was a postcard for the film, Will Eisner Portrait of a Sequential Artist which is a full length documentary from Montilla Pictures.

Net Comics which featured Manhwa or Korean comics had a very nicely done booth.  I liked the style of their comic the Great Catsby.   They were also giving away very nicely designed cloth bags.  http://www.netcomics.com/

If I had had a little more time, I would have spent some time looking at the Hermes Press books http://www.hermespress.com/ .  They had several Buck Rogers oversize full color books.

I originally planned on staying for the three hours of the professional only session, but ended up staying an extra hour and a half from 10:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.  The show seemed geared towards a more general audience.  There were a lot of vendors selling comic books and graphic novels.  I saw vendors selling long bins of graphic novels instead of comics for 3 for $20.  It was an interesting show.

Daily Thoughts 10/7/2010 (New York Comic Con, Where Good Ideas Come From)

The Wally Pug of Why, 1896

Daily Thoughts 10/7/2010

I finished reading The Shadow Market last night.  It seems to be focused on the decline of the United States and Europe as capitalist powers and a shift eastward towards China and the Middle East.  I found it to be interesting, but not completely convincing.



I started reading Where Good Ideas Come From The Natural History of Innovation by Steven Johnson.  A couple of ideas that he immediately put out were that cities generate more innovation and the internet also generates a lot of new ideas.



I am putting together a display on climate and environmental change.  I am picking out books on hurricanes, extreme weather, global warming, and climate change.  It is an interesting topic. 


Gail Carriger's book Blameless came in for me to read.  It is a steampunk, vampire, werewolf romance.  In other words an entertaining mashup.

I am going to talk to a gentleman about having one on one SCORE counseling for small business on Tuesday.  Hopefully, it will work out well.  I also have a few other things which I still have to confirm.  I have to figure out my events for next month.

There are a lot of small details to work on; shelf reading, weeding, looking at our website to see if anything needs to change.

Tomorrow from 10:00-1:00 p.m., I have a free professional pass to New York Comic Con.  I have a couple different places I want to visit.  I got an invitation from For Beginner Books to stop by as well as from Abrams Art Books, and I definitely will look at NBM which I always stop by to look at.   I am also going to stop by Booth #434 which is the American Library Association booth for the big picture at 11:30 a.m.  I think I'll see several people that I may know.

I read some more of Where Good Ideas Come From and learned a little bit.  Part of the process of having a good idea is to build on a slow hunch.  Charles Darwin's journals are excellent examples of the slow build up of an idea.  Also the world wide web took quite a while to develop as an idea.  Tim Berners Lee did not describe any epiphany moment in creating the idea of the web.  One of the better ways to develop ideas is to keep a journal over a long period of time.  I think that this blog has helped me slowly develop quite a few ideas.

Daily Thoughts 1/23/2010

Portrait of a man with a Book. // York Art Gallery Parmigianino, 16th Century, from Wikimedia

Daily Thoughts 1/23/2010


So far my favorite section in The Medieval Craft of Memory is by Thomas Bradwardine, On Acquiring A Trained Memory. He describes some very interesting ideas. Place is viewed as a kind of wax tablet where people can store memories. Bradwardine suggests that it is easy to use small quiet rectangular spaces to store memories; a small garden and a study are two examples. He also suggests that memories be stored in sequence, using three, five, or seven objects at a time. There is a differentiation between images and words.

The text of The Medieval Craft of Memory consists of a variety of different articles by various medieval scholars. Many of them are just becoming available in english. Most were originally in latin.

New York Comic Con offers free professional passes for librarians and educators on Friday October 8, 2010. http://www.newyorkcomiccon.com/en/Tickets/For-Professionals/

Today has been a nice quiet day to relax.

Daily Thoughts

Still Life with French Novels and a Rose Vincent Van Gogh 1887

Daily Thoughts

Tomorrow I am going to the O'Reilly Tools of Change Publishing Conference. On Friday, I went to the New York Comic Con. I am going to be going on Monday for the whole day, and Wednesday morning.

On Tuesday, we have a professor from Pratt coming to visit us to talk about collection development and I have to be there to listen to the professors talk as well as have them evaluate the collection. Librarians from a variety of different libraries are coming to visit my library that day.

There are still a lot of things which I need to do to improve the collection.

This afternoon, I read some of an Advanced Reading Copy of Monster A Novel, by A. Lee Martinez. The writing reminds me a bit of a modernized version of Robert Asprin. The fantasy novel is coming out in May of 2009.

Daily Thoughts, New York Comic Con

Pierre-Auguste Renoir Madame Monet Reading Le Figaro, 1872, 54x72cm. Lisbon, Fundacao Calouste Gulbenkian Museu.

Daily Thoughts

I am going to the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan for New York Comic Con this morning.

On the way to the conference, I finished reading Halo, The Cole Protocol by Tobias Buckell. Then I started reading Six Hours Past Thursday by Jack Payne. There is an inscription inside the front cover of the book dated 3/11/05 "To the staff, friends, and patrons of the Stonehill College Library. I am honored by your invitation to join your circle. Thank you for welcoming me"-- Jack Payne. The book came all the way from Eastham, Massachusetts.

The conference was at the Jacob Javits Center, because I was going on my own time, I decided to skip the panels and just walk around and look at the conference floor. There was a nice professional lounge in back with coffee and popcorn and tables to sort through things. I picked up a variety of buttons and similar things to use as giveaways for the young adult programming.

There was a very long line of professional attendees. I had to wait about an hour to get in. The conference floor was packed with people. I was surprised by some of the things I saw. There were a lot of video games being displayed that are based on comics, as well as several films based on comic books. In addition, there were a variety of different collectible card games other than Magic the Gathering being promoted.

Many people were in costume. Lots of Star Wars costumes, some Otaku (manga costumes), some video game costumes (Halo was popular) and a few character costumes from comic books. A lot of people had light saber props or futuristic science fiction weaponry toys. People were taking pictures of people in costume. There were a lot of people wandering around with video cameras as well.

There were many vendors selling comic books. Some of them were selling $1 comics, and 3 for a $1 comics. Lots of the older comic books were being deeply discounted up to 50% off. There appears to be a huge glut of superhero comics from the 1980s and 1990s which makes most of them not worth anything. This is good if you just want to read comic books or get something as a present, but not so great for people who are hoping to make money off of old comic books.

Most of the publishers were focused on seling book length graphic novels more than anything else as well as books on how to draw, write comics, draw manga, animate films, and the history of comics. I think they are finding this much more lucrative than selling individual comic books.

I spent a little bit of money and bought a few comic books, Death Rattle 1, 2, and 3 by Kitchen Sink and a few copies of Max Allan Collins hard boiled detective comic Ms. Tree.

I had a chance to go to the artists corner. I did not see Kyle Baker. The artist who I was most interested in seeing Colleen Doran who writes A Distant Soil, was packed with people. Also Peter David, a writer who started out with Star Trek had quite a few people at his table. I bought #1-5 of Death Dealer published by Image Comics for $10. The artist and the writer signed the copies on the front cover. In total, I spent $15 buying things and got into the conference for free.

There was a lot of original artwork being sold. They had a very large set of artists tables. Most of the artists were freelancers who worked for a variety of companies. I did not see as many older artists as you might expect. Most of the artists were professionals in the twenty to fifty age range. There wasn't a lot of x-rated material. There was some cheesecake, things like Betty Page, and pinup girl books. Some people were dressed up a little bit in that style, but not overly revealing.

The major publishers were there, Dark Horse, Top Shelf, DC, Marvel, NBM, Fantagraphics, Oni, Tokyopop, Del Rey Manga, along with a variety of minor and independent publishing houses. There were also quite a few science fiction publishers, Tor, Bantam Spectra, Bantam Del Rey, Wiley, Avon Eos, and many others.

I picked up a variety of publishers catalogs, Rosen Graphics, NBM Spring 2009, Papercutz, Abrams Comic Art, Disney, Titan Books, Top Shelf, and Dark Horse. I also picked two advanced reading copies for me to read, Linnea Sinclair, Hope's Folly and A. Lee Martinez, Monsters A Novel.

I am also donating six new paperbacks which were given as freebies, as well as a graphic novel, Method Man and a trade paperback, Iron Man Beneath The Armor by Andy Mangels to the library which were free.

I got a chance to ask about a few things which I saw, A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin probably won't be out until past Fall 2009. Also, there will be a new League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic Novel, 1901, probably in September of 2009. They are releasing it in March of 2009 in the United Kingdom.

I was hoping to see some of my colleagues, but there were so many people that it was hard to recognize anyone. I recognized a few of the vendors from other conferences I had been at.

I enjoyed my brief stay at the conference. I spent about five hours there which was enough. Some of it can be a bit odd. Sometimes you wonder about all the different little figurines and statues which people buy. One of the most interesting products I saw at the conference were personalized computer thumb drives in the shape of different cartoon characters.

Good Morning, Conferences

Isaac Asimov in his younger days. Did you know the early term for science fiction in 1925 was scientifiction?

Good Morning

On the train to work I started reading Getting Results For Dummies by Mark H. McCormack. This book is really interesting because the author is in sports management. When he gives examples he uses famous sports figures like Tiger Woods and Arnold Palmer. He also uses a lot of anecdotes and real world examples. I rather like this quote, "A pen, a legal pad, and a plan are all you need to get organized."

When I came into work the book Copyediting and Proofreading for Dummies was waiting for me. I think that will be the next book which I read.

I organized the main display on the floor, did some weeding in the social sciences, and made a phone call to confirm that Westchester Residential Opportunities was going to do a "Foreclosure Information Workshop" at the library on January 29, 2008. I am looking forward to seeing this done. I have also contacted the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America about doing another workshop on foreclosure as well.

Today was a snow day. City employees got to go home early. I rushed to finish another set of orders for mass market paperbacks from Baker and Taylor's Paperclips and finished an order with ten minutes to spare before one o'clock.

Then it was into the snow and freezing rain. The trains were very slow and crowded, but I still had a chance to read some more of Getting Results for Dummies. I also had a large cup of coffee to keep my insides warm. I am enjoying the book despite the mundane subject. The author is a surprisingly good writer.

Conferences

I am hoping I can attend a wide variety of conferences this year.

On February 6-8, 2009 is New York Comic Con at the Jacob Javits Center. It looks to be a very good conference this year. I look forward to going there. Hopefully, I will collect a lot of material for the library there. http://www.nycomiccon.com/App/homepage.cfm?moduleid=2577&appname=100453

On Friday, May 8, 2009 is the Westchester Library Association. I am going there as well. The conference is titled: Making A Difference: Changing Libraries for Changing TimesDoubletree Hotel, Tarrytown NY

On May 28-31, 2009 is Book Expo America at the Jacob Javits Center. I am definitely going to try and be there as well. Book Expo America is held every other year in New York. I plan on collecting a very large amount of publishing catalogs when I go there as well as requesting to put our library on publishing mailing lists.

http://www.bookexpoamerica.com/

Good Morning, Ice Haven by Daniel Clowes, Evening Thoughts

Betty Boop In Snow White

Good Morning
Google settled its landmark lawsuit over book scanning.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6609195.html?desc=topstory

On Twitter, I found a link for Brewster Kahle's criticism of Google's settlement with the publishers. Brewster Kahle works for the Open Content Alliance.
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_10839879?source=rss

New York Comic Con now has a twitter address: NY_Comic_Con
New York Comic Con is going to happen 100 days from now. I am looking forward to it.

Ice Haven A Comic Strip Novel by Daniel Clowes.

This book is written is in the comic strip style like you would see in a newspaper. This makes it a kind of unique format and shape for the book. The story itself is named after the town Ice Haven. It is a morose, angst filled, and ironic story in the comics format. This made me somewhat ambivalent when reading it.

Even the little kids spout philosophical. If you have a really strong sense of irony you might like this graphic novel.

My favorite sections of this work are the opening of the book, and the closing biography narrated by Harry Naybors, Comic Critic.

I liked the character Charles who is a little kid with glasses. His head is very big for his body. He even plays baseball like Charlie Brown. The drawings are almost realistic. They are just slightly off from reality making things look very odd.

I spent some more time ordering books this afternoon. This afternoon, I went to http://www.oreilly.com/ which is a publisher of computer books. They have an excellent selection of computer books. One series which I order a lot of is "The Missing Manuals" series. I also ordered a book which I very much want to read, We The Media: Grassroots Journalism By The People, For The People by Dan Gillmor.

As is the case every day, I also spent quite a bit of time weeding books. I have a lot more weeding to do.

Daily Thoughts

It is going to make me a while to read The Ten Cent Plague. It is quite interesting, some of the material on Wonder Woman is quite funny in darkly humorous way. There was an article on Library Journal's blog today on the New York Comic Con.
There are some very nice pictures of the convention on the blog.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/blog/770000077/post/270025227.html

I went to my local library today. I sat for an hour using their computers again. Mostly to fool around with the various social networking sites. Then I looked around the library to see if there was anything I wanted to read. There wasn't anything to read, however, I noticed there was a completely new selection of manga for the teenagers. Manga is not something which I know a lot about. Sometimes, you visit other libraries to see what they have to help you find material. There looked to be an interesting selection. Bleach, Case Cloaed, Fruits Basket, Full Metal Alchemist, Naruto, Peach Girl, and Yu-Gi-Oh were there. I think Yu-Gi-Oh and Full Metal Alchemist are on Nickelodeon or the Cartoon Channel.

I think I saw one of the librarians from my local library at New York Comic Con. I think she orders the graphic novels for my local library. I really didn't say anything at all.

I requested three books on socially responsible stock investing at the information desk. I didn't ask for any titles. I'll probably send one or two of them back after I look at the books. I am very interested in this type of investing. Today, I got some relief, Time Magazine has an article on a stock which I am intested in Finavera. This issue is for earth day, April 28, 2008. So the article is forthcoming.

I know this has very little to do with librarianship, or books but I feel that I should post it anyways. This is a film from Youtube on the technology. It is not fully developed yet, so there is a considerable amount of risk involved. However, it is a potentially disruptive alternative energy technology. The technology is called aquabuoy.



Everyone is talking about Earth Day. I don't think too much about it. But, I will tell you this. Everyone spends too much time in their cars. Maybe, I am a little strange. I try and walk a little bit every day. I like being outside, not in a car or a bus. I walk to the library, the deli, the produce stand, and the park. I am glad that I live in livable community, not a giant urban sprawl where you have to get in your car and drive five miles to do anything.

Go outside today and if you can make it a habit, go outside a bit every single day. You don't hear it much anymore, but my father used to insist that I went outside a little bit every day to play when my freinds came by. Now, everyone is inside all the time glued to computers and television. It is unhealthy.

New York Comic Con

Today is New York Comic Con day. I get a free pass today to wander around and look at graphic novels. Hopefully, I will get a chance to pick up some free graphic novel donations as well as numerous catalogs and bookmarks. We like to get bookmarks to give away for the teenage programs. Last time I was there they had free DC and Marvel bookmarks which we gave to the teenagers. Hopefully there will be some free manga material we can use in our manga program at the library.

I am going to get a chance to see a lot of people that I recognize or know when I go this morning. My pass is ready. I have to pick up a convention book. There is a screening of a film on Will Eisner which I want to see. I'll probably walk the whole convention floor. The last time I was at the show, there were also several science fiction publishers, a few gaming publishers, and a few oddball exhibits.

I am a bit tired from the workshop yesterday, but I am really looking forward to this convention. I hope they have a lot of freebies. I actually bought a few things last year.

I am going to concentrate on writing my experience at the convention today. I already have finished reading the Rabbi's Cat 1 & 2, and am about to start reading The Ten Cent Plague. However, I think it might be interesting to write my experience of seeing the big convention.

Hopefully a few of you people will be there. Look for me anonymously. Anyways, I am off to start my day. The Jacob Javits Center where the convention is being held is positively enormous. It will take me the whole day to look around.

I never did see the film on Will Eisner, I did get to see some other panels, though. I got there at nine o'clock a.m. The floor did not open until 10 a.m. I spent some time organizing which booths I would go to by floor location. This way, I could visit the booths I wanted to see first then wander. Here is the order
Darkorse (Comic Book Company) #823
Activision (Game Company) #1048
Wizard (Magazine) #1056
Marvel Comics #1141
Publishers Weekly #1164
Diamond Comics Distributor #1231
Tokyopop (Manga) #1321
Image (Comics) #1407
Oni (Comics) #1413
Tor Books #1533
DC Comics #1627
Nickelodeon #1657
Harper Collins #1814
NBM #1917
Penguin #1941
Random House #1920, 1921
Fantagraphics #1948

I basically was looking around to see what they had which we might get for our library. I was surprised by the number of publishers that said that I should look at their website, they no longer sent out catalogs. I ended up giving my address and name at six different places to request paper catalogs and free samples of material. I also picked up a variety of free items which will most likely be added to our collection. I picked up two hardcover books, a dozen free paperbacks including a star wars and several star trek paperbacks, the 30 Days of Night Adaptation to novel form from the movie, and four graphic novels.

This is nothing like Book Expo America, last time I was there I paid to ship 100 pounds of free books and material back to my library. Compared to the book industry, the comic book industry is quite parsimonious. Most of the time they ask you to pay for things at a discount.

I found a really interesting press, Dorchester Publishing which was displaying the hard case crime series, I ended buying a Max Alan Collins Paperback, Deadly Beloved, The first ever Ms. Tree Novel. Ms. Tree was a famous syndicated hardboiled mystery cartoon written during the 1980s and 1990s. It is one of the better black and white mystery noir comics that I have seen. Max Allan Collins also wrote Road to Perdition which was turned into both a graphic novel and a movie. I rather enjoyed the graphic novel.

I ended up walking around for some four hours total. I looked for something to eat, but a sandwich costed $8.00 and I decided it would be better if I just ate when I got home. Drinks were still $3.75 for a soda which was a bit outrageous.

After walking around for quite a bit, I sat down and rested my feet. By that time it was 2:00 P.M. I decided to go and see a few of the panels that they were doing. The First panel was a Choosing The News, The Changing Face of Online Journalism:
Quoting the catalog description:

It's a fact - journalism has changed. With more outlets than ever, more demands from news sources, and comics increasingly covered by the mainstream, how do comics news sites navigate the uncharted waters? Join Matt Brady (Newsarama), Richard George (IGN), Rick Marshall (ComicMix), Brian Heater (Daily Cross Hatch) and others for this engaging discussion, moderated by The Beat's Heidi MacDonald.

Most of the discussion was not focused so much on actual news but what the process was. They said basically, you have to put out news every single day, those who work harder are the ones who win in the end. Also, you have to produce more original content, it is too easy to just take a press release and stick it on your site. This is really a waste of time because it does not have any unique opinion. They pointed out that hype is read a lot more than real journalism, people basically want to be entertained more than get good criticism. Also, you have to watch viral announcements, it is like giving away free advertising and you don't want to do that necessarily.

The next panel which I saw was at 3:00 P.M. It was a set of comic books legends. I am going to list and summarize what I think each one said from:

Joe Simon: Joe simon is most famous for creating Captain America with Jack Kirby. We should bring back the spirit of Captain America without his shield and all the extra gadgets just like he was before. Captain America is the symbol of American spirit and we really need that right now. My brightest student was Stan Lee, and Stan Lee andJack Kirby were the best team together.

Joe Sinnott: The greatest person is Stan Lee I have been working with him for over 58 years. My favorite comic book work was on the Beatles and Babe Ruth.

Murphy Anderson: I worked in the production department in DC comics. I think the greatest comic book artist was Will Eisner.

Jerry Robinson: I remember curating a show at The Kennedy Center. They spent $100 for my picture of the joker, and across the room was a pop art picture of the Joker by an artist named Ramos that was insured for $300,000.

Stan Lee: My greatest contribution will be determined by posterity in the future. My real greatest contribution was paying my wifes allowance. Jack Kirby was the greatest comic artist, he had a tremendous ability to tell a story.

Ramona Fradon: There was never any discrimination against her in the comic books industry. But, sometimes it got a little scary in the afternoon in the bullpen when everyone was yelling. Her most important influence was a woman named Linda Fight. She drew aquaman, plastic man, and Brenda Starr.

Dick Ayers: I had nothing left from Marvel or DC, they still had all of my work. I was writing an autobiography because I wanted to write a story, but I couldn't I could only draw it. When I was contacted by publishers to see if I had any work, I ended up producing my autobiography. I started as a magazine editor. Gene Colan was my the best artist.

Irwin Hayson: When I was drawing Wonder Woman, it drove me to go out with a lot of really tall women. Dondi, my syndicated newspaper strip was a labor of love.

Carmine Infantino: John Infantino, my son is doing marvelous work, much better than I ever did. He also got in in time to get the benefits which we never had during the silver age of comics. My greatest influence was Milton Caniff, I tried to draw like him but never could.

At the beginning of the panel, everyone was clapping and cheering for the artists and editors as they were heading to the stage. There were at least five people with cameras shooting footage of the show. In addition people were taking pictures and using their cell phones to take pictures. A few people were on their laptops typing things up.

This panel was truly incredible to watch. It represented from the beginnings of the comic book industries until the present day.

The last panel I attended was from 4:00-5:00 p.m., Weird Tales-- 85 Years, 85 Storytellers. This panel was on the history of Weird Tales magazine. The panelists were several people from the latest incarnation of weird tales. There was also an archival specialist who was working with Weird Tales. Weird Tales was the first magazine exclusively focused on science fiction, horror, and fantasy. Originally, the stories were not called that. They were simply stories about weird things. It was the source of H.P. Lovecraft (Modern Horror), Robert E. Howard (Swords and Sorcery, and Clark Ashton Smith (Fantasy Poetry or gothic tales.)

I would contest this one, I think Sidney H. Sime, although not as well known as Clark Ashton Smith was the precursor for gothic poetry.

Weird Tales has started adding comic book inserts into the magazine. The panelists said that many of EC Comics stories during the 1950's originated in Weird Tales.

They suggested the March/ April 2008 issue was available at Table D 33 for sale for $5.00. I think the lady was worried that I was going to ask for it for free. I paid the $5.00. The issue is kind of interesting. I am looking at the 85 Weirdest Storytellers of the Past 85 Years article on Pp. 24-41. I haven't actually read it yet.

Anyways, I finished the convention and sat down for a little bit. Then I went to catch a taxi. The taxi man wanted $20.00 for a trip from 34th street to 42nd street. I decided to take a pass and walk to the subway. On the way home, I read a little bit of a star wars paperback in one of the bags which I brought home with me.

I got home and sorted the books which I would keep at home and those which I would bring back to work. I put all of my publishers catalogs, nick nacks, and bookmarks in a separate bag for work. I put this bag in my bag with the books I am bringing in tomorrow.

What I have left is a bunch of Advanced Reading Copies which we are not supposed to add to the library. Adding them is forbidden by the publishers. Some of the Advanced Reading Copies or Advanced Uncorrected Proofs are The Dangerous Days of Daniel by James Patterson and Michael Ledgwick, Little Brown, Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link, Little Brown, The Twelve Kingdoms by Fuyumi Ono, Tokypop, Chalice by Robin McKinley, My Incredible Wonderful Miserable Life by Adam Nimoy (Adam Nimoy is the son of Leonard Nimoy), Daniel X Alien Hunter, A Graphic Novel by James Patterson and Leopoldo Gout, Little Brown. This is the first advanced reading copy of a graphic novel which I have seen.

I also received an interesting graphic novel designed for literacy. It is called The Word Eater by Michael Dahl. The RL is: 2.9 2nd grade, 9th month. The main character is a librarian. He is the hero. I rather like this idea. It is quite appealing.