Emerald City Video

So, just so it’s said up front: comic book and pop culture conventions have always been a real mixed bag for me. It’s a little bit my own anxiety, a little bit my naturally introverted personality, and a little bit how non-stop the events themselves are.

While I love seeing my “work friends” and it’s great to get face time with some of the biggest names in comics and pop culture, it’s also a lot of work. I spend most of the weekend sprinting from place to place, getting no writing done because I’m trying to cram in all of my interviews and events. Then, I feel guilty about not writing and get almost no sleep before getting up to repeat the process.

Depending on the day, the year, and the outlet, there have been times when I was downright miserable at big comic conventions. There have been times when I missed a mandatory panel and had to cover it based on someone else’s liveblog. There have been times when I walked across the bridge to San Diego’s convention center, blaring Springsteen bootlegs through my headphones just to give myself the strength to finish the day.

I have been going to New York Comic Con almost as long as it has been a thing. I can’t recall when my first year was, but it was sometime between 2006 (when the convention was founded) and 2008 (when I lived in the City full time). It’s where I first met Dan Jurgens in person, and where I did my first “officially sanctioned” interviews for Big Two publishers.

It’s also the only convention where I have ever tabled (for ComicBook, in 2009 I think). I love New York Comic Con as much as I can possibly love one of these big, corporate conventions.

It’s maybe no surprise, then, that it was in New York that I just had maybe the best convention experience of my career.

Recently, I took a new position as News Editor for The Beat (comicsbeat.com). It’s a great site with one of the best groups of writers in all of comics journalism (as evidenced by their Eisner win this summer). I’m very proud to be working with them, but since I had a “big” role and was hired shortly before a major convention, I felt compelled to at least make an appearance at New York. Having been marginally employed for a year, though, I could only swing a one-day appearance, since a hotel on such short notice was out of the question.

I attended New York Comic Con on Saturday, October 11th this year, and the whole day was a blur of frenzied activity…but it was all good.

I spoke with some of the coolest people in comics, from old friends Erik Larsen and Dave Baker to the immensely talented Patrick Horvath and Michel Fiffe.

You could do a lot worse than to spend a morning with these guys! I also had a great roundtable interview with the Exquisite Corpses franchise team of Che Grayson, Adam Gorham, Pornsak Pichetshote, all of whom were just incredibly smart, funny, and kind. I can’t wait for y’all to read that interview over at The Beat.

The high point of the night — and the event I think might be my all-time favorite convention moment — was my first time hosting a panel at a convention of this scale. At 8:30 p.m., long after I assumed most of the attendees had gone home for the night, I had the privilege of moderating the VelociPastor panel (officially titled “The VelociPastor 2.22 You Will (not) Believe A Man Can Turn Into A Dinosaur”). It was better, in every way, than I could have hoped for.

Attending the panel were stars Gregory Cohan (Doug Jones/The VelociPastor) and Alyssa Kempinski (Carol) along with Emmy-winnign makeup artist Jennifer Suarez. After our introductions and a bit of small talk, we were joined by Boone, the dinosaur who fights ninjas in the VelociPastor movies. Also, a little later on in our panel.

Before the panel, none of us were sure what kind of turnout to expect. We were giving away some swag, and I advised them not to leave a “winning ticket” on the underside of chairs, in case we were half empty and people ended up running around looking for them.

Turns out, we didn’t need to worry. Fifteen minutes before the panel, we had a line down the hallway, out the door, and down another hallway. We filled the room to capacity, and the energy was great. Greg and Alyssa, who are always great with fans, excelled with a room full of passionate VelocApostles, and Jen’s natural warmth and humor really shone through.

We burned through 45 minutes of our hour with ease, and then I wrapped the Q&A early to show off the trailer, give away some stuff…and ultimately let fans come up and talk to Greg, Alyssa, and Jen for about 20 minutes after we were theoretically shut down. It was great, and hopefully, the footage we shot will end up on the internet or on the VelociPastor II Blu-ray, because I would love for more people to see it.

The VelociPastor II trailer debuted at New York Comic Con to great response. The team will be rolling it out this week, apparently debuting exclusively on a horror website (I’m guessing Bloody Disgusting, but have zero inside information). Once that happens, it will go live. In the meantime, Team VelociPastor got the rights to the movie back from their old distributor, and you can get the movie on VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray at their official store.

Something I should have, but didn’t, announce at New York Comic Con is that I’m writing an official tie-in book for The VelociPastor II. Titled The VelociGospel, the book serves as an oral history of the first film and a tie-in book for the second. The plan is to get it in stores around the same time the movie drops on Blu-ray, likely in mid-2026 after their planned roadshow and festival screenings. The VelociGospel has been mentioned on this site before, but in case anybody hasn’t heard about it…well…get excited!