Mixed bag today.

• Well, there goes that. I have attended every iteration of New York Comic Con since its inception on a cold, snowy, overly-crowded February weekend (nearly a full year before this here blog launched), either working the CBLDF booth, doing my reportage, or both. The Javits Center is finally becoming navigable again, and while webcomics have almost entirely absented themselves from the floor, there are still a few to be found.
  

  Dear Gary Tyrrell,

  Thank you for applying for a Press Badge for New York Comic Con 2016. We have reviewed your application and based on NYCC’s Press Registration requirements, we are unfortunately unable to provide you with a Press Badge for NYCC 2016. Due to the growth of the Show and demand for Tickets, NYCC is utilizing a more intensive application process for qualifying members of the Press.

  While you do not meet our criteria for a Press Badge this year, we encourage you to attend NYCC 2016 as a Fan. If you would like to attend NYCC as a Fan in 2016, please complete our Fan Verification process at NewYorkComicCon.com/FanVerification. You may also apply for a Press Badge again in 2017. [emphasis original]

  Well, they spelled my name right, at least.

  I think I’m okay with this¹. It’s not been entirely clear if the “Fan Verification” process (which has come in for criticism for being overly intrusive) would have applied to press badges, but if it did I’d have been declining the opportunity to give up all my personal info again to glob knows who for glob knows what purposes. Also, I find the implication that Reed Pop will possibly give me a press badge in the future hilarious; I don’t fit their Big Media focus anymore and that’s not going to change in the future. I don’t begrudge the folks at Reed for that, by the way — it’s their show, they can extend free admission to whomever they wish.

  To be honest, the crush of huge, barely-comics comics shows has been something I’ve braved to see people I want to see in as large a grouping as possible, and that’s something I still do at San Diego². Heck, I can see more people I care to see at MoCCA or TopatoCon, and I suspect I’ll be heading to SPX more regularly, and adding TCAF to my rotation. Easy transportation via the train right outside my front door aside, the appeal of NYCC had reduced to the point I was doing a single day trip per year anyway, and I don’t see myself spending fifty bucks to continue that. Been cool, NYCC; see you around.

• Happier news: tomorrow will see the release of three webcomics-related trade paperbacks. The third Unbeatable Squirrel Girl collection (Squirrel You Really Got Me Now, by Ryan North and Erika Henderson, with an assist from Joe Quinones and Chort Zubaz) drops from Marvel, and the third Wayward collection (Out From The Shadows, Jim Zub, Steven Cummings, and Tamra Bonvillain), and the fourth Octopus Pie collection (with new strips printed for the first time, from Meredith Gran) both come to you courtesy of Image. As a reminder, Gran is having a pop-up celebration tomorrow night on the Lower East Side. Good stuff, straight to your friendly local comics shop.

Spam of the day:

Secret Brain-Enhancer Used by the Elite

Why, yes I’d very much like to see results like improved memory and brain from your completely opaque, no-disclosed-ingredients, unregulated smart pill that will absolutely not poison me.

_______________
¹ Apart from the Seemingly Random desire to Capitalize Words. What the Heck?

² Although there’s no speculating how much longer that will last. If I lose the home base of the Dumbrella booth, it may not be worth the travel time and cost any longer.