From Thursday October 9th through Sunday October 12th legions of comic book and science fiction fans descended upon the Jacob Javits Center in New York City to partake in the spectacle that is the 2014 New York Comic Con. As is the case each year, the four day affair is a Mecca of science fiction and fantasy entertainment mediums. The screenings, panels and autograph sessions were just the tip of the iceberg as the spacious confines of the Hell’s Kitchen-based convention center were filled to the gills with fans dressed as their favorite characters from a myriad of movies, comic books and television shows. Though The Shadow League has been blessed with a myriad of superpowers, omniscience is not one of them. Simply put, we couldn’t get to all of the events that we wanted to get to, but we did get to quite a few.
On the very first day The Shadow League was able to sit in on the We Need Diverse (Comic) Books panel with Amie Wright, Craig Anderson, Mat Bird and Lucia Cederia Serantes of the American Library Association. In this rather intimate setting, panelists basically used a slideshow to help illustrate a history of comic books that many comic book fans are fairly familiar with. However, there were some rare clips that not even we recognized. For example, did you know that Superman fought against the KKK on the Superman Radio show in the 1950s? Some of the panelists even believe this may have been responsible for the rapid decline of the Klan following this time period.
On Friday we were able to make a few more moves than the day before as we were able to attend such functions as the Women of Color in Comics: Race, Gender and the Comic Book Medium, hosted by Regine L. Sawyer of Lockett Down Productions.
Some of the boldest, brashest and most forward thinking women in all of comic books were on hand for Saturday’s DC Entertainment: Women of DC Entertainment panel featuring Amanda Conner (Harley Quinn), Bobbie Chase (DC Executive Editor), Caitlin Kittredge (Coffin Hill), Shelly Bond (Editor, Vertigo Comics, Marguerite Bennett (writer, Batgirl, Earth 2: World’s End), Gail Simone (writer, Red Sonja, Batgirl, Secret Six) as well as other artists and editors of some of DC most successful characters. On Sunday, The Shadow League was in the house once again for DMC Presents: Boom! Bap! Pow! Hip-Hop & Comics! 2014 Edition.
Moderated by Chuck Creekmur (Allhiphop.com), the panel featured commentary from producer Just Blaze, Bobbito Garcia, producer Kwame Harris and recording artist turned comic book hero/publisher Darryl DMC McDaniel of Run DMC.
The Shadow League will bring you more in depth coverage of each of the panel discussions that we attended in the near future. As is the case with every comic book convention, television shows and films are teased in abundance. In addition to Marvel Comics announcing the new Secret Wars story arc to debut in 2015, Netflix gave everyone a sneak peak of the upcoming “Daredevil” series from Netflix (2015) as well as some looks at the highly-anticipated Avengers 2: Age of Ultron.
In addition to hitting up some of these panels, The Shadow League’s cameras were clicking away at the wonderfully creative cosplay that permeated the affair. You can see them all on our Instagram account (follow us at TheShadowLeague). Also stay tuned for updates on our new programs around the world of comic books coming soon.
