With the 2019 New York Comic Con in the books it’s time to get to all the great things that happened over the course of the four day pop-culture celebration. Bringing hundreds of thousands of fans to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan NYCC is a celebration of all things pop culture from comics, video games, TV, movies, collectibles, posters, and artists. There is always a tremendous amount to do throughout the weekend including panels, exhibit floor, artist alley, and offsite activations
As normal I’ll be separating my coverage of the floor into a few categories as well as splitting up the coverage of panels and a few other areas. As I’ve become a big fan of screen print posters I’ll start off with a look at the art galleries and some of the artists contributing to these galleries first. The level of improvement I see from these galleries year over year cannot be stated enough and is clearly evident in the quality of product being released. While the NYCC Artist Alley is of the highest caliber this article is solely focused on the booths and artists on the show floor in the poster art game, that said Jock and others do have booths in artist alley.
Let’s begin
Bottleneck Gallery
https://bottleneckgallery.com/
In my opinion Bottleneck Gallery (BNG) has become the top spot for screen printed posters. With two (Amblinesque and Gabz) successful gallery shows leading up to NYCC BNG continued to work non-stop to bring the absolute most and best posters to the convention. Looking at their release schedule gives you a sense of the scale of their releases. BNG again worked closely with Vice Press and co-owner/artist Matt Ferguson for a much larger series of releases including a Lord of the Rings, Batman ’89, and Star Wars properties. Other key releases which included online drops were the final poster in the Ise Ananphada Lord of the Rings trilogy, Raid71 Blade Runner and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Karl Fitzgerald and Eric Tan Star Wars Posters, a stunning Jurassic Park piece by John Guydo, a highly sought after Tom Whalen Halloween III release, as well as pieces by Rory Kurtz, Rockin Jelly Bean, Anthony Petrie, Matt Ryan Tobin, Dan Mumford, and a Brad Hill “Penguin” pin that was super limited. Also sharing the booth with Bottleneck again was Bimtoy selling their Tiny Ghost Vinyls. The booth saw a steady stream of people once the floor opened and had lines in the two hour range. Congrats to BNG for a hugely successful year!
Matt Ferguson did have a signing on Friday where he gave out a Amblinesque mini-booklet to those on line and to he also had a new coin this year where you could be Iron Man and undo the snapture!
Grey Matter Art
https://greymatterart.com/
I said it in my article last year – ReedPop should give them double the space – and this year I am happy to say not only did Grey Matter Art (GMA) get their larger booth space but they also got a much better location. Moving away from the 3000 section GMA moved to a much better spot in the 900’s area which happened to be a nice thoroughfare for traffic and not far from the main Marvel booth.
GMA worked with a slew of artists including Jock, Tom Whalen, Doaly, Dan Mumford, Raid71, Marko Manev, Andy Fairhurst, and Godmachine mostly focusing on Marvel properties this year. GMA also collaborated with BNG and Vice-Press for a gorgeous Matt Ferguson Captain Marvel piece. Finally for those fans of their Tyler Stout True Romance earlier this year GMA had a raffle at the end of each day for a chance at getting with the gold variant or the super limited foil version. It’s great to see the staff at GMA take the right steps year over year and I for one can’t wait to see some of their upcoming releases!
Spoke Art
https://spoke-art.com/
Another regular at NYCC Spoke-Art arguably brings the highest quality art in the most limited numbers. Artists like Welker and Sperry have extremely limited runs sometimes of only 10 copies which can cause mayhem in the mornings of the convention. Ths year they also worked with Tracie Ching, Joshua Budich, Dan Mumford, Alex Garant, Marq Spusta, Fernando Reza, and Concepción Studios for NYCC 2019
Hero Complex Gallery
https://hcgart.com/
Hero Complex is always super secretive leading up to NYCC. Whereas other galleries will tease what’s about to come from the convention HCG stays exceptionally quiet though they do typically work with the same set of artists each year. This year was no different and there were plenty of new releases including a stunning new addition to the Harry Potter poster they do with Kevin Wilson as well as sweet Shawshank Redemption and The Lost Boys print. Artists on hand throughout the weekend included Dan Mumford, Glen Brogan, Kevin M. Wilson/Ape Meets Girls, Marko Manev, and Vance Kelly.
Jason Edmiston
http://jasonedmiston.com/
Making his return to the Block Jason Edmiston continued his popular Eyes Without a Face series with a set of new releases including Captain America, Breaking Bad, The Warriors, and Young Frankenstein. A traditional artist, painting in acrylic on watercolor Jason had originals of these pieces for sale but only if you had close to $1,000 to spend. Rounding out the releases was a new End of the Party: Candy Apple giclee release.
Strong Stuff – Tom Whalen Illustration and Montygog’s Art-O-Rama
http://www.strongstuff.net/
http://montygog.blogspot.com/
Tom Whalen and Dave Perillo continued to share a booth in Block where both were selling harder to find sold out prints including the recent Mondo Marvel release. Tom was fairly busy with releases from multiple galleries this year. Dave had his Overwatch, Pixar, and Peanuts prints to name a few on sale.
Anthony Petrie
https://anthonypetrie.com/
Anthony Petrie has also become a regular artist on the show floor. Coming off a successful Jaws chum chart timed edition from BNG Anthomy had a few new prints with BNG including a TMNT and a Vader print at his booth he also had a new collection “Strange Beast”
Tracie Ching
http://www.tracieching.com/
Making her NYCC debut Tracie on top of her “I Love NY” print from Spoke Art had her own booth in the Block selling her other releases including her Lizzo tour print, a spectacular sparkle Thor Ragnarok, and other gig prints.
Camilla D’Errico
https://camilladerrico.com
Someone I saw earlier this year at Five Points Festival Camilla d’Errico also had a booth in the Block. For those unfamiliar Camilla creates manga-inspired art as well as fashion, accessories, art books, and more. Her style and figures often feature figures each with one eye contrasting with the other. At NYCC she had a slew of new items including pillows and a new art book.
Yesterdays Co
https://www.yesterdays.co/
Yesterdays is a soft enamel lapel pin company focused around art & design driven graphics. Their pins come from all media including comics, TV, and Movies
DKE Toys Distribution
https://www.dketoys.com/
DKE toys works with many artists creating limited run vinyl designer toys. Most of the pieces run on the bootleg side of toys which is what makes the designer toy market so great!
