NYCC: ‘Marvel Contest of Champions’: Gameplay and New Character Reveal

This year at New York Comic Con we stopped by the Kabam booth to try our hands at the latest from Contest of Champions. The mobile game features Marvel characters in head to head fighting action and has the distinction of adding new heroes and villains into the Marvel Universe. Have you been following the adventures of Venompool, Civil Warrior and Guillotine?

No, you, haven’t because these are brand new properties introduced exclusively for Contest of Champions.

We spoke with Contest of Champions design director Tim Molyneux on the New York Comic Con floor and he talked us through his job and what we can expect from the future, including the introduction of mystic character Morningstar and other new characters soon to be unlocked on a tablet or phone near you.

[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK]

DEATHSTROKE #1: TONY DANIEL Takes You Behind the Deadly Scenes - at 13th DIMENSION

Our old friend Clay N. Ferno was able to grab some time with Deathstroke‘s new writer and artist, Tony S. Daniel, at NYCC for this MIGHTY Q&A. Issue #1 is out 10/22, from DC.

Clay N. Ferno: I’ve been a huge fan of yours since Battle for The Cowl, how did you become one of the rare writer/artists as opposed to just drawing?

Tony S. Daniel: Going back to the ’90s actually, I was doing a creator-owned book called The Tenth. That’s where I started getting my desire to start writing. I didn’t set out to write the book to begin with. I was working with Beau Smith as the writer. As the series went on, I wanted to get more and more involved with the story itself. Eventually, I just flew with it. I learned that I really enjoy writing. After that, I wrote a few other series (such) as the creator-owned Image series,Silke, Adrenaline, F-5.

When I came to DC in the early 2000s, 2004, they asked me if I was interested in writing anything. At the time I said “No, I really just want to focus on the art right now,” and it didn’t really come into play until years l later when the opportunity for Battle for the Cowl came in. Then I decided, “Hey, think that’s something I might want to do.”

[READ MORE AT 13th DIMENSION]

Learn how we can increase your sales, develop your brand, and generate interest in your site.

FOTOBOM: EARTH PRIME TIME @ NEW YORK COMIC CON 2013 #NYCC

Photos by Stacey B. Rizoli (LeaguePodcast/DigBoston/ForcesOfGeek)

Last week we posted the preview of what to expect at New York Comic Con 2013. What we didn’t expect was that the East Coast convention would reach San Diego Comic Con-sized numbers! Pretty impressive, as the New York show is still very comic-centric. The LeaguePodcast took a photographer, the lovely Stacey Rizoli, to capture the essence of the Con experience for those that couldn’t make it.

The photos below will inspire your Halloween costumes and get you thinking about traveling out of town for an outrageous Con experience.

Costumes

80sTees.com, Inc.

NYCC - VALIANT COMICS Panel Report

Convention Report by Clay N Ferno

Valiant Comics remains committed to their rabid fans with a series of announcements tied to top industry talent and is expanding on the current Valiant Universe with new titles and crossovers in 2014.

Valiant Comics Director of Marketing Hunter Gorinson introduced an impressive series of panelists including Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente, Matt Kindt, Clayton Henry, Dinesh Shamdasani, Alejandro Arbona, ChrisCross and more at the Must Read Valiant panel on Saturday.

The panel starts off with the reveal to the pre-con teaser about the return of “The (Original) World’s Worst Supehero Team”.

The lead off announcement is that series creators Christopher Priest and M.D. Bright are returning to Quantum and Woody for a limited series set in the original Valiant Universe. No plans on expanding on the original universe beyond this series, we’re told, this is a special exception to reunite the team.

Starting in issue #5, fan favorite Mara artist Ming Doyle joins James Asmus on the current Quantum and Woodytitle, introducing the goat! 

Costumes

80sTees.com, Inc.

NYCC - BATMAN PANEL Report at FORCES OF GEE

For those not in attendance or watching the live stream, yesterday’s Batpanel was chock full of Spoilers (see what we did there?), updates, praise for fan enthusiasm and announcements.

John Cunningham (VP Marketing, DC Comics) introduced an all star family of writers including Batman: Eternal showrunner Scott Snyder and the artist Greg Capullo to a room full of eager fans and classic Jokers at the Javitz Center.  Introduced were James Tynion IV, Marc Andreyko, Ann Nocenti, John Layman and Peter Tomasi.

Cunningham started off by thanking all for supporting the books but also for supporting the We Can Be Heroes fundraising campaign, raising more that $2 million last year. He also announced a new video podcast from DC, DC All Access, which will show an insider’s view into the DC offices and announce upcoming projects.

First up, Bat-wise was the introduction of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo to talk about current Zero Year issues and what we can expect in the days to come. The 64 page introduction of the New 52 origin hit shelves earlier this week, and Capullo’s redesigned Batman costume debut is an outstanding reference to Detective Comics #27.

Snyder admits that initially he wanted to keep all aspects of Batman: Year One as the origin story for Batman, but later fretted that with the changes of the New 52, Year One doesn’t exactly fit. Both Scott and Greg have had high anxiety about delivering and changing the right Batman origin and are expressed gratitude for the fan’s enthusiasm for what they have done with the book.

Batman: Zero Year deliberately references all things Batman, including the aforementioned Detective Comics cover, Batman: The Animated Series and beats from Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One.

Issue #25 pages were revealed exclusively at the Con as well as the three part over arching chapters of Year Zero, to be spread in total over 11 issues. The three parts of the story are Secret City, Dark City and Wild City.

[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK]

EARTH PRIME TIME: NEW YORK COMIC-CON PREVIEW 2013

New York Comic Con, October 10-13, is the biggest East Coast show of the year, and we are headed down there to fill our Adventure Time WeLoveFine oversized Con bag with swag, original art, and business cards to continue to deliver the fine comic book journalism you have come to expect from Earth Prime Time each week. Here’s a preview of some of the weird and wonderful delights the con has promised us from the many media announcements making their way to our inbox this fall.

This is truly a nerd’s holiday weekend! We here at LeaguePodcast make it a tradition of heading to Gotham once a year since our inception there, four years ago at a New York Comic Con afterparty. Hometown friends, miles from home, delighted in the smells of Hell’s Kitchen over beers at an iFanboy party and made an honest swing at weekly comic book podcasting ourselves and now we’re 166 episodes in, with events and our own after parties to attend to!

With a small bottle of Spider-Man hand sanitizer attached to our backpacks, a Mophie Juice Pack on the iPhone, we are getting on the safest and cheapest early bus on Friday to live it all again.

This time, it’s bigger. This time, it will be better. How do we know? The con has grown from 105,000 people in 2011 to 116,000 in 2012. And there’s gonna be a new Walking Dead episode this weekend and a ten year anniversary celebration of the comic with issue #115.

Walking Dead 115 - Charlie Adlard

Hollywood certainly takes a fair amount of floor space in San Diego and New York. Besides everyone’s favorite zombie show, you could catch a screening of the doll of our nightmares, Chucky returning in Curse of Chucky. The 25th Anniversary of Chucky is celebrated at a panel on Friday.

[READ MORE at DIGBOSTON.COM]

EARTH PRIME TIME: NEW YORK COMIC-CON PREVIEW 2012

New York Comic Con ’12 October 11-14 is sold out! Are you lucky enough to have a pass? Got that cousin with a table spot sneaking you in the back of the Javits Center? The League bought passes months ago, and have a Secret Origin at NYCC ’09 — we can’t miss this weekend’s spectacular convention, the world’s safety depends on it. Here’s a guide to the madness, lines, dollar hot dogs from Hell’s Kitchen and how to avoid Con-Crud from one of those television Walking Dead zombies.

The New York Comic Con (presented by ReedPOP, 2006—present) is the East Coast’s largest comic book convention set in the heart of Manhattan. The 2011 convention broke attendance records at 105,000. Programming continues to grow and expand to a fourth day, adding Thursday to the schedule this year and last. Saturdays are the craziest in the expansive and somewhat bleak Javits Center. Getting from a screening to a panel in time can be frustrating, and expect there to be hours spent in line.

Vendors, artists, writers and gamers occupy every spot on the floor and it will feel like you are being pick-pocketed by Catwoman every two minutes (you may be). Is the convention worth all of the craziness, blisters and cosplay? Absolutely. Every second of it.

Advice from the League forthcoming. The convention offers two convenient ways to plan out your time and of course the program book each year is invaluable. Take some time checking off the panels and screenings you want to attend, and be sure to block off some free time to meet up with pals, or walk around to the various tables.

[READ MORE at DIGBOSTON.COM]

EARTH PRIME TIME: NEW YORK COMIC-CON PREVIEW 2012 by clay-fernald

Save the Date - 10/16 Clay N. Ferno's Birthday Party @MidEastClub!

Sunday, ROCK-TOBER 16
Middle East Upstairs at 8PM

LeaguePodcast.com and Rock On! Concerts present
The Bombpops (Red Scare Records, San Diego, CA)
Continental (featuring Rick Barton of The Outlets / Dropkick Murphys)
Hands Like Bricks (LA, CA)
and Special Guests for
Clay N. Ferno’s Birthday Party
18+ $9 Advance / $10 Day Of Show
TIX - Facebook Event

********************

I’m ready to take you on a punk rock ride with some of my favorite bands from out-of-town, The Bombpops (Red Scare Records, San Diego, CA) and Hands Like Bricks (LA, CA)! Joining the soft-coast gang is the venerable Dr. Rick Barton of the Outlets and Dropkick Murphys, with his new project Continental.

Come join me for the 36th Birthday Stitches, it will be a party. Falafel optional at the world famous Middle East Restaurant and Nightclub.

We’re teaming up with RockOn! Concerts and the NYCC-bound LeaguePodcast for one heckuva blowout!

Clay N. Ferno being a creep at The Dwarves - pic by Eric Law