This past weekend, I attended NC Comicon in Durham and had a great time! Between interesting panels, great costumes, and golden treasures found in the dealer’s room, it was an exciting weekend that carries on the legacy of great cons from the NC Comicon team!
Kicking off Saturday was a panel with legendary writer Chuck Palahniuk. The focus was on the graphic novel Fight Club 2 and the upcoming continuance with Fight Club 3. I’m looking forward to picking these up, since I’ve heard great things at prior cons, but never had the opportunity to secure a copy. I’m a long-time fan of Palahniuk’s writing and have several of his novels on my shelf, so it was great to hear him speak about the creative process, the societal influences on his work, and the multitude of inspirations that has contributed to his body of work.
My other two panels of the day centered around comic writers/illustrators Matt Kindt and Jeff Lemire. Admittedly, my only connections with their work is Lemire’s collaboration with Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie in their multimedia production Secret Path as well as his work on All-New Hawkeye. Despite this limited awareness of their other bodies of work, the panels themselves were very informative and reiterated the fact that working on your own creations allows for more creative exploration when compared to writing within already-established universes such a you find with the larger comic publishers. But both Kindt and Lemire have straddled the lines of independent and established comics publishers quite well, and I feel like they’ll be able to successfully continue to do so. I look forward to reading more of their past works and seeing what they might have in store in the future.
Rounding off my day, I took one more pass through the dealer’s room and came away very successful! Not only did I pick up two magnets of Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye, my eternal favorite, but I snagged both volumes of the Alters series, which I’ve been wanting to read for a long time. Score! And while the overall representation of Hawkeye was limited, and the representation of Red Hood basically non-existent other than a life-size figure in the hallway, I did find that the variety of dealers and items attempted to satisfy a wide range of fans. Plus, the excitement of digging through old copies of comics and collected volumes added to the fun of the convention. I definitely walked away a happy and satisfied fan who is looking forward to the next NC Comicon.
Image Credits: NC Comicon, Aftershock Comics
