It was a busy day at the traditional ICv2 conference held before the NYCC. Milton Griepp kicked things off with his annual white paper. See today’s Publishers Weekly Daily for details. Then came a panel on “the battle for talent” where editors and agents talked about issues in acquiring and maintaining talent. Graphic Novels for “Tweens” were the focus of the next panel, with the buyer’s panel wrapping things up. The overall message? All systems go! However a few cautionary notes were sounded: there are a LOT of graphic novels and manga out there, and shelf space is full, both in stores and the homes of consumers. The question of “Where will manga readers go as they grow up?” was considered by a number of panelists but no one had a solid answer. A few pics from the show:

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Calvin Reid leads a discussion with editors Mark Siegel, Betsy Mitchell, Ginee Seo, and agents Bob Mecoy, Judy Hansen and Merilee Heifetz.

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Two views of the crowd.

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Laura Hudson dressed to match the tasty Transcontinental blue martinis! Later in the day she was banned from all Virgin Comics events.

After this conference it was off to Coolture Spain for a special CBLDF reception for the publishing industry. Neil Gaiman and Paul Levitz were on hand to explain to the book publishing industry the importance of supporting the defense fund as more and more traditional publishers get into the graphic novel business. Representative from Harper Collins, Random House and other book houses attended along with cartooners Jess Smith, Paul Pope, Colleen Doran and Peter David.

(We don’t have IDs on all these photos because our memory is shot, alas.)

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Chris Staros, Jeff Newelt and Mike Geszel.

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Neil Gaiman, Paul Levitz and Charles Brownstein.

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Unidentified, Troma’s Lloyd Kauffman and Gaiman. Yes, Neil has a black eye.

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Staros, Paul Pope, Judy Hansen and unidentified.

1 COMMENT

  1. Nice post on the ICv2 summit and I was happy to lend the back of my head to your photo. The CBLDF party looked like a good time. I headed downtown to a book launch and gallery viewing for Rizzoli’s new book on the life of mavrick animator/film maker Ralph Bakshi, which was also a good time.