Patrick: Here’s a true-ism about conventions: the food they have available on-site S-U-C-K-S. Just, real bad. So Shelby, Drew and I started with a hearty breakfast and coffee. Properly fueled, we headed down town to catch one of the many convenient shuttles to McCormick Place. Here’s a fun fact, you can really get to C2E2 from anywhere in the city, at minimal cost, in about an hour, without a car. It’s one of the more convenient conventions out there.

Also, as long as I’m dropping pearls, visit C2E2 on Friday. There are crowds, sure, but navigating McCormick Place is super easy when the kids are still in school. Our first order of business was familiarizing ourselves with the Artists’ Alley. There’s a damn near magical row of creators that contains some of our favorite people: Charles Soule, Greg Pak, James Tynion, Peter Tomasi, Kyle Higgins, Gale Simone. Right? It’s nuts! Mind you, none of them where there when we doing this initial legwork. It’s cool though, we knew we’d be able to catch them all at the various panels we were planning to attend. That’s right: we never learn this lesson, and we penciled in Marvel’s House of Ideas panel and DC’s All Access panel.

The Marvel panel wasn’t super well attended, by either press or Marvel reps, but those on-hand were pretty stellar. Mark Waid, Josh Fialkov and Nick Lowe walked the crowd through all of the extra shit Marvel has been producing over the last couple months. That includes the AR content, Infinite Comics, and a demonstration of this dynamic scoring thing they’re doing with comics on Marvel Unlimited. Last I heard about the music thing, they were calling it “Project Gamma,” but it looks like they might have narrowed the focus on it, only equipping a handful of Captain America issues with the program. I don’t know, Drew the videos that they showed off didn’t seem particularly engaging, but I can imagine it being really cool. Maybe I’m just enamored with the promise of marrying comics and music… what’d you think?

Drew: This isn’t the first time I’ve thought about the philosophical differences between comics and music (what can I say? I love both mediums and tend to over-think things), and I always keep coming back to the same thought: they’re basically opposites when it comes to time. Music necessarily walks us through a fixed timeline, while comics allow readers to go at whatever pace they damn well please. It doesn’t strike me as the most elegant marriage — the fact that none of the panel could name the composer speaks to how valued the musical contribution is. Mostly, though, the House of Ideas panel struck me as the “everything but comics” panel, which rendered the panelists largely useless. Waid and Fialkov could comment on the Infinite comics they’d written, but had little to contribute when it came to discussing Augmented Reality, videos, movies, and video games.

As if to emphasize the difference between the publishers, the DC All Access panel maybe over-emphasized the comics of its panelists. Indeed, the introductions of the dais — Scott Snyder, Brian Azzarello, Dan Jurgens, Kyle Higgins, Nicola Scott, Greg Pak, and Charles Soule — took up almost the entirety of the hour. There were a few insightful back-and-forths, but as with most DC panels, the mood was more of an extended solicitation than an in-depth discussion. Azzarello was as charmingly combative as usual (effectively justifying the existence of the panel), and the rest were clearly excited about the series they’re working about. There was a nice moment of unity as the majority of the dais admitted that Azzarello’s Wonder Woman is their favorite series, but the shill-y nature of the panel left a bad taste in our mouths.

To break us out of our funk, we opted to get some food, but as Patrick already mentioned, the options were not so good. To break us out of that funk, we opted to return to the Artists’ Alley to chat up all of those folks that were absent the first go around. Some lines turned us away, but we had a great time talking to the likes of Greg Pak, Peter Tomasi, and Chris Samnee. Did you have a favorite moment of those conversations, Patrick?

Patrick: Oh all three of those gentlemen were totally charming, but I found myself emboldened by those crummy panels. While we made arrangements to meet up with all three of those guys later in the weekend (expect more on that in the weeks to come!), I was mostly excited about how candid I let myself be with these people I totally respect. The Retcon Punch name carries enough cache that writers and artists seem to be ready to admit that we’re level headed guys and we occasionally know what we’re talking about. For example, I mentioned to Tomasi that Batman and Robin had lost a step during the Two-Face story, and I mentioned to Pak that I was hoping his up-coming “Doomed” story wasn’t going to be too Lobdell-y. Turns out, a little honesty goes a long way.

To clear our heads, we did a lap of the show floor. Leather goods, weapons, board games: we ignored them all! The vendors aren’t necessarily bad, but there’s a supply / demand thing that we all know we need to honor. Wait until the last day of con and prices plummet. Plummet, I say! Expect a full report on our spoils in our day-three write-up.

Drew and I had our eyes set on a Beer and Comics panel, because obviously. But first, a stop by Higgins’ table, where we encountered a jovial, energetic Kyle Higgins. Drew, I know Higgins charmed me in a way he never had before. I think the pull quote from the interaction was “I fucking love you guys!” But it also might have been Higgins calling each one of us “Shelby” in turn. Are you excited to talk to him about “the last issue” of Nightwing tomorrow?

Drew: Absolutely. Of all the yeses we got today, Higgins was easily the most enthusiastic. “Jovial” is the right word — methinks Higgins’ tongue may have been loosened by the beer he was sipping. He wasn’t the first creator we saw with a drink in hand, but he certainly wasn’t the last — that beer panel was downright flowing with booze. Some were sloppier than others — and I’m not sure it was ever clear exactly what the purpose of the panel was — but it was fun to hear passionate people drawing connections between their areas of expertise. If nothing else, seeing a happily drunk Brian Azzarello made today’s sore feet worth it. Like we said after day one of NYCC: we’re having fun, and we don’t hate the con or each other yet.

Patrick: Yet.