Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur. Happy kitty, sleepy kitty, purr, purr, purr

Posted by keithpatrick on Oct 11, 2011 in Conventions

Based on the song’s appearances throughout The Big Bang Theory, now you can take home the kitty in question… without the mess of a real pet! This Big Bang Theory Soft Kitty Singing Collectible Plush is 10-inches long, and sings her song with just a squeeze of her paw.

Romita Named 1st NYCC 2010 Guests of Honor

Posted by keithpatrick on Oct 9, 2009 in Conventions, News

Norwalk, CT, October 8, 2009: Organizers of New York Comic Con (NYCC) have revealed that celebrated father/son artists and creators John Romita and John Romita, Jr. will both be Keystone Guests of Honor at the next NYCC. The Romitas are the first guests to be announced for the 2010 convention which will now be co-located with the New York Anime Festival (NYAF) and will occupy the entire Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City. The two shows, both of which are organized by the Reed Exhibitions Pop Culture Group, will take place October 8 – 10, 2010. The announcement about the Romitas was made public at a special “One Year Out” bowling party at Bowlmor Lanes in New York City in honor of the fans, exhibitors, press, artists, creators and other loyal participants of NYCC who have helped make the convention a success since its debut in 2006. The announcement of their role as Keystone Guests of Honor comes exactly one year to the day before NYCC is set to open its doors on the occasion of its 5th Anniversary in 2010.

“I am incredibly pleased to be able to announce that the Romitas will be our first Guests of Honor,” notes Lance Fensterman, Vice President and Show Manager for NYCC. “This early commitment, a full year before the next New York Comic Con, is a nice vote of confidence and it says a lot about the quality of our guests and what we can expect in terms of future guest announcements. The Romitas are wildly popular and respected creators and we are honored that they have agreed to appear together at our show. New York Comic Con is the second largest pop culture event in America and our guest appearances will certainly reflect the stature and prominence of our show.”

Convention officials also note that registration and ticket sales for New York Comic Con have just gone live on the web site. Tickets for the event may be purchased at www.nycomiccon.com. Other information about the show, as well as news about the Reed Pop Culture Group, which also organizes Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (C2E2), is available at Fensterman’s blog, http://www.stylinonline.net/blog

JOHN ROMITA SR.

John Romita is a celebrated artist best known for his work on Marvel Comics’ The Amazing Spider-Man. His first jobs were for Stan Lee’s Atlas group in 1949, where he drew mostly horror and romance stories, but also several war, western and crime features for Western Publishing. Romita re-joined Stan Lee several years later at Marvel where his first notable efforts included inking Avengers and penciling Daredevil comics.

Romita’s most notable work began in 1966 with his efforts on The Amazing Spider-Man comic. Under Romita’s and Lee’s guidance, Spider-Man became the quintessential antihero of the late 1960s and early 1970s. He left the Spider-Man comic in the early 1970s to become Art Director at Marvel. In 1977, he briefly did the artwork of the syndicated Spider-Man newspaper comic. Following his retirement from day-to-day comics work, Romita has returned to drawing, including work on his signature character Spider-Man on latter-day occasions. Romita was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2002.

JOHN ROMITA JR.

John Salvatore Romita, Jr. was born in New York City in 1956 and wanted to be an artist just like his father. He is best known for his extensive work for Marvel Comics from the 1970s to the 2000s. He began his career at Marvel UK doing sketches for covers of reprints. Romita Jr’s first published comic was a six-page backup, which appeared in a late 1970s Spider-Man Annual #4. He became a Marvel mainstay and had his professional breakthrough with a three-and-a-half year run on Iron Man, starting in 1976. He is one of the most prominent artists of the Amazing Spider-Man title since the 1980s. His first run on the title lasted three years, and after that, he took over The Uncanny X-Men. He then worked on Star Brand under the New Universe imprint, before he began a longtime run on the Daredevil comic. He later came back to Iron Man, and contributed to several other titles, including Punisher War Zone, the Cable mini-series, the Punisher/Batman crossover and the Spider-Man: The Lost Years limited series.

After working on the regular Spider-Man title as well as Peter Parker: Spider-Man in the 1990s, Romita Jr. returned to Amazing Spider-Man in 2000. Together with famous TV writer J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5, etc.), he restyled the comic for the new millennium by introducing mystical elements, new characters and major plot developments. At the same time, he has worked on The Incredible Hulk with writer Bruce Jones and on Wolverine with Mark Millar. In 2006 Romita collaborated with writer Neil Gaiman on the reinterpretation of Jack Kirby’s The Eternals in the form of a seven issue miniseries. He has also collaborated once more with Mark Millar for a creator-owned series, Kick-Ass, published by Marvel’s Icon imprint.

NEW YORK COMIC CON & NEW YORK ANIME FESTIVAL CO-LOCATE IN 2010

Posted by keithpatrick on Sep 15, 2009 in Conventions, News

TWO POP CULTURE CONVENTIONS TO JOINTLY TAKE PLACE AT THE JACOB JAVITS CENTER

Norwalk, CT, September 10, 2009: Reed Exhibitions (RX), the organizers of the New York Comic Con (NYCC) and New York Anime Festival (NYAF) today announced that both shows will co-locate next year, with the 2010 installments of these events taking place at the same time and place, October 8-10, 2010 at the Jacob K. Javits Center in Midtown Manhattan. New York Comic Con, which last took place February 6 – 8, 2009, is the second largest popular culture event in America as well as the second largest public event in NYC. Since its inception in 2006 the show has played host to some of the greatest and most popular celebrities, creators and artists in the pop culture world including Neal Adams, Brian Michael Bendis, Stephen Colbert, Neil Gaiman, Stan Lee, Grant Morrison, Alex Ross, Kevin Smith, Art Spiegelman, and Joss Whedon, to name just a few. The next New York Anime Festival is September 25-27, 2009 at the Jacob K. Javits Center and includes guests such as Yoshiyuki Tomino — the Director of Mobile Suit Gundam — and Yui Makino — the voice of Sakura in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle.

“Our decision to co-locate NYAF with NYCC is the final installment of a strategic plan to place and sequence our pop culture events in a manner that best serves the needs of our fans and exhibitors,” notes Lance Fensterman, Vice President of the Reed Exhibitions Pop Culture Group. “We are launching the Chicago Comic and Entetainment Expo (C2E2) in April 2010, and we have moved NYCC to a permanent October date, thus providing a spring and fall balance to these two key events which will remain in place as we move forward. Rather than create a third date for NYAF, it was decided a co-location would be better for anime fans, professionals, exhibitors, and partners. We spoke to attendees and exhibitors of both shows before making this decision, and everyone agrees that this will provide an opportunity for both shows to further grow and prosper.”

The jointly-held New York Comic Con and New York Anime Festival 2010 will occupy virtually the entire Jacob K. Javits Center in 2010. Both shows will maintain distinct guests and programming space and share a common show floor. And, more importantly for attendees, fans will be able to attend both shows for the price of one — as a ticket to NYCC 2010 will also provide access to NYAF 2010 and vice versa. “Co-locating NYCC and NYAF provides value, pure and simple,” Fensterman concludes. “We want to reach as many people as possible and this is clearly the best way to serve our audience and grow our events at the same time.”

For more information on NYAF, please visit www.nyanimefestival.com. For additional details on NYCC, please view www.nycomiccon.com. For the latest news about the Reed Exhibitions Pop Culture Group please follow the group’s official blog, www.mediumatlarge.net.

ABOUT NEW YORK COMIC CON:

New York Comic Con is the East Coast’s biggest and most exciting popular culture convention. Our show floor plays host to the latest and greatest in comics, graphic novels, anime, manga, video games, toys, movies, and television. Our panels and autograph sessions give fans a chance to interact with their favorite creators. Our screening rooms feature sneak peeks at films and television shows months before they hit either big or small screens. And with dedicated professional hours, New York Comic Con is a market place, bringing together the major players in the entertainment industry. New York Comic Con is the second largest pop culture convention in America and the only one that takes place in the comic book, publishing, media, and licensing capital of the world — Gotham City. Further information can be found at newyorkcomiccon.com.

ABOUT THE NEW YORK ANIME FESTIVAL:

The New York Anime Festival takes place at the Jacob K. Javits Center in Midtown Manhattan and is organized by Reed Exhibitions, the creators of New York Comic Con. The New York Anime Festival showcases the best of anime pop culture, including the latest anime, manga, Japanese cinema, music, and games, and anime-influenced comics, animation, and films from around the world. The festival features exclusive and extensive screenings, a gala cosplay masquerade, sessions with the some of the biggest names in anime from Japan, Asia, and America, and explores the Japanese cultural experience with displays of both traditional and cutting-edge Japanese life. Further information can be found at newyorkanimefestival.com.

ABOUT REED EXHIBITIONS POP CULTURE GROUP:

The Pop Culture Group at Reed Exhibitions owns and operates the New York Comic Con (NYCC), the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (C2E2), and the New York Anime Festival (NYAF). New York Comic Con was launched in 2006 and quickly became a dominant presence in the pop culture world of public events. In 2009, 452 companies exhibited at NYCC for a total of 84,000 square feet of paid exhibit space, and it has been ranked by Crain’s New York Business as the second-largest annual event in NYC. C2E2, which will debut April 16 – 18 at Chicago’s McCormick Place Convention Center, is modeled after NYCC and will provide fans the opportunity to meet and greet their favorite writers, creators, and artists, as well as to see, hear and learn about the latest and greatest in comics, graphic novels, anime, manga, video games, toys, movies, and television. The Pop Culture Group also operates the recently-launched UFC Fan Expo in partnership with the UFC – the world’s leading professional mixed martial arts organization – and it formed a strategic partnership with Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) in 2008 and will work closely with PAX on the launch of PAX East in Boston in 2010.