Faster than you could say “Gadzooks,” fans of funny magazines made a beeline for the Brooklyn Lyceum where they pressed flesh with top ink masters and celebrated the borough’s “most unique and under-acknowledged exports” during the first KingCon: A Brooklyn Animation and Comic Convention.
The celebrity-studded weekend extravaganza featured dozens of independent artists, writers, animators and publishers %u2013 among them, Act-I-Vate’s Dean Haspiel, Northlanders’ Brian Wood and celebrated illustrator Molly Crabapple %u2013 in addition to a host of contests, activities, panels and signings.
American comic book and commercial artist Neal Adams, best known for helping to create the modern imagery behind such DC Comics characters as Superman, Batman and Green Arrow, shared the spotlight with such notables as Harvey Pekar, an underground comic book writer who penned the autobiographical American Splendor series, MAD Magazine illustrator Al Jaffee and Marvel Comics’ Denny O’Neil.
“Brooklyn has long lacked a forum for this wealth of talent,” says Eric Richmond, owner of the Lyceum, 227 4th Avenue, noting the convention was “the natural next step” after his mutable performance space birthed such groundbreaking events as the popular Craft Market series and NYC Zine Fest ‘09.
“The Zine Fest brought in so many comic artists and writers, it was clear they needed a showcase of their own,” he adds.
