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Gerard Way at NC Comicon

Published November 28, 2018 | By GWayFUN

This was our third year attending NC Comicon (2015, 2016 and 2018) and every year they raise the bar and continue to make this con the most inviting and welcoming con experience I have ever had- and the best part? You get to spend three glorious days with Gerard and surrounded by incredible art and extremely talented creators. If I lived closer to this con I would go every year no matter the guest list!

So let’s get started with the recap! The con kicked off on Friday afternoon with a large crowd waiting in line eager to start their con experience!

Once through the doors we were able to check in as VIP and get our Umbrella Academy swag bags!

They also gave us a great booklet that let us know everything that was going on including a neat layout of all 6 of Gerard’s panels.

We spent our afternoon checking out the con floor and having a late lunch with some friends.

We live streamed the first panel on our Instagram, but decided against doing that for the future panels because we remembered the con had said they’d be posting full panels on their YouTube after con. (We’ll let you know when they do!)

The first panel was on “Collaboration” and featured Shawn Crystal, Becky Cloonan, Gerard Way & Tommy Lee Edwards.

Here’s the video we released from the first panel:

 

On Saturday morning we were up super early and couldn’t wait to return to the con!

Gerard’s first panel of the day was called “Finding Inspiration.” The panel was filled out by other amazing creators as well which include Matt Kindt, Jeff Lemire, Becky Cloonan and Tommy Lee Edwards.

And here’s our video from that panel:

The next panel we went to was for Magic Wheelchair. It was, like Gerard said, a highlight of the con. What this program does for children by designing costumes for kids in wheelchairs is just so incredibly important. We had so much fun watching these three lucky kids get the costumes of their dreams on stage! For more info and how you can help this organization please go to www.magicwheelchair.org

And as you can see from the last pic above, we spied Gerard snapping photos at the Magic Wheelchair panel as well, which he later posted to Instagram!

After the Magic Wheelchair panel we had some free time so we decided to walk the con floor again and say hello to the wonderful creators that were there! I had my NC Comicon print with me and I really wanted Shawn Crystal to sign it so we went off to find him. After talking to him for a few minutes I got up the courage to ask him if he would sign the print with the Mother Panic symbol. For anyone who knows me (Becks), you will know Mother Panic was a comic that really helped me through a dark time, having the symbol drawn for me was really special.

Gerard’s next panel of the day was the VIP Q & A panel with Tommy Lee Edwards, Becky Cloonan & Matteo Scalera!

It was during this panel that we learned Gerard has done a cover of one song for the Umbrella Academy show. (Sidenote: You may remember at NYCC the cast of the show talked about a scene where they are all dancing to a song but they couldn’t say what song. Now Gerard is saying he’s done one song that is “integral” to a scene but also couldn’t say what song. Needless to say, we have questions!)

Our favorite part of the panel was when Tommy needed to wait for someone to bring him the questions because he couldn’t access them on his phone, so they filled the time talking about food. I want the Gerard quote of “Squash is good” on a t-shirt. You can watch all that in the video below!

Finally we came to the last panel of the day, “Find Your Voice” with James Robinson, Gerard Way, Jeff Parker and Tommy Lee Edwards.

We had a great time at this panel and were incredibly happy that Gerard was so kind to come to the edge of the stage and do a mini impromptu signing. It was great getting a chance to speak to Gerard again. I didn’t want to ask him for too much so I handed him the comic he had already signed for VIPs and asked him if he would personalize it to me. He ended up signing it again so now, as you can see above, I have a double autographed comic which I love cuz it makes me laugh. I told my friends from now on I’m just gonna keep bringing this one comic to every signing and have him just keep signing it haha.

Signing aside, the panel was really great and we had a wonderful time. Here is our video from that panel:

We also had the pleasure of sitting next to Kevin Hawkins and his daughter. Kevin was the first to shoot his hand up when they asked for questions and gave a heartfelt thank you to Gerard for how he has inspired his daughter, Lauren. We posted this clip special just for them.

Finally we ended our night the only way you can end a Saturday night at NC Comicon, by attending the Guardians of the Gala and having an NC Comicon designed beer with friends!

On Sunday we had some time before Gerard’s panels so we went back to the con floor. This time we were able to find Becky Cloonan who so kindly did a little Killjoys sketch for me that I love!

And finally we were able to track the elusive Tommy Lee Edwards down at his table where I was finally able to ask him if he would also sketch the Mother Panic symbol for me- which he did! Since Tommy is the co-creator of Mother Panic and like I said, it came out when I was going through a dark time and really helped me, it meant so so much to have the symbol drawn by him. Definitely one of my newly acquired prized possessions! (Also this now means I have a Mother Panic symbol drawn specifically for me by Tommy, Shawn Crystal, and Ibrahim Moustafa….now I just need one from John Paul Leon and my collection will be complete!)

The panels for this day were back to back. The first panel was called “Adaptation” and featured Chris Ryall, Brockton McKinney, Gerard Way and Tommy Lee Edwards.

Here is our video from that panel….I dare you to watch this and not laugh.

Finally wrapping up the con the last panel with Gerard was called “Designing D&D Characters with Gerard Way”

Since there really was no clear way to cut down the footage I had filmed at this panel that would still make sense to a viewer and the con has said they will be posting full panels I have decided not to post it. Maybe it will surface once the footage from the con comes out. If this panel isn’t included in their panels. We’ll see.

Here are some pictures from the panel though!

After the con had ended I finally had the chance to meet up with the incredibly talented creators of UNDO (Julia, Tyler Ray, Uma Akalkotkar, Joy Johnson and Lisa Schroer) and Deathwish (Joy Johnson and Lisa Schroer) and they were kind enough to give us some copies of UNDO for future giveaways!

And thanks to the incredible generosity of NC Comicon and Dark Horse we were able to procure some other pretty snazzy stuff for giveaways too!

On a personal note, and since you guys always think I’m giving away my personal collection when we have giveaways, I was so happy to be able to add these to my personal collection. The first is personalized to me by Becky Cloonan, The second is personalized to me by Matteo Scalera, and the last is personalized by Gerard.

I know my friends and I came home with some wonderful memories and had an exceptional time and I can only imagine the same for everyone else in attendance. NC Comicon is by far the most well put together and welcoming con I have ever been to and I would recommend checking it out to anyone, especially someone who is new to conventions because it is so welcoming and non judgmental.

And just like all good things, this post has come to an end. We hope you enjoyed our walk through and we made you feel like you were there!

Posted in All News, Events, Gerard Way

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