For those who couldn’t afford the comic conventions in New York or San Diego, the North Bergen Library held its second annual “Comic Con” on June 23. The event featured local graphic novel artists, video games, “nerd trivia,” drawing classes, a cosplayer fashion show, raffle, and even the Caped Crusader himself—Batman.
DC comics’ SuperGirl flew into town for the con, in the form of 10-year-old North Bergen resident Sophie Gunn. She preferred the library’s convention to the big-time atmosphere that older, more established cons have.
“Instead of going to a comic con that’s bigger, and a lot of people, you can just come here,” she said. Gunn was a fan of the art creations in the event’s Artists’ Alley and the DragonBall Z video game “Fighter Z,” which attendees were playing in the video games zone.
Her costume wasn’t her initial choice for cosplay (or costume play); she wanted to come as Zelda from The Legend of Zelda Nintendo series, but couldn’t find the right costume in time.
Julian Labarrere-Nieves came to the gathering from Manhattan, dressed as Elsa from Disney’s “Frozen.” He said he usually cosplays anime characters and those from the Game of Thrones series. But he wanted to be a Disney character because he hadn’t done that “since my age was in the single digits.”
In Artists’ Alley, New Jersey-based comic book creator Will Torres was sketching zombies with ink. Torres, who is also an illustrator with the official Walking Dead Magazine, was raffling one of his sketches that day.
Shortly after North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco arrived, Torres requested the mayor pose for a picture, so he could turn him into a zombie, too.
The mayor happily obliged.
Torres said that his mother pointed him towards comics, purchasing his first comic for him when he was just 7. Unknowingly, she also taught him to be an artist.
She would give him comics and have him trace the artwork. When he got older, she would have him look at the art from comics and copy it. Eventually she would mention pictures from past issues and ask him to draw them from memory.
“She was just like, ‘Listen; give this a try,’” Torres said. “She saw I was really into the whole superhero genre. I was always reading the newspaper strips.”
Torres began studying different artists to understand drawing anatomy and to improve his self-taught craft. He has been in the business for 20 years.
Torres has even created his own superhero — Mr. Venture, whose powers arose from the 9/11 tragedy. Mr. Venture was a fireman who responded to the World Trade Center. As the towers collapsed, Venture wound up freefalling, and absorbed the spirits and human strength from the other victims, allowing him to survive. Torres is planning on fleshing out Mr. Venture’s backstory for a future Comic Con,
Torres co-created the character with help from the legendary Stan Lee, whom he met at a comic con in 2014.
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“Instead of going to a Comic Con that’s bigger, and a lot of people, you can just come here.” – Sophie Gunn
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Also in the artists’ section, Marisol Del Valle was selling ink, acrylic and watercolor stills of characters from series such as Sailor Moon and Adventure Time. The New York native began her career creating digital art for virtual pet communities (think Neo Pets). She describes her style as “a mix of a little cutesy, a little creepy.”
Illustrator Julia Hutchinson showed one of her more recent projects – “Pigeon of Destiny.” The ‘what if’ interactive comic book story allows the reader to choose 11 different endings, all involving the adventures and relationships of a pigeon in New York City.
“I’ve always loved those old choose-your-own-adventure stories,” Hutchinson said. “As a kid, they got me reading. So I thought, ‘How would that look in comic form?’ And I love pigeons.”
Hannington Dia can be reached at hd@hudsonreporter.com
