It should come as no surprise that comics aren’t just for kids anymore. “I went to see Art Spiegelman’s ‘Wordless,’ and he talked about how comics have gone from junk culture for children to acceptable and highbrow forms of entertainment and art and culture,” said Cliff Galbraith, referring to a speech on the history of graphic novels at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2014. Now, Galbraith, the creator and showrunner of the East Coast Comicon, will host an event at the Meadowlands Expo Center the weekend of April 11 and 12, and bring an impressive roster of comics creators from across the years that will include everyone from original innovators of the 1960s, to today’s hottest writers and artists, plus some related artists to join in the fun.
“It’s hard to imagine somebody that’s not a comics fan nowadays,” said Galbraith. “It has become a regular part of the culture. With the popularity of movies, video games, TV shows, this has become a powerful force in people’s lives. There’s something for everybody – from fun cartoons in the newspaper to the most dark, adult type of entertainment you could imagine.”
Naturally, the event will cater to all ages and interests. Younger attendees will enjoy the “Kids Love Comics” section, with art demonstrations and lessons from professionals on how to draw comics. (Not to mention the saber fighting lessons.)
Adults will have the opportunity to meet with comics superstars from across the years and attend panels like the one on pioneer artist Wally Wood.
Even music fans won’t be left out. John Holmstrom, founder of the original Punk Magazine and illustrator of the classic Ramones logo and artwork, will be among the guests, meeting attendees and judging the cosplay competition, where attendees dress up like their favorite characters.
“There’s something for everybody – from fun cartoons in the newspaper to the most dark, adult type of entertainment you could imagine.” – Cliff Galbraith
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“He’s going to talk about his career and what it was like to work with those people,” said Galbraith. “He’s got great photos of the Rolling Stones mixing ‘Exile on Main Street.’”
Punk rock, bowling, and Asbury Park
Galbraith held his first convention in 2011 in his hometown on the Jersey Shore. “We started with 30 tables at the Asbury Lanes rock club, which is a bowling alley,” he said of the original Asbury Park Comicon. The event was conceived when Galbraith attended a record fair organized by friends and saw hordes of people poring over cardboard boxes filled with albums.
“I said, ‘Who else looks through white boxes?’” he recalled. “And a light bulb went off.”
A comics artist himself – he created the cult hit Rat Bastard, about which more in a moment – Galbraith hired out the bowling alley and dialed up some names from his Rolodex as guests.
“Since it was Asbury Lanes we drank beer and listened to punk rock all day,” he said of that first event. “It was a great vibe, a great little scene.” In fact it was so great that the first event in May was followed up by another in September of the same year.
By then they had already outgrown the bowling alley so the convention moved to – where else? – Convention Hall, on the Asbury Park boardwalk. Superstorm Sandy did its best to derail the next event but it took place regardless, before they expanded yet again to a local hotel, where the convention spread from one day to two.
And now they’ve outgrown their humble beginnings entirely, morphing from the Asbury Park Comicon to the East Coast Comicon.
The origin story
The East Coast Comicon was built upon the back of a t-shirt enterprise – or more accurately, the front. Galbraith and his father owned a screen-printing company in the 1980s that licensed characters from companies like Marvel and printed them on shirts.
One day while doodling he drew a cartoon inspired by an employee who loved to shop. The “shopasaurus” led to other dinosaur characters – the “golfasaurus,” “partyasaurus,” “rockasaurus” – and the line exploded in popularity across the country.
“I was 26 years old and it was just wheelbarrows full of money,” recalled Galbraith. “That really gave me the confidence and financial freedom to do what I wanted to do.”
And what he wanted to do was create comics. Thus was born Rat Bastard, a noir rodent detective, around 1996. The character attracted the interest of Ed Neumeier, writer of the first “Robocop” film, and a short pilot film was made (look it up on YouTube), with a series scheduled to follow on UPN.
That was before UPN went belly-up. Galbraith moved to Los Angeles to pitch other animation projects, none of which took off. While there he ran a poster store, where he met Van Hamersfeld and hung out with music scenesters like MTV veejay Matt Pinfield.
But ultimately L.A. didn’t agree with him and he moved back to New Jersey to take over running the screen printing company. Then he got sick in 2008 and was forced to sell the company to pay bills.
Feeling like things were at a nadir, he mentioned to a friend that he’d never been happier than when he was creating comics, and the friend encouraged him to get back into it.
That led to a renewed interest in the medium, to the delight of East Coast comics fans.
Battle of the Comicons?
Moving the convention to the Meadowlands does bring it closer to one of the behemoths of comics fandom, the New York Comicon. Does Galbraith see that as an issue?
“I really don’t see much of an overlap at all other than we’re both called Comicon,” said Galbraith. “We’re in April, they’re in October. Theirs is a giant, very successful event, up to 140,000 people. If you want to get in that mosh pit, be my guest.”
The East Coast Comicon promises a very different experience. “What we offer is a much more civilized, intimate setting,” he continued. “You can really spend time with the artist. You’re not hustled along.”
He sees comic conventions as complementary, not competition. “There seems to be a con popping up on every corner,” he said. “It doesn’t hurt us. I think people keep waiting for this to crest but it hasn’t faded. It keeps growing. To me it’s almost up there with sports now. I don’t think football is waning. No sports are in danger of disappearing.”
Information on the East Coast Comicon can be found at www.eccomicon.com.
Art Schwartz may be reached at arts@hudsonreporter.com.