by Ray Flook
Presented by Midtown Comics and Clutter, Five Points Festival was unleashed upon NYC this weekend, another addition to the steadily-growing northeast convention/festival calendar. To half-ass-ily paraphrase the event’s program and promotional materials, the Five Points Festival is a coming-together to celebrate our love for comics, toys and diverse artistic style…but in a fun, festive way that respects the five areas of art and life they promote and work to bring together: designer toys; comic artists and writers; food and beer; street art; and New York City.
Five Points is looking to carve-out its own uniqueness by being seen as a “convention mecca” for artists and communities who don’t currently have an event to call home, and that was obvious within the first few minutes of entering: there was no aura of “big corporate domination” when you first look around the hall. Even more so as you make your way around the area: everything was much more personal, much more “mom-n-pop” in all the positive ways. The best way for me to describe Five Points would be to say that it felt like a really fun and welcoming concert festival without the actual music. And while every new event has some growing pains to struggle through initially, I was particularly impressed with the way the organizers really went all-out to show that Five Points was going to be something different than what’s currently on the convention roster…with some of my personal highlights being…
● The 7th Annual Designer Toy Awards, sponsored by Lagunitas Brewing Company, kicked-off the weekend’s schedule Friday night…as one of the industry’s most prominent awards ceremonies was held at Webster Hall and hosted by Academy Award-nominated writer/director/producer Morgan Spurlock.
● A diverse line-up of food options…from cheesesteaks to hand-made empanadas…through truck dining services from: Nuchas; Big D’s; Mac-n-Cheese Truck; Phil’s Steaks; Korilla; and Toum
● Five Points Beer Garden, set-up by Lagunitas and also including beverages from Sixpoint Brewery; Bronx Brewery; Coney Island Brewing; and Brooklyn Brewery
● Midtown Comics sponsored ticketed signings with some serious comic book heavyweights: Mike Hawthorne & Matthew Rosenberg; Nick Spencer; Bryan Lee O’Malley; Greg Capullo; Scott Snyder; and Dan Slott.
● Jack Kirby Museum, which did an excellent job educating (and reminding) of just how much of an artistic legend Jack “King” Kirby is and will always be…very impressive selection of his work from different times in his life.
● Clutter sponsored a number of guest artists for signings, including: Simone Legno, Gary Ham, and Jeff Lamm; and also was the home for some exclusive-to-Five-Points offers, including Ham’s Dunny.
● Artist Ally, which hit the perfect combination artists and space than I’ve seen in some time…but it wasn’t just the number of artists who were invited and attended that made Artist Ally impressive. What worked for me was the fact that as crowded and loud as it may have gotten at any given point in that areas, I never lost the feeling that I was able to interact with the artists longer and in a more conversational flow. Made a huge difference for me…
● SONICBOOMBOX sponsored the official after-party Saturday night at Bowlmor Lanes in Times Square from 8:00pm-2:00am. Music…bowling…video games…giveaways…with the highlight being Art of War, a live-art competition between Lamour Supreme and Legno.
So we’ve got some pics and video for you so you get a better sense of what the weekend was like; but before
we get to that…five quick personal points about Five Points:
(1) Huge thanks to Midtown Comics for having the two Previews exclusive Superman Funko POP! vinyls I was looking for, and getting them on sale never hurts. Oh…and for what it’s worth? Your crew more than earns its pay (and then some) because I can’t breathe within fifty feet of your booth without getting hit-up by at least three people brandishing glossy sales cards and promises of discounts.
(2) When I used to think about Tokidoki, I only thought about it from the standpoint of it having a righteously insane marketing machine when it comes to pushing their products. It wasn’t until recently that I started to appreciate the artwork more…and I’m glad because Legno’s work is truly amazing and he is possibly one of the coolest artists I’ve spoken to in five years covering conventions.
(3) I’ve known Tee “Vixen” Franklin through social media and convention interactions for over the past couple of years, so to be able to talk to her now as she sits behind a table (and not standing in front of it) as a comics creator? Couldn’t be happier for and prouder of her. That signed copy of Nailbiter #27 (with a wonderfully fucked-up tale from her) will always be one of my favorite autographs in the collection.
(4) O’Malley is a truly cool dude. Putting aside the fact that he wrote the Scott Pilgrim series (which I’ve read a ton of times and watched the film more times than any one person probably should from a mental health standpoint)…it’s the way the guy’s willing to start his signing early “just because” he’s there early; and how he spends time with each person and makes the experience unique and personal, not just a standard cookie-cutter conveyer-belt approach.
(5) What is this “Pier 36” and why aren’t more events held there? If nothing else, it’s a thousand times better than that dungy aeroplane hangar that the last Special Edition: NYC was held at. Looks great…very spacious…staff and security seemed to be on-point. Granted, there’s not a lot around the location to go to, to eat or relax so you’re going to have to walk a bit. And I’m not sure if this was a one-time thing or a bigger issue, but I had a bitch of a time getting a data signal in most of the areas I went to…so that’s definitely something that would need to be fixed pronto. But even with that said, I’d like to see Pier 36 in-play more moving forward.
So here you go…hope you enjoy!
Ray Flook has been a contributing writer to Bleeding Cool since 2013 and “Ray-splaining” geek stuff his entire life. You can follow him on Twitter at @oldmangeek88; on Instagram at @oldmangeek; and soon through the Big Bad Geek podcast.
40 Pics, 8 Videos And Five Points From The Five Points Festival, In New York This Weekend
via https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/05/21/40-pics-8-videos-five-points-five-points-festival-new-york-weekend/
Rich Johnston
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