I Am Comics

First a little history.

In an interview with New York Comic Con bigwig, Lance Fensterman, Tom Spurgeon, gave me a nickname; Vito “I Am Comics In NYC” Delsante. It was flattering, if not way off base, but I figured I’d own it and take it as my own. A few folks at the NYCC actually called me that, but I didn’t let it go to my head. And then I had a conversation with Sean Collins, another prominent comics blogger. We joked about how I would start this website and use it to post reviews, interviews, etc. Sean said run with it. Now, I’m really friendly with Sean…he’s a great guy…but honestly, he could have been messing with me, encouraging the noob to run a fairly dopey idea into the ground. I mean, do we really need another comics discussion site?

And then I realized what we could bring to the table. The idea of local comic shops, and local comic scenes, and a way to tie the communities together. I called up two writers, Caleb Monroe (writer of Boom! Studios REMNANT) and Chris Griswold (creator of Overheard in Pittsburgh), with whom I’ve worked with in the past and figured they’d be the ones to help me with this grand idea…and it’s grand all right.

What we hope to bring you is gap bridging, a way to see how the other half lives. Not necessarily creators, either, but other comic fans, comic publishers, and comic retailers, all discussing, in one way or another, their local comics scenes or the way their surroundings influence what they do.

Ok, sure, that may change a year from now, but that’s what we’re going to try to do.

And we’re going to open it up to everyone across the country and across the world. We’re looking for writers from all over (and you don’t have to be a professional writer to write for us). Right now, NYC is covered, but we could use one more “correspondent” in LA, and from there, it’s wide open. Do you buy your comics in Buffalo? How about Billings? What’s the scene in Austin, TX or in Barcelona, Spain? Did you meet your favorite creator in Augusta? Did you attend a convention in France? We want to know all about it. Why?

Because we are comics. You are comics. I am comics…

In NYC, Vito Delsante.

PS - Thanks to Tom and Sean for the idea.