After Thoughts: Awakening signing at Jim Hanley's Universe

Whoa, what's this? Actual content after a three day gap? Yes, and this content is pretty neat, I think. As you may have known by following our Twitter account (and if you don't, I'm upset with you), the artist, Alex Eckman-Lawn, and author, Nick Tapalansky, of Archaia Comics' Awakening came to Jim Hanley's Universe in New York City today to finish up their Halloween signing tour.

So, order of events: Today was a pretty gross day in New York, what with the raining continuing from last night, and then there's the fact that Jim Hanley's Universe (which is located right across from the Empire State Building) isn't exactly right next to where I live, so that meant I had to walk a nice distance in the rain as well. But who cares, right? Let's get to the good stuff!

The signing was scheduled from 4-7 PM, but being the person I am that thinks I do things much slower than I actually seem to do, I got to Jim Hanley's at around 3:20. And to my surprise, no one was there yet (despite the staff their telling me I should arrive early a few weeks ago). So, I decided to do some browsing while I waited for everything to start, and I soon saw Alex Eckman-Lawn arrive. Now, here's a fun fact, Alex and I frequently talk online (not that it has any effect on how I write regarding his work) but we'd never spoken in person.

Being a not-creeper, I went up to him, introduced myself and we soon went browsing around the shop. And I'll tell you this much, browsing comics with somebody who's actually in the industry is pretty rad (and yes, I use the word rad). Nick Tapalansky was stuck in traffic (and who can blame him, it's NYC and crappy weather) but when he eventually came I said hello and he joked about the "password" I was supposed to say if I arrived without my book. I then took a couple of photos of the two of them to post here, but of course I failed and the few I took at the moment came out blurry...

Eventually the signing started... but I was the only one there still. Which was surprising but I'm still unsure, I mean, the book isn't exactly HUGE in terms of media coverage, and the creative team (Alex and Nick) isn't exactly well known, and Archaia isn't exactly the money-house that is Marvel; plus, I'm sure the bad weather drove away an casual shoppers looking to get some autographs of people they don't know. Regardless of what was on everyone else's mind, I have to say, I enjoyed browsing comics with Alex and I appreciated Nick's humor of saying that I'd get a post up here on VFH within the hour (which I didn't, sorry Nick! Ha ha). Can't really ask for much more than that, especially on a crappy day like this, I just hope that more people showed up after me because these guys deserve it.

Also, by showing up to the signing, I should be getting a preview of the next Awakening book within the next few days. When I do, I'll be sure to share my thoughts with you readers.

More thoughts at The Work of Jared D. Weiss