Everyone’s heard of Comic Con be it the San Diego or New York editions, for the non-comic geeks or book nerds there’s ReedPOP’s other pop culture offsprings Book Expo America and Book Con. These two events combine over five days, May 30th to June 3rd, in New York City to give readers a glimpse at upcoming books and a chance to meet their favorite authors.

To be clear the first three days, Book Expo America or BEA, are more for industry folks, giving them a chance to chat and politik, like I did, look for upcoming book reviews as soon as I get a chance to power through my book haul. The last two days, Book Con is for the fans to get a chance to grab autographs and also learn about books on the horizon, and snag some discounted books, I spent a bit more than I needed too.

What follows are my 3 highlights, which can different from someone else’s, so please be kind as I went to panels that sparked my interests.

Day 1 is more for signing in but I was able to squeeze in my first panel, The Graphic Novels You Can’t Miss of 2018, moderated by Publishers Weekly’s Calvin Reid gave me a heads up on a gang of graphic novels that cover several genres; a memoir by David Small (Home After Dark), a new take on food by Blue Delliquanti (Meal), sports stories by Ngozi Ukazu (Check, Please!) and more sci-fi from the mind of Tim Fielder (creator of Matty’s Rocket).

 

On day 2, for whatever reason, odds are my Mom and her politicking, I’ve been in rooms with Congress people and Mayors before, but never a living legend like Congressman John Lewis and I was one of the lucky ones to meet him, Afua Richardson, and Andrew Aydin as they signed samplers of their new book Run.

My last panel for the Con on day 5 was PBS’s The Great American Read with authors Glynnis MacNicol, Yahdon Israel, Veronica Roth, Daniel Jose Older, and host host Lindsay Ellis. This literary showdown pitted American classics against each other in preparation for the eight-part series that explores 100 best-loved American novels chosen from a national survey. I still can’t believe that Harry Potter was the winner of our panel event. To vote or for more information go to PBS.

Of course there were other great panels, filled with authors who were gracious with their wit and insight in a carnival like space with a few Cosplayers, but if you’re a book lover like me you need to find your way to one of these amazing gatherings of book nerds.

 

George Carmona 3rd is an Artist/Writer, former Milestone Media Intern, former DC Comics paper pusher, lifelong comic geek and book lover. He is also the author of  DC Super Friends Joke Book from Penguin Random House. You can find his work at FistFullofArt.com or follow him on twitter at GCarmona3.