While there were a few glitches—a nexus of very popular panels on Saturday afternoon caused a shutdown of the aisle outside the panel area—for the most part the huge crowds moved smoothly through the venue. "The aisles were wide enough so that everyone could walk around comfortably," said Dynamic Forces president Nick Barrucci. The crowds were biggest Saturday, when a mix of comics, movie and animation panels brought out a throng—many of them dressed in anime or pop culture inspired costumes.

NYCC show manager Lance Fensterman said he was “really happy” about the show’s performance. Fensterman pointed to heavy traffic on Saturday; crowds of 3,000 people for various screenings at the IGN theater and packed panel halls, “just a lot of people.” Fensterman said there were 10,000 fans lined up on Saturday morning in the adjacent vacant hall and show personnel were able to get them inside the exhibition hall in about 20 minutes once the floor opened. He said he was unaware of some complaints about staff confusion on Friday morning over professional credentials as well as complaints once again about some panelists not being notified about their participation in the programming. Fensterman acknowledged that there had been “some issues, nothing major. Stuff that we can fix.”

Rarely has the succulent appeal of quiet country life been portrayed with such sensual skill as it is in Pedrosa's limpid graphic novel about a boy, his parents and the trio of hooded riders who watch them. Pedrosa adeptly establishes the mood of timeless bucolic idyll immediately, with his swirling, sometimes harshly etched, black-and-white renderings of the land cultivated by hulking farmer Louis; his wife, Lise; and their scampering boy, Joachim. The family's playful antics are overshadowed first by ruminative narration, then by three riders, who watch the family with unnerving patience from the foggy distance. A local witch tells Lise that the "shadows" have come for Joachim, after which Louis impetuously makes a run for it with his son, warned that he must treasure every moment with the boy. The resulting story is more Appointment in Samarra–style dream than chase, with Louis and Joachim floundering from one mysterious episode to the next, the implacable shadows following, as in a nightmare. French artist Pedrosa's background as a Disney animator is clearest in his exaggerated movements and facial expressions, but the story (inspired by the death of a close friend's young child) is a glorious and revelatory fable, beautiful in its grief. (Apr.)

Marvel Comics and renowned science fiction writer Orson Scott Card announced at last weekend's New York Comics Convention that the comic book publisher will soon begin adapting books from Card's popular Ender series into comics. Ender's Game, Card's Hugo and Nebula Award-winning book about a young military prodigy battling an alien army, and Ender's Shadow, a concurrent novel about another child soldier, will launch as comic books later this year, with the first Ender's Game collection due in Summer 2009.

• The Education of Hopey Glass (Fantagraphics)
• Living with the Dead (Dark Horse)
• Justice Society of America Vol. 2: Thy Kingdom Come (DC)
• Johnny Delgado is Dead Vol. 1 (Image)
• Daredevil: Hell to Pay Vol. 2 (Marvel)
• Jessica Farm (Fantagraphics)
• Love the Way You Love: Side A (Oni Press)
• Daddy's Girl (Fantagraphics)
• Thirsty for Love (Digital Manga Publishing)
• AI Revolution (Go! Comics)
• Dorothea Vol. 1 (DC/ CMX)

• NYCC, ICv2 Briefs
• Comics for Girls
• More Minx
• Haspiel Joins Zuda
• Mobile Comics
• Tokoyopop In the House
• Zot! Returns
• Selling Emily
• Tween Comics
• Buyers Aware
• Talent Fight