My New York Comic-Con 2016 whirlwind this past weekend ended with one of my favorite interviews (Shhh… don’t tell Guillermo del Toro and Steven Yeun aka “Glenn” from The Walking Dead!). Mad Magazine‘s Editor-in-Chief John Ficarra was on hand dispensing comedic wisdom in the midst of a bunch of comic book authors, but I only had eyes for him. I have been reading MAD on and off since the early 1980s, and am a huge fan. So now that everyone is aware of my high-class taste in literature…

Check out the interview below, as well as the cover for a different kind of “MAD” book.

Sunday was officially Family Day at New York Comic-Con this year (as it is every year), also known in our house as “Take Your Kid To Work Day.” My 12-year old wanted to shop and go to the VR and video game stations. My little one, however, looked forward to dressing up and doing fun things at the workshops. We chose StorySmash for her, and then she insisted on the cartooning workshop (facilitated by the artists and writers of Creative One Comics), ignoring the pull of Legos and her favorite cousin.

Check out StorySmash and Creative One Comics below.

Two of the many, many things I love about New York Comic-Con, which held court at the Javits Center in NYC last weekend, are the uniqueness of the activities and the art. When the two are combined, it makes for an even better (and sometimes delicious) surprise. Booth #455 gave passersby free jelly beans (of which my kids ate quite a few). I got a chance to interview jelly bean artist, Kristen Cumings, who is “one of the only people in the world that uses jelly beans as her art form.” So what was up with Jelly Belly?

Jelly Belly has a broad range of movies represented in their collection, including Finding Dory and Star Wars, and their Hero Collection includes entertainment icons like Superman and Wonder Woman. From gift tins and bags to bean machines and magic wands, each movie collection contains a range of products.

Check out my interview with artist Kristen Cumings and the beautiful images in the image gallery here below.

With Halloween quickly approaching the desire the binge-watch horror films is upon us. There is no better time to sign up for Shudder, AMC’s horror streaming service that they debuted in 2015. At New York Comic-Con this weekend, I got a chance to talk with Shudder representatives at their booth on the show floor.

Rest assured there is no better place for horror fans to get their fill of classics, and hard to find rarities than on Shudder. They provide the largest library of horror films, and new movies to their queue each week. Thanks to the service, I was able to see the cult-classic Society as well as the late Herschel Gordon Lewis’ original splatter-fest, Blood Feast.

At New York Comic-Con Saturday afternoon, I got a chance to sit down with the cast of The Magicians at the roundtable press interviews, and really get in-depth about their characters, scenes, and what’s in store for season 2. On hand were Jason Ralph (Quentin Coldwater), Olivia Taylor Dudley (Alice Quinn), Summer Bishil (Margo Hanson), Hale Appleman (Eliot Waugh), Jade Tailor (Kady Orloff-Diaz), Stella Maeve (Julia Wicker), and EPs and writers Sera Gamble and John McNamara.

Check out the roundtable interviews and the first scene of season 2 below.