New York Comic Con 2014: George R. R. Martin in 1964

What if you were an eager comic book-reading teenager in 2014 and you were teleported back to the first New York Comic Con in 1964? It was fifty years ago that New York Comic Con first set up shop, arguably the prototype for all major comic cons to come. I was pleasantly surprised to learn today in The New York Times coverage of the upcoming NYCC (Oct 9-12), that the records show something quite special. If you look at the 1964 program for New York Comic Con, on the list of registered participants, George R.R. Martin, just 15 years-old at the time, is the first on the list!

Well, that inspired me to draw the above comic. If two teens were let loose in NYCC ’64, they would have a shot at buying a bunch of copies of Action Comics #1 for a mere $40 each. Today, those same copies (depending upon the condition, blah, blah, blah) would fetch in the neighborhood of $3 million each. Of course, if one of the teens caught sight of Mr. Martin, that distraction could prove catastrophic for their plans. He could squander their chances at millions just to alert the author of “Game of Thrones” to pick up the pace!