There’s always that feeling when a big event is over – a wedding, a reunion, a comic convention. A mix of exhilaration and relief. The sadness that it’s over and the anticipation of the next one.

ITHACON gave it a go for the forty-ninth time, and it was astoundingly fantastic. A mix of new ideas, old friends, rich traditions and smiles. Here’s a bit of the highlight reel:

Just Ice Tea was our newest collab -in a deal put together by Ella Shorkey. This entrepreneurial brand sampled at the show and treated pros and staff to their amazing product!

Our Program Book took another big step up. It was so polished and professional. Everyone on Team ITHACON was involved, but Nick Polisi, Mo Plizga and Eli Brown led the battle. I’d suggest you jump on eBay and buy up as many as you can right away!

TwoMorrows Publishing rocked it all with their social media friendly frames! It seemed like everyone wanted in on the action!

The new ITHACON banner was a cosplay magnet. Great Scott – so many creative folks attended this year. Thanks too to Amanda Krugman and DJ Bunny Ears himself, Eric Johnson, for the cool Cosplay Parades.

Tom King zoomed in to the class this spring and talked to us all about his graphic novel, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. Since then, we’ve really had a Supergirl theme running through ITHACON. The Supergirl Showcase was a big hit. A collected loaned ITHACON their Supergirl stuff, and it was all just gorgeous.

And for our Saturday Morning Cartoons and Cereal event, Jonathan Chalmers suggested was show Supergirl cartoons and it they were a big hit!

The Turner Awards celebrate industry accomplishments through the lens of ITHACON. This years’ winners—impressive people all—were each surprised, but they shouldn’t have been! Addy Wells, Flynn Davidson and Ellie King ran the event this year and they all did a wonderful job.

• Our Luminary awards were also presented to another husband and wife team. Their Herculean contributions over all these years are practically unimaginable, except for the fact that they are all documented and true. It was a kick to award them Carmela Merlo and Roger Stern.
• Meg Stivison and Harold Sipe are hard-working entrepreneurs, and it’s always a treat when they come to ITHACON with their incredible Small Monsters Games. They won the Super-Retailer award for ITHACON 49.
• Dandy Don Simpson won the Trailblazer award. He was convinced it was a mistake and Howard Simpson, also at the show this year had really won. Don has the whole story up on his Substack here.

The Supergirl theme continued on with as top colorist, Glenn Whitmore, along with Addy Wells and Flynn Davidson, judged the winners of the annual ITHACON coloring contest, which continues to be such an engaging event. This year, fans were challenged to color a Supergirl sketch from longtime friend-of-ITHACON, Jamal Igle.

Our new ITHACON pins, created by PinForce, sure were gorgeous And everyone loved them! And who would’ve thought yellow and coral shirts would’ve been such a hit? Thanks to Farmboy Graphics for these fantastic shirts.

One more coloring note- it was such a treat to get Chris Sotomayor onboard as a guest this year too. What kind, and talented, guy!

But there is so much more I have to write about– I’m gonna need a bigger column! So many other incredible contributors and hard-working people that I still have to provide shout outs too.

And I feel like we are already behind in planning ITHACON 50!