New York Comic Con. Not affiliated with San Diego Comic Con, for those of you keeping score. Now, I’ve never been to ANY cons, since 1) I’m lazy and 2) have been broke for a long, long time. Basically, that meant that, back in Texas, I was constantly telling myself that I was totally going to go to A-Kon in Dallas, but never getting my stuff together to actually GO to A-Kon. Well, this year, all that changed and I was able to make my way to NY Comic Con. Pretty big way to start, right?
Comic Con is a four day event, and, unfortunately (though, in some ways, fortunately, since I’m sore after only two days), I wasn’t able to attend on Thursday and Friday. Saturday, however, I got there and planned to DO ALL THE THINGS!
My first thought upon walking into the Javits Center was “Holy crap, we need another plague!!” The Javits’ Center was packed to the gills. Nerds, cos-players, people with about a half dozen bags, My Little Pony hoodies. You name it. Though, let’s be honest, playing the 10th or 11th Doctor is downright cheating. It’s just a bow tie and some converse and maybe a fez. At least with the 4th Doctor, you have to make/find the scarf. Anyway, cos players. Some good, some bad, some sexy, some not.
I was supposed to meet a few friends, and was told “Artists’ Alley” which was a “Sure! I’ll be it’s clearly marked!” moment for me. Let’s go with a HA! No, it’s not. Plus, I missed the nice people with the maps, early on. So, I wandered around the main floor with a huge back pack on, and no smart phone internet reception. That’s not really the con’s fault. Javits is in a weird place and everyone was trying to use their phones. Which, unfortunately, lead to what I like to call “Con Waddle” (See, I’m a seasoned veteran after one con!!). Con Waddle is the tendency for people at cons to be on their phone, looking at three different booths, wondering about how much is in their wallet, and being bogged down by the angel wings they have strapped to their back. Which means everyone walks super slowly and is prone to stopping at random moments. This happens at Renn Faire, street fairs, and other such booth type gatherings.
After an hour of wandering around, hoping the world would end, I realized that there was 1) a booth with a map and 2) a bag check. Bags were check and maps were acquired and suddenly, texts from friends started showing up! My first group of friends were hanging out, surprisingly, in Artists’ Alley, and fortunately, were dressed as the Lanterns of the Emotional Spectrum, and were easy to spot, and the urge to kill finally left me.
From here, we wandered around the main hall. I didn’t get to swing by Artists’ Alley till later, but we’ll get more into that. I eventually switched groups and meet up with another friend of mine who was on his way to see the panel his partner produced. What was the panel about, you ask? Well, I have no idea. You see, this lady in front of us started getting antagonistic when we had a seat open, due to the fact that our friend was talking to the people on the panel before the whole thing started. After I went up to get the friend, the lady doubled down, since we told the friend that people were looking at us weird. So, she kept arguing with us and doubling down and being a jerk, and finally we stepped out before things could really escalate. Oh, btw, this woman had an eight year old kid with her. Way to go, mom!
Last stop was Artists’ Alley, which ended up being my favorite part of the con. It didn’t feel as crowded as the rest of the con, and you got to see a wide variety of artists, as opposed to whatever was the hottest deal of the day. Everyone was marketing and chatting and selling stuff, but usually at a much better rate then upstairs. The highlight was running into Peter S. Beagle, author of the Last Unicorn. Which, in case you didn’t know, he and his tour producer, Connor Cochran, have been traveling around the US, showing a newly remastered print of “The Last Unicorn,” author Q and A with Peter S. Beagle, and general awesomeness (no, really. I went when it came through NYC. Go. It’s amazing!) Other than that, I ran into quite a few new, upcoming, or new to me artists that I plan on checking out. You’ll hear more about them in part 2.
The last part of the day involved meeting a few more people, and seeing a few more booths, namely the “Geeks Out” booth, promoting their “Skip Ender’s Game” campaign. More information can be found on their webpage. We ended the night sore, chatting over dinner at a diner, and closed on some drinks.
Sunday, I decided to attend the con in a costume. Stay tuned for part two!!
Joeystern says
Just a note! The Skip Enders Game link seems to not be pointing to the right place…