Wednesday, October 13, 2010

NYCC 2010: The Saga Continues

I've been doing San Diego Comic Con for around 9 years now, so I'm no stranger to the geek hordes, the obstacles of monolithic cosplayers posing for pictures every 10 feet, the lines to get into panels or the stench from the collective unwashed that will singe your eyebrows off, but New York Comic Con did one thing I never thought a convention that didn't include drinking would do. It kicked my ass.

We started fast and furious on Friday afternoon with Jordana covering costumes and random photo ops (dressed as Buffy the Vampire Slayer from the episode where she was a waitress named Anne) and myself grabbing shots of any toy I could get to before the show opens and I'm tossed around like a Jenna Jameson real doll at a porn convention after party. That went smoothly enough and I managed to get up to Square Enix before the public, brandishing better cameras then mine and screaming their favorite catch phrases in my ear, showed up to block my path. Still it was all fairly calm and I pushed through til my first meeting to see zombies in Red Dead Redemption hit. By then, it was clear NYCC was pulling no punches this year and all their shouting to all points dork attracted a legion of fans of all shapes and sizes that clogged every orifice the convention hall had to offer. Inside the Red Dead booth I learned that zombies will try and eat your horse, and your horse can then become a zombie horse, but the zombies will not try and eat a zombie horse. Interesting. More on that later!

Back into the fray to see how Jordana and the Evil Girl Squad (Lead by Lori who vowed to cover comics with extreme prejudice) were faring and shoot up the plastics before ducking into the IGN theater to get a peek at Captain Marvel fighting Black Adam as well as All Star Superman, coming soon from Warner Home Video. We were told that aside from another Green Lantern animated film on the way, we'd also be getting Batman: Year One. It's clear WB's focus is on the movie properties and building those brands, but with so many great stories to tell, I sure would kill to see someone besides Superman and Batman go at it! Again..more on that later!

Saturday...was a clusterfuck. We called it Codename: Clusterfuck actually. After seeing Heather Buckley into the show and on her way to Saw 3D interviews, I headed off to meet Ryan Buell from Paranormal State where we talked about crazy people and the ghosts they are convinced they are ravaged by. I followed this up with a round table with The Venture Brother's Jackson and Doc, who have sincerely apologized for destroying that super valuable comic in that episode that made you cry yourself to sleep. After getting my Batman mask signed I made a break for Hanna interviews; the tale of a young girl taught to be a ruthless assassin by her father, Eric Bana. Family fun! My lineup had a young Irish girl, Ban the Aussie and a British Director, so accents for everyone. After scoring some food for Heather who was dying on her Thing prequel press line and running into a nearly completely naked Na'vi girl, I made my way back to the floor. Just inside the entrance beyond the escalators, they placed a stage where people danced to a new Michael Jackson Wii game, so as I entered I came across two things; Wookies rocking out to Beat It and a sea of people watching Wookies dance. The crowd was so thick, it was nearly impossible to move forward beyond a slow, drudging walk. How I missed the snarky voice of the SDCC woman reminding people that stopping in the middle of an ilse is not a good idea, as people can't walk through you. Science is awesome. No one seemed to get the laws of displacement and so, the slow march continued. This made shooting the Art Toys nearly impossible, so forgive me if that section of our FlickR is lacking. I did my best!! I made my way to the Young Justice panel and found getting in a breeze. We learned that the new cartoon series can use ANYONE from the DC universe and doesn't shy away from guest stars from the Justice League, so HOOfuckingRAY for that!!! My mind boggles with cameo potential. The day's adventure ended at The Patriot with the Evil Girl Squad and Vodka, until I could take the country western music no longer and gave up. I'd like to thank the 4 Tank Girls I ran into for brightening up this; the most crappiest of convention days.

Sunday allowed me some time to sleep in, but I had more articulated things to shoot and was determined to visit most of my friends for photo ops. I'd had some panels earmarked for my own enjoyment but quickly deserted them upon finding the show seemingly more crowded than the previous day. I ran into a couple of Cosplay girls I knew and took their picture as they expressed their frustration with the lack of space to breathe in the show. My frustration joined them as I found the Walking Dead panel had a line bigger than the space inside the IGN theater and when you add all the people inside who would not be leaving, there was no way I'd get my notes in there. Luckily, Heather Buckly is like a ninja and got the job done. Knowing this, I met up with Jordana (dressed as Silk Spectre 1 from Watchmen) and we did some shopping and said hi to friends at Angry Drunk Graphics and Rocklove Jewelry. We decided my coverage would not be balanced if we didn't hit the actual Anime part of the convention, so we traveled down the long corridoor to what almost seemed like a sub basement. Remember that scene from Roger Rabbit where they break through the wall to Toon Town and everything is singing and dancing? We had arrived. Some kids were on stage dressed in Japanese school skirts belting out a heartfelt rendition of the Pokemon theme song and the WHOLE SHOW FLOOR was joining them. Everyone..no matter where you looked..was singing..except for those few people, like us, who wandered in to get the full effect. The Horror. Anime fans, in large groups, don't really speak to each other as much as they make odd little high pitch noises and break into synchronized dance at any moment. It seems an odd way to communicate. After strolling down one isle of all hand made art and items and seeing someone sketching Batman making out with Superman, we decided it would be best to go back to the main convention hall.

Jordana took off to fight crime and Hula Hoop and I headed over to Image to grab some pictures of Kirkman (creator of The Walking Dead) when I stumbled across Rufus Dayglo, artist for Tank Girl in his first appearance stateside. As you may be aware of already, I'm a freak for Tank girl..and if you were on hand that day, you would have watched me struggle to keep it together as the geek inside me flipped the fuck out. I walked away with a sketch and two full pages of hand drawn art from the comic..and a smile on my face that still hasn't gone away. After saying quick hellos to Dark Horse's Scott Allie and our good friends at Anchor Bay and Magnet Releasing, me and Heather found a tiny little Thai restaurant to hold up in til the crowds thinned out and we could make our way home...exhausted..bruised..battered...and complete.























Side Story: While fighting his way through the crowds of New York Comic Con, a former police officer wounded on the job and forced to use a cane to walk came across Bruce Campbell..or rather vice versa. Rushing through the crowd and annoyed by the countless fans trying to get pictures and autographs they weren't paying for, Bruce came across our hero and when asked by yet another fan for a signature, he exclaimed "I've got to be somewhere and this fat cripple is blocking me." Our buddy, worn down by his bad back, bad leg and a day of pushing through the crowd, turns around to see it is Bruce Campbell being a dick and punches him in the face. Cameras go off like mad and Bruce's handlers advise the man with the cane to disappear quickly as this could get bad. To his credit, the bloody lipped Campbell immediately realized he deserved his licks and laughed it off before vacating the area.

And that, my friends..is Comic Con. Check out all the pics by clicking RIGHT HERE!! There are more stories to tell and more pics to be uploaded, so keep checking back.



Special thanks to Heather Buckley, Jordana and Lori for all the hard work, and Reed for all their access.

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