New York Comic Con 2013 Recap - Part One

Well, it's officially fall, which means it is time for the New York Comic Con. And like any true geek, I had to get my tickets. Last year, hubby and I got three day passes because the four day pass sold out quickly. He ended up not being able to make the Friday show, so I took my friend Terri over at Alexia's Books and Such with me.

Now, she had been used to BEA, where I had not. In 2012, I only attended BEA for one day. For the 2011 NYCC, hubby and I only went on Sunday and like BEA, things shut down early and there is not as much going on. Terri, coming from BEA, wanted to bring a suitcase, but I told her she wouldn't need it based on the previous year. So, that was my big mistake last year. I didn't bring a suitcase and I had a hard time living it down.

This year I learned a thing or two. I brought a suitcase with me. It was a stressful day on Thursday as both hubby and I had to work a half day. The show opened up at 3pm. but we didn't leave the house until about 2pm. As usual, we were going to take the ferry across. When we parked the car, though, I had second thoughts about the whole luggage thing. I figured we weren't getting in until 3pm and the floor closed at 7pm. How much damage could I possibly do in four hours. Big Mistake!!!

Checking in was very different this year. This year, the badges had chips in them. You were supposed to register them on line the day before the show. Then when we arrived, we had to go through a tented security booth and have our badges tapped in. It made things very slow going, but we came to find out there was a very good reason for that. Last year, Friday was really busy. Saturday and Sunday were worse by far. I believe I did mention in my wrap up last year that at one point I was moving with the flow of the crowd, but my feet weren't touching the floor. Yeah, that crowded. We came to find out that last year there was a big problem with counterfeit tickets. There must have been thousands of 3 or 4 day passes sold on the streets of NYC. Last year it was so crazy, hubby vowed to never return on a weekend. That's the main reason we got the two days for Thursday and Friday only. But I digress. Back to the action.

I wanted to be prepared. I tried to surf the internet looking for all the good stuff: galley drops, author signings, con exclusives, freebies, etc. I had my planner printed with all the activities I wanted to do. Of course, my activities centered around the book publisher booths. But there were other things I wanted to see. I had my floor map highlighted and demarcated with the booths I wanted to see. I had a plan.

The first thing I wanted to do was sweep by all the publishers booths and get their schedule of events. Then, it was on to the Hallmark booth for the con exclusive Star Wars ornament of the Rancor holding Luke in his hand. Well, I got sidetracked by all the shiny books and grabbing schedules, that by the time I got to the Hallmark line, it was winding around. I stood there for a bit and someone finally came by and said we most likely won't get an ornament. I was about 6 people from the person holding the sign saying there was no more.

Now, I could have waited just to see if I was lucky, but I'm never that lucky. Or I could make a plan to get there first thing the next day and go along my way to see nice, shiny books. The books were calling my name. I basically spent the day, or what was left of it, roaming up and down the few book aisles and not seeing a whole lot else.

Last year, I spent all my time on Friday with the book publishers. I shopped more on the weekend. This year, since I went on Thursday and it seemed a slower day, I shopped for con exclusives. So, while I didn't get my hallmark ornament, I did get my Caveman Domo from Dark Horse as well as a con exclusive version of Star Wars #1, which is a comic adaptation of George Lucas's vision. I then went to Titan and got my Dr Who exclusive in the tuxedo from the Titanic episode and the 9th doctor in his leather jacket (sorry no pic). I also got my black and orange Penguin tote bag, very Halloweeny. We took a stroll through Artist's Alley which is in the annex. J. Michael Straczynski was supposed to be at the show and I had some Babylon 5 stuff I wanted him to sign. As it turns out, he didn't show up on Thursday or Friday.

As for the book publishers, we had some fun things happening. I believe it was HarperCollins that had two fun giveaways. One was Spin the Wheel and get a free book. Whichever book the wheel landed on. Hubby was generous enough to stand in line with me because one of the free books was Cruel Beauty by Rosamond Hodge. It's a Beauty and the Beast retelling and not coming out until January. So. there was one wheel spin each day and each time I got in line, the person three ahead of me in line would land on the book. Neither I nor hubby managed to land there. I did manage to get a signed ARC of Veronica Rossi's upcoming book. The others, not so much. The other giveaway they had was a scratch off card. You get the book on the card. These books were somewhat better.

So, in just a few hours, I did manage to fill two tote bags, make my feet go numb and destroy my neck and shoulders. So, I had that to endure for the entire ride home and all through the night. All the better to be prepared for Friday.

More to come later.