New York Comic Con 2013 Recap - Part Two

I should tell you that there was a booth for Knight Realms. What is Knight Realms, you ask? It just so happens to be the LARPing group hubby belongs to. No, I wouldn't say he had an ulterior motive. He wanted to go anyway. Though, the booth was generally our meet up point and he spent a lot of time there. And I had absolutely no problem with that. We had our phones. So if we were over at the KR booth and I wanted to go check the publishers, I just told him I'd be back in a few. I believe it was all very equitable, although I may have spent more time in the publishers aisles than anywhere else.

But again, I just want to put it out there. Hubby was the picture of forbearance. He was patient, understanding and quite a good sport. He kept asking if he could pick up things for me to give away. The dear. He may not have realized I have not yet learned the art of give-away jitsu. I promise I am working on it. Then every time we were at a publisher's booth or meeting an author, he kept saying, "Tell them you have a blog. Want me to say it? I'm going to mention it." Way to put the pressure on. I am not yet confident in that area and while I did bring business cards, I did not hand any of them out.

We went by the Spencer Hill booth and I was pleasantly surprised to find that Sherry Ficklin and Tyler Jolley were going to be at the show promoting their Extracted comic. Sadly, like so many other things, the soiree was going to be on Saturday, so I was going to miss it. However, I was told they were at the show and on Friday, the entire booth was supposed to dress in Steampunk Star Wars. I promised to be back as I wanted to say hi. Unfortunately, every time I swung by it was to find I had missed them. It would have been a good picture for my leg of the tour blog. Please stop by on November 7th and check out my interview with them. (Shameless plug)

Most of the autographings I wanted to go to were on Friday. I had booth autographings and table autographings. I was very excited as there were authors there that I missed at BEA and I had hoped to pick up their books. Most of the signings were at tables after a panel by the authors. It was great because I could catch them all at once. Note to self: Skip the table signings next year. The publisher did not supply books. You had to purchase or bring your own. I had forgotten about that. As a result, I missed an early morning booth signing because the author was going to be at a table later. Once I realized my mistake, though, I ensured I made the rest of the booth signings for the day.


I managed to pick up Vicious signed by V.E Schwab that I missed at BEA, a steampunk ARC of The Inventor's secret signed by Andrea Cremer and a signed copy of God Save the Queen by Kate Locke. I forgot to bring a Scary Godmother book again for Jill Thompson to sign and I forgot to bring any of the Mice Templar comics I have. Both of the artist's were in Artist's Alley. So, it seems as much as I was trying real hard to be prepared, I wasn't really. Although I did bring my suitcase. The funny thing was that I was walking around with a heavy tote bag or two for about half the day and didn't think to drop the books off at the baggage check. There were some books from early morning, but I never made another drop off after I checked my suitcase. Also as an FYI, unlike BEA, apparently you can walk the floor of comic con toting luggage. Many people were doing it.

Regarding the Star Wars ornament, hubby's friends at the KR booth had mentioned they could pick it up for me, but we made no definite plans. We got up late Friday due to the aching feet and shoulders of the prior day and so were not going to make it at opening. We decided to see how much the ornament was and then would ask the KR people to pick it up on Saturday or Sunday. However, when we stopped by the booth, they made no mention of the previous day's offer, so I let it go. After all, they were there to drum up business for their group. So, no Rancor ornament.

So, the panels. I had added panels to my planner as well as signings, but let's be honest here. Am I really going to wait in line for eons when there are books to be had? I keep thinking if I was there for the whole four days I might, but I probably wouldn't. Hubby tried to get in for a Night Vale panel. He got there 45 minutes early and was already too late. To get into a panel, especially a popular panel, you need to line up at least an hour early or more. I would have liked to get into the Venture Bros panel, but that is always wildly popular. There was also a panel called Whedonversity (Buffy and Serenity in comics), Beer and Comics and a Starz panel where you could meet the cast and creators of the new Starz mini series. Diana Gabaldon was on hand for Outlander. Yeah. I missed them all. I could have made the Starz panel as it was at 6:45, but it was late in the day and my feet were killing me. Apparently the sneakers weren't all that much better than the DMs, but at least I could feel my toes at day's end.




















The NYCC is now almost as big as San Diego and is very nearly outgrowing the Jacob Javits Center. It is a fantastic event to indulge in whatever geek-type interests you have, whether it be books, comics, toys, gaming, costumes, celebrity stalking, panels, anime, screenings of all varieties, and last but not least, cosplay.

The con is becoming quite the preening ground for every cosplayer within the metropolitan area and even beyond. I do love looking at the costumes and I have to applaud them all for their courage to dress up and walk about, but I do have a couple of issues. I know we all have a very different idea in our head of what we look like than what we actually do look like. I know I sure do. But some people need to take stock of their physicality before donning some of these costumes. They are not always size or gender compatible. Some things you see can't be unseen. There were a lot of amazing costumes I saw and a lot that were not quite so professional looking.

The other issue I have is that people stop the cosplayers to snap their picture, but neither the photographer or the subject take into consideration where they are or how crowded it may be around them. Unfortunately, more often than not, they bung up the flow of foot traffic, especially in the heavily trafficked areas, like the video gaming area. In that respect, they are a menace. There should be a spot set up specifically for cosplayers to present photo ops. Heavily trafficked areas is not the place to bring out your Blue Steel.

There are always a lot of superheroes and a lot of Dr Who's running around. Not as many Amy Ponds this year, but a couple of Clara's. I actually saw more women dressed as the Tardis or a Dalek. Steampunk is still thriving as well based on the numbers of costumes I saw. There were Star Wars steampunk, Superhero Steam Punk and other franchises in addition to Steampunk as it's own genre. There was a guy dressed as the 10th doctor who had a zip up Tardis tent that he had over his head. He would walk around the con inside the Tardis so only his feet were visible and he would stop periodically and pop out. Unfortunately I did not take any pictures at the show, but I will share some of the good costumes I found on line.

 All in all, as exhausting as it was and as much as my feet hurt, I am so glad I got to go. I kept telling myself, though, that next year I need to get a four day pass whether hubby wants to go or not. Next year, I won't forget the suitcase on day one. Of course, it's a whole year away, so I'll probably forget by then.