New York Comic Con Overview.
Another New York Comic Con has come and gone. Celebrity guests have packed up flown back to wherever it is they are currently filming/living. Vendors have packed up and are hauling their goods to the next weekend's conventions, storage units, storefronts, warehouses, etc. Cosplayers have scattered back to their homes to plan their next outfit and to lurk Facebook, Tumblr, Flickr, and Instagram for pictures of themselves.
From what my friends and I experienced, NYCC went really well and better than expected. Like many others, I had my doubts regarding NYCC/ReedPOP's new RFID system, but that seemed to go off without a hitch. Con staffers/volunteers seemed to have their wits about them this year. The coat check location was more convenient which made changing in and out of various cosplays a bit simpler for me and the NGU crew.
Did you see us?
Getting around the convention was a bit simpler than in the past years. While the floor plan was essentially the same as last year, the completed renovation to the Jacob Javits Center made things much more easier. The completed construction allowed for relatively less crowding outside, absence of the "tunnels" between the main rooms for the exhibitor floor allowed for easier flow, and the new "EMPIRE Stage" in the south end of the building added a new venue for more large capacity panels.
Warner Bros. and DC Comics had a side exhibit by the Empire Stage featuring costumes from live action representations of Superman for the 75th anniversary. MoriARTY will be posting up some pictures of that from his camera, but in the mean time here are a couple of mine:
On the main show floor, were large scale replicas of buildings from SOUTH PARK which housed demos for the new video game that will be hitting shelves soon:
There was not a Nerdist Booth, Lego-Chris Hardwick, or Real-Chris Hardwick as there was last year (in the off chance that you're reading this: Chris Hardwick and Chloe Dykstra, we missed you guys), but Zachary Levi and The Nerd Machine were there and they brought a Mini-Nerd HQ with them. Complete with phone charging stations, shirts and swag to buy, and HIS BUDDIES! They did the Smiles4Smiles thing where for a $20 cash donation to Operation Smile, you could take a pic with one of the celebrities that had some time to spare. If you were around at the right time, you could have taken a picture with Arthur Darvill, Yvette Nicole Brown, David Duchovny, Tyler Labine, Greg Grunberg, Seth Green, Clare Grant, and of course, Zach Levi who was coming and going all weekend due to his commitments to his Broadway show, First Date.
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| with my new pal, Arthur Darvill |
While on the subject of celebrities and pictures... Mainstream media is finally picking up prices that Sylvester Stallone was asking for on Sunday. Autograph and photo-op prices for Stallone were released by the handlers of Celebrity Authentics at the end of the summer and people paying attention to guest announcements definitely took notice. $395 for an autograph and $445 for the photo-op. While I was initially outraged at this, now, I understand. I don't like it, but I get it. Stallone has bajillion dollar budget movies to film, time is money, and he doesn't necessarily want to be in the basement of building in New York City for 4-10 hours for 3 days. It weeds out the people with less in the pockets, he doesn't have to turn down hundreds of people waiting in line so he can leave and catch a plane, and he can make similar money to the celebrities that were there for more than 1 day (Yes, people did pay the money for the photo op.) It also shows you what kind of person he is and what he (and Celebrity Authentics) thinks of his fans. If you ask me, this clip from SDCC 2010 already showed that Stallone kind of looks down at the Geek/Nerd community.
Then there are guys like Jason David Frank, Tommy from the Power Rangers, who signed autographs for 7-8 hours straight each day he was there. In fact, he even cancelled his flight home to Texas, just so he can stick around until closing time on Sunday and not turn away fans. And all the while, he tossed out free stickers and bracelets into the crowd, ran up and down the line and checked in on everyone waiting and incorporated them into his YouTube and Facebook videos. WHAT A GUY!
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| From Jason David Frank's Instagram |
If you want to see more awesome cosplay from the con, check out our NYCC 2013 gallery!
I'll have more to talk about soon on an upcoming GEEK AS VERB podcast episode.
Also, check out the link over to the right for the LIKEWISE podcast hosted by Matt Pana. Matt's a great guy and excellent musician and he interviews really talented and creative people that you might have heard of and some people that you should really check out.
And if you have something to say about NYCC or about celebrity autographs, let me know in the comments below! Like my mother says, "If you can't say anything nice, type it on the internet." Totally kidding. My mother would never say that.
- Terr
