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Tuesday, October 15, 2013

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.

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!

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

Thursday, October 10, 2013

NEW YORK COMIC CON 2013 Survival Guide

New York City Comic Con is here. Panels have already started. Booths and vendors are ready to sell you whozits and whatzits galore. Some of your favorite celebrities and personalities are trickling in from where ever it is they're coming from.

Here are some tips to get the most of your NYCC Experience:

Bring cash
Take care of this before entering the Javits Center. Sure, there will be plenty of vendors that have a credit card swipe app thing for their iphone or ipad, but with SOOO many people at the convention tweeting and facebooking and other vendors using this app, connectivity can be an issue.
Also:
"What panel is this super long line for?"
"Uhhh...this is the line for the ATM"
From NYCC '2011
Wear comfortable shoes*
NYCC and being in NYC involves a good amount of standing and walking. The Javits Center spans several city blocks and you'll be maneuvering through lines and crowds and spinning and pivoting trying to get to where you want to be.
*If you're cosplaying and your character is wearing high heels or is barefoot, you can go ahead and ignore this*
Food
Protein bars, Lunchables, water, sandwiches: stuff you can eat quick without making a mess and doesn't make the area 20 feet around smell like your kitchen. Javits Center food is just like any other convention center food - EXPENSIVE. So bring it with you or go to a restaurant
Bring Your SmartPhone Charger
You will constantly be opening and closing apps, looking for signal, using the camera, texting and calling friends to meet you somewhere. Bring a charger. Sure there will be some charging stations here and there, but you'll probably find a random outlet somewhere where you can sit and relax a bit.

Sharpies
Bring a couple of these - Black and Silver are usually safe bets - you MIGHT be able to catch someone on their way to or from a panel or booth that is willing to sign something quick for you. Or you can just doodle on something that needs a doodle.
Backup plan
You might not get the panel you really wanted to go to. go to the panel you only kind of wanted to go to and know how to get there.

Bruce Timm and Andrea Romano of DC/WB Animation

Good Attitude/Etiquette:

Sure you paid money to get into the convention, but that doesn't entitle you to anything other than getting through the front door.
Taking a pic of a cosplayer? Ask first. No one likes having a picture taken while eating, yawning, slouching, etc. Nor does anyone want a picture of their ass on your Facebook or Instagram without their permission.

Also, not cool to take a picture of a cosplayer who's body type doesn't exactly go with the character and then throw up a snarky caption or hashtag
Chill out with the grabby hands and lewd comments
COSPLAY ≠ CONSENT

Don't question someone's knowledge of a comic, show, movie, book series, etc. This is not your place to do this... unless you're the host of a game show. That's just elitism
In the words of Wil Wheaton, "Don't be a dick."

We'll see you there!

Monday, September 23, 2013

SUPER PAJAMAS! Geeky Sleepwear!

The summer is over. The temperatures are cooling down and as the song goes, "...the weather outside is weather." You should consider getting yourself some onesie pajaamas to keep you warm and cozy as you tear through GTA-V. Hey, if you get invited to a Pajama Party, you don't want to be the jerk that came wearing sweats or flannel pajamas with your school's name down the leg. So when you sit around the living room with friends playing Mafia or Cards Against Humanity, look styling.

From WebUndies.com:
The onesies on this site average $38.00. Not all of them have feet and if you're representing the Caped Crusader or the Man of Tomorrow, there's a detachable cape.

If you plan to explore the final frontier before going to bed, check out the officially licensed Star Trek Footed Pajamas available at JumpinJammers.com:

For the more discerning Star Fleet officer, check out the 2 piece pajamas from SuperHeroStuff.com:

Also available at SuperHeroStuff.com is the Doctor Who Fourth Doctor Robe:

Prefer that your jammies be bigger on the inside? Head over to BBCShop.com:

You guys, officially licensed Star Wars character onesies exist, but only in the UK. What's up with that? (Or if you're in the UK: Hell Yeah!) They also ship to most countries in the EU. I bet if you contact Red5.co.uk's customer service, they might be able to take care of you. Maybe your European pen-pal, Twitter friend, or buddy that's doing a study-abroad program can help you out.

And for the ladies who want something with more slink, WebUndies.com:

Here's a tip, if you get pajamas to emulate your favorite caped superhero, head over to a fabric store and buy a few yards of fleece or flannel to make an even bigger/better cape. It'll also double as a blanket and will look cooler than just tying a bed sheet around your neck. Just keep in mind that a decent hero/villain cape, when laid flat, is a half or quarter of a circle.

I hope some of this helped you find some awesome pajamas for you or a friend.

- Terr

Friday, August 23, 2013

Howl's Moving Castle is Real

Howl's Moving Castle?

Okay, so it's not REALLY Howl's Moving Castle; it's the Neverwas Haul! Close enough, though! It's a veritable Steampunk architectural treat! It even has a small steam engine for effect. I can just see Calcifer in there complaining about stuff. This thing is so cool; it fuels my imagination! I just wanna play dress up and have a party there with friends.

Tuns out you can! While it does travel to various festivals, it mainly lives in Obtanium Works in Vallejo, CA. They rent out the venue, with access to the Neverwas Haul, for weddings and gatherings! Oh, we wants to do that, Precious!

This lovely victorian contraption was dreamed up by the "Travelling Academy of UnNatural Science" captained by "Major Catasrophe", otherwise known as Shannon O'Hare. It's a pretend club, and the Neverwas Haul is their clubhouse and base for travels around the globe. I love the spirit of the thing!

Shannon O'Hare, the Mastermind

It was made entirely by freely obtained collectables, antiques, and oddities; so everything in it is made up of recycled parts, or, pre-loved stuff. To see more pictures, visit the Obtanium Works post about it here, as it showcases some video footage and a link to lots of Flickr photos. For a more in-depth read, Collector's Weekly did a big write-up on it here with an interview with Major Catastrophe himself.

I love it when people have fun and do what they love. I especially love playing pretends and dress-up. BIG THUMBS UP from me!!

Never Grow Up!

Heather

The Incredible Dork

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Black Milk Announces Harry Potter Line Coming Soon!

Black Milk

Black Milk has started their photo shoot for an upcoming Harry Potter line! The Harry Potter goodies are set to be released on September 3rd at 9am Australian EST!!

Black Milk

Can't wait to see what they come up with and do a review on the full range. In the meantime, I have such a huge wish-list for geek goods that I need to go sell a kidney or something.

Always,

Heather

The Incredible Dork

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Cyborg, Knight, or Elf: Cosplay Erryday with Mitmunk!

Bionic Leggings by Mitmunk

Some fairly epic bionic and chain mail & armour designs from Mitmunk are what's been catching my eye lately. They are PERFECT for those of us who want to cosplay erryday!!

Check out these designs by the creative duo from Vancouver, Canada, Wayne and Heather. It's so great to see a sic-fi and fantasy lover's delight being brought to life for everyday wear by these northern spunks.

Armour Leggings

I freaking LOVE LOVE LOVE these unisex leggings on this male model. He's wearing them just right with boots and a manly tee. Love it. Perfect for the modern day Knight.

Mitmunk

Boba Fett-esque? Whether Star Wars or Midieval, Cosplay + Syle beckons!

Bionic Leggings

Cyborg FTW!! Or, amazeballs exoskeleton?

Crusader Leggings

Elven OR Medieval; pick your poison!

I can see myself as an elf in these. Or just a badass chick from Middle Earth. How about you?

Sneak peek of a Bionic dress

from an upcoming product line! Woot!

There are more designs totally worth checking out and ordering from Etsy! Visit and follow Mitmunk on twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest!

For inspiration on how to wear these kinds of leggings stylishly everyday see my post Geek Leggings + Style; and for how to turn them into cosplay everyday, see Cosplay + Style!

Cowabunga, Dudes!

Heather

The Incredible Dork

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Breaking Bad at SDCC 2013

The cast of Breaking Bad was on hand at San Diego Comic Con to discuss the show starring a former high school science teacher turned druglord. Moderator, Chris Hardwick was joined on stage by creator and executive producer Vince Gilligan and castmembers Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Anna Gunn, Dean Norris, R. J. Mitte, and Bob Odenkirk.

Here's what we got from the fabled HALL H:

You might not be able to tell from this video, but Bryan Cranston took the stage in Heisnberg cosplay! Trademark green button down, khakis, and an amazing/creepy Heisenberg mask:

Cranston took the opportunity walk the floor in the mask, tried to use a higher voice to pretend like he was a fan who made the mask. "So it was fun meeting you, and you met me."

Chris Hardwick will host TALKING BAD immediately following each of the final 8 episodes.
Regarding the differences between TALKING DEAD and TALKING BAD: "I understand that tonally the shows are different, so I will give 'Talking Bad' the respect that 'Breaking Bad' deserves," he says. He says the show will be "more of a retrospective of the series," since it didn't exist in earlier seasons.

Cranston thinks anyone can become a Walter White. "Under the right circumstances — desperation, need greed, depression — you push those buttons at the right time, and anyone can become dangerous. And that's what happened to Walter White."

What's it like to shoot some particularly dark scenes: Aaron Paul says while the show is dark, "The set is very loose and very comical," because of Cranston. "He's the most professional person I've ever worked with, but also the most immature man I've ever experienced."

RJ Mitte started the show at 14 years old and is turning 21 next month: "Most people had high school, I had 'Breaking Bad.'"

Norris on Hank: "He's the one guy — his conscience won't allow him to do the wrong thing, to his detriment. He could've lied about beating up Jesse Pinkman and avoided getting his head almost cut off by a couple of Mexican dudes, but he didn't. I think he's that guy."

ALL OF SAUL'S LINES ARE SCRIPTED! Just great writing and great delivery.
Odenkirk on Saul: "The key to Saul, and Vince has said it to me, and I've had fans say it, is he's good at what he does. That's the thing. You see a lot of boobs on TV, they're always fun to laugh at... but in the case of Saul, he's funny, and yet he actually gets stuff done."

Gilligan wasn't familiar with Cranston's work on Malcolm in the Middle. Regarding casting comedic actors, Gilligan says "Comedy is a lot harder to do than drama," he explains. "I would hire a comedian every day of the week to play a dramatic part. If they have the chops to play comedy... they can certainly do drama, it seems to me."

Walter White is the Evil Juice Box Man. How did Walter poison Brock? Gilligan says the writers would always tell the story of "the Evil Juice Box Man. The way we worked it out on our timeline is he had just enough time to do it, but it would've been very tricky indeed." They figured he crushed the poison up, stuck it in a juice box, and got into Brock's school. "That's our inner story, the writers and I, for how it happened. It would've been very tricky timing, but he was a motivated individual at that point."

Jane's Death. The original version of the script had Walt pushing Jane onto her back when she started choking to be sure she died. AMC and Sony gave Gilligan a note that this was too quick for an act that egregious to happen. Vince came up with a different plan, and they worked it out on the set, where Walt jostling Jesse would accidentally put Jane on her back. "The culpable moment for Walt is when he recognizes the girl could die, and what does he do then?" He loved the way the note from the network and studio made the scene better.

What's Walter White's motivation coming into the last half of season 5? Cranston: "Empire. He's in the empire business. His ego is peaking. He's never felt this before in his life. To have this kind of power as an adult, he's never ever had that. And it got to him. He succumbed to it like it was an aphrodisiac."

Vince Gilligan on the show's finale: "...I am satisfied by the ending. I hope you will be, too. Everyone in front of the lens and behind it is very happy with it."

And now for a teaser:

The final episodes begin Sunday, August 11th on AMC.

I'll post a link to the full panel on our Facebook page when/if it becomes available.

And because I find PicStitch far too amusing:

Friday, April 12, 2013

NGU goes to Castle Point Anime Convention!!

Castle Point Anime Convention

Venue: Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ

Transportation: Car (street parking), Bus, Train station nearby.

Site: www.CastlePointAnime.com

Twitter: @CastlePointCon

If you live in the NYC area, you might be familiar with the biggest con in the area, New York Comic Con, but for the die hard anime enthusiasts the convention season begins a few months earlier in April with Castle Point Anime Convention across the Hudson in Hoboken, NJ. Founded in 2008 and run by the Stevens Institute of Technology Anime Club, CPAC has been steadily growing year after year with more panels, more guests and (our favorite) more cosplay! AgroCraig and I spiked up our hair, grabbed our over sized swords and headed over.

We got to the gorgeous Stevens campus around noon and instantly saw hordes of cosplayers everywhere on the grounds. Music was playing through dorm windows, groups were taking pictures and excitement was everywhere. We headed up to the registration office to pick up our passes and start our day. By getting there around noon (we like sleeping in on Sundays) we figured that we'd be one of the last ones picking up our passes, but we were wrong. The registration office was on the 3rd floor of a building which had two other buildings connected to it, the line for picking up passes stretched throughout all three of the buildings. Luckily for us, the press line was maybe 2 people long, so we got out passes within minutes and immediately headed to our first panel.

MIKE MCFARLAND Q&A

I'll admit it, I'm not the biggest anime fan when it comes to the obscure series coming straight from Japan, but I have my few choice favorites and the first panel we saw brought back some great memories for me. Our first panel was a Q&A with Mike McFarland. For those not familiar with the name Mike is a voice actor and adaptive script writer that has a imdb page a mile long. He seems to have a part in almost every popular anime series coming to the states. He was Master Roshi in Dragon Ball Z Kai, Jean Havoc in Fullmetal Alchemist to just name a couple. If you're a gamer he's got that covered too! Some of his most recent titles are Paul Phoenix in Street Fighter X Tekken and Spug from The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct. He also had parts in the huge hit Borderlands 2 and Halo Wars. It was nice seeing an anime mainstay such as Mike McFarland at a local convention such as this.

PAPERTAPE FOR DRESSFORMS AND ARMOR

Our next stop took us to "Paper Tape for Dressforms and Armor". For anyone into cosplay, you know making armor and masks are some of the toughest and most involved work there is. For my Cobra Commander helmet and Terr's Cyclops visor (writeups coming!) we used bondo which was very difficult to use and was heavy and rough that required hours of sanding. For those that don’t know what Paper Tape is, it’s used on a lot of packaging, so you probably have some boxes lying around that have paper tape on them. It’s basically a strip of paper, reinforced with thread or sometimes fiberglass with adhesive on the back. Using papertape is a very simple procedure. As was explained to us, just slightly wet the adhesive back and wrap it on whatever you’re making. If making armor, it’d be easiest to wrap the papertape around the part of the body you’re making the armor for and letting it dry and cutting it off (just wrap that part in plastic wrap or a plastic bag first, because the adhesive can sometimes be irritating to skin). It’s simple, pretty quick to do, and with different layers and patterns you can create almost any piece of armor or dress you need.

COSPLAY EXHIBITION

Our cosplay adventure continued with the Cosplay exhibition. Basically this was a showcase for people in costume to act out a short skit based on their characters. It seemed promising, but when only two of the performers attended, it kind of fell flat. The only thing that saved it was an amazing performance by a Stormcloak soldier from the expansive world of Skyrim. His act so was moving and passionate it really felt like we were in Skyrim being initiated into the Stormcloaks. He even handled the hecklers without hesitation. I’ve posted a video below of part of the Stormcloaks speech. I wish I had captured the entire Stormcloaks act as that was easily the best cosplay performance I’ve seen in a while.

SCIENCE IN ANIME

Our last panel of the day mixed anime with a little bit of physics and math. If you’ve ever seen a movie or show and thought, “That’s not possible”, well these guys were here to prove whether or not it was and if it was, exactly how it could be achieved in real life. One of the animes they started with was Planetes. It revolves around space garbage collectors living in space. The topic they brought up in this anime is the effect space has on bone development and the risks of being born in space. The showed a conversation that one of the characters had with a girl who was born in space. She was taller than him and seemed like her age would be around his (20-30’s) when infact she was only 12 years old. The science behind that is that without Earth’s gravity pressing down, bones would be able to grow less dense, and therefore taller albeit weaker. This was one example of anime doing science correctly. An example they ran through of anime taking liberties with science was a scene in Outlaw Star specifically having to do with monopoles. For those that don’t know what monopoles are, it’s basically something with one pole, hence mono. A regular magnet has two poles, a north and south, and even if you break it in half, the two new pieces would still have a north and south poles. The specific scene was about using a monopole to lift two adult men into the air to escape closing enemies. This is where anime geek turned into math geek as they went through a full board of math and science equations to show how much power the monopole would need to lift the two men. I won’t bore you with the equations, and also because I didn’t fully understand all the principles behind them, but basically to have enough power to lift the two grown men into the air, the monopole piece would have to wait roughly the size of a neutron star. So yea, the show took a little bit of liberty with that one. Also monopoles don’t exist in real life, or at least no one has discovered on yet.

Overall, the con was a huge success. They had a little bit for everyone, from gaming, to anime, to cosplay, to general geekiness. There was also a great turn out (larger than I expected honestly) and the atmosphere was buzzing with excited cosplayers and fans alike. I wasn’t really expecting much going into this, but I was amazing how well this was put together. I truly expect this con to be going on for years to come and continuing to grow year after year. Below is a copy of the panel listings so you can see what was going on. NGU will certainly be back as often as we can and hope to see you there! And as always, for more information, visit Castle Point Anime Convention at their website listed above and check out some more pics from the con below.