Decided to have the nerdiest birthday ever and came down for New York Comic Con. It certainly didn’t disappoint. There’s still one day left, but I’m going to branch out in my nerdiness (and venture beyond the jam-packed halls of the Javits Center) with a little Hayden Planetarium tomorrow, so here are my five best highlights (and one minor, but nicely balanced, disappointment).
5. The Nostalgia: For being at a Comic Con, I’m not really much of a comics person, but rather a pop culture nerd. Still, two of the panels I hit were basically all about nostalgia: MAD magazine and Archie Comics. While both had their somewhat commercial moments there was still lots of laughs at MAD and a pretty phenomenal swag bag at Archie, so I’m all kinds of happy…and nostalgic.
4. The Cosplay: I was expecting it of course, but was still impressed with some of the amazing cosplay happening. I didn’t do much photography because I feared if I’d start, I’d never stop and there was just so much of it that it’s actually starting to blur in memory. That said, a few highlights stick out including a girl in steampunk-esque Dalek dress and a helmet-less Darth Vader (no, to steal a friend’s joke, NOT Hayden Christensen…this guy. And the makeup was unbelievably spot on). Also, there was this:
Still not sure what it is other than a.maz.ing.
3. The Doctor Who Smorgasbord. By accident of my randomly picking a direction when arriving and hitting the Show Floor, one of the first booths I saw (and the first I stopped at) was the official Doctor Who Store. So much TARDIS-y goodness. I restrained myself….a bit. Didn’t get anything huge, but did pick up some random odds and ends I either haven’t seen elsewhere or just finally gave into temptation on buying. It was enough to fill two hearts with glee (and squeee, of course).
2. Free Drawings for Total Strangers: I was totally drawn in by the art work at the Red Rocket Farm booth…not to mention the offer of a free drawing. On my first visit I drooled. On my second visit I bought two little octopus paintings. On my third visit I got a drawing. Free Drawings for Total Strangers has the tagline: “I ask people personal questions, and make a cartoon for them, based on their answers… (you will hate this).” I didn’t hate it at all! He asked me to tell him about something that happened to me when I was a kid and, it being ComicCon, I had waiting in line on the brain, so told a story from nearly 30 years ago (yikes!) about little 5-year-old Katy and her ability to wait in line:
The announcement referenced? That as the 35,000 person through the line that day (it was their 35th anniversary), my brother won a car. And thus, his vindication has now been immortalized.
1. The Nerdist Podcast: It was the discovery that there would be a taping of Nerdist on my birthday that inspired the whole trip down. If I believed in signs (I don’t) this would have been one. The show was fab, but the absolute best part was this:
That’s a Chris Hardwick/Jonah Ray/Matt Mira signed picture of my brother’s friend in Boulder, holding two Hardwick/Ray/Mira signed pictures of my brother in San Francisco as he’s holding a pair of my old Dave Matthews CDs, which are “signed” by Jonah Ray. Or, as Jonah said when I put the picture in front of him for signing, “Oh my God, this is fucking Inception!” It was a fabulous moment, well worth the effort of the cross-country in-joke.
So with all that, what could I possibly have been disappointed about? Well, I missed the Marvel panel and the lovely announcement of, oh, that’s right, Coulson Lives! Admittedly I missed it as I was having lunch with a friend (of the Hayden Christensen joke above) who I see every few years or so, so I’m not too bummed to have missed out cause frankly, the point is that, oh yeah, Coulson Lives!
