NYC Trip: New York Comic Con

Well, that was quite the break from the blog. I've been pretty sick since Halloween- nothing more than coughing/phlegm/congestion, but that combined with colder weather made me not really want to do anything, including (obviously) updating the blog. But I feel better and it's time get this blog going again.

I never posted all the pics from the comic convention. To anyone who has never been to a comic convention (i.e. all but a few people who read this blog), they are pretty much exactly what they are portrayed as on TV. I've been to a bunch of smaller ones (where The Fatsquad had a table), and a fairly large one in Boston, but NYCC (New York Comic Con) is probably the second biggest of them all, after San Diego. I saw a few people dressed up in costumes at the one in Boston and started to wonder if the jokes of people dressing up was exaggerated, but this one... holy crap. I would say that at least 40% of the people there were dressed up, whether it be full on in tights and expensive clothes, or cheap but still with effort. It was incredible just walking around looking at all the costumes- seeing who looked better, who was hotter, who had the worst costume, etc.

But I will say this, when we got there, I wanted to leave within about 10 minutes. I don't think I've ever seen more people jammed into a space before. It was an absolute nightmare.

For example, this is just the main entryway:

Most of it was this. Just massive signs and banners, booths for stuff, and billions and billions of people in easily the largest building I've ever been in.

After fighting through people and getting distracted every 4 seconds by a hot chick in spandex walking by or a booth promoting a dancing video game with people dancing to black eyed peas songs or seeing artist/creators I've admired since I was in like 5th grade (like Jim Lee and Todd McFarlane), to meeting and having a very awkward conversation with Erik Larson (who does Savage Dragon, and who I told I haven't read his comic in years but used to like it- seriously, that's how I tried to have a conversation with him???), we pushed our way through the throngs, with me constantly losing the group. Johnny was our only saving grace, as he was taller than everyone there and easily findable. I was beginning to hate NYCC, until we found what I always liked best at comic cons, Artist Alley. Artist Alley is just table upon table of artists showcasing their work, whether they are comic artists or just people who did art for a living, and I'd seen their art online. It was great to see such great work everywhere, and it really inspired me and made me want to draw more. I even met and bought a print from Erik Jones, an artist who I've followed for years, have prints of, and even submitted to (and was accepted into an online showing) a gallery show he put together. It was awesome.

the chaos of Artist Alley

Rich and Josh continued the time honored tradition of taking pictures with hot chicks in costumes. Rich went for the huge nerd classic hover-hand technique, and went as blatant as possible with it.

Josh went for the gross creep pull-them-in-as-close-as-possible-and-squeeze-their-arms-to-the-point-where-it's-awkward-and-she-hates-it technique. Poor girl. 

I went for the "everyone just takes pictures with hot chicks, so I'm gonna take pictures with the grossest person I can find" technique. Nobody came close to this guy.

love that Steve from the Jerry Springer show photobombed me

We really only took a few pictures though, because of how hard it was to actually get a picture with someone. It's a weird thing at comic cons- most of the people who get the most dressed up go solely to have people take pictures with them. That's it- rarely did I ever see any of these people shopping or in lines to talk to artists, they just wandered around taking pictures over and over again. Guys with their shirts off and covered in paint, girls half naked, boobs everywhere. It's a weird phenomenon- I guess people really like getting attention and I guess walking around getting pictures taken with comic nerds for 8 hours makes these people happy. It was certainly amazing to see the detail some people put into costumes vs. how bad some looked, and to just marvel at people, wondering how on earth they could walk around like that all day. I think this picture illustrates it pretty well- the girl on the left is half naked and looking good, and the thing on the right, I don't even know what that is. 

And look at this guy! For the entire time we were there, he just struck poses in the entryway, flexing and having picture after picture taken of him. He must have been exhausted.

Here's a huge Transformers display: 

Josh posing with a chick with an awesome portal gun:

Rich psyched about the massive Adventuretime balloon:

Johnny being the worst GI Joe figure ever:

Johnny being the worst Star Wars character ever:

Johnny being the only person there who cared about Jem and the Holograms (???):

Rich getting shot by a Storm Trooper:

Josh being a serious badass:

Rich being blown away at the biggest wall of shirts I've ever seen:

And finally, another awkward picture of all of us: 

NYCC was tiring as hell, a pain in the ass to walk through, but an awesome time full of weirdos, amazing costumes, artists everywhere, promo stuff and previews (we got to see new GI Joe figures coming out soon that look incredible), celebrities (other than the artists, we saw Chris Evans and the dude who played Loki in the Thor movie), and funny pictures. Good times.

currently listening to- Raein: "Ah, As If..."