I’m gonna go a little far afield of my usual and give you all my little overview of The New York Comicon, that just happened last weekend (Oct. 8th -10). Believe me when I say there was plenty of sex, enough to warrant a mention in this week’s column.
My buddy Bob and I happened in on Sunday, trying to hedge our bets on the day that proved the most interesting schedule for us personally and when we thought things would have died down; we couldn’t have been wronger-er. Not about the schedule of events, that was top notch and we hit a few of them (read on) but about how many people attended; Sunday was banging dude!
First of all, Comicon was at the Jacob Javitz Center! I have been there before for car shows and the like. I even had the opportunity to get ‘backstage’ at some sort of hair and fashion show way back in the day (and for a red-blooded American male of 25-which I was at the time-to sit backstage and watch amazingly attractive women of every hair color and body type parade around me half-dressed was the thrill of my life…but I digress), the JJC is huge with a capital HUGE man! Bob and I waited for the line to die down, gathering our stuff in the press room (yeah, that’s just how I roll) climbing the steps into the massive 2nd floor and all the booths about an hour after we arrived.
What becomes apparent from these conventions (and here’s the sex part so I can fulfill my obligation this week) is how many ladies were dressed…kinda hot! Guys are certainly represented in all manner of homemade costumes, some I knew had to have gotten way too heated after a while, still it was the women I ogled. Fishnets, short little skirts (very common on the female anime fans…bless their hearts) and all manner of bodice bearing cat-suits; I got to tell you my head was doing a constant 360! I am fully aware this is all dress-up fun for people, a place to be with like-minded sisters and brothers and most of the women dressed slightly naughty were thinking less about the sex of it all then how much they can emulate their favorite comic book or anime character, still they looked dishy! Besides, if you have ever taken some time to look through some comics or anime you know that stuff can be quite dirty.
That top floor was the bomb as far as comic book publishers, gaming companies and everything else is concerned. Of course the big companies had their stuff out. Marvel had a few of their artists signing, Dark Horse were represented, 20th Century Fox had a neat Alien display (it’s coming out on Blue Ray) and Dawn Reshen-Doty took some time to explain her For Beginners line of comics (check out their link below) and there was a whole third or more of the massive upstairs dedicated to comic book stores, clothes sellers and toy shops that had bought space to sell for the day. Dell Ray represented a few of their titles, one the new The Making Of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back book (more on this in a few) and the new AMC series The Walking Dead show set-up a big corner booth.
Bob and I hit the Making Of Star Wars panel, a great hour spent with J.W. Rinzler, editor of the new book, which needs no push from me here. The slide show he presented and his talk were top notch. There was enough food to be had so we grabbed a quick over-priced hotdog and got out asses down early (or so we thought) to The Walking Dead show at the IGN theater (a massive theater inside Javitz) only to be turned away when they let in only a measly 3000 people! Â I got to say, even getting turned away, the Comicon staff were always polite, informed and smiling. I have absolutely the highest regard for whomever put the yellow-shirted kids in place and for the obvious senior members who wore red shirts. The staff at Comicon were fantastic.
Upstairs we trekked again, this time to pick our way through the very crowded dealers-room end of the space; making our way down for the last event we’d be doing for the day, seeing Bruce Campbell live. If you don’t know this guy from his work in The Evil Dead movies or Burn Notice show (or his chin) you gotta check out his work. Campbell is a class act, a real actor’s actor and such a generally funny guy, he took the stage and kept the crowd in the palm of his hand simply fielding questions for an hour.
It was a weird wacky totally fun-filled day with my bro Bob and all those great people, fans, kids and adults, sweetly-dressed smokin’ babes, all together down at the New York Comicon 2010 on one of those bright fall days we see often in our fair city but don’t always take the time out to enjoy.
