RhymePhile's Rat Race

I was up too late last night to write about Comic Con here in NY, so now that I'm more awake here's the full report.



The convention was held at the very large Jacob Javits Convention Center on 11th Ave in Manhattan. This was the third year of the con, and every year it expands in size. This year it was held on three levels of the convention center, with the exhibitors and dealers in one large space. This made it easier to see everything in one fell swoop.

There were also rooms in which talks were being held, but as I wasn't interested in much of that I focused mainly on the exhibitor hall.

I didn't want autographs from anyone, which meant I didn't need to be there early. We got there at 2:30, doors opened at 3. Entering the Jacob Javits Center, you first see booths set up where you can pick up tickets. These lines moved quickly, and although I had to remind the woman behind the desk that I bought 2 tickets not 1, we got out of there pretty fast.

From there we proceeded to this huge hangar-like area where we all huddled in a huge line. It was hot, I was sweaty, and we were surrounded by these annoying guys, the kind that you probably find on XBOX Live calling everyone a fag while playing Halo 3. Ugh.

Anyway, the line moved quickly as well, and soon we were deep in the heart of geek central. There weren't many people dressed up -- more of them come on Saturday -- but there were a lot of teens dressed as anime characters. There was one guy dressed as Ewan McGregor's Obi Wan from the Star Wars prequels, and he was handsome enough with a real beard and longish hair that he really pulled it off. There was a very tall waifish Princess Leia, a great Indiana Jones and Henry Jones combo that had great costumes, and various other people dressed up to varying degrees of success. My thought? If you're even a little bit chunky, don't dress as Spider-man. This comes from a chunky gal.

Speaking of, if your self-esteem is low and you feel like the ugliest/fattest/whatever in the world, your thoughts on yourself can be vastly improved by visiting a con like this.

As is the case with many of these cons, there are some things that you just don't care about or are too damn crowded to deal with. Years ago I collected comic books (I still have them all), but they aren't my priority any more. There were many, many artists and publishers there, which meant a large portion of the floor held no interest for me. Of course I knew some of the more famous names, but my comic book days are past.

Also, there were booths of indie creators and indie publishers, their tables full of their comics/books, which were passed by. Unfortunately, rules of the con state that you can't sell bootlegged stuff, which as any sci-fi fan knows, is the cool shit. I would have to have seen some bootlegged imported TV shows, or fan-made stuff. That stuff I love.

There were the mainstream book publishers there as well, selling their sci-fi lines; Sony had a Playstation 3 booth set up and Microsoft had the XBOX 360 booth; there large booths promoting online gaming and online virtual worlds; manga and anime distributors had booths; a few toy companies were there (not enough for my taste); and a bunch of other booths had stuffed toys, posters, stuff like that.

My first stop was the Diamond Select Toys booth, where I picked up Battlestar Galactica action figures, one of Apollo and one of Chief Tyrol which was signed by Aaron Douglas. Yay.

After that we wandered around for a while. I visited this great T-shirt vendor, Pegasus Publishing, where I bought a BSG T-shirt. They have some great stuff -- check out the cool shirts, all fairly cheap.

Then I bought this fantastic Darth Vader T-shirt created in line-art, or pin-striping. I'm such a geek.

Then it was off to a lunch/dinner of a small chicken sandwich, small bag of chips, and 16 ounce water for $17 freaking 50. Good Lord.

By then it was around 6 p.m., so we wandered downstairs to where the IGN Theatre was holding the X-Files: I Want To Believe panel. The panel didn't start until 7:30, but the main reason I went to the Comic Con was for the XF2 panel.

At 6:15 we walked into the darkened theatre, which was playing a documentary on independent comic book creators.

After that there was a panel with legendary animator Ralph Bakshi. He can best be described as slightly, um, outspoken. There's a new book coming out about his life, and the two writers were there with him. One writer caller him "no bullshit." Okay. I waited patiently for this legend to get the hell off the stage.

The first four rows of the theatre were reserved for VIP ticket holders. That didn't matter to me, because I was in the fifth row center with no VIPs sitting in front of me! That was why I got the great shots I did.










Then they were holding a screening of Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica, but by then I was exhausted and it was time to go home.

I don't know how some of the attendees can go for the whole weekend. For me, you see a few things and you're good to go.

I didn't take any photos of the costumed attendees, but the rest of my XF photos can be found at my Photobucket account here.