Nerd-tastic: An NYC Comic Con Roundup

We really should be getting paid more, here at PC Magazine. I mean, on Friday, they made me leave work at noon and head over the second annual New York Comic Con. Booth babes, demons, intergalactic bounty hunters--honestly, I'm still not really sure how we managed to make it out of the Javits Center alive.

To be honest, I could've spent the entire weekend at New York Comic-Con doing nothing but taking pictures of Darth Vader and the assorted stormtroopers wandering around the Javits; they're just such awesome photogrpahic icons

Best Quote Of The New York Comic Con


"Hi, I'm Occasional Superheroine."

"What? You know where to score some super heroin?"

It was a definitely a 200% better experience than last year. The organizers doubled the amount space, created wider aisles, and put the artists in their own section instead of squeezing them around the outside of the show floor. Most importantly, they cut off pre-registration for Saturday a couple of weeks ago, and sold NO tickets at the door on that day. This really helped keep the attendance at a manageable level. Don’t get me wrong — it was certainly bustling on both Saturday and Sunday. But there was breathing space in most aisles, and everything kept moving.


The best event I attended was the Battlestar Galactica panel, with Kevin Smith moderating a discussion with Tricia “Six” Helfer and James “Baltar” Callis. I was really impressed both with the insightful questions Kevin asked (in between dropping F-bombs) and the extent to which the two actors are clearly engaged in their characters and the show, and that they have a lot of intelligent things to say about both. And for the Six fans out there, I will tell you that GC, Charlie B, and myself were somewhat surprised to learn that Tricia Helfer represents VERY well in person.


The Buffy/Angel panel we attended was slightly less interesting. On the panel were: Juliet “Drusilla” Landau, who apparently has an American accent (go figure!), Kendra the Vampire Slayer, “Cyrus Vale”, “Clem”, Xander’s gay bully, and one other guy whose role I can’t remember. But he and “Clem” were the most vocal, Drusilla and “Cyrus” had the most interesting stories, and “Kendra” could not have been less enthused to be there. Nicholas Brendon (Xander) was supposed to attend, but didn’t … and there’s really only so much of interest that second-stringers have to say.


CB and I went to the Stan Lee panel on Saturday … and almost saw him die. Seriously. There was a lip or something at the end of the stage, and every single time he entered or exited the stage, he would trip over it. Well at one point, he was rushing to get off the stage, so he could see the movie screen behind him better, and he tripped, and he was totally at like a 45-degree angle, ready to take a header down a short flight of steps. Fortunately, there was a security guard approaching at that exact moment. Stan was going so fast that his glasses flew off his face as the guy caught him. There was a collective groan in the room. At best, the fall would probably have resulted in a broken hip. After all, he’s not really a young guy any more.


He is, however, a great and quite hilarious speaker. And other than the incredibly lame and self-serving question some loser asked him during the last few minutes, it was a great QA session.


We also went to a Kevin Smith QA. And those are always a blast. He ripped apart the Superman Returns movie. Said he’s enjoying doing more acting roles. Said his wife was mad at him for misunderstanding when he called her a “cum dumpster” the night before. Postulated that in a fight between the Swedish Chef and Martin Luther King, MLK would win … “because the Swedish Chef is a puppet.” And spent about 15 minutes prying details from a 16 year old girl who said she was a lesbian. All the while, there were a couple of boys who couldn’t be more than 9 or 10 sitting next to us, guffawing at the dirtiest jokes, and I kept wondering: A) where their parents were; and B) if they really understand the jokes they were laughing at.


Notables in the “petting zoo” this year were Gary Coleman, Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), and the three finalists from last year’s “So You Want to Be a Superhero”. I didn’t actually talk to any of them, but made sure to get photos for Freakgirl.


Beyond this, I walked around on the show floor quite a bit, bought some discounted comics, picked up some free swag, bought some over-priced food, and just generally basked in my geekiness … which is never usually so exhausting!

GeekBoy | 26 Feb 07 at 11:35 am