I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! I spent my morning the way I always do: watching the Macy's Parade.
If the parade wasn't defined by Wicked, it was defined by rain. Everyone was damp, Jimmy Fallon wore giant hangover shades, conservatives were outraged by Broadway performances, and there was an actual technical hiccup where everyone had to awkwardly vamp! But ultimately all the balloons survived this year. Luffy, Snoopy, made it to Herald Square intact. Bluey gave us a scare, but she managed to recover just in time.
I was in Manhattan just last Saturday and saw THAT Macy's all decked out for Christmas.
34th Street is a lot more narrow than you'd think it is. Savannah and Hoda are like twenty feet away from the action, tops.
They were all good dogs, but ultimately Vito The Pug won Best in Show.
Apparently he was the winningest pug in America, and the National Dog Show was another notch on the belt. He was clearly the crowd favorite, and I'm glad he won since most of the other dogs I posted? Never even made it to the finals in their groups.
And finally the MST3K Turkey Day marathon. The highlight was the long awaited return of The Final Sacrifice, which had been in legal limbo for the better part of a decade.
It is, of course, the one with everyone's favorite Canadian hero Zap Rowsdower. I hadn't seen it since Netflix had the MST3K rights, and it's still a stone cold classic. I'm so happy it's streaming again.
This is usually the post where I'd highlight what I'd seen at Anime NYC, but since that got moved to August, I have to improvise and write November's entry the way I used to: what am I thankful for?
Well, obviously, parades, dogs, and Rowsdower. I'm also thankful for my cat.
She decided to give us another one of her health scares again. Turns out she was just meowing a lot and my folks were getting annoyed by it. I had to beg to not get her put down just because of that, and I'm happy to say she's still with us. Tell her how cute she is.
I'm also thankful for food on the table, and that I have a stable job and a roof over my head.
Thanksgiving was a rather modest spread this year because it's still just me and my parents. I'm starting to realize that my family is white. If your first thought was "This looks like it was made by someone that hated Thanksgiving," you'd be right. Mom can't stand turkey, and is getting tired of all the other food, too. It tasted better than it looked, I assure you.
And finally, I DID go to a little con. I said earlier I was in Manhattan last Saturday, and it was for Big Apple Con. I went there mostly to meet the Effin' Birds guy.
He was as cool as you'd think he'd be. He even signed the inside!
Plus here are some of the most in character pickups I ever bought.
Don't pay attention to the prices. Aside from the Bob Hope comics, everything I showed was 75% off. I don't think I paid more than $35 for everything.
But the main highlight is this issue of Starburst I found:
I bought it mostly for the cover, and it already checked off a lot of my boxes. Batman '66, Doctor Who news, stuff that censors cut from tv airings of Robocop!
And then I looked inside and I hit pay dirt, readers.
The Doctor Who story was announcing a movie that was ultimately never made. You see, this was a British nerd magazine from 1988, everyone was still holding out hope that it wasn't going to get cancelled by this time the following year. And of course it had a page full of people complaining about how Doctor Who went downhill.
Back then to complain about Doctor Who you had to put in some effort, dammit! Nowadays you can scream right into an underserving social media intern's ear about how a progressive show like Doctor Who suddenly went woke because the Doctor isn't a white guy anymore or some nonsense.
There was a multi page retrospective on Batman '66, which had just entered syndication in the UK market. Just about everyone was still alive at the time, to boot.
Yes folks, Vincent Price was on multiple pages, as he should be. But then I looked on.
And awful review of Leonard Part VI! There were also articles on Captain Power, The Lost Boys, and an interview with Katheryn Bigelow. If I was a British nerd in the 80s, I would've been a subscriber.
And finally, I'm thankful to all of you, my readers. This is the longest project I've ever written, approaching 17 years! And hopefully many more.
It's Halloween once again! Let's watch some Garfield.
Ahh, so good no matter how many times I see it. Gar-Halloween-Field delivers every time.
So another NY Comic Con has come and gone, and this was one for the books.
Met Jay & Silent Bob themselves, Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith! They were both awesome. Kevin Smith actually went in for a hug before we took the pic and it took me by total surprise.
And got them to sign my Clerks X DVD! I got Brian O'Halloran when he showed up here two years ago. (A booth was hosting him that weekend, too, but I kept missing him)
Walton Goggins! Had to meet Uncle Baby Billy Freeman! He was great.
As was Jodie Whittaker. She was so sweet. I actually got choked up talking to her because she asked about watching Doctor Who for years and I brought up DJ, and how we bonded over it. I thankfully did NOT bring up that he hated all the Doctors after 11.
"No! The Doctor has to be a hot young guy!" he'd say. Maybe he would've liked Ncuti, but I'll never know.
One I wasn't expecting to see: Jimmie "JJ" Walker of Good Times fame!
Ian James Corlett is probably best known as Cheetor from Beast Wars or the original dub voice of Goku, but he'll always be Mega Man to me. It's been thirty years and he sounds EXACTLY the same. He was real nice, too. Yes, he said all the iconic lines from the classic Ruby-Spears series.
Speaking of, got to meet Scott Menville, too. He's been in the business for over thirty years and is one of those rare voice actors that have always sounded young. He's probably best known as Robin in Teen Titans and Teen Titans Go, he was really stoked to see this screencap from Mission Hill I brought. If you know me by now, I like deep cuts and he was more than happy to talk about some of his more obscure roles. I must've been the first person in ages to bring up The Brothers Flub.
I also got to meet the two other Teen Titans voice actors I hadn't met yet:
Hynden Walch (Starfire)
And Greg Cipes (Beast Boy)
I already met Tara Strong (Raven) and Khary Payton (Cyborg), and it was a rare time where all five of them were together. Hynden Walch was really nice, but Greg Cipes was, well, out of it. He was on vocal rest or on meds or something, but he wasn't talking, was wearing shades, and moved very slowly. I've seen him at other NYCC's, he's been much more lucid. I guess I caught him on a bad day?
And Kimiko Glen, the titular Kiff from the Disney Channel cartoon. Don't sleep on it, it's a good one!
Also incredibly in character for me was that more than once a voice actor I met this year told me "wow, you remember a lot of cartoons!"
And how about some highlights of some stuff I got?
This rad commission from Bill Morrison! If you've ever seen Simpsons promo or comic art, 99% chance it was actually drawn by this guy.
I knew I wanted SOMETHING drawn by him, but the question was...what do I get? I decided on Matt Groening's head in a jar from Futurama referencing the classic Bart Ska-mpson sketch from Portlandia.
Bill suggested punching up the quote to "Bart Ska-mpson is lazy writing" and voila, magic!
I bought this signed Alex Ross comic because yes, I am highly suggestable at 10am on day 3 of a four day convention. I flipped a coin. It came up heads. It currently stands as the most I've ever paid for a comic.
I wish I took a picture of the booth, but I finally tracked down the hot sauce vendor I missed out on last year and bought a bottle. (Again, day 3 of a four day con). They had about a dozen sauces and they let you try all of them, and they were all real good. I wasn't a fan of their real garlicky one, but that's just me. I kept going back to the original as a chaser, and that's what ultimately influenced my purchase.
I finally cracked it open the other day, and it was a lot more vinegary than I remember. And it says a lot when the "medium" sauce has habanero in it. Regardless, it was still quite good. I might just be getting older, but if I had some carrot sticks or some cauliflower, it'd be dynamite with this stuff. I report back on my findings another time.
And of course, the pin haul! And some assorted freebies.
Some of those pins were free, like the comic grade ones (you had to go to CGC's booth the moment the con opened to put your hand into a grab bag for them), and the Garbage Pail Kids pin. Monster Reborn was only dropped at 3pm at the Pin Club booth and I was able to snag it on the last day they did it.
And now some panels I went to.
Phineas and Ferb! Pretty much most of the main cast was there: Dan Povenmire, Swampy Marsh, Vincent Martella, David Errigo Jr (the new voice of Ferb), Ashley Tisdale, Caroline Rhea, Dee Bradley Baker, and Alyson Stoner. Ashley Tisdale was the total surprise, as she didn't even show up to the meet and greet that sold out instantly.
It was a real fun panel. We obviously got the cast and creators telling great stories and talking about how they love the show, everyone sang along to theme song, and we got to see new footage!
Oh, and we got shirts.
Unfortunately, they only came in large and I'm an XL.
The What We Do in The Shadows panel was one of the big highlights. The main cast save for Nadja was in attendance. And we got to see the first two episodes of the new (Iast) season!
And we saw some video messages from some people who couldn't be there.
Jeff Bridges! Turns out he's a big fan.
And Jim The Vampire himself, Mark Hamill!
Oh, and we got shirts from this panel, too.
And the other panel I was willing to kill to be at:
The Simpsons panel! Hank Azaria was in attendance, of course doing all the voices you'd want to hear.
And Matt Groening was there, drawing the whole time, and gave the drawings out to people who asked questions.
...I did not get to ask a question. There weren't any other freebies, but we did get to see clips from upcoming episodes. One from the ep that aired the following Sunday, and a clip from the Christmas special.
The next day was a Futurama panel, and I was dead set on asking a question there.
Unfortunately, while I did line up for the Q&A, I still wasn't quick enough to scramble to the front.
Peter Avanzino and Matt Groening had a draw off.
Yes, those drawings were given out to people who asked questions.
And then John DiMaggio and Billy West got into the act and drew crude drawings for people who asked terrible questions.
"Donald Trump on the toilet," by Billy West.
We also got to see a clip of an upcoming episode. Bender realizes he's short, and the Robot Devil sells him pills that make him grow.
I also got to see Matt Groening in a small panel room talking with the creator of the Mutts comic strip. I was able to sneak in the back because the panel was more talking about Mutts and people kept leaving when they realized he wasn't gonna talk about the Simpsons.
And finally, the Grimsburg panel. It's another Fox cartoon that everyone is sleeping on. We got to see the first episode of season 2!
Seriously, it Jon Hamm in the flesh, with Rachel Dratch and Alan Tudyk in tow couldn't fill up the Main Stage to capacity, it's being slept on. Jon Hamm really is that handsome in person.
And a preview of a new character played by Martin Short.
And finally, here's some of my favorite cosplayers I saw this year:
Personal favorite I saw on Thursday, this amazing Supermarket Sweep group! They had the inflatables, the buzzers, and one of them was David Ruprecht! He came out last and I laughed so very hard.
Beetlejuice and its many variants were popular this year.
And of course, Deadpools were everywhere.
Beavis, as played by Ryan Gosling.
Since Alex Hirsch was around Thursday and Friday to sign The Book of Bill, there were tons of Gravity Falls cosplayers. This Bill Cipher was the one making the rounds online.
Magik, who's been getting a bigger push in the comics lately, probably thanks to Peach Momoko drawing her.
One of the most creative ones I saw. She's supposed to be a Pizza Hut booth. Her backpack is the booth seat and everything.
Another one of my MVPs, Orson Welles as Unicron!
This kickass Dr. Doom riding the dino version.
Most unexpected: The Chiquita Banana Lady!
When you see an elaborate Metroplex cosplay, kids costumes on Halloween really don't have the same impact anymore.
Ditto for this Brooklyn from Gargoyles.
And this Hordak.
Too soon! (But I still laughed)
HERBiE!
This Chainsaw Miku was also making the rounds online. It was real impressive to see in person.
Waldo cosplays are a dime a dozen, but it's not every day you see Odlaw or Wenda.
This gets my vote for deepest cut: that TikTok mall wizard guy.
And finally, Harvey Birdman and Peanut giving the finger at NYCC coming to an end. Caught these guys before I left the con on Sunday.
Click here if you want to see the rest of my cosplay pics. And if you want to see the rest of the pics I took:
