It's Halloween time once again! I hope you remembered to put out milk and cookies for Tim Curry.
I didn't think my house would get any trick or treaters this year, but around 4:45 the wind died down enough for kids to swarm my block for a few hours. And then the wind picked up again and oops Halloween is over. Dad said we got almost 100 kids in that time, and we kept the Kit Kats for ourselves, so I'm considering tonight a win.
Since it was October, it was time for New York Comic Con once again!
Last year was pretty fun, but let me be honest with you. I was suffering from one hell of an anxiety attack that whole week. Health anxiety, election anxiety, anticipation anxiety, that feeling of "oh my god is my stuff okay? Is my car still where I left it?" Plus overall every day anxiety, not helped the the overwhelming crowds that show up to this thing.
The whole weekend felt like even more of a blur than usual, and I really wanted a do-over.
Friends, I got to have my do-over.
So why did I title this month's entry the way I did? Exactly one day after posting the previous entry, I somehow...slept weird and twisted my right knee.
When you get to your late thirties, you can hurt yourself when your body has the audacity to sleep in the same position it always does.
That's pretty much what I felt like. Every step felt like agony, and I didn't know how I even did it. It was bad enough I finally went to see a specialist a few days later, got x-rays, an MRI, the whole nine.
But the days leading up to that, my anxiety went into overdrive. How would I walk to and from the con? It's so many steps. And stairs. Would I have to cancel everything at the last minute? I did NOT plan all this time, and spend all that money just to fumble in the endzone. I saw people in traction there all the time. Would I need to get a helper? It was a few days before the con, there was no way I could get someone to come with me on short notice.
"I'm going to this con even if it kills me" was my mantra that week.
Well, good news. Nothing was broken, torn, twisted, or in a position it shouldn't be in. I just sprained and pulled a few muscles in my knee, given some GOOD naproxen, and sent on my way. I also have a wee touch of arthritis in the inner knee, but it was nothing serious.
My folks were saying "It'll probably get better by the first day of the con."
Thankfully, they were right. I was able to get around on my own without a problem, and with a knee brace in tow, I was off. (Stairs still kill me, but that was true before now)
One of the first booths I hit was Adult Swim's, which was Smiling Friends themed! A complete recreation of the breakroom from the show, and you spun a wheel for a prize.
I won a few pins. I'll show them off later.
Now to show off the various people I met this time.
I also managed to snag one of the hottest tickets of the con: Matthew Mercer! I still don't really know what Critical Role is, but he's one of the most popular people in it. But I wanted to meet him for other roles he did! Like Jotaro from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. I got this piece at Anime NYC.
"Come on, It's Jojo! How hard is it gonna be to find art of Jotaro at an anime convention?"
A lot harder than you'd think it'd be.
When I found out that two of the K-Pop Demon Hunters were gonna be there this year (Arden Cho and May Hong), I figured I'd finally sit down and watch the movie.
Ten minutes in...I got it. Now I know why it was such a phenomenon over the summer. The animation is fun, the faces are hilarious, the songs are all catchy and great. The kids can and have been obsessed over worse things.
Every year, NYCC has one BIG piece of media that's popular, with cosplays and art everywhere. Last year? A lot of Gravity Falls and Arcane and Beetlejuice and Delicious in Dungeon. 2023 was Barbie, 2022 was Chainsaw Man and Spy x Family, 2016 was Harley Quinn, you get the idea.
This year was Dan Da Dan and BY FAR K-Pop Demon Hunters. You can tell what's popular with certain demographics.
Were people cosplaying from Deltarune, Hazbin Hotel, Amazing Digital Circus? Kids. Young people.
Power Rangers, Ninja Turtles, Mandalorian? Good chance they were older.
But I saw people of all ages, shapes, genders all cosplaying as Huntrix or Saja Boys.
Here's a group I found that even had a Bobby (Huntrix's manager voiced by Ken Jeong)
Naturally, the voice actors were totally nice and everything.
The Doughboys! I was at their panel (hilarious, fyi) and I booked it up to the booth they were selling their comic at the moment it ended. Again, it's trippy meeting people from a podcast and them sounding exactly as they do on the internet.
Someone working with them filmed everyone on line for this, and it's even more trippy to see yourself in B-roll footage.
Ann M. Martin, the creator of the Babysitter's Club! Yes, I'm man enough to admit I've been reading through the graphic novels (Mary Ann is the goddamn glue of that group). Lots of people went nuts over George RR Martin, or RL Stine, or a bunch of other authors that were there this year. I knew those lines were gonna be crazy (and they were), so I went to this one. And even THAT was an effort to get this shot. Getting on line to wait for a wristband, then getting back on line to wait for this.
She was, of course, lovely.
Another fun fact about NYCC is that booths on the show floor are divided into sections based on genre. Like, artists booths are in one spot, one section's the anime, all the toy companies, the comic dealers, the comic companies, Funko and Funko-adjacent booths, etc. And then there's the book section, and I dealt with that part of the nerd community for the first two days. You do NOT mess with the book people. They wait in lines all day and proudly show off stacks of books that were a pain in the ass to lug around the convention all day, much less getting it all home at the end of the day. Either to get them signed, or buy them or get them for free and THEN get them signed. That's commitment, folks.
Another highlight: Mae Whitman! Avatar: The Last Airbender turned 20 this year (gasp) and the whole main cast was there. I already met Dante Basco, but Mae Whitman was who I was there to see.
That's a top ten NYCC moment right there.
Then came Saturday and meeting Lawrence Fishburne! Just about everyone was there to meet him because he was Morpheus from The Matrix. Some people brought multiple posters for all the movies he's been in (he hasn't had a long and illustrious career just to be called John Wick's Friend, fyi), but I was one of a few that wanted to meet Cowboy Curtis. He had a print of him at his table...but again, my buddy printed up this one and it's much cooler.
I told him I got to meet Paul Reubens a few times, and seemed really touched about it. I feel like I should've talked to him more about Pee-Wee's Playhouse, but his line was long and they were shuffling people through like an assembly line.
I did, however, get a second chance at the photo op I got with him, albeit briefly.
And I got to meet Joe Pantoliano! Joey Pants! He was in The Sopranos, The Matrix, and a slew of other things. A total That Guy. I like meeting That Guys, because they usually have the best stories. And oh boy, did he. My friend wanted me to ask him about working with Tony Curtis on this obscure movie in the 90s called The Immortals (and he had a pic from it at his table!) and wow, did he tell some good stories about that experience.
But my favorite role of his was Martini the penguin from Olive, The Other Reindeer. I told you I like deep cuts.
The Agents of SHIELD! I didn't even tell Chloe Bennett or Ming-Na Wen to make any poses, they just did that when they saw my Kang/Kodos-HYDRA shirt.
Ming-Na Wen was a total sweetheart, and loved that I picked something from Mulan to sign.
And Lenore Zahn! She voiced Rogue, but I picked Aisha Clan-Clan from Outlaw Star. Truth be told, I was a Melfina guy, but Aisha was great, too. I might've made an ass of myself and admitted to her that show came on during a...formative time in my adolescence. Blame Cartoon Network for thinking this and Tenchi Muyo were appropriate programming for 5pm on weekday afternoons.
And Christopher Daniel Barnes was not only Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid, but the voice of Spider-Man in the 90s cartoon!
I got this Godzilla comic I bought in Seattle signed by Tim Seeley, the writer. He told me it was the first time he held that issue in his hands, so you're looking at the only signed copy of it. As far as I know.
Ditto for this Space Ghost variant with David Pepose. I bought this at last year's NYCC, with the artist just happened to be at that booth, and signed it.
He dialed the charm right up to 100. Total opposite of meeting Shatner. I skipped the NYCC he showed up to, 2021, so I was really happy to finally meet him here.
And I didn't go to a lot of them this year, but here are the panels I went to.
I asked him about Unicorn Warriors Eternal (which got a big pop from the crowd), and the inspiration for the Primal episode set in Victorian England. It was one of those things he got fixated on, and he got to put all of it into UWE.
Like I said earlier, went to the Doughboys panel. I really wish that was recorded, because it was hilarious.
Before that, I saw Murray Hill (of HBO's Somebody Somewhere) speak at a brief meet & greet panel.
Then came the big panel: Bob's Burgers!
We got to see clips of upcoming episodes (like the Halloween one that aired last week) and they were great, so stay tuned for those.
And to close out the con, Phineas and Ferb!
It was mostly a panel about the music and songs on the show, but they still showed us an never before seen episode. I split when the Q&A started because frankly, there was forty minutes left in the con and I wanted to make the most of what little time I had left.
And now what you wanted to see: cosplayers!
The highlight was probably this giant Galactus cosplayer that went viral when it stomped around SDCC earlier in the summer. I was taking pictures of different cosplayers when suddenly this hulking thing showed up. A few things I was able to note:
1) It was freaking huge
2) It was surprisingly flexible.
3) That whole section of the con floor stopped to take videos and selfies with it. It was in a pretty congested area, too, which didn't help. Still cool, though.
And lots of Dr. Doom, too.
Like last year, Magik got a big push thanks to Marvel Rivals. This tennis player variant was my favorite.
Good to see Machoverse again. I missed seeing his other cosplays, like Bonesaw from the first Spider-Man movie.
And finally, my other favorite cosplays of the weekend: Brak and Leonard Ghostal! He's Space Ghost's grandpa voiced by Macho Man Randy Savage.
If you want to see the rest of the cosplay pictures, click here.
I was in a lot of lines this weekend, and for every cosplay I caught, there were at least a dozen I didn't. I'm surprised I saw so many good ones.
And finally, the haul!
Boy, did I deserve to be tossed in Pin Jail this year.
This was all the pins, stickers, and assorted other things I got this year. Probably my biggest haul yet. Eight of those pins were free.
And these aren't all the pins they gave out there! There's quite a few that have hit ebay. With...various prices. Topps had a few pins that people went crazy for. Mostly the Disney cards that they were selling there.
And finally, probably my favorite art pickup from the whole con. It comes from Das Frank, and it was the last one left, since I hadn't found his booth until Sunday.
Here are the rest of the pictures:
Sunday (includes all of the haul)
Good times were had, as you can see.
See y'all in November!
