New York Comic Con (Part 2: Attack of the Assholes) ~UPDATED~

NYCC Day 2
Today just started out on a bad note, a note that, unfortunately carried on throughout the day. I woke up excited about my costume, I went as Baby Doll from Batman: the Animated Series. Unfortunately, I woke up with a dry stabbing tickle in my throat, the unmistakable feeling that a head cold was eminent int he near future. Poop. Boyfriend and I got our costumes ready, he was also going as a BTAS villain. I tried to power through the sickiness feeling and pump myself up for a fun-filled day.


After getting off the subway in midtown, the wind was whipping down 42nd st while we waited for the bus to take us over to the west side, since there is no subway directly to the JCC yet and I hate 34th st. I was quite chilly in my little dress. We were a little late meeting our buddy Max and thus missed the first panel we wanted to go to, then we couldn't get into another panel due to it's time having changed to an hour earlier. The time changed? How the hell was anyone supposed to know? There were no signs, the app wasn't updated, the Twitter feed wasn't updated, there was no way anyone could have know that! Was anyone even in that panel as a spectator?
So, grumbling about yet another fuck-up by show management we decided to go to the autograph area to see Felicia Day for an affordable $22! Her wrangler/handler/helper-person who was taking our tickets was a colossal bitch with some serious power issues. Max went first in line, then Boyfriend, then me. But even though I was with the boys/taking their pictures, Handler-Lady wouldn't let more than 2 people at the table at a time. Then when it was my turn to talk to Felicia, Handler-Lady closed the line for the day and rushed everyone through. So even though I paid just like everyone else, I was rushed through and didn't get to pick up an autograph from Felicia. Lame!!! I got a pic with boyfriend and Felicia, but felt really screwed by Handler-Lady and the "green shirts" rushing everyone out of line. Bitches. That really put a damper on the rest of my day. I tweeted Felicia that night, but she's a busy gal, I don't blame her for not being able to get back to me.

So, we got some dinner (oh and way to go running out of fried food and Cherry Coke, Javits Center! You seriously don't know your audience!) and attempted to process the failure of a day we just experienced. But, we still had the 2 Walking Dead panels, the Avengers panel, and the Masquerade to look forward to that evening, and all 3 panels were held back-to-back in the large IGN Theater, we were sure to get in to at least one of those. (Oh hope and optimism, you fickle bitches.)

We got to the line for the Walking Dead panels 90 minutes beforehand, both were full and the line was closed. What?!
So we asked if there was a holding area for the Avengers panel. Full. Dare we ask about the Masquerade line? After milling about trying to find someone with information, we followed a "green shirt" to the Masquerade line which appeared to be a bunch of people corralled in an airplane hangar with the shittiest metal line busters you've ever seen. If you breathed on those things they would tumble to the concrete floor and clatter with ear-pounding awfulness. To say that the Masquerade line was a clusterfuck was the understatement of the year. It zigged and zagged through this abyss of a holding area as more and more people trampled in. We were in line for at least an hour before they started shuffling us out in a snaking slow-moving "line" of people. One word came to mind: Moo.

Now the geniuses running NYCC decided that they would lead this ever-growing living mass of crazy through the convention center...you know, where anyone could just join the line anywhere they wanted (and they did). They moved us in this way just to put us in another airplane hangar! Why we didn't just start in that hangar to begin with, I don't know. But now in this new hangar, the "line" gained a couple hundred "line-cutters" including the 3 assholes behind us who attempted to cut in front of us. I wasn't having any of this. Boyfriend and I called them out on their douchery, but they cared not.
This the face of someone not obeying Wheaton's Law!

On the bright side, we looked as though we were somewhere near the front half of the line, so we would get seats, and probably decent seats at that. Huzzah.
As I peered behind me at the frighteningly large mass of people, we all thought the same thing, "WTF? There is no way half of these people are getting into that theater."

Our conclusion: NYCC oversold their tickets for Saturday by at least 2,000 people. Why? Simply, because the JCC can legally hold X number of people, but the conference rooms can only hold X-3000 number of people. (Sorry to hit you with a sudden burst of math.) There is no reason that 3 panels in the largest room available should fill up 2 hours before they start.

But, we tried to put that thought out of our heads and anticipate the Masquerade while trying to keep the Douchey 3 from cutting in line even more. Enter a surly hoarse "green shirt" yelling something incoherently at us as she made her way up and down the aisles. The message: "Due to technical difficulties, the Masquerade will not start until 10:15pm." At this point, it was 8:45pm, the Masquerade was scheduled for 8:30pm, and we'd been standing in line for almost 2 hours.

At this point Max, Boyfriend, and I had just had enough of this shitty excuse for a day. We said "fuck it" with several hundred other people and left the airplane hangar, the giant line, the orchestra of clattering metal line busters, and the 3 douchebags behind. We tried to be positive and optimistic that Sunday might be salvageable, but the disappointments with high prices, disorganization, and lack of communication on behalf of NYCC was inexcusable. (Especially with all the technology and nerds the world has at it's disposal!)

The day wasn't a complete wash, though, we got to meet Felicia Day and Jewel Staite. We saw some awesome Cosplay. We saw Steven Lang from Terra Nova. We did get into an interesting fantasy novelists panel, and we came to a very important conclusion: next year, we might come back to NYCC, but we are certainly not wasting money on a 3 day pass when one day can hold all the excitement and/or disappointment we need. I also decided on a new goal: get this blog up and running fairly regularly so that I can attend NYCC on a Press Pass next year, and hopefully by then I can afford a better camera to take way better photos for the enjoyment of all.

NYCC Day 2 = 1.5 Lightsabers out of 5

New York Comic Con (Part 1: The Saga Begins)~UPDATED~

Let me preface this by saying that I have only been to 2 Cons. Ever. (Not including the 3 Colorado State Thespian Conferences in high school; those are another story, for another blog). Earlier this year I attended PAX East in Boston which was awesome! Money was tight, and I was dealing with some health issues at the time, but we had a blast! It was 3 days of crazy, nerdy, sleepless fun. That being said, NYCC was only the 2nd nerd con I've attended and so I don't have a lot to compare it too, yet I have some very strong opinions in the PAX vs NYCC comparison. (Hint: PAX is winning.)

I purchased my 3 day passes for my boyfriend and myself earlier this summer, started my countdown clock on my iPod, and planned out what I would Cosplay for 2 of the 3 days. NYCC was held at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan, a place I am quite familiar with because of my day job. I do customer service for a trade show company who uses the Javits Center frequently throughout the year. I felt quite confident that with my knowledge of the JJC and with the help of the NYCC app on my new smart phone, and especially when the news that Mark Hamill himself would be there, we would own this con and it would rock. I clearly set the bar far too high.

NYCC Day 1:
We woke up on time and got our costumes ready for the first day of Cosplaying. I went as Raphael from TMNT and my boyfriend went as TinTin (because he IS TinTin). We arrived around 9:15am at the corner of 38th st and 11th ave to discover a group of people in what appeared to be a line with lots of "volunteers" in green shirts yelling incoherently. We somehow interpreted that the line wrapped around the corner and down the block a ways, so we walked confidently down the block. And we walked. Then walked some more. And a little more. Now, I live here in NY. I'm used to walking and I am used to lines, there are lines for everything here, but this was the longest line I have ever stood in. There had to be at least a half of a mile of people standing 3 deep on the sidewalk. Now, this isn't a complaint so much as a statement of "Holy hell, that's a lot of people!" (Again, this is coming from a girl who lives in a city with 6 million people.) Our friend, Max eventually caught up to us in the massive line, and we chatted and fiddled with the apps on our phones trying to plan out the day. That's where things started to go downhill. First off, the NYCC app itself is terrible. Why design something meant for nerds (who notoriously seem to have a very delicate love/hate balance with technology) that sucked so much?! I would be willing to just blame the app's shitiness on too many people using it at once, but it was never a very good app even in the weeks leading up to NYCC. I could (and probably will) write a blog on everything that is wrong with the app and how it can be made better. But, I digress...

We finally shuffled into the JCC and were ready for the awesomeness to commence. But first-things-first, we needed to grab lanyards. But there were no lanyards to be found. We walked up and down the entrance looking for a box of lanyards or a "green shirt" to ask about the lanyard situation, or-even better-a "green shirt" handing out said lanyards. We finally found some at the other end of the entrance hall. (Just for perspective, the JCC spans about 5 square blocks, a mile is approx 12 blocks, the line we were in to enter wrapped around the JCC.) Ok, so, a small stumble in the awesomeness and a lack of "green shirts" was irksome, but on with the day! Next, we needed a program. Once again, no programs. Anywhere! No "green shirts" and crappy cell phone service inside the concrete building. Super.

We eventually found programs and one guy in a green shirt directing people. So far, NYCC is dropping the ball. But, we go into the Felicia Day/The Guild panel hosted by Chris Hardwick, which was awesome! All 3 of us couldn't find unobstructed-view-seats together, so we had to split up. The guy I sat next to was trying to explain to his girlfriend who Felicia Day was, and failing miserably!

Guy Next to Me: "She's the girl with red hair, she's funny, and cute."

Girlfriend: "Oh, um I think I like her."

Guy Next to Me: "Yeah, I don't remember her name, but this might be fun."

I took it upon myself to kindly explain Felicia Day to them and The Guild and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and they both looked at me like cows looking at an oncoming train. They had no clue who Felicia Day was! And they took up precious seats that 2 fans could have sat in! #Nerdfail.
The panel was fun and interesting and hilarious and we had a great time, especially when Boyfriend, Max and I snagged 3 seats together from people who left early. #Nerdscore!

Lunchtime was surprisingly good and not too expensive. Things were looking up. Then, the heartbreak: We learned that getting an autograph from Mark Hamill was $100!
ONE. HUNDRED. DOLLARS. We assumed it would cost something, but $100?! We were crestfallen. There was no way Boyfriend and I could afford to drop 2 hundos even for Luke Skywalker himself. I considered splitting it and having boyfriend get one autograph for the both of us, but they wouldn't let you near the Hamill unless you bought a ticket, so I would be forced to watch from afar while he had all the fun, so we begrudgingly opted to not, and settled fro trying to get into his panel that night. So that put a damper on the day. Then we realised that apparently $30 was the new $20. Most of the autographs cost $30-$40! Yes, I am a New Yorker and I was suffering from sticker shock at Comic Con! What does that say to you? On the shiny side, we got to take a picture with "Dante" from Clerks for free! It made me think of my pals Lincoln and Kanderson from college who got me into Kevin Smith movies. We paid $20 to get a picture with Kevin Sorbo (totally worth it, he was super nice and chatted with us for a bit).

We explored the show floor and I bought a Domo plush I'd been wanting and we looked a lot of cool art, and drooled over the furniture at the Geek Chic booth.

By that time, we decided to get in line for the Marvel/Spiderman panel which was packed and we had to sit on the floor. But it was worth it because 3 seats in the 3rd row emptied up near the end of the slide show/discussion and we had prime seats for the next panel: Mark Hamill Spotlight!!! We were 20 feet from the nerdgod himself. #nerdgasm!

He was amazing! He did voices, he told random stories and even let out some political rage for a brief moment. Hilarious! The pounding headache I had developed late in the evening (probably due to lack of coffee and/or minor dehydration) could not spoil the awesomeness of Mark Hamill. *Cue chorus of angels*



To sum up the day, it started with high anticipation with a letdown in the middle that sort of bogged down the rest of the afternoon, but we left on a high note after listening to Mark Hamill speak.


NYCC Day 1 = 3.5 lightsabers out of 5


Thank you for the image, Mr-Obi-Wan

Happy Day of Birth, Mark Hamill!

70's Nerd Porn (International Mark Hamill Fan Club)

(Superherouniverse.com)

(Triviatribute.com)

(Skadi Forum)
(wordpress)

(TVloop.com)

And what a glorious day it was, 60 years ago today! Nothing else significant happened on this day except for Mr. Hamill's birth. Nerds everywhere rejoice!

Now, I will leave you with this:

P.S Forgive my crappy HTML skills.