New York Comic Con (Part 3: Revenge of the Nerds) ~UPDATED~

NYCC Day 3:It was a crisp Sunday morning. It felt like October should: a bright sunny clear sky, a small breeze and the smell of autumn. It was Kid's Day at NYCC, so we laughed at all of the cute kids in costume and decided to forget the crappiness of the first 2 days and just enjoy what was left of the weekend and the con.

We started off at the Women of Marvel panel, which was awesome. It was really inspiring and encouraging and entertaining listening to the ladies on the panel talk about being female creators, editors, artists, and inkers in what is typically a "guy's environment." I also loved that there appeared to be a fairly equal ratio of men/women in the audience. That panel really made my day. They began with the women of Marvel asking all of the females in the audience who were trying to get into the business to stand up. I stood up, having applied as a proofreader for Marvel in the past. The panel then asked the rest of the audience to applaud for the standing gals. I thought that was a nice touch. The ladies opened the room up for questions almost right away, which I have seen before, and seen go awry quite quickly, but this time it went very smoothly. People got up and asked really intelligent questions and the panel discussed and debated and offered very encouraging feedback to aspiring women (and men) in the comic and/or "nerd" industries.

The main idea/advice I walked away with was to drop the idea that if you're a female it's harder to get into the industry, and that apprehension of being rejected because of your gender is the biggest hindrance to women. While this idea of rampant sexism in male-dominated industries may prove true on rare occasions, the general consensus among Marvel is they love women and want women in their company and in the industry. My favorite quote of the day was from comic creator Kelly Sue Deconnick : I don't know of anyone who is out there saying, ''Oh don't give Kelly Sue that job, she's a chick. She's going to try and write it with her vagina!" I want to hang out with Kelly Sue! She's my new hero! I also found a full blog/report/summary on this panel at Newsrama.

So on the positive start to the morning, the rest of the day was quite enjoyable. We wandered the show floor a bit to do some shopping, we got some shwag, and I got to chat with Ashley Eckstein, the voice of Ahsoka in Star Wars: The Clone Wars on Cartoon Network. I also bought a Cylon shirt from her booth, Her Universe.


After shopping, we tried to get into a Jim Henson panel, but it filled up quickly since it was in one of the smallest rooms, and it was kids' day (way to plan ahead, NYCC). But we felt satisfied with the day at that point, so we sat near the entrance to people-watch and saw some good cosplay before we decided to call it a day. Overall, my first NYCC experience was a pleasant one with some major disappointments. Next year, I plan to just get a day pass or, better yet, a press pass. Gotta keep blogging.

NYCC Day 3 = 3.5 out of 5 Lightsabers

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