New York Comic Con

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Hey all! Now that I have had a few days to recover I figured it was way past due for me to share my experiences with you about New York Comic Con last weekend. What an amazing event! My girlfriend and I had a blast for 3 days and got to experience tons of amazing things there. I'll go day by day through this so bare with me, there is A LOT!

Friday

Our first day we arrived relatively early (doors opened at 10 we got there around 11) and once there immediately jumped in line for the Game of Thrones panel with Jerome Flynn (Bronn). Now before I go any further into the story I will say that this is my first MAJOR con. I have been to smaller ones in CT (ComicConn) and other small ones here and there. NYCC is HUGE! If you have ever been to the Javits Center you know how big it really is. Tons of people everywhere and I must say I would be lying if I told you I wasn't a bit overwhelmed and intimidated. This was the first ever con for my girlfriend and she had no idea what she was walking into. Anyway, while waiting in line we got to take in the site of all the cosplayers (we stood right behind a kid dressed as Jon Snow and his father who was Clark Kent) and we tried to settle into the crowd. Finally we got into the panel room and waited a bit for Jerome to get there. Once there he was awesome! Such a nice guy and very entertaining to listen to. He discussed some of the happenings that we are to expect on the next season of Game of Thrones (Which is currently mine and my girlfriends favorite show on TV).
After that panel we grabbed a quick lunch and then rushed all the way across the convention center to the Empire stage (second biggest stage) and planted ourselves in the front of the line for The Walking Dead 10 Year Anniversary panel. I love The Walking Dead, it is my favorite running book right now and to get to see Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard talk about it was the highlight of the con for me hands down! It was a pleasure to sit down and hear Rob and Charlie talk about their craft and really appreciate their fans the way they did, they were Awesome!
At this point it was about 4 and we still had yet to see the show floor!!!!! (Yeah this con is HUGE!) We finally made our way up the escalators to the show floor and at that moment I thought "so this is what it felt like when Niel Armstrong took his first steps on the Moon!" No but really it was amazing to see everything (Sensory overload!). But there was no time to waltz around, I had to get to a signing! We made our way over to the middle section of the show floor where Claudio Sanchez (writer of The Amory Wars, singer/guitarist of Coheed and Cambria) was signing and meeting with fans. So while we were rushing over there we were passing the Image! comics booth and right in front of me was ROBERT FUCKING KIRKMAN! He was finishing up an interview and I watched him as he completed it then started to an impromptu signing. I quickly grabbed what I could from my backpack and got him to sign my Thief of Thieves #1!!!!!! I was ecstatic (My girlfriend said I had the look of a kid in a candy store when he signed my book). Rob didn't stay very long so that was the only book I got signed from him which is more than fine with me!
Anyway, we finally got in line for Claudio and waited and waited and waited some more while talking with people in line and just taking in the atmosphere of the con. It was a good time although some people got a bit annoying (no offense but I don't care about you seeing Daft Punk or the Green Power Ranger, whatever his name is, earlier). I got to Claudio and had him sign my Amory Wars book and talked to him briefly. He was there with his wife Chondra and they both couldn't have been any nicer. He was amazing and so friendly, it just made me love Coheed even more.
After that we walked around the show floor for a bit more and I got to see a game over at the Intel Extreme Masters area where they had Starcraft II (I saw FLASH!!!!@#!@#@!#@) which was awesome. I love e-sports events (I had gone to MLG a couple of years ago in Providence, RI and it was amazing). We then when back downstairs to the conference rooms to grab dinner and then wait for the final panel of the day for us, Bob's Burgers.
We got back the Empire stage a bit early and were able to get right in while the panel for Nickelodeon's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was going on. That was pretty cool and unexpected, they showed the whole season premier to the audience and did some Q and A with the fans. Finally we moved up to the front section and had a blast with the cast from Bob's Burgers (currently our favorite animated show, it really is wonderful and we love it so much we went a couple of weeks ago to the premier in Brooklyn with the cast, if you have not seen it GO WATCH IT! It's on Netflix).
And with that, we went back to Grand Central and took the train home and passed out so we would be ready to go for day 2...

Saturday

When we woke up on Saturday, to say we were exhausted is an understatement. Friday took soooooo much out of us that we ended up leaving later. It wasn't a big deal, we decided to take it easy that day and we ended up back at the con around noon. Although I missed the Stan Lee signing that day it didn't bother me. Saturday was to be a day of relaxing and taking in what the show floor had to offer. We stopped by everything! Capcom, Ubisoft, Nintendo, Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse just to name a few. It was nice to not have to be rushing to anything early on so we got to enjoy the floor. That was when my girlfriend and I decided that we will 100% be coming back next year!
Anyway at around 4:00 Charlie Adlard (artist for The Walking Dead) had a signing and I got right at the front for him. He ended up doing 5 sketches before signing which sucked but was awesome at the same time. It sucked because it took an hour and a half but it was awesome because I got to see him work and he is amazing! Anyway, once again when I got to him he was as nice as anyone could be and really a great great guy in general.
After that we headed downstairs to try to get into The Walking Dead show panel which ended up being overly full already (damn) so we went back up to the show floor and bought a few things and checked out some more IEM before heading back home. Overall the day was awesome again but I do wish we did a few more panels but oh well, there is next year. Saturday wasn't as action packed as Friday but that is also due to us being so drained and not being prepared. We made it home early and made sure to get right to bed so Sunday would be a blast.

Sunday

We woke up early and felt a lot better than we did on Saturday so we were 100% prepared to take on anything! We got there at around 10:30 and immediately went to Artist Alley which we had not been the past 2 days. There were tons of comic artists and writers. I got to see a few of my favorites like Jim Zub and Jonathan Hickman which was pretty cool then we went downstairs and got in line for R.L. Stine.
Mr Stine was an amazing presenter, for 70 years old, he is still as sharp as a tack and his talk was inspiring. Goosebumps was a favorite of mine growing up and to see the man who created it all was incredible. He was surprisingly very funny and so grateful for all his fans. He is a legend in my book and I was honored to be in his presence.
After R.L. Stine we headed over the Empire stage once again to see The Following panel. That was pretty cool to see Kevin Bacon and James Purefoy up on stage talking about the upcoming season, I have to admit, I was a bit starstruck once Kevin Bacon took the stage. Finally, we made one last round on the show floor and picked up a few things before leaving.

All in all, this was an AMAZING weekend and my girlfriend and I had tons of fun. There were a few things that I thought the organizers could have done better (BETTER INFORMATION ABOUT THE SHUTTLES!!!!!!) but in the end it was negligible. You can be damn sure that we will be coming back next year and now that this one is over we have the knowledge to better prepare. As for some games on display, there were playable demos for Assassin's Creed IV, Dark Souls II and an Alpha version of Dungeon Defenders II just to name a few. Now its back to business for me, tomorrow I will have the week in review and I have been working on some more posts for the next coming weeks. That holiday season is only a few weeks away now and I have been gathering my thoughts on how I should go about making a Game of the Year post so be sure to check back around early/mid December for that (maybe by that time I will set up a contest to go along with it for some game codes).


Thanks for reading and until next time:

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