Guess I'll kick this one off, with a review of the whole weekend!
Ami's Review of NYCC/NYAF 2011Friday got off to an inauspicious start as I overslept, but I managed to get from bed to bus in about twenty minutes, so all was well. When Ash and I arrived at the Javits Center, the line was most of the way around the building, but it wasn’t as bad as it looked because it started outside the doors. Once the con opened we got in quickly, and the crowd dispersed through the building.
We headed first for a panel of authors who write books about zombies and the paranormal. I’m not really interested in the genre, but Ash came away wanting to read some of the books mentioned.
We next sat in on the Felicia Day panel. I was only somewhat interested in this; my main plan was to be in the room early so we could get good seats for the Stan Lee panel afterwards. This was a big success: we ended up in the third row! Stan only stayed about fifteen minutes, which was disappointing, but the rest of the panel was fairly interesting anyway.
By then it was midafternoon and we were ready to hit the dealer room. We made the rounds of the TMNT artists, visiting Mike Dooney, Scott Cohn, Andrew Pepoy, and Peter David. Denny Fincke had walked away, but we talked to his boothmate before moving on. Ash bought an impressive number of comic books and I got some too.
We circled back to visit Denny again, and found out that he and Ash had some common acquaintances!
We also visited the Dark Horse booth, where we spun a wheel to win prizes. Ash got nothing, but I won a package of Mass Effect comics! I barely know what Mass Effect is, so Ash is going to send these to our friend Angel, who will appreciate them much more.
We then headed downstairs to get in line for the Robot Chicken panel. I held our place while Ash stood on another line to get food. Unfortunately their register was broken and they couldn’t take her debit card, but she managed to get into the panel anyway and found a really good seat.
I couldn’t see the people asking questions at this panel, but I recognized Michele anyway. We found each other afterwards and talked for a few minutes before Ash and I headed home.
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On Saturday my dad gave us a ride into the city. The line was short and we got in very quickly. There wasn’t much we wanted to go to in the way of panels, so we headed straight to the dealer room. Working quickly, we bought even more comics before meeting Michele at Scott Williams’ booth. After this we wandered around for a while, doing only a moderately competent job of not losing people. Along the way we visited Denny again, where I got the new alternate first issue of his comic. We also had a great conversation, at the end of which he gave Ash and I some background art!
We also visited Khary Randolph. He wasn’t selling his prints, but he said he would send me a scan. I e-mailed him this morning and we’ll see what happens.
I had really wanted to go to the “Batman vs. Iron Man” panel, but unfortunately, despite showing up 45 minutes early to stand in line, the room filled up just a few people before us. I was especially disappointed because many of the people ahead of us probably hadn’t read the full description and didn’t know they were walking into one of those boring academic panels. We also knew we wouldn’t get to go to the Mike Mignola panel that Ash had been looking forward to, because Mignola cancelled earlier in the week and didn’t come to the con. So much for Saturday panels...
As we were turning away from the closing door, though, I saw one of my friends from college! We followed her and her other friends to get food. We then lost them in the cafeteria crowd, but not before finding an RP friend, who accompanied us for the rest of the afternoon. Along the way we even managed to collect a fourth person from our RP, though she wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t stay long.
We did go to the martial arts/sword demonstration, a frequent con event that I always seem to miss. While walking there, we saw some cool movie cars, and during the demonstration we got to check out some tatami. Neat! And as a final surprise to redeem this sadly panel-less day, I saw Tom Wayland, or someone who looked a lot like him, walking through the sitting area outside the anime dealer room!
I wore my Foot Ninja costume this day, and as usual it was a lot of fun.
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Sunday we also got a ride to the con. We thought the line was going straight in, but it turned out the con workers were herding everyone downstairs to funnel through the queuing hall before dispersing. This held us up for about 45 minutes. We did make it to the panel on time, where other people told us they hadn’t been made to stand on that line. Strange...
Anyway, the panel was of women who work for Marvel, and it was very interesting. I didn’t get to ask my question, even though they tried to hurry the line in the last five minutes, but I did talk to one of the panelists briefly.
We headed upstairs to check out the last-day sales in the dealer room, where we acquired even more comics. We got split up again, but reconvened for Veronica and Misako’s voice acting panel. (I watched the costume contests before this and it was pretty entertaining. It also got me a great seat for the panel, as I spotted Voice Chaser sitting in the front row and scooted in next to her when other people left.) Ash got picked to make up a voice for a character someone drew, and she did an awesome job. I only wish this panel had been in a real room instead of on the stage: we were competing with the Beyblade announcer guy and it was very hard to hear anything.
Afterwards we split up again. I wandered around a bit and then went to sit in on the AMV winners. When that ended the con was pretty much over. I met Ash and RP Friend #1 at the front of the building, and we headed out to get some dinner before taking our separate ways homeward.
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I had a lot of fun at this con, though maybe not as much as last year. The organization was good, aside from the unnecessary line on Sunday morning, but I think even with the expanded floor space this con sells too many tickets. The dealer room never seemed quite as jam-packed as Saturday of last year, but it was never empty enough to stroll through comfortably and look at whatever caught your eye. I was also disappointed by the guest cancellations: Mike Mignola was the main reason Ash came, and we would have really liked to meet Rick Remender (we kept walking by his table but there was never a sign or anything). Overall, I think I’ll plan to not go to this con again next year, and only buy tickets if I see guests or events I’m really interested in.
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There weren't many of us L-folk at the con this year, but I'm looking forward to reading other reviews nonetheless!
