Tasting the Big Apple Comic Con

What's a fun activity on a rainy, poopy Sunday? A comic convention! That's why Sam and I decided to go ahead and hit Wizard's Big Apple Comic Con today in NYC. The show was a hike from the C line, but we don't go to the piers on the west side of the city very often, so it was a nice change of scenery thanks to the show being located out there.

After a quick bite to eat with a buddy of mine from DC, we all hiked over and got in with fairly little hassle. I'd heard some people had to stand in line for a while on Saturday, so I was kinda worried we'd have to, too. Nope. Got right in.

The scene outside when we rolled up:

The wind-blown banner out front:

Once inside, we knocked out the exhibitor area in about 15 minutes. The low ceiling and mopey crowd sort of was uninviting at first, but it was a definite improvement from previous National Shows, which I'd attended in the past at the Pennsylvania Hotel.

There was a big Nintendo booth where we played the new Super Mario Bros. game thanks to a really excited Nintendo booth employee inviting us over. Sam posed when we finished:


The celebrity autograph area was kinda neat. Seeing so many people I recognized in one place was slightly surreal. Linda Hamilton and Edward Furlong were next to each other. Todd Bridges looked happy. A bunch of the Battlestar Galactica people were next. I spotted the guy who plays Pete on "30 Rock," but he was just walking around, not signing or anything. Matter of fact, we saw him about 80 times in the 4 hours we were there. We've seen him at all the New York Comic-Cons so far. And seeing him chat it up with John Schneider was great. John Schneider's a handsome man, by the way. Also, Ernie Hudson:


Someone had a Delorean all gussied up to look like the one from Back to the Future. But I was so smitten with the car that I didn't look to see what it was there for. The Adam West Batmobile and some blue Chevy were also spread out on the floor, but I dunno why.

Scared the girl at the booth is gonna say we can't take photos:

Artists Alley was super-duper small. But Paolo Rivera instigated a short conversation with us and I saw Jacob Chabot from afar. I left my Watchmen book at home, so no dice there. Paolo was so nice, I went right to his blog when I got home to try and find a shot of this art he had on display which he did with the very talented Joe Quinones.

Yep, that's Paolo on GL and Joe on Spidey.
Hopefully Paolo spreads some of that Marvel talent on some DC properties soon.

The big fun dopeness was all the crap we got for cheap. The dealer area at the National Show was always big and easy to find deals at, and that was no different here. We spent MOST of our time in the retailer area and it occurred to me that even though most of the show's guest were non-comics folks, this dealer area went a long way to validate calling this thing a COMIC con. Here's what we found:

• INFINITY INC. #1, #2, #5, AND #7 - And all for just a buck each!

• PUNISHER: WAR ZONE #5 - I missed this issue at the store last year and have been searching for it ever since. Good thing I never found it, cause I got it for just a dollar, too!

• PROGRAM GUIDE - Features art from Joe Mad's video game, which had the show's door-located booth. The flip cover has art for some graffiti art company who, I think, made posters and vinyl toys. I just know THEIR booth had ladies with their boobs hanging out who kept trying to hand us posters and were dirty dancing to the pop music the Nintendo booth was playing.

Next Picture:

• AWESOME 2: AWESOMER - I meant to grab a copy of this all-killer no filler anthology at MoCCA this year, but missed it. Then I didn't see it at SPX. But at Big Apple? $4!

• THE COLLECTED DOUG WRIGHT - This massive, shiny volume edited and designed by Seth and featuring early work from Wright, an underrated Canadian cartoonist is usually $39.95. But without the paper band normally wrapping the book, I nabbed it for 4 FUCKING dollars. And there's literally nothing wrong with it. Looks BRAND NEW.
  

• ACME NOVELTY LIBRARY #19 - The newest issue of Chris Ware's ongoing series only cost $4, too. :)

• ASTRO BOY BUTTON - Sam wanted this cause it has a little robot dog on it. Free.

• SPINKS! - Sam also wanted this cute mini about chubby monsters. Only a dollar.

• MINIMATES - We got Golden Age Flash, Wildcat, Sabretooth and a Skrull. $5 total for all 4.

• THE NEWEST WIZARD - Free as we left the floor.

At some random booth, I found this Transformers shirt with a drop of Watchmen blood, which was neat:


And that's pretty much it. Whole thing took about 4 hours. We got to see Mel and Justin and Cotton and Dan. And I spotted Rich Johnston tappity-tappity-tapping away on his tappity machine:


It was a fun day. But what can I say? I'm easy to please. I wish there was a comic convention in town I had the opportunity to go to or skip EVERY week. And to cap it off, Sam backed my move to buy a 6-pack of Bud Light Golden Wheat. This is what love looks like in your fridge: