NYCC/NYAF 2012

This past weekend was the New York Comic Con, which was located at the Javits Center in Manhattan. This four day event is huge, as far as the guests who are there and the mass amount of people that show up to it. Some of the guests that were there this year included Adam West, Stan Lee, Carrie Fisher, Christopher Lloyd, Peter Davidson, Sean Astin, Tom Felton, and Robert Kirkman (as well as many others). This was my first time attending after many years of wanting to go, I finally got to with a one day pass for Saturday.

One thing to expect is enormous crowds with at least 2/3 of the people there in cosplay. There is a whole floor set to the various venders selling merchandise, an area for all the artists who are either signing, displaying, or selling their work, a bunch of spots for panels or screenings to occur, an area for certain guests to be signing autographs, and just a whole mass of booths set up where I would not be able to list them all. The whole experience is really fantastic though, seeing so many people in costume of their favorite characters, and just the wide variety of people who attend the convention all with common interests.

A major guest and panel for this year was various cast members from The Walking Dead. Outside the Javits Center they had the van set up with the actual zombies from the show, who were interacting with the crowd outside. Not once did they break character, and the detail of their makeup was amazing. It was really cool, they even would post for photos as you can see with me being attacked by them. This was so much fun, which made it really hard to hide my smile here since it was just so cool. Props to all the people involved with putting this all together, and really adding to the whole convention.

In addition to the zombies there was also Jeffrey DeMunn, who was Dale in the show outside taking pictures with people. All of this was occurring while people were waiting outside to get in (or back inside) during the afternoon. Now the reason for this major amount of dead at the convention was due to the panel for the show, and that the season premier was the following day. The panel however I did not get to see due to the vast amount of people who had just attended earlier panels and sat through them to make sure they would be in for The Walking Dead. So that is one of the downsides to the day, but I had a great time and I found an upload on YouTube that I shall watch later on, so not all is lost. But I am just so thrilled that I got to meet with some of the cast, and interact with the zombies as they poked and sniffed the various people around them.

Meeting Jeffrey DeMunn

There were a few people that I really wanted to meet, and two of which I did get to were the artists Yoshitaka Amano and Ben Templesmith. I was just so excited to meet them since I love their art, and they each signed some of my books (Amano signed Vampire Hunter D: Vol. 1 and Templesmith signed 30 Days of Night: Omnibus). If you are unfamiliar with either of them, go and check out some of their work since it's really amazing.

Another panel that I really wanted to see was the Firefly 10th Anniversary one, and that one I did not due to a similar situation with The Walking Dead. Basically some cast members from the show (Jewel Straite and Sean Maher) were just there to discuss Firefly and it's movie Serenity, while also answering questions from the fans. Knowing that Nathan Fillion made a surprise appearance makes me wish even more that I could have been there.

Though I shall watch through any uploads on YouTube (I believe I saw the whole thing up even if it was in parts), and later do a write up on it as well as The Walking Dead one. Now this little write up can't really describe the whole comic con experience, and I only have a few photos up here. The only way to fully grasp the whole experience is to go to one of these conventions yourself one day (if that's what interests you). I hope that maybe you will, as it is a ton of fun on top of being a tad tiring. And as of right now, I plan on attending again next year.

I-CON 31

Now a little off topic from the whole music theme I have going here (and a little less formal)..
Since the New York Comic Con/Anime Festival is coming up, I thought I should take the time to discuss a similar type of event that I went to. Back in the spring, April 1st, I went to my first convention I-CON31 located at Stony Brook University. For those who are unaware, I-CON is a sci-fi/fantasy convention that takes place every year.

For me my two main reasons for going was that I had never been to any sort of convention before, and that Paul McGann who played the Eighth Doctor was going to be there. Since this was really last minute deciding to go, I didn't really get to prepare a cosplay. So I just did a quick Dib (from Invader Zim) cosplay with stuff I had lying around, since I already owned a shirt like the one he wears in the show and the rest is just all black. Anyway, like you would expect at a convention there were tons of people all in fantastic cosplays.

The whole convention was all across the campus of Stony Brook University. The main focus of all the panels was really science fiction related, but also a lot for anime. As from what I understand to be standard for cons, there was a whole floor dedicated to venders/dealers selling various merchandise. For any fandom, it is like a candy shop of almost anything and everything you can think of. There were even some tables, not relating to any fandom or series, that were just selling their work (some of which was of obvious fantasy as well as medieval/renaissance influence).

During the day there was a Doctor Who mega-panel, and the end of the panel I actually got to meet Paul McGann (which as you can see from the photo above I was completely thrilled about). I've loved Doctor Who since I was in middle school, and watched all of the Eighth Doctor through the present, with some old series episodes here and there. So I was just so psyched about this whole thing, and still can't believe I got to meet one of the Doctor's!

Earlier I had gotten to meet him when he was doing autographs, were I got a photo from the 1996 TV movie signed. But here he was  just so friendly to all the fans, taking pictures with people, and even suggested for everyone to come together for a group picture (that is below). I didn't get to meet many people, but with really only meeting one of the guests I am just glad it was him. So also, if you haven't watched the 1996 movie, you are missing out (as I am still with the audio drama's, but that shall be fixed at some point).

The Doctor Who mega-panel consisted Paul McGann (obviously), Daphne Ashbrook, Frazer Hines, and Colin Spaull. This was where they just talked about their involvement with Doctor Who, as well as answering some questions from fans, which was hosted by Ken Deep. It lasted for

Now here we have what was really completely wonderful, of Paul McGann reading the speech that the First Doctor originally said in the episode "The Dalek Invasion of Earth". This is just so touching and fantastic, seriously watch it now.

Aside from meeting the Eighth Doctor and going to view the Doctor Who mega-panel, I also attended what was about the last 30 min of “Doctor Who Lives On”, part of a discussion on The Lord of the Rings, as well as a bunch of time checking out the dealers floor. There was also a bit of time walking around the campus to the different buildings where things were being held, which takes time but also allowed me to see more of peoples costumes and what was occurring outside. Even though I only went to one day, and not even a full day at that due to it being last minute, I am eagerly awaiting the upcoming I-CON 32.