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New York Comic Con 2011 Wrap-Up – Awesome Booths, Epic Costumes, and a Serious Petition!

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Now that this year’s New York Comic Con is over, I thought I’d do a summary of the floor itself (the parts of it I got to inbetween panels and snapping stock pics for IA). Why? It was incredibly different from previous NY Comic Cons and (to be honest) I took way more pictures than we used for our coverage and I’d like a place to put them! On that note:

Legend:

Order!

The Game Room!

Epic Costumes!

A Sense of Purpose/The ‘Get Me Off the Moon’ Campaign!


So, what was new about this year’s NYCC?

1 – Order

Having been to previous NYCC’s, I was immediately surprised by just how differently the convention show floor was. Last year, there had only been two sections to the convention: Artist’s Alley and Everything Else (oh, and Artist’s Alley was also where the Anime side of the Con was). The NYCC before that, Artist’s Alley had been to one side of a single, large room that amounted to a complete, utter clusterfuck; everything was everywhere. There were nice touches and a semblance of order (DC’s booth, for example, being near Marvel’s booth; toy vendors, publishers, and comic shops all [kind of] sticking together for warmth in the ice cold rage ocean of Convention-goers screaming, “Where are you!?… I’m on Aisle… 2600??… What!? No, 2600!!!” into their dying cell phones).

This year was a very welcome change; there was no semblance of order because things were just in order. Games? Mostly to your left, where Artist’s Alley and the Anime stuff was last year. Publishers? To the right of that. Comics? The next, large room to your right. Artist’s Alley? The next, large room, past the comics section. Of course, Artist’s Alley still housed a bunch of gaming stuff and comic vendors, but regardless, I can gladly say that I only had to scream my location into my cell phone a single time this year. What’s more, my brother’s friend mentioned a booth that sounded awesome, and when I asked where it was, he simply said, “Artist’s Alley,” and—miracle among miracles—I went to Artist’s Alley and found it after about only two minutes of searching.

That doesn’t mean everything was in order though; I never got to see the vague question-mark that was Javits Center North. According to Chaos Mechanica, it was where the Hasbro Stage and celebrity signings took place. The entrance to it was also tucked away on the far right side of the entrance strip, meaning I only noticed it Sunday night, while waiting for Chaos Mechanica to finish watching his Japanese novelas (anime screening). The question marks don’t end there though. There was an… Uncharted 3 demo somewhere? “Downstairs,” I heard it whispered on the wind. In the end, the order seemed to be a lie, but the mystery… <wistful sigh>. Well, let’s just say I’m really excited to explore next year.
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2 – The Game Room:

I tried to photograph the entirety of the Capcom booth. I really, really did. And I really, really failed; those monitors on the back were attached to a four-sided island of game demos that featured Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, Dragon's Dogma, Operation: Raccoon City, and more.

I wound up thinking of the huge, game-heavy room on the southern end of the Javits Center as “the Game Room.” The thing is, there was a lot more than just games here. It’s just that I had a really, really hard time caring what else was in the room because Capcom and Square Enix had the biggest booths I’ve ever seen.

I’ll be honest—the fan in me forced a complete halt to work / journalism at the Capcom booth, so anything over 10 feet away from Capcom is completely unknown to me. All of the booths around it were just as obnoxious and awesome though. Square Enix’s booth was a perimeter of screens running a bunch of trailers on loop, with a filling of many, many game demo set-ups and a small stage.

And, of course, the Marvel booth was a huge mock up of the Helicarrier, which immediately made me smile not because of how excited I am for The Avengers, but because it looked exactly like the kind of thing I’ve seen a bunch of times at San Diego Comic Con and wished we’d get here on the East Coast. In the end, the Game Room gave me hope for insanely elaborate, San Diego CC-caliber booths at next year’s NYCC.

The one and only Choas Mechanica trying out Dead Island at the Square Enix booth.

Later, when models dressed as S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents got up there for photo ops, the booth became a waaay less comfortable experience. What's that to the right, you ask?

Why, it's Steve Rogers' Captain America suit as it is The Avengers. Talk about awesome...

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3 – Epic Costumes:

It wasn’t just the exhibitors that stepped it up; I saw a lot of awesome costumes this year that went deep into the realm of functional technology or awe-inducing accuracy. I definitely didn’t get pictures of everyone (there was a really insanely elaborate Bumblebee that everyone just stared at in silence until he awkwardly walked away [because I know I at least was having a really hard time understanding that he was a person in a costume and not a Transformer {I'm not even kidding}], and I got a picture of an awesome, classic Bane, complete with a life-sized Batman doll he was breaking over his knee, but I didn’t get to interview him), but here are the few I managed to get pictures of:

Zora Amor Link, by Mark (The Hyrullian) - How Long It Took: 4 Months - How Much $ It Required - $400-$500 - Why It's Epic: Seriously, just look at it! There are always a bunch of Links at NYCC, but this is the first time I've seen someone shoot for one of his most badass costumes!

X-Force Archangel, by Adiel - How Long It Took: 250 - 300 hrs - How Much $ It Required: "A lot." - Why It's Epic: Okay. So get this: he made the wings. Wait--that's not all. They move, and we're not talking "they swing around on those hinges" move. We're talking he controls them! How? By wiring he put into his gloves; yes, like Batman with his memory cloth, Adiel wired his wings into his gloves so particular gestures move the wings! Oh, and he's not a professional mechanic or technician.

Dark Helmet, by Tony - How Long It Took: "About a month." - How Much $ It Required: "Not a whole lot" because it was mostly custom-made. - Why It's Epic: I'm a huge sucker for awesome costume ideas that no one else at the Con has (a few years ago, when I went as movie Bullseye, I'd say I achieved that if it wasn't that I reminded everyone how much they hated the Daredevil movie). Not only did Tony pull off Dark Helmet without a hitch, he made sure the visor on his helmet could flip up and down for added comedic effect when he made it. Seriously, the Schwart is strong with this one.

Scorpion, by Santiago - How Long It Took: "Two months. Every day, two months." How Much $ It Required: "Over $400." - Why It's Epic: I've seen a few Scorpions at NYCC before and saw a few others this year, but none compared to Santiago's. Why? The Spear. If there's a chance you missed it, look again; perfectly crafted with the signature wave and anchored right onto his wrist, the Spear easily makes this Scorpion more authentic and epic than any other.

Steampunk, by Dub - How Long It Took: The hand alone took 6 months. - How Much $ It Required: Overall, around $400 - Why It's Epic: If the costume doesn't just look epic enough for you, consider that the hand was custom-made. Custom-made so it could move (via pulleys inside of it). This was one of those rare costumes that's so awesome you immediately wish it was based on a character you could follow in a comic or show!

Auron, by Insane Cosplayer (of http://wonderful-world-of-weapon-props.webs.com/) - How Long It Took: 6 months - How Much $ It Required: "We're gonna keep that a secret." - Why It's Epic: Aside from the fact that Insane nailed a very complicated costume, there are two things. First, Insane was really tall, which immediately effected a dominating badassedness that's 100% Auron. On top of that though, the costume was missing a bunch of other swords that were supposed to be in the back holster. Dressed as my favorite FFX character and of the belief that two huge weapons are not enough? Yeah, that's epic.

Link, by Katie! What Made It Epic: Okay, so, here's the thing. Before Comic Con, I posted a Choose Your Own Adventure for the zombie apocalypse at this year's Con (http://wp.me/p1IGtX-AD). It was a kind of last minute idea I had that wound up being way, way more work than I thought it would. In the end though, I got a bit of flak for making Link the costume choice for women (actually, it's more like I got flak for making the two threads gender specific, but I had already made the Stormtrooper's thread really male-centric). Long story short, it was so gratifying to see my first woman dressed as Link at NYCC 2011 that I had to get a picture. For me, it was a pretty epic moment, and really, aren't our own moments like this kind of what Comic Con is all about?

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4 – A Sense of Purpose / The “Get Me Off the Moon” Campaign

There was even totally a booth for the petition!

The rest of the booths on the floor and the fans who walked them fostered the “we care” vibe. I don’t mean that people were buying Pocky for each other and sharing hugs; I mean that everyone, not just the professionals, took this Con seriously. Even if people hadn’t spent months on their costumes, everyone else still looked awesome and we got very few topless idiots with red lightsabers and black pants pretending they were actual Star Wars characters.

Some people took it to the next level though; I saw a bunch of people petitioning for the return of Mega Man Legends 3. If you don’t know about the Get Me Off the Moon campaign, check out their facebook page or their blogspot page! I’m not sure if the petitioners gave me hope that Capcom would ever listen to its fans where Megaman is concerned (two months after our Mega Man R.I.P. Round Table, I felt certain Capcom’s determined to just let him die), but it was awesome to see people giving it such a serious shot at the petition and made me feel like I should try to do my part. The first step? Adding a like box for the campaign on the right sidebar. If you care about Megaman Legends 3 and don’t want it scrapped forever, doing something is as easy as hitting the Like button that’s on the right side of the page. Seriously, I in particular, have been waiting to get Mega Man Volnutt off of the moon for nearly eleven years now. If you have too, or even if you haven’t, please help out!

The most camera shy protestor ever of all time.

The most epic protestor ever of all time.

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 A Final Thought

I’ve been to a bunch of NY Comic Cons and they always wound up being the same event; I’d walk in, head to a few booths, then get bored, look at panels, and ultimately realized there were no interesting ones. That meant that most of the enjoyment came from who I went with and, usually, one booth I enjoyed enough to spend most of my time in. It just wasn’t so this year; the panels were really awesome for the most part. So much so that, even though I could’ve spent all of my time at the Capcom booth (like I did last year), I didn’t want to. I hope that means that next year is going to be even more organized (hopefully avoiding the insane experience that Chaos Mechanica and Ed Cambro went through with The Avengers panel (detailed in our coverage of Day Two at NYCC) and more fun. Will NYCC 2012 rival San Diego Comic Con? Not likely. But will it someday? One can hope.



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