What “Press” Really Means at NYCC, Continued

Thursday, October 9^th of 2014, at noon, the Jacob Javitz Center opened the exhibition floor to all badge holders. As I tend to do when I attend conventions, I walked the entire floor, searching for the booths I wanted to visit over the weekend and notating discoveries as I went.

For those that don’t know, the NYCC has inhabited the entirety of the Javitz Center for some years now, having expanded so much, so fast. 2014 is probably only one of two years that I recall there to be no construction work being done to any part of the building. So, when I say it was filling the entirety of the Center, I should stress the fact that it was the maximum possible amount of floor space. I walked the main exhibition floor, went below to the see the layout of the rooms for panels, looked at the massive hall where signings were being held (and promptly chose to not go back in there, considering the already growing lines of people wanting their scribble from various film and television actors), then moved on down to Artist’s Alley, the most distant section of NYCC. When it was placed in this, the North Hall, back in 2012, I thought it to be somewhat of a mistake. The passage that leads to it becomes a bottleneck of people on the busier days and that fact still seems to be largely ignored by convention staffers or security. Regardless of where it sits, it still seems to draw a good amount of attendees, which is great for the large contingent of comic creators down in this hall.

I remained in Artist’s Alley for some time, visiting with old friend Stuart Moore (former editor of many Vertigo titles from DC (amongst others), myriad Marvel series and writer of a number of independent books, including the current Image Comics series, EGOs) for a time, then walking through the area until stumbling onto the booth of fellow Connecticut resident Dave Wenzel (best known for his incredible art on the graphic depiction of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, originally published by First Comics, now by Harper Collins). I had meant to meet up with his son Chris, who I had worked with some time back, and was pleased to learn he’d be attending. It was a fun reunion, as we chatted everything comics, art and bad work history. It was nice to see Dave again too, as well as his phenomenal artwork and the interest his booth was getting even on a Thursday afternoon.

After my layover at the Wenzel booth, I moved on through the rest of Artist’s Alley, perusing some of the art and particularly noticing the sheer amount of people I didn’t know, or in some cases, were uninterested in. Since I’m no longer reading and DC or Marvel titles, unless you’re a known commodity for me from when I was reading, like a Jim Calafiore or a Matt Clark, you likely don’t do it for me. Now, the independent writers, artists and publishers, that’s where the story is at.

I left the North Hall, considering my next move. I had a meeting set up at a booth called DODOcase, one of the few email notifications I answered to focus one of my stories on. The booth was on the opposite side of the Javitz from where I was, so I took the quickest route I discovered that avoids the main entrance where the regular attendees entered. That brought me past the signing hall again, and I peeked in to see if maybe it was worth it to try and get near the Shat, Gillian Anderson or Karl Urban. That was my last look for the weekend. I put that thought to bed; standing in line for a signature wasn’t a good way to spend my time.

When I got back to the main exhibition hall, I began to realize a series of short articles I could do for the Bleeding Cool site that would be somewhat amusing and of interest, and it could easily start with the DODOcase snippet, if I could find the damned booth. Either I walked past it three or four times or I had the booth number down incorrectly, I don’t know. I saw an information kiosk with a couple of extremely young volunteers manning it. As I approached, someone was making a complaint to them that amused me with its silliness, as well as to whom it was being addressed. Could two volunteers really do anything about the amount of cosplayers stopping in front of the guy’s booth for photo ops? I ignored it and grabbed a convention booklet, the first I’d seen of them to that point. I quickly looked up where the booth was and thanked the girl who thought I needed more help (more likely wanted to stop talking to the other guy) and headed for the booth.

DODOcase was sharing a booth with a group called Jauntvr. Both of them were showing off various virtual reality programs or mechanisms in which to view these VR matrices. DODOcase in particular was selling a cardboard attachment to your smartphone that would enhance the ability to view a downloaded VR capture on your particular phone. Jauntvr was actually making the programs that you could view, though they both claimed to be doing both works, the 3D image capturing and viewing attachments. Jauntvr had a 3D camera set up to show how they film the content you could view, which was certainly interesting. The DODOcase component was a silly little thing, but it did make seeing the whole of the VR much easier. When asked if I wanted to purchase one, I had to laugh and show them my lovely Samsung flip phone, which really isn’t capable of doing such things. In fact, the only real thing it was more than capable of, compared to anyone with a touchscreen phone at the show, was connecting to a tower. I could make a call or internet connection when no one else could. Go me.

This brief chat with the makers of high technology spurred me to start thinking of other topics related to the fact I was relatively tech-simple. How does a convention attendee with low tech deal with an event that covers so many high-tech contraptions, programs, applications or plug-ins? As I walked around a bit more, partly in search of the Press Room and partly really noticing the sheer amount of tech-inspired booths, I frantically scribbled into my notebook – a real, paper notebook – occasionally having to stop to keep from bumping some slow moving schmoe or another.

I then realized I needed food. I hadn’t eaten a whole lot since leaving the house and a shot from my flask wasn’t going to sustain me. The ridiculously expensive food court was already mobbed with hungry convention people and I knew from previous experience that the outdoor carts were handily speedier than anything within the center. Plus, a shot of open air wouldn’t be a bad thing. It was a nice day and I was already sweating under my hemp fedora. I exited the main entrance and it was then I noticed all the hubbub that kept people outside interested. A tent for the Black Sails television show. The Walking Dead camper had returned. Cosplayers galore. Other shows of note to someone, but not me. Yes, the ReedPop group definitely decided to use as much of the Javitz property as they could. But, it didn’t spark any interest from me and I wanted a red hot. I passed through the main gate and the extremely pleasant RFID ticket checkers (would they still be so pleasant on Sunday?) and high tailed it across 11^th Ave  to the first food vendor without a line. I had considered heading up the two blocks to Twins Pub, but I wanted something cheap and quick before I burned up the rest of my day. A quick chow of a red hot and mustard while chatting with a couple of local guys attending the show started to ease my fastidiously skeptical mind of how the weekend would go. For a small bit.

I returned to the building to locate the Press Room and work up the first of two articles I had plotted in my head for Bleeding Cool. I figured two more that I could finish that night and send off would be a good start to the con, as Friday was going to be my busiest when it came to writing and scheduled events. I had thought to swing by the Star Trek: Equinox panel just to see what that was about, but it didn’t interest me enough to motivate me to sit in on a panel, much less one I wouldn’t be writing about. What is it about, you ask? I’m not entirely sure. Some non-canon Star Trek tale based off a two-part Star Trek: Voyager episode. Take that for what it’s worth. In any event, it didn’t come to pass and I did locate the Press Room, at the apex of the Javitz center, where, in previous conventions, the area housed Artist’s Alley and other such things. It was guarded, as only Press and Professionals were allowed in, free of the push of the masses and crush of the mob. Here there was a sitting area, with tables and chairs for everyone, a couple of vendors, a VIP section walled off for those that were allowed beyond the partition, and the “Press Room”, a similarly walled off area.

Let’s talk of the “Press Room”. It was a rather cramped section of the hall it was in, walled off by curtains and partition poles. There were a number of round tables with chairs, two rectangular tables with one computer each, a water dispenser and not one single outlet to be seen. Yes, that is correct. I sat down, looked around for somewhere to plug in and realized it probably wasn’t going to happen. I made a few quick checks on my phone, wrote out some notes, and grabbed a drink and a nice rest for my already sweating feet. Some guy came up behind me, reached under a table covered with promo material and yanked out a single cord with a single outlet. He plugged in and said that anyone with a power strip was going to be a popular person that weekend. I asked him if that was the only outlet, and he said as much, with a wry grin. And then he cursed as the WiFi died on him. Both of these things would be the bane of the Press Room the entire con: bad or limited WiFi connections and no outlets for those of us who brought our own computers. The fact that there was a pair of computers for use was not a surprise to me; most press areas have something for the writers to use, as is the norm. Considering the sheer amount of press badges handed out, you’d think that there would be more for use. Well, a knowledgeable person would think so.

To say that I was mildly put out would be accurate. In fact, this is what I looked like after the second attempt at using the room:

In essence, I gave up on any real hope of using the press room to my advantage. I noticed that there were numerous Bleeding Cool contributors making all sorts of complaints and suggestions in my email to get around this issue, but there wasn’t anything helpful in there. Sad, too. I pressed on, taking notes and talking to great people for a larger article I’d planned on, such as Kim and Tom Hutchinson from Big Dog Ink, who had just recently signed a deal to become an imprint of Aspen Comics, a boon for BDI, their comics (www.bigdogink.com) and their company. I went looking for the Star Trek: Equinox booth to learn a little more about that proposed series and got lodged in a crowd waiting to get signatures from some woman I didn’t know. She must have been an actress or model of some note, considering the glut of people waiting for her in the aisle they clogged up, which was hopefully a boon to the booths nearby. In my attempt to escape the jam of people, I discovered one of those things I planned to cover over the weekend: a game, and one I didn’t have on my itinerary. The game is called Castle Assault and pits two players against each other in an attempt to conquer (each others) castle. It’s primarily a card game, played on a mat with terrain modifiers that affect play. While I watched the game being played by a full table, a rather lovely woman approached me to tell me about the game itself. One of a number of “booth bunnies”, she was versed enough in the basics of when, where and how to get the game, but not in the detailed questions I asked. She brought over to me Andrew Giaume, Marketing Director for the company behind the game, Momentum Volsk. He answered all my questions with quite a bit of enthusiasm while also directing some games for players. If you find yourself interested in games of this nature, Momentum Volsk is doing a Kickstarter campaign on their website, www.momentumvolsk.com, where you can get in on the ground floor of this new product. I took extensive notes, watched a little more of the games being played and hoped to get back to the tables at some point to actually sit down and play a game. 

It was then that I realized I may have to take a much slower pace through the exhibition floor. I figured I walked past the Momentum Volsk booth three times without noticing that they were a game company, one of the primary reasons I signed up to do articles for Bleeding Cool. Somehow they fell through the cracks, which happens frequently at large cons like NYCC. Exhibitors may sign up late and don’t get listed in the catalogue, others drop out at the last minute, and still others don’t show up on a website specific search. So, after taking a quick break off to the side to compile notes and receive some text messages (Mark Smylie, where are you?), I strode through the aisles a little more slowly, taking care to pinpoint areas of interest and jot them in my handy, dandy notebook.

I noticed a number of things that first day. Many, many, many of the booths were significantly geared towards the cosplayer, whether as a hobby or as a lark. Simple garb from cloth ears to t-shirts to wristbands that spoke of particular characters of anime, television, movies or comics were evident at booths that didn’t necessarily cater to cosplayers. Other, more detailed and expensive items were available for the true hobbyist or costume wearer. McCall’s, a well-known maker of [clothing plans – FIX] had a busy booth that was covered by a number of reporters from various media. Other booths had foam core weaponry for the anime or manga costume, light sabers for the Star Wars aficionado or leather boots and vests for those that think Steampunk is cool. In fact, I don’t think there was a single aisle outside of Artist’s Alley that didn’t have some form of cosplay booth on it. The basic fact is, cosplay is in, it’s big money and it’s not going away any time soon. Love it or hate it, it’s here and it’s a massive portion of the convention attendance.

For those of you that don’t know, cosplay is the amalgam of Costume Play. Generally, it originated in Japan, where cosplayers didn’t just show up at conventions in their outfits, but did it for their own reasons, of which there are many and don’t pertain to this. Go read about it on Wikipedia if you’re so inclined. While people have almost always shown up in costume at comic conventions, it was never the abundance that occurs now and it never really had a name to it. Now it’s all COSPLAY, whether or not there’s much ‘play’ in it. This is a YouTube vid of people at NYCC in costume, for your viewing pleasure: NYCC Cosplayers

And just to annoy some of you, this is a pic of what Steampunk is, because some people still don’t understand it.

And this is Cyberpunk, because that’s much cooler and most people that are cosplaying are really, in effect, just posergangs without the firepower. And if you don’t get that reference, you’re on your own. 

I walked the rest of the convention, taking great care to visit the IDW Comics booth. IDW, who has recently gotten into games, were showing some of them off at the convention, one of which was making its debut. The booth was pretty busy at the time I stopped by and didn’t have anyone near the game section, so I looked at the different games displayed and decided to swing by at a later time. IDW is one of my favorite indie comic companies, producing some extremely good product. I had spoken to one of their game minions earlier in the year about another event (plug for the great and powerful GaryCon – www.garycon.com for those curious) and have become extremely curious about their foray into games. 

Perusing the rest of the con and taking more notes about various things, I started to concern myself with heading to where I was staying and the time it took to get there. Since I wasn’t staying in the city, I had to find my way to the Port Authority bus station and shuttle to New Jersey. I was beat, wanted to write up my first few articles and get a good start on Friday, so I opted to leave a little earlier than I would have, normally. Since I wasn’t going to be staying to see the later premiere of the Constantine television program, that was fine by me. As the Port Authority is only a few blocks away from the Javitz Center, I walked on up to it and decided to sit a spell at Heartland Brewery, which has a location right in the PA. Apparently a guy with two bags walking into a place like that on a busy Thursday night is no surprise, and I found myself at the furthest reaches of the bar, having a few good brews with a couple of folks from Texas, on their way to Albany for a wedding. From there I hopped my bus, drained half my flask and wrote up a pair of articles after getting to my crash pad for the weekend (hi Gail!). And then, chaos.