Saturday Means Business

By the time I was awake and ready to leave for the convention on Saturday morning, I’d fully given over to not using the press room as a viable option for completing my tasks for Bleeding Cool. Since my computer would be of no real use to me and my archaic-tech flip phone had all the necessary connections, I opted to pocket anything I really needed with me and go all out basic. You guessed it, the handy, dandy notebook was my preferred device for this day. At least it couldn’t be silenced by lack of power and impossible to maintain wifi! I was also feeling much, much better than the day prior and really needed to step it up for the site. I had nothing scheduled for the entire day, purposefully keeping it free for what is traditionally the busiest of convention days, regardless of city. I had a list of booths and people I wanted to visit and whatever came at me for the length of the day would certainly throw some hiccups in those plans.

I was getting messages from people wondering where my articles were, and as of early Saturday morning, none had appeared. That would change later, but I couldn’t share them to social media with my phone. Luckily, my favorite magician, Jason Azze, discovered the first one to be listed for me, for which I thank him beyond the Facebook. After that, they started to trickle in. I didn’t understand the delay and never got a chance to ask anyone why, but I suppose that’s the nature of the medium now, considering the way this sort of reporting operates.

One of the things I really wanted to do was reconnect with Jacob Kirton and Tristan Powell, and discuss with them their Seven Scrolls of Shitorio in more detail. I flipped through it Friday evening, trying to get a feel for it. I spent a little more time with it before leaving for the city and was blown away by what I saw. THIS was what I loved to discover at shows like NYCC. And I was going to make sure others knew about it. But before doing so, I needed to connect with IDW Games and swing by the Steve Jackson Games booth, which was being sponsored by the Compleat Strategist, one of New York City’s greatest game stores. Steve Jackson was, by far, the most high-profile tabletop game company to be appearing at NYCC this year, and I aimed to see what was up with them. It was also imperative that I talked to someone at the Action Labs booth. Action Labs, a small comic book company that I discovered a few years ago by accident, had published some of the most interesting comics I’d read recently and their growth had me extremely interested. They were being promoted on the NYCC website and catalogue as a premiere exhibitor, which I never did find out the meaning of, but I did know they had a rather large booth, so that may have been one reason.

A pleasant aspect of the Jacob Javitz Center and the unprecedented growth of the New York Comic Con is the versatility of the building itself. There are so many different entrances and exits, it’s become fairly easy for ReedPop to organize designated entrances for specific badge holders. Guest and VIP badges go through one entrance, Press and Professional badges go through another, daily attendees through still another. It makes for better than average crowd control, in most cases. Having had a Pro badge most of the years I’ve attended, I can appreciate that. The first couple of years were a misery, even if you were a vendor on the exhibition floor. I can’t say that NYCC is perfect when it comes to crowds and crowding, but they have improved in ways comparable to the opposable thumb. As more of these types of conventions stray into media blockbusters, signature and photo ops, cosplay shows and hype, as more and more people are finding “geek culture” to be acceptable, attendance is spiking and greed is becoming the norm for event organizers. The recent overcrowding of the Rhode Island Comic Con (RICC Apologizes) and continuing last-minute shuttering of conventions for no real reason (Awesome Con Miwaukee Canceled) proves that fact. NYCC isn’t completely innocent here either. The true reason they wanted to open the convention to all on Thursday was to sell more Thursday individual tickets and claim they had more unique ticket holders than the biggest and oldest comic convention, the San Diego Comic-Con (don’t forget that hyphen, they trademarked it!). I have been toying with running a convention for some time now. I just think it’d be fun to attempt, but the cost layout is daunting. I wouldn’t even try to compete with these guys that have come in and plopped another blowout of a con in Bridgeport (ComicConn) or the monstrosity Connecticon. It was one of the reasons I was so interested in the Library-based Comic Con panel the day beforehand; it may be a way to have an event that’s not so… flashy, yet fun and reminiscent of conventions I enjoyed before being a geek was “cool”.

Anyway, regardless of ticketing or badge, I entered the con enjoying my freedom from baggage and heavy outerwear. The best thing about a pullover hoodie is the ease in which it’s carried after you take it off, if you need to. It’s also toasty warm on cool, overcast days, which this particular Saturday was. Rain was being threatened, and it was scattered on and off when I left New Jersey. The city was still mostly dry, but honestly, I didn’t care. I was in a giant building with hundreds of thousands of other people. The most wet I was going to get was from spittle from a rabid Marvel fanboy, or sweat from Dan the Didiot’s* bald, dull head.

I traveled in a wandering line to the Walk on Water booth, briefly visiting the Momentum Volsk area again, to at least let them know their article had been sent in and to keep an eye out for it, but they were mobbed with people and filming the tables for their website. Cosplay attendance had increased, as expected with standard attendance higher on Saturdays, and I was amused to see some volunteers trying to maneuver cosplayers and picture takers away from areas of ingress/egress. That was new to me and something I’d hoped to see more of. Or, at least, from actual event staff and not the volunteers, who are usually young, inexperienced and unsure of their ability to enforce rules. More on that later, before I get tangential and miss the point of this particular A Leaf on the Wind.

Nothing new or interesting stirred me on the way to the Walk on Water booth. People still staggered around with their noses in their smartphones instead of noticing the things around them, picture takers were clogging up aisles not just wanting photos of cosplayers, but items in booths. Wetaworks, the group that designed most of the creatures and sets for the Peter Jackson-directed Lord of the Rings films (amongst many others) had a huge display of statuettes and replicas, attracting many a lookie-loo. Other outfits had the same, but listing them all isn’t my interest or intent. You want to see them? Buy a ticket to next year’s show. Regardless of how NYCC perceives itself in comparison to the San Diego show, it still doesn’t sell out as fast, or as early. I know that and have never been to San Diego.

Tarachu was being photographed at the booth by some schmoe who thought it was a good idea to sit on the floor to get a good angle when I finally got there. I didn’t want to get in their way, particularly if it was helping to promote the book, but it was my impression he was only interested in the costume, not the reason for it. I could be wrong… but I’m comfortable typing the belief here, so what do you think?

In any event, I bombarded Jacob with questions, needing more information for what I felt could be a good piece on The Seven Scrolls of Shitorio. I spent a goodly amount of time there before letting them free to promote themselves to the masses, and scampered off to the Steve Jackson booth. Calling it a booth is somewhat of a misnomer, it was more of a display with tables to playtest games upon. The actual booth was next to them, that of the Compleat Strategist, selling the Steve Jackson Games product, along with a good selection of other product. I spoke with NAME REDACTED of SJG, who gave me quite a bit of information on their upcoming products, their recently released products being displayed at the show, and some news regarding one of their old games, Car Wars, that I didn’t end up using in the blurb I dropped to Bleeding Cool.

Car Wars was originally printed in 1980, gained a following and has maintained that following even though no new material related to the original game had been released in over 15 years. Car Wars, for the uninitiated, is essentially a game of modified motor vehicle battles, in which you, the driver, try to eliminate all of your opponents in either a set amount of time or in a last man standing situation. Think of it as Death Race 2000 

with a bigger budget and more death. At a game convention, Car Wars is always a draw, if not to play, then at least to watch. Some referees put a lot into the physical appearance of their games, which amps up the fun. Car Wars was originally a chit game, with little cardboard pieces representing your vehicle. Take a look at what some game masters have done to make it even more entertaining:

NAME REDACTED informed me that not only had SJG run a successful campaign to reprint the original boxed game of Car Wars (which is out now – get it here! Car Wars), the company had rehired game creator Chad Irby to produce new Car Wars product. When it comes to games, everything old is new again.

From there I moved on to the IDW booth, to finally talk games. I was on a roll and really starting to enjoy myself. It was finally getting fun for me, low tech and all. I noticed that the stack of games that was displayed on Thursday was significantly diminished and that two of the games were open for playtest. I waited until there was a free staffer, looking over the details of a game called Tammany Hall, which looked like it was right up my alley. When the staffer was free, I found myself talking with Nate Murray, the IDW Games guy I’d corresponded with previously. We had a great conversation of IDW, their Publisher-in-Chief, the games they’re planning and what they’re doing differently from other game companies. It was a fruitful talk and became yet another update for Bleeding Cool.

After parting with Nate, I realized I had a couple of more questions to clarify some points with Jacob Kirton and returned to the Walk on Water booth. He was being interviewed by someone with a video camera, so I waited while he finished his interview. While doing so, I began to really notice his neighbors. Here’s a quick list of the people and things I discovered there, because the article they all landed it was never run by Bleeding Cool.

Nathaniel Burney is a lawyer. He started writing a blog for lawyers until he realized if he wrote it with the general public in mind, he’d find a larger readership. Turning it from blog to web comic, he started to explain various parts of law to the layman, in a straightforward and sometimes comedic manner. It was an instant hit, and in January of 2012, less than two months after his comic debuted, he was contacted by the Jones McClure Publishing group to get the comic into book form. The Illustrated Guide to Law: Criminal Procedure was the first in the graphic series, with Criminal Procedure II following. The next in the series is Constitutional Law, due out soon, and even more are being prepared further down the line.

I had to laugh at the whole concept of it, but it really, really works. The drawings are cartoony and add more amusement factor to the whole strip, making it one of the more curious books I found at the show. As we talked, I discovered I wasn’t the only one to mention Trademark and Copyright law to him as a topic for a book, or a portion of one. With so many different fights over comics and comic creations making headlines, I hope he does consider it. Of course, the best part of my chat at his table was when a couple came by and the blonde woman in the business attire grabbed each of the books in an excited manner. She was a lawyer and when a friend had told her of the series, she had to have them. Her boyfriend was the comic fan, but the excitement this woman had in finding something that was hers and hers alone within a shared medium was fun to witness.

The Illustrated Guide to Law can be read at www.lawcomic.net, or you can purchase the books through Amazon or better bookstores. I mean, we have the Illustrated Guide to the Universe and the Illustrated Guide to History, so why not Law as well? Litigiousness is the right of all good, red-blooded Americans.

Next to the Walk on Water booth was the Mythopoeia booth, housing the creators of the beautiful Skies of Fire first issue, which had been a successful Kickstarter campaign and focus column before NYCC on the Bleeding Cool website. I spoke to Ray Chou and Vincenzo Ferriero about their book after noticing another book sitting on their table, a special NYCC edition of a book called Action Johnson. I mean, with a title like that, how could I not take notice? Unfortunately, Nic Shaw, writer of the book, wasn’t at the table at the time, so I instead took a look at Skies of Fire, which I’d heard about but knew little of. It’s a phenomenally gorgeous comic, in a non-traditional size that I find appealing. It’s not quite magazine sized, but it’s not quite exactly the size of a Golden Age** comic, either. Want to check it out? You should. Their website is www.mythopoeia.us and you can immerse yourself into something other than the title to the new Star Wars film for a bit.

I told the guys I’d try and meet up with Nic Shaw before the end of the show and work Action Johnson into my small press column, got the needed answers from the questions I had to ask Jacob and headed to the Action Lab booth. The day was already getting late and I still needed more info for the article, and that’s when I remembered FUBAR.

To be continued…

*Dan Didio, aka the Didiot, is co-publisher of DC Comics. With his regime, I’ve seen creators bashed, blacklisted and driven away from what was once my favorite comics’ publisher. I’ve seen fan-favorite characters killed, series ended, editorial policies shift in the most inane and juvenile way and witnessed, in person, his lying mouth in action. He is the worst “editor” currently on the job.

**The Golden Age of comics is an era of varying years, generally running from the late 1930’s to about 1952. Precise dates differ from historian to historian, and which advent to which advent. Comic sizes of this era were larger (imagine that), running roughly 7 and 1/4th" x 10 and 3/8th" compared to today’s “Modern” comic, which is essentially 6 and 7/8th" x 10 and 1/2". Sigh.

Press on Friday

I woke on Friday after a particularly sleepless night and grabbed a quick bite before hoofing it out quickly for the bus ride to the city. I borrowed a power strip from my friend before leaving (thanks again, Gail) thinking that maybe, just maybe I could get some work done in the press room this time.

My shoulder and back were already sore from hauling around my computer all day prior but I was thinking that with the frequent breaks off my feet this day it wouldn’t be an issue. I had a meeting scheduled with Miya Sohoza of the Rare Elements Foundry at the McDonald’s a block away from the Javitz Center fairly early, in which I was going to learn a little about the product she had created for games, and what she planned for the future. I grabbed a giant coffee from the extremely busy McD’s crew and sat down to wait, while also watching for any fellow Bleeding Cool writers. I didn’t see any of them, but I certainly saw a large proportion of convention attendees flowing through before hitting the as-yet-to-open exhibition hall.

Once Miya arrived and we got down to brass tacks, she showed me some of the wonderful coins she’s having minted as part of the Rare Elements product line and we talked for nearly two hours, giving me a wealth of information that I hoped to turn into a good write-up for Bleeding Cool.  I was surprised to discover she had also been to this year’s GaryCon (mentioned in the last A Leaf on the Wind, i.e. the coolest game convention yet) and I didn’t notice until my memory began to wake up. I didn’t see the stuff at GaryCon, but it is quality work and more people should be aware of it. In fact, do yourself a favor and stop by the website, www.rareelementsfoundry.com and see for yourself. Here are some pics to motivate you.

Miya and I separated before heading into the con. I had been getting text messages all morning from my friend John Amenta, who was heading in from Connecticut to get his geek on, and my mum, the beautiful and amazing Tara Johnson, known to most as Tarachu! And don’t you forget it. She was appearing as a “booth babe”, or a “booth bunny” in my nomenclature, for a friend who had a new anime-styled product out. She was appearing in costume of one of the characters and I figured I’d swing by the booth to see what this thing was.

Since I didn’t get into the con at opening, I didn’t get to see exactly how long any of the wait lines were. I imagine they were pretty deep, as my vantage point from the top of the stairs to the main entrance showed a massive glut of con attendees at their specified entry point. Anyone trying to get through that way to the North Hall of Artist’s Alley was in for a long trek of crowd surfing, or in the esteemed words of my friend Bob McCallister, “Toy Show Etiquette”.

[An explanation: Toy Show Etiquette is essentially used to describe the way certain convention attendees would bump into you, sometimes on purpose, and not excuse themselves. Or just rudely bash their way through to get to the ‘good stuff’. It tends to work as a name for just about any large convention where people bottle up and shove their way through.]

I stumbled around a bit, making a few more notes and writing down “overheard at the con” lines from people. And then I began to feel unwell. Was it the beer from the night before? Was it the food? Was I already getting hit with the dreaded Con Crud that seems to infect large scale conventions? Or was it the fact I had two giant coffees at McDonald’s on top of the two Vivarin tablets I took at the bus stop? (There was a booth handing them out at the show all weekend). I mean, who gets sick from caffeine, right? Well hey, it can’t be that, must be something else. So, it’s time for a go-to home remedy: Coca-Cola! Woo! Feel that sweat pour off me as I move around the multiplying cosplayers standing and waiting for photos to be taken! See me cringe in growing irritation at the stumbling, shambling mouth breathers that look like tourists on their first trip! Watch as I push through the sweat and oogly haze of blechh as I try to regain myself in my almost loud shirt!

Anyway, I met up with Mr. Amenta and his friend Lou Federico in the Artist’s Alley section, shooting the shee yite while passing judgement on various creators, companies and comic stores. Just like any decent comic book fan is wont to do! By the way, Jim Calafiore is still a fantastic artist and person, Atomic Robo from Red 5 Comics (www.red5comics.com) is still one of the best, most overlooked comic books on the market and Kevin McGuire still draws the most expressive faces seen in comics. Go ahead, tell me otherwise! I dare you!

After abandoning John and Lou to Alex Maleevemealone, I staggered through the costumes, the swinging bags, the poor kids nearly being trampled by the ignoring crowds, the lackadaisical event staff and the overwhelmed convention volunteers, headed for the Walk on Water booth, where me lovely mum was at. I had some time before the panel I had signed up to cover was scheduled, so it worked out well, regardless of my increasing wooziness. The booth was smack dab in the center of what I like to call the “small press” area, because it holds the most concentrated amount of small press publishers at the show.

Before I continue, I’ll say this for the NYCC organizational staff, at least as far as how they lay out the even floor: it makes no bloody sense. It never really has. At the main entrance, you get the biggest, most prominent booths for those that want to pay the price for it, as is standard. This could be comic book publishers, toy companies, movie promo booths, video game companies or anything else that fits. Geico* wants a giant motorhome near the main entrance? Bill ‘em! Steve Geppi** wants a huge area to promote his comics museum? Have him pay up! But when it comes to the rest of the show, other than Artist’s Alley, it makes no sense. Why is there a booth selling flasks in the shape of old Nintendo cartridges right next to a booth promoting some low-budget horror movie? Why is there a girl at a booth dancing on a stripper pole near one selling comics for a younger audience? Why is one game manufacturer at the furthest end of the show from another? Why are all the small press guys not in one section? Mindboggling to be sure, and something I’ll come back to regarding Saturday’s adventure.

I spotted Tarachu in her interesting costume at the booth and we shared a fun greeting and chat while people took pictures of her next to the life-sized standup of the main characters of the book Walk on Water was promoting, The Seven Scrolls of Shitorio. Tara introduced me to the artist on the book, her friend Tristan Powell, who explained a little of the book to me. The concept still eluded me, an anime-inspired novel with art. Tristan designed the character Tara was modeling at the booth, the lightly attired Katora. Here’s a pic of us together: 

You can’t tell, but I was feeling more and more horrid prior to this pic being shot. I also look fat. Regardless, I spoke briefly with Jacob “J.J.” Kirten, writer of the book, and before I took my leave, he and Tristan gave me a copy. I still had no idea how I’d turn what they were doing into an article, but inspiration was just a nap away.

I figured a sit-down would do me good, as well as some time spent on the computer. I headed to the press room and discovered every plug in use. I was going to offer up the power strip when I realized I had only an hour before the Library-Based Comics Conventions panel was to begin, so I opted to try later. I rinsed the sweat off my head in the tiny men’s room (I’ve opted out of telling the tale of the bathrooms of this area… I’d rather forget it, myself) and went back to rest and brainstorm in the press room. Seats were at a premium and I had a couple of nice chats with folks there, learning that my problems with the room were the norm for everyone. I was told the year prior, there was a whole row of computers for use, as well as outlets for everyone. Go figure. I tried to take a quick 15 minute nap to shake off the woozy, but that didn’t work out. Some of the others told me I looked under the weather, which didn’t help me. I couldn’t sit for long, though. I felt better when moving about and figured a good long walk to the panel would do well for me. And it did. On the way there, a tiny convention volunteer was rushing through with a fellow volunteer and smashed her face into my upper arm. She didn’t look too well and I apologized, even though she was the one that walked into me, but they just kept walking to wherever they had to be. And if she thought my arm was like hitting a brick wall, she should be glad she didn’t hit the other side, where the computer was slung. Yow.

I located the panel area, which was closed at the time I got there, so I sat outside with the five or six others that were interested in it. We all were joking about how few people we assumed would be in there while we discussed the con, the crowd and other such inanities. While sitting there, a younger couple came down to the end of the corridor that we were at and he started helping her out of her clothes. She was dressed as the DC Comics character Zatanna under her street clothes and he just knelt down and started stripping her. Surreal. Good costume, though. Many that try and do Zatanna miss something here or there and it looks… less. Here’s a recent a good image of Zatanna next to a decent cosplay of her.

The panel was about to start, but not in the room we were led to believe. It was setting up in the room next door, for some reason not explained by the volunteer manning the door. And if it wasn’t for one intrepid person, those of us sitting and waiting would have been left to sit and wait. Lovely.

The room for this panel was in one of the smallest designated for them, yet still seemed larger than I expected. I’d been to the larger panel area in previous conventions (some with disasterous and aggravating occurances) where the lines are structured with switchback ropes, as if in a bank. I call it herding, you can wall it waiting. The fellows running the panel seemed to be out of sorts for a few minutes, giving me time to get out my pocket recorder – which died on me two minutes into the talk. I must have put the dead batteries back into the thing when I was checking them, but what the hell? They shouldn’t have worked at all if they were the dead ones.

Back to the handy, dandy notebook. Sometimes, low tech is just the best tech.

The panel ended rather quickly, it seemed to me, and was much better attended than I expected. It was likely some of the people were riding through it to get to the next scheduled one, but I’d heard everyone was being asked to vacate before entering again. I wonder if that was true for all of the panels or just those deemed “hot”. I grabbed the offered handouts on the program and you’ll likely be hearing more about this from me in the future. Let’s just say I’ve already approached my local library to see if they’d be interested in such an event.

After this it gets a little hazy. I know I went outside to see if a bite to eat would help my woozy, but even my favored food cart couldn’t help. In fact, it was extremely difficult to get anything down. I tried to walk it off a bit more, texted a few “cheers, I’m outta here” and headed back to the crash pad.

I typed up a couple of quick articles for the site and sent them off. And then, down for the count.

*Geico actually did have a huge motorhome set up near the main entrance. I still don’t know what the hell they were trying to do.

** Steve Geppi is the president of the only comic book distributor left in the country, Diamond Comics Distributors. Regardless of what you may think, the Department of Justice deemed that NOT to be a monopoly after a three year investigation. He also runs a museum of comics, comic art and merchandise in the Baltimore, Maryland area. No, I’m not linking to it.

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.

What “Press” Really Means at NYCC

Since the New York Comic Con started in 2006, I have attended all but three of them. I may not have attended every day of each weekend, but I did make an appearance when I could. The show has grown exponentially since it began, to the point where it was announced it came close to topping attendance figures of the San Diego Comic-Con in 2012, then announcing it surpassed them this year. Whether or not that’s true is food for debate, which those of you that have been to both shows of recent years can compare notes to. Not bad growth for a show that only had a portion of the Javitz Center available to them in 2006. Now, the show is run by a group from Norwalk, CT called ReedPop, a portion of the much larger, international group called Reed Exhibitions, essentially an organization that runs conventions for the purpose of promotions and profit. Prior to the NYCC, they were known for running conventions that focused on books, book distributing and libraries. They had never done a comic con before. Now, ReedPop runs NYCC, C2E2 in Chicago, and quite a few other conventions that you might not be aware of. They have a site themselves, www.reedpop.com, that you can visit if you really want to be that guy (or girl).

I did press coverage at NYCC once before, but not with a press badge. I volunteered my time to cover some panels and other curiosities at one of the early shows, either the third or fourth con, for one of the news pages connected to the old Comicon.com site. (www.Comicon.com still exists, though I’m not sure what the draw is these days) I was already going to the show with a Professional badge, so I wasn’t going to be switching to a Press badge for any reason. Plus, it seemed extremely difficult to do so. As I wasn’t officially press, I wasn’t able to use the press room to type up coverage and send it in. In fact, I discovered two things at the Javitz Center for that year, which remain to date: the WiFi in the building wasn’t free and it was extremely tetchy. Couple that with my absolute dislike of panel coverage and the fact most of what I sent in got deleted in a website glitch, well, I couldn’t envision myself ever wanting to do press coverage again.

Earlier in this year, I found myself reading a variety of Bleeding Cool coverage of conventions, comics and films that just rankled. Poorly written, poorly edited and poorly thought out, I was feeling as though the site had fallen to the point of it being a fan site and not professionally organized. When the call for coverage reporters went out and I responded, I had lofty goals. Let the goons go out and follow around the stars of Star Trek: The Next Generation until they were stopped by Denise Crosby’s bodyguard. Let the slathering mooks wait in line with the sweaty, teeming masses hoping to catch their first view of the new Constantine show (which is not good, for those of you thinking it is). I wanted to follow a different tack and apparently, the editors of the site thought it wasn’t a bad idea, either.

Having signed up on the NYCC page as a reporter for Bleeding Cool, I started getting numerous daily emails of upcoming premieres and interview opportunities in the weeks prior to the con and through the con weekend. Some of them had very, very little to do with the show itself, more aimed at a special weeklong celebration of geek culture in Manhattan, coinciding up to the dates of the show. Some of them were extremely tempting, but as I wasn’t going to be paid to attend these, it became a regular thing for me to regrettably delete them from my inbox. Would I have liked to go see Martin Scorcese premiere his newest film and review it? Sure. Would I have enjoyed swinging into a hotel space where numerous new video games were being shown off while free food and drinks were being offered? Hell, yes! Regardless, Bleeding Cool wasn’t going to pay for my gas to get there much less per word for any article. And considering how little I enjoy sitting down and transcribing insipid, boring interviews… let’s just say payment would have certainly changed that opinion of the format.

I took the train from the Fairfield station (thanks Bryan) into New York, arriving early enough to get to the Javitz Center over an hour early, but too late to try and get into an organized table interview with the persons at the US Postal Service who were behind the Batman 75^th Anniversary celebratory stamps that I was interested in dropping in on. Even so, as I rolled up on the shuttle bus from Grand Central Terminal to the Jacob Javitz Center, I could not believe the sheer amount of people standing outside, waiting to get into the building. It was Thursday, the 9^th of October, traditionally a day that doesn’t let the public in until around 4, allowing the floor of the show to professionals, press, comic store owners and librarians to peruse for a few hours unfettered. It wasn’t even 11 am and it looked like 10, 15, maybe 20 thousand people were already milling about the building. My stomach sank into my gut as I already wanted to go find my favorite pub nearby, Twins. And it wasn’t because I had to hear the usual geek speak on the shuttle about who was better, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman or anything written by Warren Ellis. (Sandman, you fuckwits. Ellis has problems not wanking onto his own work to think he’s anything but a meaner, less tolerable version of those bus geeks…)

Finding my way up to the Press and Pro doorway, the “Blue” door, for those unaware, I stumbled my way into the building, grabbed a lanyard for my badge and headed to the, wait. What is this now? A security bag check! How surprising! I’m not sure whether that’s new for this year or if it started in 2013, but it certainly was an eye opener. I guess with that many people expected, it’s only necessary. The security staff was pleasant and very vocal as to what they were searching for: weaponry. I let them look through both my bags and on I went, headed to the end of the line, where my badge would be checked.

Ah, the badge. While it wasn’t new for 2014, it was new to me. The badge came with an interior RFID chip, which you would scan as you went in, and scan as you left the building. Considering the overcrowding that has occurred at the Javitz Center in the past, as well as the rampant counterfeit badges that happened during the 2012 con, (I was offered 500 bucks for my 4 Day Pro badge on a Saturday for mine) I can see the need and want to do something of this nature. Then again… counterfeit badges to get into a comic convention? Really?

Regardless, my badge was real and I immediately went to find the bag check area so I could dump off my overnight garbage and head onto the floor. Or not. Come to find out, the convention was opening up the floor to everyone at noon, since they had changed their badge policies and sold more tickets by opening the day up like so. Quite the hassle to find out, as I was told by a NYCC staffer.

With an hour to kill before even I would be let in, I walked around, regaining my bearings of that portion of Manhattan. I was invited to a Bleeding Cool gathering at the nearby McDonald’s at noon, but I had other plans and opted out. Since there were going to be daily gatherings at the site over the weekend, It wasn’t a big issue. I texted a few people (you know who you are) and worked out what I wanted to see as quickly as I could. And then it all blew up in my face.

Tuesday, It’s all about Thursday.