My NYCC Experience

Bruce Campbell!

When I got onto a Metro North train on Saturday morning with my best friend Lisa, I was excited but had no real expectations for what the day would bring. I’d never been to any sort of convention of any kind before, unless you count the annual NY Auto Show (which is also at the Javits Center), but that’s totally different. We walked in and were immediately met with a very long line. I feared that this was going to set the tone for the rest of the day, but the line moved very quickly and we soon had our passes. Even though I had looked at a map of the floor and the schedule in advance, I still didn’t know where to start. We wandered in and found ourselves near “Artist Alley” and the autograph booths. We started to run towards the booths knowing that there were a lot of great people doing signings. After fighting through some crowds I looked up to find none other than Bruce Campbell (Burn Notice) sitting at a table in front of me. This was just beginning.

Kris and Dave of Cyanide & Happiness

We fought through some more crowds and made our way through to the other half of the floor where the majority of the booths were. The first one we came across was the Doctor Who booth, which had some really nifty things including a large TARDIS and some cool mugs. From there we wandered through the aisles slowly accumulating an assortment of free swag including some posters and bags. The exciting part came when we reached the Cyanide & Happinesstable. The guys behind the comic were all there doing drawings and signing things. I bought a plushie and one of their prints, and even got them to draw me an amazing sketch! They signed everything too, and were super awesome and nice.

James Marsters!

After more wandering through the booths, we decided to head back to the autograph area. To my delight, James Marsters (Buffy) was there! As I tried to snap a photo of him, I walked into a table. I looked up and saw that Milo Ventimigila (Heroes) was standing there! Crazy. Then we noticed that the line to meet James Marsters was not very long and jumped on the opportunity. Minutes later I found myself face to face with the man himself! We had a great discussion about Torchwood and he signed a photo for me! It was by and large the highlight of my day. Then we waited on short line to meet Chris Judge (Stargate SG-1), which was the highlight of Lisa’s day.

The ladies of V

By this point we both wanted to sit and relax, so we headed down to the panel and screening rooms. There was a Disney panel that we sat through, but it ended up being about the Tron and Percy Jackson graphic novels which neither of us had much interest in. The art looked really nice though! From there we trekked across the building to the IGN Theatre to snag some good seats before the V panel. Before introducing the panelists, about 10 solid minutes of scenes from the upcoming season were shown. For the rest of the hour, Morena Baccarin (Anna), Laura Vandervoort (Lisa), original Vqueen Jane Badler (Diana), and the show’s producer Steve Pearlman answered both mediated and audience questions. A lot was revealed and there were great questions, so I think I’ll expound upon the details in another post.

After the panel, we were both very hungry, so we left the con to go get dinner and from there went home. The day was so hectic that I hadn’t really let the events of the day sink in until there was time to breathe on the train ride home. I had a fantastic time at my first ever comic con, and I am definitely going back next year. I think I’ll get the weekend pass next time so I can see all the panels I want to instead of just one day. If you have never been to one before, even if you aren’t a comics fan, I highly recommend it. I had fears that there wouldn’t be enough there for me to enjoy, but there was a seemingly endless amount. I am already counting down the days til I can go back next year!