New York Comic Con: Recap

Quick overview of preview night for New York Comic Con.

• My assistant for the weekend, Jen, and I got there in the afternoon to set up the table. Things were a bit unorganized with the Javits people but we got it all done and ready. We absolutely appreciate Reed Exhibitions for giving us such a great deal on tables for the Podcast Arena. But, if I'm honest, it's not the best location. We are in a row facing the wall at the end of Artist's Alley. Hoping we get some good traffic over the weekend. 
• I did a quick walkabout before the floodgates opened through the 3 main floors. It's funny. At every convention, Artist's Alley is always in the back as an afterthought. And we joked how the entire convention center had carpet except for AA. Like they were worried we might spill coffee on Grandma's rug. :) AA has some amazing top name cartoonists at tables as well as many small press/independent ones. The main room is bright and pretty and full of the big comic book companies like DC, Image, Dark Horse, IDW, Archaia, etc. 
• Last room was mostly retail and gaming stuff. A bit of a clusterfuck, traffic-wise. 
• I didn't check out the Manga/Anime fest nor the stage/kids area. Forgot about them until later.
• Hung at the table after seeing way too many friends and meeting others. Lots of folks came up and started pitching their wares to us right away. (We are new media after all). Some interesting pitches and I'm hoping to read some of the stuff they dropped off. 
• While chatting with pals at the Dark Horse booth, I met Tom Morello from the band Rage Against the Machine. He actually introduced himself to me! He's doing a comic book for Dark Horse. Super nice guy. 
• The floor was only open for 3 hours so it came and went quickly. Dinner after with my roomie Ben Templesmith and crew which included Dennis Calero and Enrica Jhang.
• Afterwards, I hit the CBLDF bash. Great spot, if not a bit pricey. Got to hang with some pals and what not. 
• Off to other spots after and then eventually...home. 

Tomorrow is a full day with interviews, raffles, signings, picture taking and more. Come by the COMIC NEWS INSIDER booth (D18) located in the Podcast Arena in Artist's Alley! Meanwhile, enjoy the sexy Marty McFly cosplayer I ran into. She made me go 88mph. In my pants. 

Day 2 highlights.

• Full day of signings, interviews and raffles! 
• Veronica Taylor (voice of "Ash" on Pokemon), Greg Pak, Becky Cloonan, and Jeremy Bastian all did a signing at my Comic News Insiderbooth. (D18 in Artist's Alley). 
• Interviews at the booth with Veronica Taylor, Greg Pak, James Asmus, Menton 3, and Khasra Ganbari. 
• Press room for MTV's new animated series, Good Vibes. Round tables with creator/producer David Gordon Green and stars Olivia Thurlby, Josh Gad, Adam Brody and Debi Mazar. Who is a hoot. We ran out of time to get to Alan Tudyk. But I got a friend at MTV pr who promises a phoner with him in the near future. Finally! :)
• Interview with Ashley Eckstein at her booth. She's the voice of "Ahsoka Tano" from Star Wars: Clone Wars cartoon. And she started her own geek girl merchandise company called Her Universe. Super lovely. 
• 2 raffles throughout the day and we gave away amazing swag. $1 per ticket or 6 for $5. Our tables aren't in the best spot so traffic isn't great. Which makes the chance to win even better! 2 more Saturday and 1 on Sunday. Screaming to get gather people around for the raffle is killing my voice though. 
• Blair Butler (pictured above with me) of G4TV's Attack of the Show and  her very own G4 sponsored comic review show, Fresh Ink, came by to see me. We've been friends for a few years and always is gracious with her time on the podcast. Originally, she didn't think she'd be able to swing by but did so twice until I was free. So sweet. She's writing her first comic book and is super excited about it. We had a blast chatting comics and the industry in general. (Yes, on mic as well!)
• Dinner with old co-host Joe and his sis and friend at Todd English's Ca Va. Deelish! 
• I was going to hit some of the big parties but ended up hanging in a hotel room drinking with 5 hot girls. Yep. I think I made the right decision. 
• Saturday is going to be rough as I'm gonna be on 3 hours of sleep. Be gentle, kids. Or Papa spank!

NYCC Day 3 highlights:

• Bad start to the day. 2 1/2 hours of sleep. Bleary eyed, I hit what I thought was "synch" on my iTunes. And it was an update. So it took forever, I was afraid of unplugging in case I lose data and ended up getting to the show late. But, thanks to Kevin Conn and Jen Timms for opening the booth for me.
• Big ups to Kelly Sue DeConnick, Veronica Taylor, Kevin Colden, Ben McCool and Ming Doyle (pictured above with Alexa Rose) for doing signings! 
• Press rooms with Bruce Timm for new Green Lantern animated series, cast of MTV's Death Valley and cast of Nikita. (Oh, Maggie Q.)
• 2 great raffles. Pal/web sensation/current in the lead for King of the Web Grace Helbig joined in for the first raffle. Of course, she got recognized. Comic News Insider + Daily Grace = FUCK YEAH! 
• Super hectic day. Running from one side to the other all day. Got a lot of great interviews. Including...
• Booth assistant Jen brought over her friend, Nicki Clyne (see below), and I insisted she do an interview with me! Name sounds familiar? She played "Callie" on Battlestar Galactica. 
• Home to chill a bit before heading out. Then went to meet roomie Templesmith for drinks. I was on the list for the MTV party but got back down to midtown too late. Hung with Dan Panosian and his wife Elena Evangelo before heading off to meet Grace Helbig and some of her G4TV pals at Rudy's. Got to meet X-Play host Blair Herter. Awesome dude. Then, went off to the Marvel party for a bit where I saw way too many people. Got home not too late and didn't drink that much. Yay, me!
• Exhausted but had so much fun! Last day tomorrow! Come on by!

Day 4 highlights:

• Another rough start. Not due to hungover-ness but ate bad food-ness. Slept about 4 hours. Sent assistant Jen down to open up the booth at 10. I rolled in right before 11 after taking time to recover. And to top it off, my voice was pretty shot from yelling for our raffle twice a day. 
• My sister, brother-in-law, nephew Maximus and niece Chloe came to visit as well! They tried walking around the show floor a bit but it was pretty crowded so they hung around the booth. Max was dressed as Spider-Man and seemed to have so much fun. Chloe was mostly chilling. It was great to have them around as I don't see them as much as I should. 
• Great signings with Kevin Colden, Ben Templesmith and Kelly Sue DeConnick. 
• Also, my pal Carrie Preston ("Arlene" on True Blood), did a 2 hour signing in the afternoon and was so sweet to her fans. It was fun to watch people do double/triple takes when walking by. Not sure if it was her or not (even though we had a sign saying it was her). We even heard one guy say to his friend who recognized her, "No, that's not her". She also helped out with our final raffle. Which was probably our biggest one all weekend. We gave away so much great swag! 
• I did a few interviews at the booth as well. Blair Herter, X-Play host on G4TV, came by to hang out for about an hour. We really hit it off and chatted on mic for about 30 minutes. Mostly bullshitted about video games, comics, his stint on MTV's Road Rules and his lovely fiance' Jessica Chobot. 
• I had other interviews lined up but my voice was near wrecked so only did a quick one with artist Kevin Mellon. 
• I ran around the show floor for a bit to pass out info for the Dead Dog party I was throwing later that night. I wanted to say some good-byes as well and maybe purchase a few things. No surprise, got me some stuff at the Archie booth! 
• 5pm rolls around and that's it! Fun times with a few rough spots. 
• We head back home to drop stuff off before heading down to the party at 7. Even though I was hosting I figured I could be late since it was at a public bar and people could order drinks and chill for a bit. We got there around 7:45 and there were a few folks there and others immediately started arriving. Amazed at the turnout again! I'd say it ended up being around 60-70 people throughout the night. Disappointed in a few who didn't come, but that didn't stop me from having a blast even though I was exhausted and practically voice-less. Great to see everyone there! 
• As usual, it was a whirlwind. Only regret is that I didn't walk around the floor a bit more as I was either at my booth or in press rooms doing interviews. I did manage to make a few minor purchases though. Great seeing friends and meeting new people. 

     

Here's the part where the record scratches. Just a few little gripes amongst all of the goodness!

• Why was there no rug for Artist's Alley? Speaking of rugs, the one on the main floor was horrendous. Also, AA was really dingy looking and looked like an actual alley. I think I saw someone get knifed and some prostitutes were on the job. 
• Podcast Arena wasn't in the best location this year so our traffic was a bit low. 
• Foot traffic was at a standstill in some spots. Not handled well. People shouldn't be allowed to just sit down anywhere on the floor. They should be made to go outside of the convention floor.
• Not a lot of press requests. A month or so before San Diego Comic Con, I get bombarded with requests. I heard NYCC kept updating their list and re-sending so perhaps that had something to do with it. 
• No intercom system? At the end of each show, they had the show workers walk around yelling that the show was over and people needed to leave. 
• I had several friends help at the booth this weekend. Many were very attractive ladies, which made the nerd boners go crazy. Any time I wasn't around, they told me that people and even fellow podcasters in Podcast Arena kept hitting on them. Love you guys, but tacky! 
• Also, if someone is at a booth doing a signing, don't distract them by trying to talk to them just because you are in the booth next to us or sitting nearby. Sure, they might not have a huge line but it doesn't give you the right to hang out and talk to them. Often, they tell me later that it was annoying. (As was the case this year). 
• On that note, perhaps have some courtesy and ask the person who's running the booth to be introduced to the person signing. You have every right to chat with them, but have some manners if they are at another table. I've done it in the past where someone was signing at a booth and asked the people running the booth to be introduced and if it was okay to chat and perhaps ask them for an interview later. Just saying. Niceties go a long way. 
• People coming to see their favorite writer/artist/celeb...don't overstay your welcome. The signee doesn't want to be rude and ask you to leave so have some courtesy and know when it's time to go. Especially if there's a line. 
• PR folks who didn't reply. Either no reply at all or we went back and forth trying to set up an interview and then just stopped corresponding. Not cool. If the interviewee isn't available, just say so. I felt a bit jerked around by 2 different publicists whom had emailed several times saying they were trying to work out an interview. Clearly, the person wasn't available but it would be nice to just have an answer. (MOST publicists were way cool with me, for the record.)

Boy, thems is some gripes! Again, I loved the show and had so much fun. These gripes are minimal at best. Doesn't make them unimportant though! 

Thanks to EVERYONE who came by the Comic News Insider table and said "hi", bought raffle tickets, dropped off stuff to review, did signings, interviews, donated for raffle or just wanted to chat. That's the best part. Meeting fellow nerds. I'll be releasing the interviews over the next few weeks. Oh, whom all did I interview? Let me tell you:

• Ashley Eckstein (voice of "Ahsoka Tano" in Star Wars: The Clone Warsanimated series)
• Blair Butler (Fresh Ink, Attack of the Show on G4TV)
• Blair Herter (X-Play, Attack of the Show on G4TV)
• MTV's Death Valley cast Charlie Sanders, Texas Battle, Tania Raymonde and producer Spider One
• MTV's Good Vibes cast Adam Brody, Josh Gad, Debi Mazar and producder David Gordon Green
• Green Lantern animated series producer Bruce Timm
• Greg Pak (writer on Incredible Hercules, Hulk)
• James Asmus (writer on various X-Men titles)
• Kasra Ganbari, Menton 3 (Monocyte from IDW)
• Kevin Mellon (Gearhead, Heart)
• Marc Bernardin (Alphas writer)
• Nicki Clyne ("Callie" on Battlestar Galactica)
• Nikita cast Maggie Q, Shane West and producer Albert Kim
• Veronica Taylor (voice of "Ash" on Pokemon)

It's going to take me days to recover, so this week's show may be an interview only special. And I may release a few episodes this week and next week to get the interviews out. You'll love them! Until next year, NYCC. Thanks for letting me in you.