New York Comic Con 2012

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It’s mid October and once again heroes and villains of every kind roam the streets of New York. They are not on the big screen but a little close and personal as comic book, movie and anime fans invade NY Javits Center to be part of the New York City Comic Con. This year a hundred thousand plus were in attendance and from early numbers that’s up from last year. With the total looking like 116,000 these numbers are getting close to the San Diego Comic Con, which draws about 130,000 each year.

While the comic book industry has been down since 2008, everything else connected with it has been up from movies to TV to video games. Unlike the San Diego Con aka Hollywood Con not many movie stars make a splash here but you can see all your Sci Fi TV stars, Comic Book creators and the latest video games. The NY Comic Con has it’s own personality.

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This year I tried the impossible to partake in everything. So here is my take on four days of adventure at Comic Con. Thursday was full but truly the calm before the storm, I was able to attend the Transformers panel where Hasbro discussed their new show Transformers Prime, their latest toys hitting the shelves and all their future plans. I saw a little bit of the Neal Adams panel, which happened to be at the same time. Oh, by the way everything here is at the same time. From there I checked out an Image panel and the Roddenberry Entertainment panel where they served pizza. Roddenberry had an interesting flick hitting soon named “White Room” and Image has a documentary coming out.

Friday was crowded but this was the best day to take photos of the fans decked out in their costumes. Characters included a little a bit everything from Anime to movie characters. This year Dead Pool was popular with the guys and Poison Ivy and Black Widow with the girls. I stayed mainly on the floor checking out the tables and taking photos with the real stars, which are the fans in the costumes. I missed the Adam West and Burt Ward panel though, which looked like a good one. I did catch The Robotech guys who seem to come every year. They talked about developing new animation and where their movie is now. The "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle" panel also took place that day, there they talked about the new animation on the Nickelodeon.

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Then there was Saturday! I had to follow a large crowd to enter the building. Since panels and events were everywhere on this day, I didn’t get a chance to check out the floor but from what I heard it was jam-packed. Jim Caviezel, Michael Emerson, Taraji P. Henson, Kevin Chapman, Amy Acker and creator Jonathan Nolan took the stage for the “Person of Interest” panel. This suspenseful show was last year’s best new show and generated a following. Many panels and events had the same time slots, so unfortunately I missed the "Hip Hop and Comics" and "Stan Lees World of Heroes." I did catch the one on Climax’s “Femme Fatales” and the one on “The Night of the Living Dead.” The biggest attraction was the latest Zombie movie, AMC’s “The Walking Dead.” The AMC TV show was the highlight of the night as all the stars took to the stage in the IGN Theater, which garnered a big pop from the audience. Mind you the season premier was the next day but for Saturday “The Walking Dead” was the king of the night.

Sunday was Kids Day, and a chance for me to bring my nephews. But before I got to chance to enjoy the Con with them I checked out the “666 Park Avenue” panel which stars Vanessa Williams and “Lost” Terry O’Quinn. That day the kids were the stars and took to the show in their costumes from little Batmans to miniature Hulks.

Every comic company was on the floor from Marvel, to DC to Darkhorse. I might add the video games are always a big draw and the line to play Halo 4 was consistently long. Next year I expect more crowds especially with the long list of Heroes and Sci Fi movies hitting next summer. In time I think the New York Comic Con will be bigger than San Diego’s, I guarantee that if they start to add the movie stars the numbers will fly.