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New York Comic Con 2008
Nick - writer - posted on Wednesday, 04/23/08 20:19:41 EDT
This past weekend was the New York Comic Con. About two years ago the rest of the PS gang tried to go on Saturday with less then stealer results. It turned out that the people in charge didn’t get enough space and the FDNY came in and told them that they would shut them down unless they stopped people from coming in. So when we got there we saw a giant line thinking it was to get tickets. Well that line was to get refunded, because people who got them in advance were shut out from getting in there.
So after that happened they made sure to get more then enough room for everybody attending. So after a year of not going, I decided to check it out for myself. I wasn’t able to make it on Friday, so I decided on going solo Saturday and CI and The Capn’ would join me on Sunday. I looked online and saw the list of guests was staggering. Even though some of them were only going to be there for a day, there were enough people for me to decide on spending the money for a weekend ticket.
I got there on Saturday morning and the place was buzzing like a convention should. I got my tickets and proceeded to walk though a giant snaking line that took up WAY too much space in the convention center. After waiting ten minutes, they let my group in and I got to finally see the gigantic showroom floor. All of the booths were taken up by all of the major comic studios. DC, Marvel and Dark Horse were there in full effect and even companies like Konami had booths too. All of the big name people were up front, with the smaller venders in the middle and the artist ally was in the back.
I walked through and I found the one dealer selling the show special. A four pack of the “Old School” Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I asked the guy if I was able to pay with a charge card, he said to me “No” so I decided to walk the rest of the floor and I’d come back and get my turtles if I wasn’t going to be spending my cash. Well when I did go back, they were all sold out, so no turtles for me. But what I did get was an autographed picture from one of the co-creators of Ninja Turtles, Peter Laird. I shook his hand and said hello and he asked me how I was and I told him, “Well, I’m a little angry. If I knew you were going to be here I would have taken my graphic novels I got from when I was a kid.” But getting an autograph and picture from him was worth it.
When two o’clock rolled around, I went and hit the panel area. I saw a TON of kids decked out in Avatar cosplay. I knew they were doing a panel, but I didn’t know this was going to be the final season. I wouldn’t be surprised if Nick would extend the series. The first panel I went to see was the Ghost Hunters panel. It was awesome to be able to see Grant and Jason talk candidly about some of the stuff that goes on making the show. One funny story was about an old lady that called them to her house and invited them into her home for milk and cookies. Then about two minutes later she comes out of the kitchen screaming like a maniac and swinging a frying pan. Turns out she was in the early stages of a mental illness and her family apologized.
After I got out of the panel I saw a line had formed in front of the room. It turns out the Venture Brothers panel that was to be put on in another hour was already started to line up, so I didn’t want to miss out on it and I went and got on line and waited an hour before they finally let us in. The panel was hilarious. Doc Hammer and Jackson Public showed off a trailer for the 3rd season and I can’t wait till June to see it. I loved the first question they got a fan got up and said “Umm..yeah, Could you tell the people at Comic Con to give ya a bigger room next year?!” Another funny story was a guy dressed as The Monarch raised his had and asked Doc and Jackson if they would come to his wedding and his fiancé stood up dressed up as Dr. Girlfriend. Doc said, he’d see and make sure he wasn’t busy and took their initiation and gave them two DVD’s as an engagement present.
After the panel let out I was dying for some food. I saw the one stand in the convention center wanted FOUR BUCKS FOR A HOTDOG so I went outside to find a street vender. A ton of them were right in front of the convention center and I found off I was getting ripped off from them too. They also wanted 4 bucks for ONE hotdog and two bucks for a can of soda, what a joke.
I went back into the dealer’s room and checked out two playable game demos that I wanted to try. The first one was Dragon Ball Z Burst Limit. The Funimation booth had it set up on the 360 and on the Triple. The game looks REALLY good. The folks at Bandai/Namco are getting better and better with cel shading. I was told if I could beat one of the two challenges, I could win a free hat. The two you could pick from were Goku Vs Radditz from the first episode of DBZ and then you could do Yamcha Vs a team of Sabbamen. So of course I went for Goku’s and kicked ass. The game was pretty good. It’s a typical button masher, but I’m a sucker for DBZ style action fights. The only thing I don’t like is how they keep going back to the first few episodes. I love the later stuff with Cell and Buu, even though the whole thing became ENDLESS power up episodes where NOTHING HAPPENS.
The second game I went to play was Metal Gear Online. Since I don’t have a PS3 yet, I went and waited on line to get my hands on it early. The girl from Konami explained to us how the game worked and we went to our stations for a four on four team deathmatch. The problem for me was, my station’s headphones were busted so I’d only hear a pop from time to time when somebody’s gun went off near me. The biggest problem though was the controls. There wasn’t an option to invert the controller so I was running around the game like a jackass trying to hit something. For what I played, the game seems like it could be a lot of fun. I’d like to see how the full retail version comes out, but since I’m strapped for cash I won’t see it for a long time.
One thing I wanted to say about Saturday. Around 6:30 I was checking out the lower floors of the convention center. I went to go back upstairs so I headed to the escalator. I saw in front of me, none other then Stan Lee just walking around minding his own business. I said hello to him and told him I was a big fan and he thanked me and went on his way. Wish I could have gotten a picture or an autograph. One thing I’ll say about Stan Lee, is he’s really tall.
I ended the night by checking out a panel for “It’sJustSomeRandomGuy”. His panel was really good. If you haven’t checked out his “I’m a Marvel and I’m a DC” go watch it after you read this, it’s really funny. He showed off a clip of his wife talking about how they do their shows, a montage of their favorite moments and ended with the newest episode. He also took questions from the audience, but the one major question wasn’t asked, “What’s your name?!”
Sunday I went with CI and The Captain. We got there a little bit before noon and hit up the Warhammer Online Panel. They do one hell of a panel. If you’re at a convention and their presenting, make sure you check them out. The one guy is so energetic about the game and it shows. I’m even hyped up to play it after the panel and checking out their site. While they didn’t show off much new footage of the game, some of the questions they had were pretty good. They spoke a little bit about mounts and people who “gank” other players.
Since there weren’t many good choices of panels on Sunday we decided to spend all of our time in the dealer’s room. I FINALLY found Scott from VG Cats and got the “Attorney at LOL” shirt from him. I gave him a piece of paper for an autograph and I told him I loved his TMNT comic and he drew me a little bit of it and signed it for me. I thanked him for the sketch and also for being a big inspiration for me working on Press Start and I gave him one of the new shirts we got printed up. Hopefully he liked it and doesn’t just toss it or use it as a rag. But I don’t know anybody that’ll pass up a free shirt.
When the three of us were walking around I heard a familiar voice over the loudspeakers but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I went closer to it and thought to myself, “That sounds like M.C Chris…” then I saw it WAS MC Chris and he was doing a little mini concert for everybody. He wasn’t even listed as a guest, he was just there. He did a couple of songs, new and old. He told us he had a new album coming out called “MC Chris is Dead!” and it’s about him being a rapping zombie and he’s working on a new Adult Swim show where his character is a gummy bear. He also went on a rant about the new 50 Cent game “Blood on the Sand” and closed with the now classic “Fett’s Vett”.
So all in all I had a good time at the comic con. While I would have liked to have gone all three days and got autographs from all the special guests, I was fine with meeting Scott and Peter Laird. Hopefully the one they have in February won’t be around so much other things going on and I’ll be able to go. Other then that, I had a great time.