West Side Story - New York Comic Con '08

by Rory

When the Pope came to New York City two weekends ago, the Big Apple was blessed in many ways. The weather was beautiful, Isiah Thomas's corpse was expunged from Madison Square Garden, and the 3rd annual New York Comic Con was in town! And guess who was there to take pictures and make snarky comments about it?

Now, mind you, I only attended because I "scored free tickets". On the scale of "scoring free tickets for something geeky/awesome", I'd rank this somewhere between Neil Diamond concert tickets and seeing an inspirational talk from Richard Simmons.

And boy was I honking.

Just $8.44 per half hour? What a bargain! I knew I shouldn't have taken a $2 subway ride! I should've brought my car. Scratch that - two cars!

(Note: this was about a 15 minute walk to the convention center.)

On the way to the convention center on Friday, these kindly gentlemen were giving away free Coca-Cola. What better way to enjoy a comic book convention than jacked up on sugar? I swear, if comic cons were held in every country, there would be no wars. Or, at least, the wars would be a lot cooler to watch.

The lovely Jacob Javits center on a beautiful Friday afternoon. The guy leaving was clearly too sexy for this comic convention. And it wasn't ironic in any way judging from what we'll see inside.

The hot dog vendors clearly had this date circled in their calendars. Christmas in April for these proud meat-type product vendors.

Ah, finally we reach the convention floor. Mercifully not presented here in smell-o-vision. Keep an eye out for all the questionable facial hair decisions!

Don't worry, I can't stop staring at Hulk's package either.

Yes, they had a section dedicated for people to sit in bean-bag chairs. What kind of lazy slobs do they take us for? Well, it does look comfortable, and those Ring-Dings aren't sitting well from breakfast....maybe I'll sit down, just for a bit...

Ever wonder who would win in a lightsaber fight between Spider-Man and some Luke Skywalker-looking guy? Easy: Society wins. This was worth the price of admission. Or, at least, the price I paid for admission.

And just a scant few yards away were the Star Wars dress up people! Seriously, how much more would people like Return of the Jedi if there were TWO Leias in gold bikinis?

Why the comic industry's sales suck: this whole booth, set up by the CBLDF, had posters for Will Eisner's book "The Plot" all over. Intrigued, I ask if I can see the book. The guy said he didn't have any copies of the book. Not that they had been sold out, mind you, it is just he was never given any copies to display. In fact, he said he had no idea that they would be promoting this book and that the booth would look like this.

People forget how big the Jacob Javits Center is. In the basement, below the comic con, was a gym industry convention. I not you shit! "Wow" is all I can say. This reminds me of the Far Side "Trouble Brewing" running gags, where you would see a poodle training center next to a condor training center. I wonder if the person booking these things saw the potential jocks/geeks clash here.

No snarky comment here. This is just cool.

Well, with the beautiful spring weather, a free ticket, and a few hours to kill on a weekend, the New York Comic Con is the place to be. See you next year!

...wait, it is in February next year? It'll be fucking freezing! Anybody got free tickets to San Diego?