Zoë Takes on NEW YORK COMIC CON 2011!

Here is my breakdown of New York's largest comic book-centric geek culture convention, which this year added plenty more movie and TV happenings than every before. How does it compare to the San Diego's International Comic Con, follow the jump to find out!

New York Comic Con is the East Coast's biggest and most exciting popular culture convention. Their show floor plays host to the latest and greatest in comics, graphic novels, anime, manga, video games, toys, movies, and television. New York Comic Con is the second largest pop culture convention in America and the only one that takes place in the comic book, publishing, media, and licensing capital of the world -- Gotham City. For full details of the convention, which took place this year between October 13th and October 16th, visit the New York Comic Con homepage HERE

Thursday: The best part of the new added Thursday is how empty everything was. It was worth going just to see the floors and the booths without the over packed “This is SUCH a fire hazard!” feeling. The artist alley was near empty with no lines for all the incredible people that made appearances. Simone Legno, the Italian creator and artist of the phenomenon Tokidoki, was all by himself at the company's booth. Being a huge fan of his Marvel work I kinda fangirled out, asking him to draw me a sketch of his Captain America. Legno was more than happy to (even saying that Cap was his favorite one) which caused me to go buy the same t-shirt he was wearing.

I got to meet Art Baltazar, the artist and co-writer of the Tiny Titans comics! He's a total charmer, sweet-talking the crowd while drawing a colored sketch of Starfire for me. Then I stumbled into the Cyanide and Happiness table where two of the writers, Matt Melvin & Dave McElfatrick, drew me a custom sketch full of inappropriateness. Lastly, I stopped by DC Comics artist Trevor McCarthy’s booth, who remembered me from a previous interview, and managed to catch up with him for a bit.

Friday: Friday was a lot more intense than previous years at the Con. There were A LOT more people attending, with the numbers said to be circulating 105,000 attendees. This was the day to attend panels, look at all the cosplayers and stock up on the free swag. I happened by Mark Hamil’s swamped table as he signed autographs; it felt like such an honor just to be in the same room as him. He was charming and energetic, even after all these years of convention-going.

Saturday: Saturday Pietro & I dressed up as Captain America and Peggy Carter. It was INSANE trying to find our way through everything. It felt like a safety hazard, without a doubt. The air conditioning was blasting but it still felt cramped inside every part of the convention center. This was the day we also had a chance to meet Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Tom Hiddleson and Chris Evans from the upcoming Avengers film. They were the NICEST group of people, all very friendly and more than eager to sit and chat. Chris Evans recognized who I was dressed as right away, basically making my day by saying I looked “perfect." Cassie fangirled out over meeting Hiddleson, who was very charming, and both complimented Pietro on his suit.

Right after the meet and greets we rushed to The Walking Dead panel where they screened about 3 minutes worth of footage from the season 2 premiere. Robert Kirkman (creator), Gale Anne Hurd (show producer) and Greg Nicotero (Emmy Award winning Makeup/FX Artist) started off the panel before the cast joined them. Actors that showed up were Jon Bernthal (Shane), Laurie Holden (Andrea), Steven Yeun (Glenn), Chandler Riggs (Carl), Norman Reedus (Daryl) and new comer Lauren Cohan (Maggie). The cast was fantastic, answering questions such as what their weapon of choice would be in a "real" zombie apocalypse and what the hardest parts of filming the upcoming season were. Of course no spoilers could be given, but we should anticipate some big-time shockers.

Right afterwards was The Avengers panel featuring the actors I met before accompanied by surprise guest Mark Ruffalo, who plays Bruce Banner/The Hulk. We were shown the trailer that was released last week as well as around five minutes of footage showing Ruffalo’s Banner and Scarlet Johansson’s Black Widow, which was not shown at San Diego Comic Con.

Saturday was overall the best day of the weekend.

Sunday: Sunday is Kid’s Day! Cassie and I dressed up as two Pokemon, Oshawott and Zubat. It was a big hit with people, especially the kids again because they knew who we were the most. Actors that include Internet star Felcia Day, Chewbacca’s Peter Mayhew and Buffy star James Marsters were doing signings. Charging for autographs is always hard to stomach; I have always felt they should be free if you’re willing to wait in line for that long amount of time.

This is the day to grab any last minute artist sketches and load up on bargain priced collectibles and comics. The sales booths were CRAZY, but nothing compared to Marvel's booth. I don't know how that many fans can squeeze into one space like that!

Verdict: New York Comic Con stepped up its game this year with over 15,000 more attendees than last year and a lot more big name guests. Thursday was worth attending to avoid the crowds and have the chance to speak with your favorite creators. It’s more and more like San Diego Comic Con, which is good news for us on the East Coast because it means you don’t have to travel so far anymore. The same booths and roughly the same
panels/actors attended both cons. New York however, has a different crowd of people. NYCC is still full of more comic book fans than SDCC. SDCC has guests such as the Twilight and Glee casts, which means that those fans will be at the convention and can be annoying to be around. NYCC did not have that problem, which I am grateful for. Its good to know that NYCC stepped up its game and we no longer have to be envious of our fellow geeks on the West Coast.