New York City Comic Con 2013 in Review: Part 1

By far, this year's New York Comic Con was the best I've attended since it's inception. This years experience is best described as 4 awesome, yet grueling, days of running around the Javits Center, taking photographs, filming video interviews, and networking. As sad as I was to see the convention end, my countless photographs and stories live on as a reminder and homage to the biggest convention of it's kind on the east coast.

DAY 1: THURSDAY 10/10/2013
3:00 PM marked the Shotgun Start time for New York Comic Con. As soon as the gates opened, I ran to the IFC booth for the Zöe Bell autograph signing which started promptly at 3. Zöe was on hand to promote her latest film, Raze, an action-horror all-female fight film. For those of you not familiar with Zöe Bell's work, she's the amazing New Zealand stunt woman who doubled for Lucy Lawless on Xena and Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. You'll also remember her hanging off the hood of a 1971 Dodge Challenger in Quinton Tarrantino's Death Proof. I had always wanted to meet Zöe, and was granted another chance to do so at NYCC, after she was forced to cancel a previous appearance at the Chiller Theater Movie Expo due to filming. The autograph singing was followed by a panel discussion in which Zöe was joined on stage by Raze Director Josh C. Waller and fellow Raze/Death Proof actress, Tracie Thoms. I shot the panel for Master Gio who was covering it for Best-Horror-Films.Com (I'll link to the article once it has been posted).


After the Raze panel, we decided to enter the Exhibitor's Hall to interview our favorite cosplayer Vampy Bit Me. Vampy had chosen 4 outfits to wear, 1 for each day of the convention, and Thursday she was dressed as Jun from the popular 80's anime series Gatchaman. Vampy is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet and she's really gracious to all of her fans. Our interview with Vampy will soon be featured on the Words from the Master blog. We made sure to pass by Vampy's booth each day for a glimpse at each of her other cosplays. 

Master Gio interviewing Vampy Bit Me

One rule of thumb we have is to never buy anything until the last day of comic con. It makes it easier to carry everything when you're heading straight home. However, window shopping for potential buys in a less that crowded Exhibition Hall on Thursday serves it's purpose. 

Our travels eventually took us to the FEARnet booth where Luke LaBeau was holding down the fort. Luke is a big fan of my favorite horror movie, Black Christmas, as evident by the tattoo on his left arm. While at FEARnet, we were introduced to model Leanna Vamp, who is also the hostess of ilovenerdgirls.com  & FiendsForever.com.

LeeAnna Vamp at the FEARnet booth

Nice guy Jerry Only of the Misfits was on hand signing free autographs at the Osaka Popstar booth. 

Eventually I made my way to the Topps booth, where Jeff Zapata was drawing this killer custom cover sketch for the Mars Attacks raffle winner from earlier in the day.

Afterwards it was on to artist alley to visit with illustrator Cory Smith. I purchased this awesome limited edition ThunderCats print off Cory. Keep an eye out for Cory's work on the upcoming relaunch of Magnus: Robot Fighter for Dynamite comics. Cory also is the artist on Legend of the Shadow Clan and TMNT: Karai.

Cosplayers are rather scarce at NYCC on a Thursday, which is usually designated as an Industry/Press Day. Here are a few I did cosplayers I did manage to photograph.

Click Here for more photos from Comic Con Day 1