Comic Con NY 2009: Afterthoughts

I am nearly finished loading all of my footage from this years NY Comic Con into my computer, which means I will have a busy few days of editing coming up. Since I can’t really do anything until the footage is all in, I thought I would take today to reflect on Comic Con as a whole. The following are just some thoughts I had about my experience at the Javitz center these last few days.

First and foremost, I want to start by destroying a misconception about Comic Con and comic book/pop culture conventions in general. The commonly held belief that there is 1 girl for every 100 guys is total BS. There were plenty of girls there and no they were not all dragged there by their comic book loving boyfriends. In fact there were many times where I saw groups of just girls walking around the convention, sometimes in costume. The costume of choice for many ladies was the Princess Leia Slave Bikini. On a related note, there were some very very attractive girls there and I am not just talking about the hired models. While there were some stereotypical “Comic Book Guy† like people, the truth is that us geeks come in all shapes, sizes, races, ages and levels of acne. If you guys don’t believe me, be sure to check out some of my photos and videos throughout the week. Star Trek conventions are total sausage fests though†¦I’m kidding.

While I am not surprised at the fact that hot girls can be geeks, I was surprised at the fact that a lot of the press people that I spoke with or overheard talking seem to hate their jobs, or at least hated Comic Con. I couldn’t believe how much bitching and whining I heard in the pressroom, or while waiting for some of my interviews. They were complaining about the time they were waiting, or that their interview subjects were boring or that they hate comics. I will be honest, I am not a huge comic fan but I loved my time at Comic Con. And in regards to the waiting, I guess I’m just a patient guy. I arrived at my interview for the cast of Dead Like Me more than 20 minutes early and sat outside. Since someone didn’t even show, they decided to let me go in a little early but I noticed how tired the cast was and that some of them seemed anxious to take a break. I told them to go right ahead and take a break for however long they needed and I waited at least 10 more minutes before we started.

And for not caring about their subjects, I’ll be honest; I did not really know much about a lot of the people I interviewed. I did a little research, maybe read a press release or went on imdb, but there were some people that really were not of any huge interest to me based on their credits. However, I still cared about each interview and got some good footage and interesting info from everyone I spoke with. I don’t really understand how all these well paid reporters were pissing and moaning in the pressroom while I went every day to cover the Con just for fun. And out of everyone leaving the pressroom, I was the only one who ever walked out with bags full of swag to five away to all of you. I guess I haven’t been doing this long enough to become bitter but for now I am having a blast and I hope you all enjoy reading what I have to say.

(I just want to note that while a lot of the journalists/bloggers/etc. that I was around did in fact seem to hate their time at the con, I got to meet Mike Spring from DVDSnapshot.com and he seemed to be loving it just as much as me. He is a great guy and I hope to run into him at some more things in the future.)

Ok, so now that some misconceptions are out of the way, and my little rant about some other journalists are out of the way, here are some random highlights from Comic Con.

Almost all of the special guests that appeared at the Comic Con are extremely open to talking with the people thee, taking photos and signing stuff. In fact after their appearances, some of the guests were walking around the convention buying comics and memorabilia.

The beautiful Miss Horrorfest from After Dark Films is a geek at heart.

About 95% of the people at the Watchmen panel had read Watchmen several times and cheered about 3 times a minute during the whole 18 minutes we watched. (Roughly 54 cheers during the whole video)

John Noble really does act like his character Walter Bishop on Fringe.

Comic Con is certainly not just for Comics. While the majority of the floor and panels are comic/graphic novel/anime/animation related, there are some great events dealing with other aspects of pop culture. Anchor Bay, Magnolia Pictures, Fox, Cinemax and After Dark Films were all there to represent TV and Film. Almost every major video game studio was also there, showing off their newest games and many had demo areas where you can play them.

The cast of Dead Like Me really do have the ability to kill things they touch, like my writing utensils. RIP my marker and 3 pens.

After a long day of doing press, some people will forget the name of what they are promoting.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine looks like a video game based on a movie that doesn’t suck like almost every other video game based on a movie ever made.

Even if someone hates something, or has no idea what it is, they want it because it’s free.

If you leave fliers for your movie among the press releases in the pressroom, people will take them.

And finally, people dress in some really awesome costumes. Enjoy†¦

I will update this post with more photos in a few hours.

Jerry Cavallaro – www.AreYouStuckLikeChuck.com