WAMG At NYCC 2013

The last two weeks have been amongst the busiest in my entire life. As a result, my New York Comic Con coverage for this site has been non-existent. Now that my friend’s wedding is over, the Orlando Film Festival has come to a close, my extravagant musical puppet wedding proposal was a huge success and I am now back in New York, it is finally time to get my NYCC experience online.

Thursday has always been a preview day at NYCC defined by shorter hours, smaller crowds and few panels/signings. Oddly enough, I have never attended on a Thursday but it was always my plan to make it this year. That was until Wednesday October 9^th when I received an invitation from Universal to attend a junket for CURSE OF CHUCKY. To celebrate the 25^th anniversary of Child’s Play the new sequel and the NYCC panel, they were offering interviews with creator Don Mancini, voice of Chucky Brad Dourif, Alex Vincent (Andy Barclay), as well as Fiona Dourif & Danielle Bisutti from the new film. As a longtime Chucky fan, I had to jump at this opportunity even though it used up what little time I set aside for Comic Con on that Thursday. The interviews will be posted very soon.

I arrived on Friday to NYCC just before the floor opened up so I spent a few minutes in the press lounge. I must say, this year’s press location is much improved over the hard to find room we were located in last year. We also had quite a cool view of the show floor as you can see below.

Once the floor opened, I was immediately drawn to the South Park setup to promote the new videogame. I had to actually show my id to get inside but was a bit disappointed to find that all we were in for was a few minutes of gameplay with no cool prize after. I am not sure what I was expecting but maybe I am just spoiled from when everyone received foam Wolverine claws after checking out the demo for the insanely fun Wolverine videogame a few years back. After wandering the show floor for a few more minutes, I made my way to the main stage for the Kevin Smith COMIC BOOK MEN panel.

Obviously Kevin was the star of the show with most questions being thrown his way. It was still refreshing to hear from everyone else about their take on the show as well. It was also seeing them try to figure out what exactly it is that Bryan Johnson actually does at the shop.  One thing I loved at this panel, and something that I love at every Kevin Smith Q & A, is when he goes into a passionate speech about why everyone should follow their dreams. The only thing I hate is that I never seem to have the camera on when he does that.

Immediately following Kevin Smith was the CURSE OF CHUCKY panel, which I had reserved seating for in the front row. The panel, moderated by Harry Knowles, addressed many of the questions I had asked the day before. The only additional guest was Jennifer Tilly who truly seems to love her role in the Chucky universe. The panel kicked off with a message from Chucky, as well as this amazing (and totally NSFW) video:

I spent the rest of the day wandering around the show floor taking pictures and checking out booths. I always try to get a few on-the-spot interviews at the booths and at the signing tables but it unfortunately did not work out this year. I noticed most of the bigger guests were not around until Saturday and Sunday, and those that were there charged a hefty fee to even get close to them this year. I did get a chance to chat with our old friend Dan Fogler for a bit who told me we should set up an interview soon because he has some cool news to announce. Be sure to keep an eye out tomorrow for my NYCC photo recap!

 Jerry Cavallaro  – @GetStuck  –  www.JerryCavallaro.com