The first thing that I noticed, upon starting my journey to the Javits Center, was how packed the train was with costumed revelers of all stripes. Just from that, I knew that Day 2 was going to be a lot more crowded. And sure enough, it was packed all day long. While that meant a lot of great photo opportunities, it also meant that it was harder to get to some of the booths, and much harder to get into some of the panels.
Decked out in my Florentine Assassins blood-red shirt, I joined the fray!
I spent most of my morning on the floor, where I managed to pick up tons of freebies from Marvel, DC, and others, including a few free copies of books from the publisher booths. Then, there was a screening of an upcoming episode of “Person of Interest”, with a short but amusing video intro from Michael Emerson.
Afterward, I spent a lot of time in Artist Alley, which was a personal highlight. I got to meet a lot of the artists and writers that I’ve enjoyed over the years (going back to 1986), and also a few cosplayers that I’ve known on Twitter/Facebook for a while. One great moment was a conversation with Keith R.A. DeCandido, an author of some wonderful media tie-in novels.
A couple hours later, I attended the “Nikita” Q&A. To my dismay, Lyndsey Fonseca was unable to attend the panel, but Shane West and Maggie Q did their best to hold up their end of the bargain. Still, it was nothing like the “Haven” panel on Friday, and it was clear that a great deal of the audience was not there to see the Nikita cast.
Which leads to my first real disappointment of the con: missing the “Avengers” panel. I knew it would be popular, but what I couldn’t account for was the rule that allowed those already in a panel venue (like the main hall) to stay and keep their seats for as long as they liked. So it didn’t take long for the hall to be completely filled hours before the headline event, and the staff made no exceptions for the press.
So the choice was: spend the day camped in the main hall, sitting through panels on topics of little or no interest, and ensure a seat in the “Avengers” panel, or roll the dice by attempting to leave the room to hit the floor a bit longer. I chose to focus on the larger part of the con, and missed out on the live event. (On the other hand, I was keenly aware that the entirely of the con would very likely be available on much bigger fan sites, thus I’d only be missing the immediacy of it all.)
On the whole, I got to take some great photos of great costumes and con booths, and met some really interesting people. Those photos can be found in the NYCC 2011 Day 2 Collection at the MediaBlvd Facebook page.
