New York Comic Con just gets better, year after year. We attended the show on Saturday, seeing that it had grown to span three floors and a vast amount of floor space. Housed within the massive Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, the show offers a wide variety of things to do, from celebrities to meet, collectibles to purchase, movies to see, characters to dress up as and just about everything else a nerd could possibly want to do. And, yes, plenty of games!
You might be lead to wonder, with a name like “comic” con, just what would be in store for a gamer? That is, someone like me who reads maybe one comic book a year. Just what, exactly, would a gamer find at NYCC? Well, while it’s true that games do take a bit of back seat to some of the bigger things going on, they are in no way muted or unwelcome. You can’t miss them, really. As soon as we hit the show floor, there were plenty of people standing in line to get a look at “The Darkness II,” “Max Payne 3” and many of the other games being shown off. Even if you don’t own a console, you can still find games for PC, iPhone and other platforms. Mobile Snap, for example, were showing off their iPhone game “Gravity Lab,” a fun, physics-based puzzle game which I’m assured is coming soon to Android. There’s even a healthy mix of collectible card games, pen-and-paper RPGs and board games to look at and try. You don’t have to be a video gamer to appreciate the variety of ways there are to have fun.
Conventions are all about bringing people who share a common interest together. However, I’m usually alone on these affairs. I’m always looking forward to seeing industry acquaintances and the handful of contacts I’ve made while attending conventions, but it’s extremely rare that I get to experience the show with friends from “back home.” This year, two very good friends of mine, Leslie Stewart and Mark Hunsinger from Wilkes-Barre, were kind enough to offer me a ride with them.
This being their first Comic Con, they each got right into the spirit of the show, eager to experience every thing they could. They even wore costumes, with Stewart dressed as Ponyo from the Japanese animated film “Ponyo,” and Hunsinger dressed as Dexter Morgan from the Showtime series “Dexter.” Hunsinger, like me, was more interested in the gaming aspect of the show while Stewart couldn’t wait to meet celebrities, such as voice actress Mandy Bonhomme, actress Jewel Staite and artist Roman Dirge, creator of the “Lenore” comic book series.
Also on hand was Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the original “Star Wars” trilogy, and Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca, along with many other famous faces. Heck, if you were interested, you could have even had your picture taken from the driver’s seat of the “Back to the Future” DeLorean with a “Doc” and “Marty” look-alike parked in front of both the 1966 and Tim Burton versions of the Batmobile while a very hirsute man with a large stomach walked around in a Wonder Woman costume. Only at New York Comic Con, folks!
In addition to the comics, artists and games, there’s all the people, young and old, who are there to have a great time. Seeing Hunsinger and Stewart’s enthusiasm reminded me of why I love going to conventions. Sure, I go because I have a job to do, but I go because I’m a fan, just like they are.
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