Surviving Comiccon

There's not much that would make me get up at 6:30 AM on a Saturday. I barely manage 7:30 during the week. But I was making my third annual pilgrimage to NYComiccon, and I had a train to catch if I was going to beat the lines and possibly the Pope crowd. As my mind drifted in the shower, jumping ahead to meetings at work next week, my dad called in to remind me of the time. Was I going to miss my train?

I made the train, and had a nice ride in. There was plenty of room, and only after changing trains at Jamaica station did I encounter crowds. That made me a little claustrophobic, but gum and another nap got me through to Penn Station. The walk to The Javits Center was excellent, a beautiful day to be outside anywhere, especially the city. I took the first of many photos I'll share later this week. At the convention center, there was no line, and I marveled at how much more organized they'd gotten after learning from the two previous years. The guy at the information booth told me I could head right in since I had my ticket, and that the convention floor would be opening at 10AM, in less than an hour. Things were going a little too well.

The side of the center that housed the convention last year was completely empty, save for some bars with blue fabric hanging from them. They were using the area to form the line, which was about twenty people wide and hundreds of people long, snaking to one end of the center and back again. It was going to be a long hour. Periodic distractions like people in Star Wars® costumes took my mind off the fact that I was in a pack of sweaty nerds and the odd cute girl here and there, and hanging on to the metal railing for dear life. It was probably the hardest part of the day, and once the mob inched forward enough to get me inside, I was fine.

I won't go into too much detail now about the various displays, new games, and costumed convention goers, as my photos will do more justice in a few days. Probably the oddest free item I received was a bottle of antibacterial hand sanitizer from a girl promoting an upcoming miniseries based on The Andromeda Strain. There weren't as many free comics or posters this year, and the Wizard booth didn't have the spin-the-wheel trivia game that I excel at, which I won big last year.

I thought for sure a panel featuring one of my heroes would be packed. Indeed, every chair was filled in the room where living legend Stan Lee was about to appear. There was standing room only, and as I made my way across the back wall, I considered leaving.

“MOVE BACK; MR. LEE NEEDS ROOM!” barked a security guard, shoving me aside as he entered through the door behind where I'd been standing. I fumbled for my camera as Stan The Man himself walked by, not five feet away! Soon, he took his seat up front with the head of Virgin Comics, and proceeded to talk about his life experiences and his new partnership with the small comics company, creating characters again at the age of 85. Stan's a funny guy, and joked with his new business partner about their Airlines. “I get to fly for free, right?” When asked by an irate fan how he felt about the recent storyline in which Spider-Man's marriage was erased from history, he had a good answer. He gave Marvel's current editor-in-chief Joe Quesada credit for recognizing that sometimes you need to make major changes or people will get bored with a character's status quo. Stan said that when he made the decision back in the mid-'80s to have Spider-Man get married, they got a lot of angry letters. The sales said otherwise though, and in time people accepted the marriage. “If sales go up, he'll stay single. If they drop, he'll just marry them again!” Stan likened the role of editor-in-chief to god of an imaginary universe, able to take lives and resurrect them, put couples together and split them up, and generally control everyone's fate.

I enjoyed finally seeing and hearing Stan in person, but it was nice to get out of that room and back on the convention floor. After about an hour I headed back to a panel on the 50th anniversary of The Legion of Super-Heroes. Creators talked at length about how readers could relate to the younger heroes, and how some artists found things like “the entire population of planet x rises to attack” a bit of a challenge to draw. “It didn't take me that long to write that,” quipped Paul Levitz when Keith Giffen grumped about the daunting panel. At one point, Levitz couldn't recall an issue number where he had a certain plot point, and an excited fan shouted out the specific number to the shocked creators. “Are...are you serious?” asked Giffen. “I...I think he's right,” said Levitz in amazement. If either of them asked the guy if he'd ever kissed a girl, a la William Shatner in that old SNL skit, I think I would have fallen out of my chair. Of course, in the eight years I collected comics regularly through high school and college, I used to remember issue numbers too. Since The Javits Center is quite literally a glass house, I should take care in throwing stones.

I was starting to get tired after being on my feet for the majority of the six hours I'd been there. The best panels seemed to be in the theater, but every single one, from a Battlestar Galactica session to an Incredible Hulk preview had more of those looping lines to get in. Though not as long as the one to get into the convention initially, I was done with lines after that experience. If it wasn't for seeing Stan and a plethora of steel bikini wearing Leias, I might have regretted putting myself through that. But, by 4 PM I'd reached my limit and opted to catch the next train. I'd later learn that by leaving when I did, I avoided a chaotic crowd situation so I might not have seen Quesada or Milo Ventimiglia had I remained anyway.

No MCF story is complete without a little improbability. For whatever reason, I didn't buy my ticket until I got back to Penn Station. With less than 10 minutes before my train left the track it was already waiting on, I found lines at every ticket machine. I waited by the nearest bank of machines to the platform entrance, rocking nervously on my heels. Finally, with four minutes to spare, a machine opened up. I frantically worked the touch screen, but hit a glitch when it asked me to touch the first letter of my destination. Some of the characters were grayed out, and not working, and of course my station was one of the few. I stepped back and waited for another machine to be free, letting others with working station letters try the machine. I got my ticket, and got on my train with two minutes to spare.

I felt shaky standing on the train, hanging on the rail and trying to keep my mind off the lightheaded feeling. I couldn't understand. I thought I had a handle on that problem. I had a great day and had plenty of other things to occupy my mind. It wasn't until I changed trains and finally collapsed into a seat on my own line that I realized why I felt so shaky. Besides being on my feet most of the day, since my breakfast at 6:30 AM I'd had nothing to eat except two sticks of gum and a sip of Powerade. Anyone would feel weak or dizzy after that. Remembering the bottle in my backpack, I took a few gulps, and by the next station I was feeling back to normal, if a bit tired.

I don't know if I'll be back for the convention next year. I'm exhausted, and though plenty of people older than me go to these things, I feel like I'm getting too old for this. I ordered my ticket a few months in advance, and paid an extra $10 for the weekend pass. I didn't know if anything would come up for any of my bands, and I didn't want to buy the ticket and then not use it because I had to work. This way I could go Saturday or Sunday, or even both. I don't think I'm going to go on Sunday though. I saw most of the floor, most of the panels are for kids on Sunday, and honestly I don't think I'm going to top the photos I got this year, the best ever. But don't take my word for it; come back Wednesday and see for yourselves, and feel free to read anything I write between now and then. Here’s something that was playing at the Marvel booth:



Okay, I'm going to go collapse now...