Not As Good as the Last Two I Attended

This past Sunday I made the pilgrimage to the NY Javitz Center with my son and his friends for Comic Con 2010.  The last two that we attended we all had a blast.  This one, though good was not as fun as the last ones.  One tip off that something was different is that this one was combined with Anime so there were a lot more teens dressed in those funny looking character costumes that I could not identify.

Where in previous events we easily checked in and were within the exhibit floor in less than 10 minutes, this time we were faced with a long and winding line outside the center.  It took us nearly 45 minutes to get inside the building.  I noticed that the Javitz Center had expanded the exhibition space for this event with the left side now open and housing the Artists' Alley and the "celebrities" that charged people for their autographs.  Lou Ferrigno was on hand and his price for a "polaroid" with him was $40.  Yes I am not joking.

In the main area there were the usual gaming sections and an area dedicated to the upcoming Green Hornet Movie with a replica Black Beauty and some young female beauties wearing green outfits.  There was a guy dressed in Green Hornet garb (but no Kato) that people were taking shots with.  The Walking Dead seems to be another big thing coming out.

The one thing I noted this time was that there seemed to be a lot less booths selling the classic comics.  There was one of them that had at least six Amazing Fantasy #15's and five or six Fantastic Four #1's.  You wonder how so many could be out there held by one individual in such good condition.

The floor space was generally unmanuverable as the crowd was so densely packed.  It was hard to stop at many of the booths due to the heavy volume of people.  I guess that the long line to get in and knowing that Anime had been combined with this fest should have given me a clue of what to expect.

We did go to a presentation on the history of the Green Hornet which was an amazing narration and slide show by a super knowledgeable guy.  I learned everything going back to how the Hornet probably came from the success of the Lone Ranger, how the masks originated and evolved and the sad story of the original Kato (disappeared in a US internment camp in 1942).  I am really looking forward to the new movie.


Bruce Campbell had a show that we tried to go to and were cut-off almost when we reached the door (sorry QueenBflix I wanted to say that I got a chance to meet him but I failed).  My son and his friends curbed their spending habits at this fest and only got a few tee shirts and a couple of books.  I myself got a couple of novels that were signed by the authors (don't know who are are really but I will try to read the books and post a review on this website).

There was a preview of the new Walking Dead that you needed to pay extra to see but absent were the previews of other upcoming blockbusters with their stars doing panel discussions.  The last time I got to see Brandon Frazier doing Journey to the Center of the Earth and Kal Penn doing Escape from Guantanamo Bay.

All in all it was a long and tiring but fun day.  We didn't get too much in the way of "swag" like in past Cons (perhaps because of the bad economy?) and there were a lot less raffles at the tables.  There was an upcoming Comic Con listed as being in Boston so we may try that one next.