NYCC: Friday Recap

NerdSpan’s guest blogger Renato Regalado recaps Friday at NYCC. Remember to check out his recap of Thursday, too!

Friday – Day 2

Day 2 was noticeably different as far as the energy of the place.  I could not believe the amount of people that were here.  I clearly stuck out like a sore thumb, I was wearing khakis, a navy blue shirt, and a gray V-neck sweater over that.  At least I planned ahead and wore comfortable shoes.  The Javits center spans five blocks lengthwise and going from one end to the other was a damn good cardio exercise.  My first stop was at Artist Alley.  The place where all the artists would sit down while us fans stumble over our words and get them to sign things.

Artist Alley was situated at the northernmost part of the center. The organization or the artists was completely confusing.  The Alleys were separated by letters, to which I assumed meant everyone was organized in alphabetical order; but they were not.  It was a breathtaking view of the entire place, and the amount of artists that were present. Plenty of established artists, like Tim Sale, whom I wanted to buy a commission piece from, but then realized it was way above my pay grade, or Babs Tarr, whose work in Batgirl is very fun to see and read.  I was really hoping I’d get to find Jim Lee, but I was not so lucky. My friend Chris was much luckier than I was.

Once I finished drooling over and worshiping my favorite artists.  I proceeded to ABC Family’s Pretty Little Liars and Stitchers panel.  There they revealed that PLL will return on Tuesday, January 12^th, 8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT.  And to celebrate the return of the fan favorite, the network will also be airing “Pretty Little Liars: 5 Years Forward,” a behind the scenes look at the highly anticipated new season, which features a series time jump.  This will air on Tuesday, November 24^th, at 8:00 – 9:00 PM ET/PT.

Down on the floor, the booths that stood out the most were, frankly, the ones that didn’t belong.  There was an AT&T booth that was offering to charge up all of the devices, aptly named, the Fortress of Rechargitude.  There was a Geico booth that was offering prizes in the form of VISA gift cards, And, quite possibly the weirdest was the Progressive booth, which featured girls, dressed in the “Flo” (the commercials’ divisive yet popular star) uniforms with rainbow unicorn masks and some sweet dance moves. They were also giving away a free comic book, in partnership with Liz Prince, about the adventures of Protector Girl.

There was some amazing cosplayers on the floor.  I snapped a picture of this great looking Daenerys Targaryen, I also chatted her up a little bit about her tattoos.  I have a couple so I always geek out over good tattoos.  There was also a legion of Deadpools around.  Sometimes they would all get together and put on a little show.   And finally, there was this great cosplayer who dressed up as what I hope will be the ending of Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Which brings us to what DC did at NYCC.  DC showcased a panel featuring one of my favorite writers, Scott Snyder.  He spoke about a lot of his work, from his earlier short stories in Voodoo Heart, to his recent Batman stuff.  The Moderator, John Cunningham, said “Scott is the single most important writer we have, he is also one of the most significant writers in comics today.”  When asked about his incredible run on Batman, he spoke about how Batman is such a mortal character.  And how their run has been about Batman facing his mortality.  DC also spoke about Frank Miller’s return to The Batman, with The Dark Knight III: The Master Race.  Co-written with Brian Azzarello and artists Klaus Janson and Andy Kubert, they began by talking about the history of The Dark Knight Saga, and its impact on the medium.   Details on the story were very few and far between, but they promised that we will not be expecting it.  Although Millar joked that “it is what Brian is expecting”.

At the end of the day, battered with ankle pain from all of the walking, standing, and walking, and more walking.  I stumbled back onto a subway train headed home to Brooklyn.  I was completely obliterated and found myself to be both excited for, and dreading the next two days.  How I was going to survive two more days of this was a mystery.