The first sign of the coming Great New York Nerd Invasion of ‘06 was after work yesterday: an overweight, balding, goatee sporting dude wearing a black Spider-Man costume tee shirt and an unzipped, baggy hoody walked by me on the street. I tried to snap a photo of him, but alas, I was not quick enough on the draw with the old camera phone. However, I’m pleased to report that the first day of the New York Comic-Con at the Jacob Javitz Convention Center — which I’ll be attending all 3 days as an exhibitor for my day job at DK Publishing (booth #553, come visit!) — there were all types of nerds (and I include myslef in that category) as far as the eye could see, and all kinds of great stuff on sale and on display. The Marvel and DC booths were relatively small, but there was a good feeling all around, and the lines for autographs weren’t bad at all. In my time away from the DK booth, I snapped some pictures for KFR. Enjoy!
Booth setup, 10:30am. Cristina hangs posters like it’s her job! (And I’m sure she loves that I posted her photo).
Viola! The DK booth is done. All other booths tremble in its presence.
My first Classic Moment of the Day. Me (left) and a purple thing (right). I think the purple thing is a Pokemon, but I’m not sure.
As previously stated, the Marvel (and DC) booths were kinda small — my guess is that they’re playing it safe since this is the first big NY Con in awhile. But there were some cool banners and displays. Marvel seems to really be pushing Wolverine: Origins — they had posters, an ad in the Con program, and more.
The Toy Biz folks were in Marvel’s booth — and generously chatting with anyone (including some grade-A weirdos I eavesdropped on) — and had 2 bookcases worth of stunning action figures on display, including the upcoming “Bring on the Bad Guys” Marvel Legends line. Seen above is the upcoming Marvel Icons line. These bad boys are 12 inches tall and fully posable; too bad Hasbro will take over the Marvel action figure reigns in 2007, because this stuff is incredible. (Click the pic for a larger view)
Tokyo Pop (I *think*) was having people step into a glass booth and try to grab as much fake money as they could, which would then be traded in for prizes. Classic.
Edit: It wasn’t Tokyo Pop — it was Viz Media.
Look! Up in the glass case! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Brandon Routh! Oops, I mean it’s Superman. I didn’t see a great deal on Superman Returns, but even just seeing this little bit reminded me how excited I am for the flick.
On display from DC Direct were these 2 protoypes. Not bad.
And to quote my grandma, “That’s thata.” Word on the striz-eet is that they’re expecting 20,000 people to attend this thing, which isn’t bad considering it’s a first time event (San Diego Comic-Con had north of 90,000 last year). If you’re in the area, it’s definitely worth checking out.
