Having attended the NY Comic Con back in October of last year, an adventure that can referenced HERE, made me curious about what I would find at the Wizardworld Big Apple Comic Con when it would come through town during this Metal Month of May. These conventions are usually filled with musicians and entertainers along with the stellar talent that is doing the mainstream as well as independent comic books. The past two weeks have been stocked with musical adventures as bands like Destruction, UFO and Whitesnake all had visited our fair city. Last night was Blackfield with Anathema and tonight would be Apocalyptica if the world didn’t end like the crazy people were saying it would. Only time would tell, so join me on this potentially last report from the realm.

The NY Comic Con was held over at the Javits Center because it is so massive but the Wizard World Big Apple Comic Con would not require as much space for its vendors, talent and audience and instead be held at the Penn Plaza Pavilion which is located in the same building as the Pennsylvania Hotel. I remembered attending comic conventions at this same space as a younger person when it was called the Statler Hilton but its been the Hotel Pennsylvania since about 1992 unless I am mistaken.

We see here the giant posters that announced what special guests would be appearing at the Big Apple Con or more truthfully sitting at the signing tables selling their autographs and photos. That’s just the way this stuff goes. Here we see that Tom Felton (Harry Potter series), Morena Baccarin and James Marsten (Buffy The Vampire Slayer series) would be among those making appearances.

And so it begins for the masses. The line was around the corner but I arrived early and had hoped to get in on the quick side since I was a member of the registered media that planned on writing about the event.

This giant of a fan had some sort of flyer that said “Take One If You Dare”. I didn’t have enough coffee in me to dare so I moved along the line and hoped to get inside and exploring the surroundings. Entry was different to say the least and there was no clear separation for press versus fan so it took a bit longer to get inside. I guess this was because there was only so much room to have their computers working on this part of the event.

The first folks I happened upon were the Art In Effect dudes who were showcasing their “The New Age” property, which is an interactive story told across a couple of graphic novels.

I then ran into a couple of Spider-Man cosplayers. Pictured below are the obvious traditional Spidey and his 2099 version.

Here’s artist Gavin Smith with a great sketch of Mick Jagger.

This female cosplayer was out to deliver some justice.

Back at the NY Comic Con we met David Rankin who founded Effigy Skateboards. Given that he had to meet tens of thousands of people we were rather impressed that he remembered us. He was not just being polite in this and even said “oh you let your hair grow back” (I had done a cancer head shaving fund-raiser a few months prior to the convention).

There was some wonderful stuff on display from Effigy. If you never thought of a skateboard deck as a medium for artwork then take a look at this display of some of their wares.

Next up is the wrestler Brimstone. He has a comic book based on some of his adventures in the world, well, those adventures that the character he portrays has I mean. The comic is entitled “Brimstone and the Borderhounds”. I leafed through it and it looked nice enough. This is not the first time we have seen wrestlers in their own comics as you might recall. Valiant Comics used to publish WWF stories and The Undertaker even had his own Horror adventure book. Good luck Brimstone.

Next up a couple of rocker Cosplayers as Boba Fett and a sexy Pikachu. I had a real hard time getting Boba to smile 🙂

Here are some great monster mannequins. That’s Leatherface and Freddy Krueger in case you wondered.

Hey look it’s Cara Fawn who many know also by her stage name Cheyenne Silver. PiercingMetal had the pleasure of meeting Cheyenne back in January of this year when she was in town with friends to see Lynch Mob. Cara was there to help promote “The Villikon Chronicles: Genesis of Evil”. This is a Science Fiction story that she helped produce. She also had a couple of magazines with some of her photo shoots but please folks, 18 and over to glance at these lovely images.

More fight-tastic Cosplayers, one as Iron Fist and his companion was either Elektra or Psylocke. I forgot to ask.

Down in the celebrity signing area we caught a far off glimpse of Kristanna Loken. She was in one of the Terminator films as the female Terminator. I planned to get a better shot as the day went on, but right now there were too many people on line for me to interupt.

Here’s former Marvel Comics and Topps Comics editor Jim Salicrup.

Jim was also sketching for people if they wanted one so I took snapshot of a couple of his offerings. Good stuff.

Near Jim’s table was Onrie Kompan who was presenting his “Yi Soon Shin” comic property. This is based on the life of the real adventures of this famous Admiral. Good luck with your storyline Onrie, it sounds interesting.

Here is Craig Marin and Olga Felgemacher who work with “Flexitoon”.

A better view of some of the puppets that were at the Flexitoon booth. Nice folks for sure and when they learned I was a music person they recommended that I listen to a band called Consider The Source. That name sounds familiar so someone else I must know must have spoken to me about them.

Jason Little’s booth was next to them. Jason’s thing is “Beekeeper Cartoon Amusements” among other things and today he had a whole lot of them on display for you to flip through and hopefully purchase.

I loved this next young lady’s costume and referred to her as “Batman Girl” even though she mentioned who she was supposed to be. The amount of concert ideas running through my brain sadly found me forgetting. If she sees this she is welcome to remind me 🙂

Here is another artist showing off his wares.

I happened upon the team of Spider-Men once more and this time around they were joined by a Scarlet Spider and what appeared to be the “Black Costume” Spider-Man. He was either trying to pull that look off or go as Snake Eyes from G.I.Joe. This had to be a warm outfit as the room temperature of the hall was almost painful.

The collection of Spidey’s was doing their best to amuse this whole family of Cosplayers. That was great to see because a family that plays together, stays together. Isn’t that the saying?

Here’s the legendary Jerry Robinson who many view as the creator of The Joker from the Batman comics. Some dispute his claim but either way he was still instrumental in the early days of the book and its characterization. As you can see Jerry now has a book out called “Jerry Robinson, The Ambassador of Comics”. This comes care of Abrams Comicarts, the same company that delivered the book by Eddie Trunk and famed photographer Bob Gruen. It looks awesome but I was not able to pick up a copy today.

Here is Heather Krieter, the creator of “My Little Demon”. Folks who are stunned and appalled at the popularity of “My Little Pony” will like this more sinister side so please check out her wares.

The graphic on her table. Sorry I did not shoot the figurines.

Here is Nelson Faro DeCastro who simply goes by “Nelson”, sadly the same as that tepid Melodic Rock band of the eighties. Not to worry, this chaps work stands out far more than those guys and he was at the con doing sketches, giving critique to those who wanted some and just chit chatting about Metal bands with guys like me. He is also a friend of our buddies Steve Bunche and Joe Kaufman.

Here’s Billy of Queens based Punk Band “Dead On A Friday”. Not only did he have artwork for sale but some CD’s by the band and they were giving away some cool buttons. I added one of those to my collection and liked its design so much it went on the jacket.

Here is David Quinn who many might remember as being the writer of Faust. That is a different kind of comic than the stuff he was showing off today. Today he was showcasing his characters in “The Littlest Bitch”. Now THAT is a different subject matter of I ever heard of one.

This dude kept me guessing answers about Metal and was apparently friends with Manowar. Luckily I neglected to tell him how much they disappointed me as a band these days but either way he was cool and had a lovely assistant helping to hawk his wares.

Here is some art from the “Stranger Than Fiction” series.

Here is Bob Rozakis. A lot of the DC Comics fan know Bob primarily as “The Answer Man’ and his wisdom helped to solve a lot of the puzzles surrounding the DC Comics mythos.

Look here is Bob Wiacek who was an inker for books like “X-Factor” and “Brave and the Bold”. Great to see Bob at the Con.

and the dudes from Vindicator!!!! Queue dramatic music.

Ciao for now as that brings us to the close of our Chapter One thoughts on the Big Apple Comic Con. Stay tuned for Chapter Two as that will come online tomorrow. Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel. I’m sorry, I cannot resist the chance to be geeky.

Official Websites Relevant Weblinks To This Narrative:
Big Apple Comic Con: http://www.wizardworld.com/home-apple.html
Effigy Skateboards: http://effigyskateboards.com/
Flexitoon: http://www.flexitoon.com/
Heather Kreiter:
Jerry Robinson: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Robinson
Jim Salicrup: http://www.myspace.com/jimsalicrup
Kristanna Loken: http://kristannaloken.net/
Onrie Kompan: http://onrie-kompan.blogspot.com/
Villikon Chronicles: http://www.villikonchronicles.com/
Art In Effect: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Art-in-Effect/193526990686852
Brimstone & The Borderhounds: http://www.theborderhounds.com/
Nelson DeCastro: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_DeCastro