Event: NY Comic Con and Anime Festival 2010
Artist: Various Artists
Venue: Jacob Javits Center (New York, NY)
Date: 10/8-10/10/2010
Label: Independent

For the past few days NYC played host to the 5th Annual New York Comic Con and Anime Festival that was being held at the Jacob Javits Center over on the West Side Highway. This massive event was set to span three full days and with this being the case I decided that it was probably the best to present what I paid attention to on each individual day across a couple of chapters apiece for your maximum enjoyment. I also felt that these chapters would be best served up on the Official Blog of PiercingMetal because that is where the non-music related topics are most easily digested based on the flow of the narratives. This article that you are reading now will serve as a sort of traffic sign to not only direct you over to the blogs comprehensive coverage but also allow me to offer up some side thoughts on the experience and to have another means to share the photo galleries that we snagged. I’ll be doing this on a day by day analysis for ease of flow. Let’s get down to business.

PiercingMetal’s Adventures at NY Comic Con 2010: http://piercingmetal.com/tag/new-york-comic-con-2010/

Day One: Before we get into the whole thing, you might be wondering what even made me decide to adventure into the Con as a member of the press and well the answer is rather simple. At the end of the day I am a writer and photographer and while I enjoy Metal as a big part of my life and do as much as I can for it on the website and its blog; I am very interested in a lot of other things as well and two of the main ones are comic books and science fiction and to be quite honest, many of these hobbies are also things that I feel my core readership would find some value in as well. Today the comic geeks are the Metal heads and there are performers that we love writing comics, or making horror movies and video games as well. It should be interesting to bring this side of their lives to your attention and I had also hoped to catch some of the performers wandering the convention in some fashion as we progressed through the event. Day One is an interesting animal because when you are Press you are allowed to wander the floor for a few hours earlier than the general public of fans are and that allows you a better means of getting the current “pitch” from artistic people, vendors and any other professional presence that you chance upon. When the doors do open to the public it’s like a floodgate has burst and the masses teem in. As I made my way around I did the obvious places of interest such as the Marvel Comics booth and DC Comics and noticed how one section of the Javits was set up for both the Autograph Alley and Artist Alley. In the autograph part I was able to get a photo of Lou Ferrigno who most people know as “The Incredible Hulk” from television. Normally you have to pay these celebrities for a photo op but I was not in the picture and mentioned how I was compiling an article for the event and being sure to cite his presence. The merry men of the Mighty Powerglove were also at a booth of their own and they were selling their brand new CD and a lot of merch. The band came in their outfits and really fit right in. I did a special report piece on my fun with them so please do a search for it on the site. I stayed until the end and now it was time to get home to some rest and be prepped to do this all over again.

Day Two: When I was making my way down to Javits Center for the second day, the day that I had heard was the most consuming in terms of overall visitor numbers I had to chuckle when I realized that this was actually the very first convention that I would be attending as a press representative. It surprised me a little because these interests have been lifelong for me but they always say that there is no time like the present and here we were. Today my plan was to see any of the rockers that I learned were going to be in attendance and I would get the chance to see Rob Dukes of Exodus, Claudio Sanchez of Coheed and Cambria and even the sexy Mistress Juliya. Dukes has a comic out on Terminal Press while Claudio is not only a creative force for an entire series, but he runs the Evil Ink productions company with his lovely wife Chandra. To say the lines were long to get a signed copy of the book from Claudio would be an understatement. As this was also the Anime Festival, I did some looking around for where they were set up and they had occupied an entire section on the lower level of the Javits Center. The costumes and artwork were great but I am so lost when it comes to the Anime focus. I just smiled and told everyone who I met “great job” on their stuff and handed out some of my cards to those interested in seeing what we were all about. I really enjoyed a majority of the Cosplayers (which is what they call those fans dressed in costume if you are new to the term). There were quite a bit of Wonder Woman and Slave Girl Princess Leia’s around me today and this did not bother me at all. The final day is tomorrow, and surprisingly enough I still had some energy left.

Day Three: I’ll keep this part short in the interest of your attention but Day Three of the Con was today and this the “Family Day”. This means the fans who purchased tickets are allowed to bring a younger child in for a very reasonable price. Today my overall plan would be to focus on a lot more of the costumed fans because the last two days I gave a lot of the artists and their booths the most attention. You would not believe how many tables get set up at this affair. I had my compiling work ahead of me that is for sure. So as stressed in the beginning, all of my wanderings and the varied chapters can be found and enjoyed via the link below that takes you to our Official Blog for PiercingMetal; There is a larger discussion throughout along with links to the stuff I was talking about. Have fun.

Bringing The Metal: Oh yeah, since we are a Heavy Metal site first and foremost I made sure to observe what “Metal Attire” I would see as I wandered the whole convention. The ones that stood out the most to me were Slayer, Watain, Amon Amarth, Despised Icon, Iron Maiden (multiples), KISS (multiples), Bullet For My Valentine, Dimmu Borgir, and Powerglove but that last one was their own. Perhaps I will make note of this again next year. I had so much fun at this event that I will be planning a return visit next year. It’s a daunting bit of coverage to say the least but something that I think I can handle. See you then.

Official Website: www.nycomiccon.com
Official Website: www.dccomics.com
Official Website: www.marvel.com
Official Website: www.darkhorse.com