Mish~*~Mosh~*~Marsh: 2011 New York Comic Con

My first convention, what can I say and where do I even begin to start?

First off, it was an amazingly good time, where else can you talk to a zombie about Joss Whedon and meet random people who enjoy Doctor Who as much as you do? Well the New York Comic Con of course!

My first experience with the con started right off the bat (no pun intended) after three spotted hours of sleep, while waiting for a friend at Grand Central terminal, as I looked up and saw Bat Girl walking through the main concourse. This was succeeded by walking outside after meeting up with Emily/Thomas (eventually I will explain that, but for now it's for really nerdy reasons) and spotting a spikey blue haired anime girl and two trekkies. Then as we boarded the lovely free comic con shuttle to the Javitz Center we spotted Mario and Luigi walking down 5th Avenue. I hadn't even officially arrived at Comic Con and already I was loving it.

Now I had done a fair bit of research before deciding to attend my first convention and the one common theme I found among them aside from preparing for the mass amount of body odor (which I was still not as prepared for as I though), were the lines. Lines to get in, lines for panels, the atm, the bathroom, signings, you name it you had to wait, which is something I normally get ansy about, but what all the guides fail to mention is all the visual delights you had waiting for you while you wait online from cosplayers (people who wear costumes from their favorite book, video game, movie, webseries or television show) to whats going on in the nearest booth.

There are super nerds for Star Wars and Star Trek, but my nerd-de-jour infatuation is that of the British television series Doctor Who, therefore it comes as no surprise that some of my favorite cosplayers and the best booth was that of same namesake. I'm not sure why but I was surprised to see just how many people dressed as characters from the show, while there was a whole lot of Eleventh Doctors (and really surprisingly only a hand full of Tenth Doctors), it was also a few Amy Pond's, a couple of Daleks, one River Song and even one Weeping Angel.

Another fun part of the con involved another nerd-rific indulgence from a now defunct 1960's horror-romance Soap Opera about the vampire Barnabas Collins called Dark Shadows. Under the recommendation of my aunt and cousin, I had decided to start watching this wonderful show a couple of years ago. The reason I call it wonderful, is because of the gaffs, plus it's just a fun show. Produced live, the show often featured flubbs by some of their older castmates who would often forget lines or stumble through desperately trying to remember them and if it wasn't that, you could also see random crew members in the background, sets shake with the slam of a door or an errant camera in the background.

Since Tim Burton recently decided to bring the vampire soap to the bring screen there has been a renewed interest in the show, thus its primary reason for being at comic con and the popularity that ensued for the panel. Plugging her latest book actress Kathryn Leigh Scott who played Maggie Evans in the original series and Josette in the second tv movie was there reminiscing about the show and her set visit to the Tim Burton set.

When the Tim Burton remake comes out in theaters next May be sure to keep an eye out for Kathryn's cameo along with other members of the original cast.

When not sitting in on a panel, walking the floor at the con was probably one of the best times I've had since going to Hawaii. I got creeped on by some zombies, watched artists create new characters and pay homage to their classic favorites and even watched some cosplayers recreate scenes.

At the end of the day I was exhausted and wished I had the time and money to get a two day pass attend. There's so much to do and see it was actually pretty hard to fit it all in. When not in panels or walking the floor or stopping by to see some of your favorite actors, authors or artists (one of my highlights was seeing and briefly chatting with the guys from Glass Eye Pix who produced my much loved series Tales From Beyond the Pale, there's games, dancing and just about anything you can imagine going on.