For NY Comic Con, geeks shall inherit the Earth

Holy geeks, Batman! New York—or Gotham as it’s known in the comic-lovers universe—has been invaded by fans of New York Comic Con. NYCC is a three-day comic, book, manga, anime, film, and television convention celebrating all things considered nerdy. The Con, as it’s known colloquially, runs from Thursday, Oct. 13 through Sunday, Oct. 16, at the Jacob Javits Convention Center (655 West 34th St., between Eleventh and Twelfth avenues).

As the second-largest pop culture and comics convention in the country, NYCC is still shrouded under the reputation of the largest comic con, the San Diego Comic Con International. Established in 2006, NYCC expands every year—especially since the recent inclusion of the New York Anime Festival. But SDCC, founded in 1970, remains the mecca of geekdom—at least for now.

With over 130,000 attendees in 2010, SDCC has reached such a level of popularity to make it a must-see entertainment industry event, among the likes of the South by Southwest festival in Austin and Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in southern California. To compete, the New York con has attempted to include higher profile celebrities and panels to entice not just hardcore comic readers but also casual film and television fans.

Suzanne Walker, BC ’12, President of the Columbia University Science Fiction Society described the different attendees.

“I think there are a lot of people that go because a lot of up-and-coming people are there to show off their stuff or promote it,” Walker said. “People go just to see what’s out there and what new things are there.”

Besides industry insiders, many of the patrons NYCC hopes to attract are those wishing for a glimpse of their favorite celebrity.

“And I think with NYCC, especially these past couple of years, there’s been a rise in celebrity stuff,” Walker said. “You get really famous and well-known science fiction things, and people want to come and see the people that actually make these things that they love.”

This may be Walker’s first comic con but CUSFS has been going to the convention as a group for several years. This year, CUSFS will journey to Jacob Javits to experience the magic and mayhem of Saturday’s jam-packed schedule.

Saturday, Oct. 15, features the most high-profile event of the con—“The Avengers” panel. “MARVEL STUDIOS: Marvel’s The Avengers” features stars from the upcoming summer blockbuster including Chris Evans (“Captain America: The First Avenger”), Tom Hiddleston (“Thor”), and Cobie Smulders (“How I Met Your Mother”). The stars will present never-before-seen footage from the highly-anticipated superhero movie. The film brings Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Captain America (Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), and the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) together for the first time to protect the world from global domination by Thor’s twisted brother Loki (Hiddleston). The first official trailer debuted on Tuesday, Oct. 11, bringing buzz of the Joss Whedon-directed epic to a fever pitch.

While Walker is excited about this big-name event, she is also looking forward to the smaller but no less special panels that highlight her favorite passions.
Walker said, “There’s going to be a panel called ‘Girls Kick Butt,’ and Tamora Pierce is going to be on it. She’s a really well-known young adult fantasy author, and she’s amazing, so I’m really excited to see her.”

The “Girls Kick Butt” panel will discuss strong female protagonists in young adult fantasy and sci-fi novels.

While the members of CUSFS band together in their love of science fiction and fantasy, they all have specific interests in the various fandoms represented at Comic Con.

Like Walker, Julian Fraga, CC ’13, secretary of CUSFS, will be attending NYCC for the first time. Looking forward to the “overall experience” that the con offers, he hopes to check out a panel on “Mass Effect 3,” an action RPG video game scheduled for a March 2012 release.

Unfortunately for Julia Pilowsky, CC ’12, vice president of CUSFS, this year’s con doesn’t highlight her main geek passion—the seminal sci-fi British television series “Doctor Who.” She said it’s “probably not the best year of Con for me, but I go anyway because I love the sheer nerdery of it all.”

Pilowsky, who attended last year’s con as well, will still be able to pay homage to her favorite sci-fi obsession—by dressing up.

Pilowsky said, “In fact, these shoes are shoes I bought for my costume last year. I dressed up as Amy Pond from ‘Doctor Who.’” This year, she is one step further and dressing up as Doctor Who, the Eleventh Doctor Who to be specific.

Comic cons are often known for the elaborate—often obsessively so—outfits some attendees wear to portray their favorite fictional characters. “Cosplay,” short for costume play, involves no mere Halloween costumes. Originating from a Japanese tradition of live-action role playing anime and manga characters, cosplay has its own subculture within the con world that includes contests, masquerade balls, and costume-making workshops.

Other noteworthy special events include the wand dueling lessons taught by New York’s premiere Harry Potter fan group, HP-NYC. For Harry Potter fans, this year’s NYCC is but a prelude to the Quidditch World Cup V on Nov. 12 and 13 at Randall’s Island. The International Quidditch Association will host demonstrations and open matches on Saturday, Oct. 15 and Sunday, Oct. 16.

But perhaps the most unique event of the con is “New York Comic Con Speed Dating.” Organized by Lightning Fast Speed Dating, the sophomore year of geek love-matching at NYCC will be featured on a new reality TV series on pop culture fans looking for love.

New York Comic Con brings fans and industry professionals together to foster connections—even love connections—centered around their pop culture passions. While it serves as an increasingly higher profile promotional vehicle for the entertainment industry, NYCC serves most significantly as a haven where people aren’t afraid to let their geek flags fly.