10 cool things about Comic Con!

So here's what I loved about New York Comic Con!

1. Costumes. I must have seen every kind of character at Comic Con. There were Ghostbusters with blinking proton packs. I stood on a line with Aang and Prince Zuko. There were lots of Doctors, X-Men, anime characters, cute little kids in superhero costumes, a Boba Fett Chicken and even a big Bumblebee.

2. Celeb sightings. I didn’t get into the big Avengers panel or see the Jay and Silent Bob podcast, but I did see a few celebs. I know there were even bigger names there – but I didn’t bother going to the autograph area. I think it’s insane that people charge for autographs. I heard it cost $100 to get an autograph from Mark Hamil! But here’s who I did see:

>Wylie Dufresne was on a panel about comics and food. He’s always one of my favorite judges on Top Chef and it was pretty cool to hear him talk about creativity and even eggs! (If you watch Top Chef you’ll get why! He’s a “notorious egg slut,” to quote Anthony Bordain.)

>  I went into a wrong panel and saw Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine. He was promoting his new comic, Orchid, which sounds pretty bad ass.

> Kevin Brown who plays DotCom on 30 Rock was talking about running for president. 

> Ian McNiece plays Winston Churchill on Doctor Who.

> And the Science Channel panel had the crew from Oddities (which my brother always makes me watch when I’m at his house), Gene Roddenberry’s son (who was promoting a documentary he made about his dad), and Michio Kaku.

3. Star Wars crafts! I had so much fun at the Star Wars craft panel. My poor “Admiral Sackbar” looks so bad. Some other people dressed theirs up like Doctor Who or Yoda. The panel was hosted by Bonnie Burton, who wrote the Star Wars Craft Book. She has the coolest job – blogging for Lucasfilms.

 4. The Doctor is in. It was just too awesome seeing so many Doctor Who fans. There were people dressed like the 10^th and 11^th Doctors. I even saw a TARDIS, an Amy Pond and a Weeping Angel. (Don’t blink!) There was a lady who made a TARDIS back pack and there were t-shirts, toys, posters. I now own a sparkly TARDIS t-shirt, Doctor Who lunch box and two prints.

 5. Awesome T-Shirts. They had shirts for just about every show and character, as well as spoofs of them. 

 6. Toys. There were so many toys on display and for sale. There was a cool display of action figures fighting each other. And there were some great 80s toys, like Jem and Voltron. 

 7. Artists Alley. This was one of my favorite parts of the con. There were so many artists selling their prints and happy to talk about their work. There were lots of creative takes on super heros, from baby Justice League to zombie Spiderman. And there were cute and quirky artists, too. Katie Cook was doing custom drawings and I got a picture of Penny! 

UrbnPop Display

I got a Yoda and Princess Leia

Battle Pug!

 8. The Displays. This stuff was so cool. A giant Optimus Prime. Action figure packages you could pose in. A big Just Dance stage (where people in costume were grooving). Giant banners of the DC characters. 

9. Free stuff! I didn’t take home too much swag, but there were lots of give aways of comic books, tote bags, pins and t-shirts. I did get a cute little Bumble Bee!

The one I got was a lot smaller

 10. Cool people. I gotta say people at Comic Con were awesome. People in costumes were happy to pose for pictures. Everyone in line geeked out over common interests while we were waiting. The artists were really amazing. And even though some celebs charged money, I heard stories about some walking around and signing stuff. It was a big, nerdy love fest.

Doctor Who taking pictures of some X-Men