Best Finds of New York Comic Con 2011

It's becoming somewhat of a trend here to give you guys the rundown of the best purchases and giveaways available at the major Conventions held across the country. We began with Wondercon, continued with Comic-Con, and now we present our first New York Comic Con edition. I'll think you'll agree that the Dealer's Room offerings here were especially impressive.

Walking Dead Merch: Lunchbox
Every time I go to a Convention, I buy the newest merchandise for The Walking Dead (Comic). This has resulted in my owning multiple pins and bracelets, a hoodie, a board game, and now, a lunchbox, which I used to protect all of the stickers I got from the floor, including one listed below. The guys at the booth now recognize me, but even knowing the fellas working the booth can't get you a sold out copy of the Rise of the Governor book without specifically requesting they hold one for you beforehand. Luckily, the book can be picked up in any comic book store, so I'm not devastated, but still, would have been nice to have something awesome to read on the flight home. If you dig collecting lunch boxes like I don't, but I bought one anyway, head to the TFAW site November 2nd.

TARDIS Tin Tote
One of the Entertainment Earth exclusives, this "Tin Tote" (okay FINE it's also a lunchbox), isn't available anywhere else until January. But I snatched one up during preview night and will be giving it as a gift to a Dr Who loving friend this winter. When the time comes, you can get one for yourself here.

Harry Potter Tote/Dumbledore Bottle Opener
Perhaps my favorite purchase of the entire convention was this tote bag that reads Mooney & Wormtail & Padfoot & Prongs and if you don't know what that means, I am sad for you. @eruditechick also picked up this design in Gryffindor colors on a t-shirt. This same booth also offered multiple designs that could be printed on a button, bottle opener, or pocket mirror, so naturally I got Dumbledore Is My Homeboy for a Dumbledore loving friend of mine. Other designs included Winter is Coming, with the Stark sigil, which I saw tons of ladies wearing on Sunday, and Keep Calm and Call The Doctor. To peruse all of these items, head to Evie's Tees on ETSY. Complete shirt collection sold at NYCC can be seen here.

Attack the Block Signed Art Print
Definitely my favorite freebie of the convention, this art print was being given out at the Attack the Block DVD panel, which featured director Joe Cornish, and actors John Boyega and Luke Treadway. All three stayed until the bitter end to make sure every single person in the audience got their poster signed. I could never get my hands on a poster tube, so to get it home safe, I carried it with me for my entire airport and airplane experience.

Kill Shakespeare Buttons/Shirts
Whether you are a fan of the comic or not, all of the brand new Kill Shakespeare merchandise was one of the highlights of the floor. Merely being a fan of Shakespeare is enough to appreciate the wide variety of shirts and Heroes/Villains button collection.

Marvel Toki Dokis
I'm late to the game on this one, as friends of mine @eruditechick and @e_sophia got the bulk of their Marvel Toki Dokis at Comic-Con, but better late than never! Buy two blind boxes for $10, and hope you get the Marvel character you want! The first two I opened were Hulk and Iron Man, which I almost thought was too good to be true. Bought two more just in case they would somehow be Cap and Thor. They weren't, they were Spidey and Vision, but eryn_sophia, lucky enough to have two Caps, traded me  to add Vision to her collection. All I really need now is a Thor and well, okay, a Wolverine, but am I willing to buy blind box after blind box til I get them? Only time Wondercon will tell....

Avengers Character Shirts
When I first got my hands on one of the Avengers shirts being given out at New York Comic Con, I thought they were just shirts that said Avengers on them. Little did I know, each one had a different design on the back, one for each Avenger. Apparently the one given out on Thursday was for Thor, which I was fine with, considering he is the only Avenger I don't own in Toki Doki form :). Head to Ebay for character shirts for Hawkeye, Black Widow, Iron Man and Hulk...though suspiciously none for Cap or Thor.

Bioshock Sticker
I bought a round of these at NYCC last year and was THRILLED to see the booth back again in 2011, so I could buy even more. Simple, to the point, and a must own for any Bioshock fan. Get one for yourself from the Sanshee website.

Game of Thrones/Community/Lost Character Cards
Yehudi Mercado made a splash on the internets this summer when he created prints of Muppets as Game of Thrones characters. At his NYCC booth, where he was selling his graphic novel Buffalo Speedway, he was offering a deal - buy a graphic novel, and get a set of these cards. I couldn't resist. I bought a graphic novel and walked away with my very own set. You can buy a book/get the cards by heading to Mercardo's website. Not into Game of Thrones? You can choose sets from Community or Lost instead if you're so inclined.

Captain America Martini Glasses
One of our favorite booths on the entire floor was called simply "Fangirls" and all of their items are decoupaged with classic comics. Jewelery, furniture, household goods, headbands, really anything you could think of was plastered with reminders of the golden age. But our favorite items were these martini glasses, sold as a set for $15. They marked one of our first purchases of the Con and remained one of our best decisions of the entire weekend.

The Stan
I mean, I'd never wear it, but it's pretty genius. From the folks over at Thwipster, a Groupon-like site focusing on items for the Geek.

For more fun items on the floor, including the adorbz Geek Treats Bakery, plus cosplay and Tom Hiddleston ::swoon:: head to the All Things Fangirl flickr account. See full post

NYCC '11: Top Ten Moments of the Avengers Panel

Crossposted on Film.com

Saturday night in the IGN Theater at New York Comic Con, a little bit of magic happened. The magic might have occurred 40 minutes behind schedule, but no one in that room had anywhere to be that mattered more. For the first time ever, the Avengers were assembling at a Convention where they were actually allowed to do things like speak. And, I gotta say, it was almost worth the wait. The interaction between this panel with each other, with moderator extraordinaire Chris Hardwicke and with the audience, was electrically charged, all around. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen cast members on a convention panel get along this well, get each other this much, make the audience laugh to such an extent. And Hardwicke definitely deserves some of the credit for this by keeping things moving, making sure everyone got to talk, asking the right questions, making the perfect jokes, and knowing how to calm down an occasionally feisty fan audience. Credit is also due to Kevin Feige for hiring Joss Whedon, who clearly took care of his actors and made the set a fun and comfortable place to shoot.

10. When an audience member asked who had the most difficult costume to get into, the resounding answer was Tom Hiddleston’s Loki. But the question led to a discussion on how during the battle scenes, Scarlett and Jeremy would be in their leather, Hemsworth in his Asgardian armor, Evans in his iconic suit, and Mark Ruffalo in “spotted grey pajamas.” Since Hulk was captured through mo-cap and his performance, Ruffalo pointed out that he is the only actor to ever play both Bruce Banner and the Hulk. Cue resounding applause.

9. In classic convention form, a small child requested that the superheros recite something. It did wonders for Ryan Reynolds when he recited Green Lantern’s oath at 2010′s Comic-Con and it was pretty bad-ass Saturday when the cast appearing from the Avengers said “Avengers Assemble!”

8. This audience had no idea what was in store for them with Clark Gregg. The man is hilarious, charming, smart as hell, witty, personable, a great storyteller, and he absolutely wowed us with his spunk and savvy. When each actor was asked who their favorite male and female superheroes are and everyone replied with an Avenger and either Black Widow or Maria Hill, Gregg elicited a sudden rush of impressed murmurs by name checking Warlock. Later, he described walking into the Helicarrier for the first time and seeing all the Avengers dressed up and ready to shoot as like being a part of the Make a Wish Foundation, just impossible that this sort of dream would be coming true. His best moment? Singing his own version of the Avengers theme song. He was responsible for a lot more amazing moments on the panel, listed below, but we would remiss if we didn’t single him out as being fan-effing-tastic on a Con panel.

7. Chris Evans, being the shy guy that he is? I’m guessing. Because he came wearing a hat and wouldn’t take it off and seemed to be trying to hide the entire time. Granted, when he lifted his hat up for a brief moment, we could see the terrible hat hair he was so reluctant to show, but still. What was happening, Chris? Still, it led to this priceless exchange:


Lady audience member: Take off your hat!
(Pause)
Chris Hardwicke: Did – Don’t order these people around! (laughter from the audience)
Every woman in the room in a high pitched voice, I’m not kidding: Pllleeeeeeaaaaassseee (even more laughter)
Unfortunately he never did remove the hat. Ah well.

6. There were definitely some How I Met Your Mother fans in the audience! When Cobie Smulders was introduced, multiple members of the audience yelled out “Robin Sparkles!” She loved it, then jokingly made it clear that she would not be singing. Unexpectedly the audience started to boo, as if to pressure her to sing a Robin Sparkles song out of nowhere. But Chris Hardwicke in a legendary move, said to us with a smile, “Nerds, nerds, she’s a guest in your home!” and everyone shut up. Amazing.

5. When discussing how he approached Bruce Banner, Ruffalo noted that he borrowed bits from all of the previous Hulks, though this one is definitely in a different place from Ed Norton’s take on the character. “This is going to be a more mature Banner, who understands a little bit what he has under the hood, so to speak. I had to pay homage, but then I had to ‘Ruffalize it’” Immediately, “Ruffalizing it” became an inside joke between the panel and the audience, was used three more times, and by the end, Hardwicke predicted the word would make it on to Urban Dictionary by the end of the day. Sadly, it hasn’t yet made the leap to Urban Dictionary. Probably because I’m not sure any of us could *actually* define the phrase.

4. The winner of New York Comic Con? Tom Hiddleston. The total unexpected star of the Avengers panel, it was Hiddleston who got asked the most questions and had the most girls swooning, not Chris Evans, so much so that when the third, then fourth question in a row was for him, the audience couldn’t help but crack up. From his smooth accent to his articulate answers and overwhelming knowledge of Loki, from top to bottom, he was perfection. When told he looked like Gene Wilder, he even sang some Willy Wonka, showing off his beautiful voice. When Chris Evans was finally asked a question after the string of ones for Tom, he got befuddled and finally said “I don’t know man, I got lost in Tom’s love. What was the question again, was it about Tom? I love Tom too.” Plus, he emphasized multiple times that he made it his mission to make Loki as human and relatable as possible – that’s why Loki worked so well in Thor and why I’m positive he will be amazing in The Avengers. Give me a villain I sort of like and sort of want to hug and sort of want to see win over a scene chewing megalomaniac any day of the week.

3. We were told over and over how much these guys love each other and what a great time they had on set, which every cast says, but I gotta say, you could practically feel the camaraderie vibrating off of these folks. At one point an extra thanked Chris and Tom for giving them the “greatest experience” of their lives in Cleveland. A bunch of giggles and sneaky looks from Chris and Tom followed. As did my face turning bright red with jealousy. But the best stories came when they talked about The Albuquerque Nightclub. Apparently there was only one night when the entire cast was actually in town, so they went to a nightclub and got crazy.

Clark: Albuquerque may never recover from that evening.
Chris: I don’t think any of us will ever recover from that evening.
Tom: Yeah that was a fun night.
Chris: MAN, that was a fun night.
Tom: I remember!
Chris: You remember?!

Tom then told a story about how everyone was on the dance floor getting crazy except for the two Chris’. He then, doing an impression of each Chris, shared this exchange he overheard.

Evans (pointing to a muscle): But how do you get this here?
Hemsworth (completely casual): I don’t know, mate, just work out and stuff?

“Two brothers in arms” Hiddleston said in reference to the two Chris’. Then Gregg stepped in with a story of his own. There was another party in the VIP room and at one point, the room sort of opened up a bit to reveal ScarJo dancing her face off. Gregg noticed the birthday boy glance over, see her, and stop dead cold in his tracks, unable to speak. But the best part of this story gets its own placement.

2. This same night, before going out, Evans sent out what Gregg deemed “the best text message of his life” to every member of the team. It simply read “Assemble.”

1. But what makes a panel filled with charming actors being hilarious and wonderful all the better? When the footage can back it up. An entire scene between Natasha Romanoff and Bruce Banner was screened and silenced a few haters in the process. The dialogue is snappy, the characters are well defined, the action is tight, the twists are genuinely unexpected – it has Joss written all over it in a way that reminds me why I loved him so much to begin with. If this scene is any indication of the entire film, we are in for a real treat. Although hearing Kevin Feige say that it’s Joss’ movie because he wrote it, directed it and is editing it, makes me nervous that he is preemptively passing the “blame” rather than giving proper credit. Please be as good as this clip and this panel makes it seem like it will be. I beg of you.

Watch the whole panel here

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What To Do & See At New York Comic-Con!

This weekend brings us another New York Comic Con, expanding over four full days for the first time ever. An extra day means more panels and more time in one of my favorite Con Dealer's Rooms around. So what should you make sure to do and see with your time? Here's our handy guide, after the jump!

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I love Marjane Satrapi

I know it's the first day of October but I'm already looking forward to November when The Sigh, Marjane Satrapi's new graphic novel, will be released by Archaia Entertainment.



But actually, even before November, you can catch the book's debut in a couple of weeks at New York Comic Con! I absolutely adore Satrapi's ridiculously awesome and super popular Persepolis I and II. I can't properly express my eagerness to get my hands on her new book. If it's half as beautifully written and illustrated as Persepolis, I will feel as though my expectations have been met.

Check back here at ATFG in November for a review of The Sigh! See full post

New York Comic Con After Hours Events

All Things Fangirl's ongoing list of what to do after hours at New York Comic Con. Be sure to check back for updates!

Thursday, October 7th, 2010

CBLDF NYCC Welcome Party

NYCC starts on October 8, but we want you to get in that New York Comic Con frame of mind a day early. Kick off the con on Thursday, October 7 with the CBLDF Welcome Party! Celebrating the premiere of the LIBERTY ANNUAL 2010, the CBLDF's NYCC Welcome Party brings together the best creators, fans and insiders for a star-spangled celebration of good comics and free speech! The party’s on Thursday, October 7, from 8 to 10pm at the Village Pourhouse on Restaurant Row. Come out to get your copy of the LIBERTY ANNUAL, free apps, and special giveaways. The party is open to all, but with a suggested donation of $10 or more, you will receive a special CBLDF gift bag. The CBLDF also offers two levels that include an OPEN BAR:

$30 -- Entry to the party, wristband for 2-hour open bar (Bud Light/Well/Red & White Wine), CBLDF's Liberty Annual 2010, and a gift bag from CBLDF & our corporate members

$50 -- Entry to party, wristband for 2-hour open bar (Bud Light/Well/Red & White Wine), NYCC Variant Cover of CBLDF's Liberty Annual 2010, and a gift bag from CBLDF & our corporate members

Come support Free Expression and meet the best and brightest in comics at the CBLDF's NYCC Welcome Party!

Head here to buy your wristband

Best American Comics 2010 Signing & Discussion

Barnes & Noble, Union Square, 7pm

Neil Gaiman, Jessical Abel, Matt Madden, Bryan Lee O'Malley in person. More info here.

Darwyn Cooke Signing - Parker: The Outfit

Borders, Penn Plaza, 7pm-9pm

Darwyn Cooke is the Eisner Award winning writer/artist of the best-selling DC: The New Frontier, and has garnered much critical and popular acclaim as the writer/artist of The Spirit, Selina's Big Score, and others

More info here

Return of the Dapper Men Launch Party & Art Show

Alice's Tea Cup, 73rd St. 7pm-10pm

Jim McCann talked about this on his recent Talksplode episode, and you'll be able to get advanced copies of the book, as well well as see and purchase Janet K. Lee's original art from the highly anticipated Archaia release.  There could be both craziness, and insanity.  Look at the name of the place!  Check out more here.

The original artwork will be on display and available for purchase as will advance copies of the book. Cakes, scones and tea will be served, as well as wine after 8pm, courtesy of Bluebird Wines.

The New York Comic Jam

Jack Dempsey's Pub, W. 33rd St., 7pm-11pm

At this event, they gather the best from New York's indie comics community to get drunk and draw comics.  Sounds like a night to remember and a great way to kick off the con!  This event is hosted by House of 12 Comics and you can learn about them here and here. 

Friday, October 8th, 2010

Geek Girls Tweet Up NYCC

Stitch Bar & Lounge (247 West 37th Street), 8:30-11:30

During the convention, we will all be busy waiting in lines, getting autographs, attending panels, waiting for bathrooms, and squeeeing over all that is awesome that time to meet those you have been friends with online and across the globe often takes a serious back seat. This Tweet-Up will be the perfect opportunity to hang out with friends you have made online and hopefully make some new friends.

RSVP here

NCsoft East Coast Meet & Greet & After Hours Party

Good Units at the Hudson Hotel

Basement Level 

356 West 58th Street

New York, NY 10019

Meet & Greet - 7pm-11pm

After Hours Party - 11pm-3am

NCsoft East Coast Meet & Greet

Starting at 7 p.m., meet up with fellow NCsoft players and talk with members of the Aion, City of Heroes, Guild Wars 2, Lineage, and Lineage II  teams. They will be on hand to chat and to answer questions about your favorite games. You'll have the chance to win prizes from Razer and AMD, and you can try out NCsoft products on Alienware machines with peripherals from Razer.

NCsoft After Hours Party

If you’re looking for a spot to break out some late night fun, stay after the Meet & Greet or join us starting at 11 p.m. when we morph the event at Good Units to the NCsoft After Hours Party. Socialize with NCsoft and dance to into the early hours of the morning to New York’s hottest live DJ mixes. (Suggested dress is upscale casual.)

More info here

Saturday, October 9th, 2010

UGO & 1UP Present the "Hells Yeah, NYCC!" Meet Up

Lansdowne Road Sports Bar599 10th Avenue

8pm-12am

After a long day of rushing to panels, navigating the sea of booths and running from one end of the Javits Center to the other, join UGO for the end-all-be-all of New York Comic-Con meet-ups, a place to join colleagues and meet new friends over a pintof beer (or whatever's Batman's drinking these days).

Bring invite your friends, come in costume, prepare a recitation of your favorite Star Trek monologue - whatever floats your boat. Let's get all us nutty folk in one place and make it a night to remember!

More info here

iFanboy Meet Up & Party

Bergen St. Comics, 470 Bergen St., Brooklyn, 8pm

Hang out with the iFanboys... and SPECIAL GUESTS GEOFF JOHNS AND FRANCIS MANAPUL! There will be an open bar (tips are always welcome), and when the party ends there are lots of local places to head out to after!

More Info here

Rock Comic Con NYC's Nerd Rock Festival

Sullivan Hall, 214 Sullivan, 10:30pm-3am

The premiere NYC Nerd Rock Festival featuring great, rockin' nerd bands, Kirby Krackle, H2Awesome, Fortress of Attitude & Bedlam Rock! 

Special Guests include Rachel Bloom (F*ck Me, Ray Bradbury)

Hosted by FUSE TV's Steven Smith (Daily Download, Steven's Untitled Rock Show.)

PLUS: Marvel and DC Artists drawing LIVE during the show! 

AND The Covered Comic Art Exhibit featuring Comic Cover reinterpretations from The Covered Blog.

Promises to be THE fun, hilarious and outrageous "after party" of this year's NY Comic Con covering all aspects of Nerd culture!

$10 advance / $12 Day of Show - Buy here

Sponsored by 12-Gauge Comics, Comic Geek Speak, Indie Spinner Rack, Comic News Insider and Evil Twin Comics!

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New York Comic Con Wrap Up - Sunday

The final day of the Con was a great end to a great weekend. I got to see the panels for a show I'm looking forward to and a show I love, plus I got my X Factor #1 signed by Peter David, watched EruditeChick kick some SERIOUS ass in the Marvel Debates, and got interviewed by G4 for Attack of the Show's NYCC coverage & their Watchmen special airing on the 25th. Woot!

I started out the day searching for the elusive Guitar Hero area of the convention. The map in the guide book claimed it was on the upper level next to the stage that featured people with lightsabers prancing around pretending to kill each other (which by the way, I'd do in a heartbeat. I love prancing around pretending to kill people!) but alas, no Guitar Hero was to be found! Disappointing. Hopefully that can be remedied for next year.

Dollhouse


Joss is one of those convention staples who always has a packed panel and who consistently shows everyone a great time. He's a riot & the fans worship him (myself included) so his panels are definitely must see. This one was no exception. Especially because he brought with him the gloriously charming & gorgeous Tahmoh Penikitt. These two are great together and you can tell the working environment on the show must be amazing. They talked a lot about Dollhouse, natch, and showed the first act of the pilot. Sadly, there was no Tahmoh in the first ten minutes but Joss assured us it would be worth the wait cause when we finally meet him, he is shirtless. And. That's the best of all ideas. For a write up of the footage, head on over to Io9 and for some clips from the first act, head to THIS Io9 page. Gotta love Io9.

While the footage didn't blow me away, I can see the potential in the show and will absolutely be watching every episode. I mean, it's Joss. And Tahmoh. I'm watching. I worry about how invested I will be in Echo, since she basically will have zero character development, but hopefully I'll be so invested in Tahmoh's character, Paul, that it won't matter. I definitely got the impression from Joss & Tahmoh that the series gets MUCH better as it goes on and we are encouraged to stick with it and trust them.

Here are some more highlights from the panel:


-In regards to Buffy Season 8, Angel will be making an appearance "as soon Georges figures out how to draw him..." cause there's "so much forehead!"
-Joss' advice to aspiring filmmakers (which is also Seth Green's advice) is "If you have something to make, make it."
-Joss would love to tackle a "frilly costume drama" in Elizabethan times, mostly because of the dresses the ladies would be wearing
-In response to Nathan Fillion teasing the fans about making another Firefly movie, Joss proclaimed "Nathan's a cock."
-Joss would love to see "What's up with Dr. Horrible". Sequel?!?! Please!!!
-Apparently Eliza has a beautiful voice that we'll get to hear some of in Dollhouse's 3rd episode
-No Dollhouse comics in the works, but Joss is looking into a supplementary web series

Whedon talks about Sondheim and directing a broadway show while I close up on Tahmoh cause he's gorgeous. What?

Fringe



First - it should be noted that between the Dollhouse & Fringe panels, while I was backstage gawking at Tahmoh and weirding out Joshua Jackson who thought I was gawking at him, I missed a video IGN made exclusive for Comic Con that is a live action parody combination of Portal & The Office. HOW DID I MISS THIS?! Hopefully they will post it online soon so we can talk about how brilliant it is together. Cause how could that not be brilliant?

But on to the main event - Fringe! Did anyone see last night's episode? Cause HOLY CRAP. I like where you're going & what you're doing, Fringe. That lightboard thing was genius. But here are some highlights from the panel, which by the way was oddly hilarious. The cast clearly gets along supremely & loves working on the show. And John Noble may in
fact be nuts in real life. Not that I'm complaining.

-Lance Reddick is an Ultimate Spiderman fan
-Josh Jackson & executive producer Jeff Pinkner are both huge Calvin & Hobbes fans, which they didn't discover until right then. Lots of Calvin & Hobbes echos appear in Fringe.
-Josh Jackson keeps a flow chart in his trailer to keep track of all the mythology. Can I get a copy of that?
-Apparently the flashing icons that appear before each commercial break are part of a code that diligent fans should be able to crack. They provide clues to the overall mythology of the show.
-Each episode has a clue hidden somewhere about the focus of the next episode. I already knew about these, but it was cool to hear it confirmed.
-Yes, the Observer is in every episode (knew that), sometimes more than once (didn't know that)
-We will be meeting William Bell (and may have already) sometime this season!
-A kid in the audience asked Anna Torv for help for a class project and she obliged. He claimed if they both wore these aluminum hats, he would be able to read her mind (see above) and joked afterwards that now he knows her phone number.

Anna Torv after helping a student with a class project

That's it for the panels! But not the end of the day. One of the highlights of the entire convention was watching EruditeChick KILL at the Marvel Debates at the Ultimate Alliance 2 booth. Some of the questions debated were "Who would make a better Nick Fury - The Hoff or Sam Jackson?" and "Should captured villains be forced to work for the government as superheroes?" The poor kid she was debating didn't know what hit him. I missed out on filming most of the debate (though it should appear on the Ultimate Alliance website soon), I did catch EruditeChick winning the big award. This video doesn't feature any of the lady's vast X-Men knowledge, but her answers, soon to be posted online, feature plenty :)

And that's pretty much it! Somewhere in there, I got interviewed by Blair Butler about the con & Watchmen, so snippets of me being awkward should appear on Attack of the Show sometime this week or at the very least, on the 25th.

Hope you enjoyed the coverage!

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