New York Comic Con 2013

Last weekend, I attended the 8th annual New York Comic Con and had a grand ol' time shopping at The Block, trolling pics of cosplayers for my day job, lurking at toys and visiting with friends in Artist Alley. As usual, there was an abundance of overstimulating imagery - and some oddly out of place celebs, Darlene Love's booth, anyone? - at the show. And though several articles have been published about the continued harassment of female cosplayers, which truly is a shame in this day and age, I felt that this was probably the most girl-friendly con I've been to yet.

First off, there were cosplayers of all shapes and sizes doing their thing, which I imagine has to be liberating for those participating - not letting body image issues (possibly triggered by looking at women illustrated in comic books) distort one's desire to rock heels, fishnets with no pants and a top hat despite not being a size 6. Curvy Zatanna, I got you, girl!

What's up, sexy Psylocke?

Sure, the Arizona Iced Tea "We Heart Big Cans" setup in the main lobby was tacky as hell. But there were at least three booths offering manicures - not bad for the nerdy girl on the go. And there were tons of booths selling all sorts of niche apparel - Star Trek, steampunk, anime, mega-booths pushing Batman lingerie and pajamas, even Ricky's Halloween shop - with impulse items galore for everyone.

Also more prevalent this year: sexy, shirtless MALE cosplayers. See below (yum, Latino Spartans!).

Some pretty incredible celeb sightings occurred; Whoopi Goldberg even showed up to pitch her comic to DC's Dan DiDio! (Sidebar: "Whoopi Goldberg was at Comic Con!" is also the leading boner-killing sentence one can convey to my boyfriend.)

Stolen from DiDio's Facebook page.

Speaking of (fem)boner killing, here's "Uncle" Jerry Only of the Misfits copping a feel on me during a photo op. I guess that can count as harassment. 

Another advent at this year's NYCC was the "tapping" in and out of badges. Rather than just having security eyeball peoples' passes as they came through, we were required to be electronically tagged in and out of the hall. The result? A massive decrease in bootlegged badges, and dare I say, slightly more elbow room when walking through the main room.

Of course, there were also tons of panels and breaking news of comic happenings, but I can't be bothered waiting in line for that when there's Alex Pardee art to be purchased. The only one I wished I'd made it to was the Chucky 25th Anniversary panel, but was too busy in Times Square on Friday making little girls cry.

For me, the coolest thing was the incorporation of street and "pop" art. Both Roebling Wall (located around the corner from Williamsburg's Cotton Candy Machine gallery) and KidRobot sponsored live painting events on-site, and such prominent names as Ron English, Skinner, Wayshak and Tara McPherson were there autographing and selling pieces.

Overall, a good time. Even as NYCC continues to struggle with some growing pains. To check out all my photos head HERE.