This was obviously the big convention for me this year! The prior year I met more awesome people and hung out with them when I could but this year was much more meaningful. I traveled to the convention with my Dad and we crashed at my aunt's house who lives out there so no need for a hotel! We went for the whole 3 days Friday-Sunday.
I had already made plans for visiting specific booths having written down the numbers on an index card, but that wasn't needed anymore until Saturday hehe. My main 2 areas were Booth 670 and Booth 582.
670 had cosplayers Jessica Nigri, Monika Lee, Destiny Nickelsen and Meg Turney stationed selling their prints and as expected, the booth was usually packed with a swarm of people wanting to meet them. 582 on the other hand had cosplayers Vampy Bit Me and Amie Lynn (joined by Ani-Mia starting on Saturday) I had the pleasure of having a conversation with each of these ladies for a good amount of time. I also saw cosplayer Katie George and had great chats with her as well. Yaya Han was also there but alas I only managed to get 1 picture with her due to her schedule being absolutely nuts. Working with Marvel as their cosplay correspondent was one of her duties.
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| My NYCC loot except the prints. Jessica also singed my copy of Killer is Dead! |
Vendor wise my Dad and I enjoyed seeing what was offered. Most of our money went to Funko Pops as I bought my first one (Nightwing duh!) but I also bought a 2nd Nightwing as this particular vendor had an exclusive one with his current New 52 Red outfit! I also purchased another amazing Cherry Sauce Clothing shirt (more on them in a future post) and the NYCC edition of Batman Issue 24!
I also had the pleasure of meeting my awesome Twitter buddy Marie Grey who is a cosplayer and photographer. My very first photoshoot was with her and she loved my Shadow the Hedgehog in person. Some of the shots she took were awesome and I can't wait to see the finished pictures :D
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| Marie Grey and I |
Now for arguably the meaningful stuff. Yesterday I posted my experience with the cosplayers I met and how they each made my weekend special. Despite me stressing over something so stupid, they easily cheered me up when I visited them.
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| Monika and Jessica on Friday! Steampunk Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn respectively |
Jess and Monika loved seeing me multiple times each day and didn't mind it at all. Always saying "Hey Man what's up?" or "JAMES". I was able to talk with them for a bit although not too long as I was holding up the line hehe. They also gave me free prints and discounts on ones I bought :). Ended up with 3 from each!
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| Destiny and I on Sunday! |
Destiny was so sweet and I enjoyed talking with her despite the issues she had with one of her cosplays and issues with the booth directly across from them (some kind of hip hop thing that would occasionally hold dance parties thus blocking up the pathway and causing people who wanted to buy prints to go away due to the noise) I definitely understand how she felt, they got on my nerves too!
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| Amie is just so cute I can't even! |
Amie was just freaking adorable and nice! She loved talking with me and her cosplays looked gorgeous. We took some awesome photos together and she loved the drawing I made for her! Hoping to see her again next year!
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| Vampy in her Punisher Cosplay!! |
Vampy was so amazing as well! She loved my Nightwing cosplay and asked how it was wearing it and surprisingly it held up pretty damn good! All my cosplays did! Seeing her Nightwing on Saturday was all sorts of AWESOME
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| Katie as the Injustice version of Wonder Woman |
Katie and her boyfriend Cliff were all kinds of awesome! I had funny conversations with Katie each day she was there (NYCC doesn't like them both having phones that's all I'll say haha), and Cliff had a fantastic talk with me and my Dad on Sunday about cosplay and what it means for him and how it changed me as well (we can all be ourselves and not worry about being judged).
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| Mia rocking Zatanna! Love this outfit. |
Mia was so sweet and pretty! She loved finally meeting me gladly took pictures with me, expect posts about her soon in the coming week :D. Her Zatanna was AMAZING AND BEAUTIFUL! Her Ame-Comi Catwoman the next day was fantastic, the feet armor was so cool!
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| Dustin in his awesome Man of Steel suit! |
My Dad and I also talked with another male cosplayer Dustin (friends with Destiny) who wore an impressive Man of Steel cosplay. We both loved hearing of what he does for charity visiting kids in areas and hospitals dressed up as Superman. He told of his country wide journey he took during the course of the year and he loves his job which is definitely a plus! Definitely an inspiration, having him saying he loved my Nightwing and that I definitely deserved the compliment...was so awesome!
I also chatted quick with the guys at Cherry Sauce Clothing Jason and Mike. They were great to talk to and I really do love the things they sell!
I better wrap this up cause now I'm starting to cry, I had mentioned before that I was planning on doing video interviews for the blog and on Friday managed to get 3/4. That soon went down to 1 cause of one of the girls being so busy but it wasn't all a loss. My Dad and I stayed til the very end on Sunday just as the staff was rolling up the carpets. Jessica and Monika had both changed out of their cosplays into casual clothes and I was able to interview them both at the same time :). They waited that long for me so I could have it done. They were awesome to interview in person!
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| These 2 mean so much to me!! <3 |
I can go on and on about those 2 but really this is what I want to say. I don't know why people always hate on these girls for doing what they do, disrespecting them in the comments on their pages and whatnot. More so on Jess and it's just unpleasant to look at. If you meet these girls you know that they're nothing but nice and kind and all around amazing people. The changes I made in my life were mainly because of them inspiring me to be a happier and better person. I love them both alot and I'm forever grateful to them!
That's all I have to say, I feel like there's more but I can't think of how to say it! Thank you to all the people I mentioned for making this such a great weekend! I'm truly so glad I got to spend time with you all. My next convention is in 3 weeks at Rhode Island Comic Con (yay local). Possibility of me helping out at a booth I'll have to check back as the convention gets closer. Expect that video interview next week where there will be double the cosplay interviews! :)
