Convention Report: New York Comic Con 2015

October 13, 2015

Convention Report: New York Comic Con 2015

Holding my precious derpy friend

So I figured I'd open this up with the above picture. That's what my friendship with Jessica Nigri has evolved into over the years <3. I've mentioned online and to myself that I felt like I was going to cry happy tears. All throughout last weekend. I've never felt so loved and appreciated before as I have then. As many of you are aware, I attended New York Comic Con for the 4th time this year. Along with my Dad, I debuted my New 52 Future's End Aquaman along with bringing out Steampunk Nightwing. Despite the unfortunate things that happened, this con was arguably one of my favorites this year. I saw pretty much everyone on my list, some multiple times and just had a lot of fun!

Aquaman was surprisingly a big hit with attendees and all the girls I saw! The armor stayed on pretty secured until the final hours of the day. Let's get into the con though shall we? As you might have expected, each day started off with seeing Jessica first since her line was no doubt going to blow up as the day went on. Jess was stationed/working with the Gemr booth alongside her boyfriend Ryan otherwise known as Fake Nerd Boy online. He was really great to talk to and it was nice to finally meet him after seeing him everywhere on Jess' social media pages (it's cool though, they're perfect for each other <3). I loved Jessica's lineup, Friday was all her Arcade Miss Fortune which she bought from Vensy Props!

Sweet lady Monika <3

The cosplay was an absolute beauty to look at and Jess wore it so well! She had a giant smile seeing me and had the sweetest things to say. Complimenting my cosplay and noting how I keep improving immediately put me on a high note the rest of the day. I'm really glad to hear I was impressing her in a way <3. We worked our way over to the SonicBoomBox booth which has become a staple place to visit simply for the plethora of cosplayers who were there. Monika and Riki were stationed there for only Thursday-Saturday and said hi by hugging me once I came into their vision. We chatted a bit and caught up on what we were all up to. Monika was wearing her Rogue which I had seen before and yet she still rocks it so hard!

Riki was wearing her ridiculously cute Snow White x Street Fighter crossover concept character she found somewhere online. We managed to see Kelly Jean who was working over where Downward Viral was stationed with their Zombie card game being worked on. Though it was only at late points during the day with her signings. Oh! I forgot to mention I met cosplayer LeeAnna Vamp for the first time and I honestly don't know why I didn't meet her sooner. She was just about the sweetest person on the face of this planet. Calling me sweetheart and asking if I was doing alright/having fun. Her outfit was a female Freddy Kreuger which was right up her alley of horror/gothic cosplays.

LeeAnna was incredibly sweet!

The Triforce booth was home to cosplayers Amie Lynn, Lindsay Elyse, Deanna Davis and Stella Chuu at certain times. All of which were happy to see me again and loved my Aquaman. I gave Lindsay a Kingdom Hearts Pin that I managed to find during my Disney trip the previous week and she loved it! Amie always had the brightest smile on and we had some really good chats. Deanna was wearing a heavily armored Red Hood cosplay, Lindsay with her new Assassin's Creed Cosplay and Amie was wearing her Battleborn cosplay she debuted earlier in the year. I also met cosplayer Crystal Graziano who wore her Sniper Wolf which I LOVED <3. She was very sweet to chat with even though they were short talks.

Riki's Snow White x Street Fighter was so CUTE!

Artist Alley was home to Uncanny Megan who loved seeing me again, Ireland Reid who I just had to meet after discovering her shortly before this con, and Ani-Mia who has since now become like a sister to me as well which I'll get into later. Megan and I had some chats about how we got here, and several other things which I forgot (I'm so sorry Megan ;-;). Ireland was a definite surprise and knew who I was from the recent chats we've had. She was just the sweetest and looked amazing in her Mara Jade cosplay! Oh and Megan was wearing Chun-Li, looking pretty dang tall as well.

Mia was my last stop in the area and it was just incredible. Her Aquawoman helped inspire me to make my Aquaman as well as keep me motivated. She absolutely loved seeing it and gave me so much love and hugs for it. Always saying how she sees me online constantly and loves what I do, it was just really special :). Of course I had to see my buddies over at the Filthy Casual booth! Chatting with Jason, Mike and Darshelle is always fun and we chat about how the con is for us. As always, I just had to grab one of their newest shirts which played into my outfit on Sunday!

Meet Midge, SHE'S SO CUTE!

The last thing I did today was something that I'd end up doing the rest of the convention. That being a meet up with a cosplayer who I also found before the convention but we ended up becoming super good friends. Midge Scully was there for her first NYCC and made a super last minute Sonico cosplay that ended up being SO FREAKING CUTE <3. We chatted a bit saying how awesome it was to finally meet each other and she helped out so much with some of the bad things that I mentioned earlier. Along with another close friend of mine who I ran into earlier, she also helped out tremendously. I managed to hand out most of my drawings and stuff to some of the girls including a drawing for Midge and several others. We also ran into Destiny who was there working at the Progessive booth which looked like to be tons of fun from what I saw! I TOTALLY FORGOT IVY ;-;. yea I also visited the lovely Ivy Doomkitty when she was stationed at a booth late in the day. She was such a delight to talk with and loved hearing how her words on body positivity and feeling confident helped me with wearing Aquaman!

Jessica's Rikku was SO COOL!

That was pretty much day 1 XD. So in an effort to not make this a novel, I'm gonna condense Saturday and Sunday since pretty much what happened on Day 1 (for me anyways) was pretty much the same the rest of the con <3. Saturday started off with a bit of a bummer since security wouldn't allow me to bring in my prop/weapons for Steampunk Nightwing (which was weird considering I got in with them fine last year). Anyways, I stopped by Jessica's booth again who started singing/rapping to me (I think?) asking how I've been from yesterday. Through clever rhyming she easily made me feel much better. Got pictures taken with her and Ryan and she really let her derpy side go wild XD.

Today was pretty much full of feels starting with Riki. While I was waiting to chat with Monika for a bit (who was in her Gunner Yuna and I was all YESSSS) Riki pointed out to me asking when she and the others were getting more drawings. This then led to a conversation in which basically some of the girls will still talk about me, mentioning how to them I'm their little "cosplay baby" who started out being quiet and handing out drawings to now fully talking with them in pretty awesome conversations and improving my cosplay skills with each new outfit. I thought I was gonna cry at this point <3.

Amie's a cute derp <3

I visited Amie and the others over at the Triforce booth and we ended up chatting for a bit. She commented on how much she loves and appreciates what I do for all the girls on Social Media. How more guys like me are needed in the community. That right there made me feel like the luckiest guy in the world. All this love from everyone alongside appreciation made me so freaking happy! I made stops with all the girls at their designated times as I could. Ireland debuted her big reveal with an amazing Poison Ivy cosplay and we got to learn of what went into it. Along with bits of her life as an engineer, managing her job, cosplay life PLUS going for her Masters! Also have you guys ever checked out her fitness pictures? Ireland is just incredibly gorgeous and inspires me so much. Mia and I had a heart to heart moment and how we both appreciated having each other in our lives as really good friends.

In addition to the girls working at booths, I wanted to try and run into those that were roaming around. I managed to meet a couple of them for the first time and that made me incredibly happy. There was my friend Marie Grey who was there on press business taking all the pictures, Ely Renae who wore her Alloy from the upcoming game Horizon: Zero Dawn, and Jaycee Cosplay in her Captain America 2.0 which looked so freaking beautiful! All of them were very happy to meet/see me but unfortunately we weren't able to chat that long. Still, I was really happy :D. Midge's meet up ended that day as well, we talked more and got to know each other a little bit more too! She really is a sweetheart you guys :).

Loved seeing Crystal's Sniper Wolf!

I visited Ivy later and we chatted about how her panel went which was a delight to hear. Plus I got to live my Nightwing/Starfire duo pic dream in visiting Mostflogged who cosplayed as her at the Kotobukiya booth! She looked incredible and I was just incredibly happy! I visited the Filthy Casual guys again as well! My dad and I had a nice chat with several comic book artists and illustrators over at Artist Alley such as Trevor McCarthy and Kyle Higgins (who loved my Steampunk Nightwing :D). Sunday rolled around and was definitely a fast one. Surprisingly it was a lot crowded than it was in the past years. Yaya Han was one of the last people I saw and we chatted for a bit and it was pretty amazing. She commented on how I was always improving and enjoys seeing it! I told her about my current cosplay situation and what I had planned so she said that it'd be the perfect time to do more research which I definitely will when the time comes <3.

Mainly roamed around saying my last goodbyes, this con is best explained in pictures so I have a ton of which to share with you guys. Some of the things I expected to happen didn't, and mainly it was for the better because in the end, I left the happiest I've ever been. Everyone loves me, notices me, my voice is ever so apparent. Pretty much what everyone said to me is engrained into my head. I made new close friendships and the relationships I have with the cosplayers I saw is at a new level, one which that I don't think most fans can say they have :). They're my family and I'd be lost without them. I love you guys so so much, thank you for everything you do, from inspiration to kindness and reaching out. I'm crying as I wrap this up, please enjoy the pictures I took <3