Convention Report: New York Comic Con 2019!

Another year, another New York Comic Con in the books for me! This was certainly an interesting one as I mainly traveled solo but I managed to meet and see a handful of cosplayers! Some for the first time and reunions with others! Held at the Javits Convention Center, NYCC is THE big comic convention for the East Coast. So much so that even cosplayers and attendees visit from other countries! Such is the case with a few cosplayers I met which I'll get to later on. You of course had the giant show floor which housed many vendors. Either independent artists or huge companies from gaming to the comic industry. I surprisingly didn't go crazy on figurine purchases, mainly cause Square Enix didn't attend which shocked me. I guess I was curious/excited to potentially have an option to play the upcoming Final Fantasy VII Remake. Though some booths had the upcoming Avengers game playable and from what I could see, it's certainly a game I want to keep my eye on!

I attended NYCC from this past Friday to Sunday and it certainly was crowded like always! Even Sunday felt more crowded than the previous day which I always felt was the "busiest" day. SyFy had a presence with their fan lounge, and the River Pavillion has become THE cosplay hub for both Vero and other cosplay related businesses/organizations. Some cosplayers like Ivy Doomkitty and Luxlo Cosplay were signing at certain booths in the exhibitor hall but lots of cosplayers stopped by the Pavillion to take part in shoots done by Vero. For those unaware, Vero has become enamored with the cosplay community. In an age where cosplay as a hobby is struggling with social media interaction and algorithms, Vero is hoping to change that with 0 ads/algorithms at work.

Holly as Harley

As such, they had several cosplayers work their booth each day during certain time frames. I got to meet Holly Wolf for the first time in addition to seeing Kristen Hughey again after a long time had passed. Holly wore her Female Freddy Kreuger, the Joker's Nurse look from the Dark Knight and a super sexy Harley Quinn (complete with a mallet made in 3 hours XD). Kristen wore MJ SpiderMan on Thursday and Tiffany from Chucky on Friday. Both of these gals were really sweet to talk with and I had a wonderful time getting to see them. Leaving me with such sweet words of encouragement meant the world to me!

I didn't get the chance to see Ivy but she brought out her Velma and Ghostbuster corset outfits as well as Rogue from X-Men! The photos she posted looked absolutely AMAZING! Some other cosplayers I had the joy of meeting for the first time were Danielle DeNicola and Rolyat who I've featured both on the blog before! They were with a group of cosplayers representing the mobile game Epic Seven and oh man were the cosplays simply AMAZING! I'd be willing to say up to at least half of my loot from the con was cosplay prints XD.

Ireland as Elvira

Ireland Reid was also in attendance working her own little section in the Artist Alley. I haven't seen her in so long so getting to reconnect was really something special. For what I assume was inspired by the spooky month, all her cosplays were horror related. Vampirella, Elvira, and a comfy Deadpool suit were the ones I saw as part of her lineup! I didn't really get a chance to roam around Artist Alley as I was mostly bouncing around in hopes of finding certain friends that were also in attendance!

Sadly I wasn't able to since service wasn't kind to our phones in the convention center ;-;. Mink the Satyr was one such individual and I know her outfits were out of this world! These included Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn (which she entered in the Cosplay Contest and scored second place!), and Toothless being debuted on Sunday! Other cosplayers I saw included two very wonderful Lady Thors on Friday! One was Livicole Cosplay and the other was Princess Natalie who I met for the first time and pretty much discovered that same day! Hopefully will be planning posts/podcast things with her soon!

For myself, I cosplayed on Friday and Saturday and oh man did both outfits have their mishaps. For Riku, not only did I forget his wig (bless Arda Wigs for saving my butt with having an amazing wig for him at the convention), but the keychain fell off right before I got on the train. PLUS I had a successful and fun shoot in him with photographer/cosplayer Kadu=Out. However I ended up falling down and tearing a hole in the pants XD. I'm honestly going to re-purchase the cosplay at the end of the year due to the pants truthfully being too big on me. That being said, the poses Kadu instructed me to do were badass and I'm so STOKED for the photos to come back :D. Overall there really wasn't a dominant media topic that cosplay encompassed. I feel like since it's New York, and how much of a presence he has in the city, SpiderMan was always a popular character to cosplay as. With the unfortunate passing of Stan Lee earlier this year plus the Sony/Marvel deal falling apart but now back on the table, the web-slinger had a huge splash at the con.

Princess Natalie as Lady Thor

Other goodies I snagged were plushies, this really awesome Shadowbox that was animated through AR, and the recently released illustrated biography of famed Final Fantasy artist Yoshitaka Amano (who was present at the con and I managed to convince streamer/amazing gal Yunalescka to go just for him)! This con convinced me though that I should strongly stop going to conventions solo as being with friends can make all the difference in how much fun can be had.

I wish I was able to cheer Mink on at the competition or go to the panel she held, I would have also loved to grab dinner with friends if that was possible. Ireland was just such a delight and I really opened up to her regarding my current struggles and she left me with some advice that I definitely want to keep and use for future events. I also managed to meet Azulette Cosplay on Friday only in her incredible Ino cosplay from Guilty Gear! I missed the meetup with CutiePieSensei in her Shuri/Black Panther cosplay :O. She was also Phoenix on one of the days too! Sunday was the day I took a lot of pictures of the show floor, and I also wanted to take pictures of amazing cosplays but I felt that Fri/Sat would have been the best days. As such, I might bring one cosplay instead of two for future big cons like NYCC.

I seriously can't thank those that I met enough for giving me so much love and kindness like they always have been. I feel like one of the luckiest guys around getting to have such phenomenal friendships with talented individuals. I definitely have a LOT to talk about with my guests this month for my show so definitely look forward to new episodes! I also won one of the NYCC lotteries so I picked up an exclusive for Intraventus which made me super happy <3. Plus more Smash Bros amiibos of fighters I frequently play with!

Other companies that had a presence this year included Capcom, Konami with YuGiOh, Dark Horse Comics, IDW, DC with their costume showcase on the lobby level, Funko (as you can see on the right), and Kotobukiya! Still shocked I didn't go nuts on figures, SUPER SONICO ALMOST HAD ME XD. Check out the pictures I took for you guys <3. Thank you as always for your continued support, my convention season is over (possibly) for the year!

Danielle is a CUTIE <3

Kristen as Tiffany!

Holly as Nurse Joker!

Luxlo Cosplay as Ann Takamaki

Holly as Freddy Kreuger!

Azulette Cosplay as Ino!

SHE CUTE <3

Ireland as Vampirella

Livicole Cosplay as Lady Thor

Rolyat's cosplay was GORGEOUS

Got to talk with Spectra for a bit and his Aquaman was DOPE!

Until next time guys, thank you all for reading! Keep on visiting Lightning Palace for all your cosplay and convention news! Next year I plan on making significant changes to have this site REALLY be the place to view fantastic cosplay!
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