Hey, kids! It’s the super-belated New York Comic Con post!

Verdict: Ridiculously awesome.

I already posted about Friday’s highlight at the Gaiman panel, but here’s the full account. We were let out of work early, so instead of getting dressed at the con itself, I changed in the bathroom at work, where I would have comparatively more space and privacy. Then came the fun of making my way across midtown Manhattan while dressed like the anthropomorphic personification of delirium! The number of horrified stares was far eclipsed by the number of “You go, girl”-esque responses. The most fun came when I walked past a huge gathering of people (maybe 200) in brightly-colored cultural dress from around the world. You could just see the “I wonder what she represents?” question in the kids’ eyes.

I first headed to the CNI booth to say hello to Joe and Jimmy and drop off the bag containing my work clothes, and to say goodbye to Jimmy’s hair. Jimmy has had long, gorgeous, Pantene-ad hair for 20 years, but he finally decided to cut it on Saturday and donate it to Locks of Love, raising over five hundred dollars for the charity in the process. More power to him! My timing happened to coincide with their first raffle, so I read out the ticket numbers for them. T’was fun!

Next, I headed downstairs to wait in line for the Gaiman event. I was nearly an hour early, yet there were already something like thirty people in line! I chatted with my neighbors and got my photo taken approximately eleventy billion times, which was all kinds of fun! Much to my dismay, I realized just how short my skirt was and how conspicuous I felt wearing it, so I decided to wear my capris underneath it on Saturday.

Neil was presaged by a hilarious short speech by Bill Hader of SNL, a huge Gaiman fan. Then Neil came out, read a pair of short stories, did the Q&A thing I recounted in the earlier entry, and read chapter 3 of The Graveyard Book, which is going to be phenomenal. I can’t wait!

Saturday morning, I hooked up with my friend and fellow RPer John, aka The Boy, and his father and uncle. We spent much of the morning cruising the floor, hooking up with Will and his buddy Dave (one of his Beauty and the Geek co-stars) along the way. Fairly early on, we stopped by the Dabel Brothers’ booth, and I got to meet the gang in person. The Dabel Brothers are the publishers of the Dresden Files comic book, on which I serve as a Thematic Consultant. Unfortunately, Ernst (eldest of the brothers and our main liason) had a scheduling conflict and couldn’t be in attendance, but it was great to get to meet Derek and the rest of the team. Derek is a really fun guy and amazingly generous–when I inquired about the price of the NYCC edition of Dresden #1, he immediately handed John and me a huge stack of comics with all three editions of Dresden #1 and the first issue of their other title, Wild Cards. Woo, royal treatment!

Eventually, 11 rolled around, and we headed over to the Midtown Comic booth, where Jim Butcher was doing his first signing of the day. Jim instantly recognized me despite my insane Delirium wig (or perhaps because of it?), and introduced me to Jennifer Jackson, his agent, and Anne Sowards, his editor. My conversation with Anne was cut short by a bunch of fanboys clammoring for a photo with me (rar! couldn’t they see I was occupied?), but I got to chat a bit longer with Jennifer, who is quite clearly one of the most awesome people on the planet, and who is also blessed with the ability to surround herself with similarly awesome people.

While John and I waited for Jim’s signing to end at 11:30 (when the three of us would grab lunch together), he scoped out nearby booths. Unfortunately, around 11:40, when Jim and I hooked back up, John was nowhere to be seen. I left him four voicemails over the space of 11:20 to 11:40, to no avail. In the last, I told him Jim and I were headed to the food court, and to call me when he got the message.

It was a wonderful, relaxing lunch. One of the things I enjoyed so much about PhauxCon was the casual, laid-back atmosphere, but even my beloved micro-con couldn’t entirely remove the faint “Jim and Shannon are the Guests of Honor” hierarchy. Also, I myself was so fanstruck at the time! The one-on-one (and later, two-on-one, when John finally checked his phone) nature of this conversation was an absolute delight. He even paid for my lunch! :D

We chatted about anything and everything: our favourite new-series Doctors (Jim: 9, me: 10), the lolcat phenomenon, comic book trailers, awful Sci-Fi Channel movies (and the Butcher family tradition of Shannon and J.J. tearing down the movie, and Jim attempting to defend it as the Best Movie Ever), the awesomeness of Ray Park and the great loss to our culture suffered at the absence of a Toad/Nightcrawler fight in X2, why on earth political figures go on the Daily Show and the Colbert Report, something that happens in a future Dresden book that will cause the entire fandom’s head to explode, oh my god… You know, the usual.

He also signed John’s orange box knife for use in my new Butcher ‘Spress podcast logo. As the daddy podcast, The Butcher Block, uses an actual signed butcher block, I felt the box knife surrounded by pizza was appropriate (both are associated with the fan-favourite Dresden character Toot-toot, a faerie who occasionally provides Harry with information–not a bad mascot for a news podcast). Then we gave the camera our best skeptical eyebrows and headed off to explore the con floor together! Eventually, around 1:30, John and I returned him safe and sound to the Dabel Table (this is more clever when you note that “Dabel” and “Table” rhyme) so he could prepare for the Dabel Bros’ panel at 2.

On my way down to the panel, I ran into my friend Kevin, who was dressed as his beloved character Unemployed Skeletor in preparation for the Masters of the Universe panel. We vowed to find some opportunity to hang out soon, as we never see each other and that is lame.

The Dabel panel was quite nifty. Afterwards, I went to a panel on making it as a voice actor, then John and I resumed our floor-meandering ways. I went by the CNI table to see Jimmy’s new hair, which looks great! I was terrified he’d do something short and unJimmylike, but his hair was so long that they were able to cut SIXTEEN INCHES, and his hair still brushed his shoulders. He seemed still somewhat traumatized, but I tried to assure him his Samsonlike powers had not been diminished. YOU ARE A HERO TO CANCERKIDS EVERYWHERE, JIMMY! THANK YOU!

Around 5, we looped back around to the Dabel Table for the signing with Jim and Dresden cover artist Chris McGrath. Chris and I got to chatting, and it turns out we live five blocks away from each other! Crazy!

We then dawdled around until it was time for the Great Podcasting Dinner! Unfortunately, my table was not a particularly energetic one, and John and I ended up leaving earlier than I’d predicted, both exhausted. Suckage.

Sunday, I dressed up as Maeve, which wasn’t a great idea. I’d forgotten how awkward that huge wig is and how easily tangled those sequin strings yet. It’s a great costume for a small event, but it’s not something to wear at a huge con. I got quickly overheated under the weight of the wig and the claustrophobic crowd, and I ended up keeping the wig off for most of the time. I finally met up with Kristin–we’d kept just missing each other all weekend–and she was jokingly cross at me for wearing a costume she’d already seen, as she’d been looking forward to seeing Delirium. We cruised the floor once more, on the lookout for any droolworthy Doctor Who and BSG merch, and I ended up with a Kittens With Cupcakes bag and a 12″ action figure of Jack from Nightmare Before Christmas (with mini PVC Mayor and Werewolf).

Kristin: I don’t get the Green Arrow. On a team where you already have Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, what do you need an archer for?
John: Well, he was rich…
Kristin: You think he bought his way on to the Justice League?
Me: His daddy bought everyone on the team Nimbus 2001s.

We spent the rest of the afternoon chilling at the CNI booth. At closing time, we helped Jimmy pack up, then Kristin, John, and I went off in search of California Pizza Kitchen. Yum! The evening was spent watching episodes of “Wonderfalls” and “Pushing Daisies.” All in all, an AWESOME experience.

It’s great to be a geek. :D

I just ran into Jillian from Project Runway on the subway! Underneath Bryant Park, of all places. We were walking opposite directions, and 90% of the time spent between noticing her and actually passing her was spent trying to discern if it actually was her, but the cute skirt and patterned hose alone were a dead giveaway. I told her I loved her clothes and she was by far my favourite finalist, and she said “Thank you” in that demure Jillian way. It was kind of awesome. Mmm, I love living in New York!

Saturday morning and afternoon were spent in consternation, as I spent the day at work. I was the only Character person in attendance, so people kept piling stuff on me, and Maya and Motionbuilder were especially buggy, and there was angst. At one point, I suggested we get an office watermelon, so whenever we wanted to stab the software we could stab it, and then cut off a piece to eat because watermelon is delicious and full of nutrients. The combination of stabbing + deliciousness + nutrition should soothe any stray frustration in a constructive manner. Silly coworkers didn’t think I was serious!

Anyway, the day’s woes were more than compensated for by my FANTASTIC evening! Em of the NYC Browncoats wrangled a group of us to see the new Vampire Cowboys show, Fight Girl Battle World. They’re a delightfully geeky group that creates original productions with comic book stylings and an emphasis on stage combat. I’d heard great things about two of their previous shows, Men of Steel and Living Dead in Denmark, but this would be the first I’d actually get to attend. I joined up with Kristin, Josie, Gypsy, Em, and the gang, and together we all laughed until we cried. I can’t remember the last occasion I’ve laughed so hard for such a sustained length of time!

The next morning, I went to Kristin’s place, stopping by Whole Foods on the way. I made us omelettes with spinach, feta, sauteed onion, and tomato, which were OUT OF THIS WORLD DELICIOUS, then we sat down to watch (and heckle) the Star Wars prequel trilogy. We nerded out, nitpicking all the inconsistencies and hooting over all the painful dialogue.

Episode I was every bit as awful as I remembered. Actually, it was more awful, as my psyche had somehow managed to bury the memory of the “Are you an angel?” conversation. Though Jar Jar is far more tolerable when you imagine he’s being roleplayed by some nerd’s kid sister.

Episode II, on the other hand, was far better. The action to dialogue ratio far surpassed that of its predecessor, and George Lucas knows how to do action! Heck, if you just cut out Anakin’s creepy stalker act and leashed his occasional whiny emo tangents, it would be a pretty neat little movie! Kristin and I were very pleasantly surprised. We also decided Padme’s attraction to him is the result of a Jedi mind trick, as Anakin is four years old.

Between II and III, we went out for a walk, off in search of food. Eventually we settled on (shock) Whole Foods, where Kristin got taco and I got lentil soup and an abundance of Mike’s Hard Lemonade. We feel Episode III was considerably improved by the addition of alcohol, and we regretted not thinking of it during Episode I.

Episode III was somewhat bipolar. There was plenty of awful Lucas dialogue, but it was mixed in with dialogue that was surprisingly solid. We would occasionally look at each other in surprise and marvel, “Hey. That line was actually good.” (This may have been the alcohol talking. Or maybe after seeing the first two, we just had really, really low standards.) Of course, ten seconds later we’d be back to chortling over Anakin’s teflon-slicked fall to the Dark Side, groaning at lines like “Anakin, you’re breaking my heart!”, and debating over whether slashing Obi-Wan and Anakin is more or less creepy than Anakin/Padme. Conclusion: It’s kind of creepy, but NOTHING even comes CLOSE to the creepiness of Anakin/Padme.

So! Awesome, awesome weekend. If only there were actually two days of it. :D

Here, have a Han Solo in Carbonite Desk!