Well, this is weeks later after it happened on October 17th, 2009. Big Apple Comic Con was bought out by Wizard. So to the best of my knowledge they took what basically was a Dealers/Autograph con that was free. Tried to add a few things to it. And charge 30 bucks for it. Needless to say it was kinda bad. The only real reason I went was to see some of the artist I really like at Artist Alley. Also I found out that day they were having some costume contest at night. And unrelated to BACC, a group of younger cosplayers decided to have a meet and make it for Naruto’s belated birthday. Yes a celebration of Naruto’s birthday, at least its a theme other than lets meet!

So the Big Apple Comic Con was at pier 94. And it was a rainy day. So before the con opens up everyone has to wait outside in a parking lot and the ticketing is in a completely different building. So I went to go get my ticket, found where the panel rooms were supposed to be and went to stand in line. When I get inside I do a quick run through to see the facilities in a converted pier. It reminded me of the warehouses that was repurposed minimally for conventions. They had the large overhead heaters that sucked if you had a booth under it. And if you’re not near one it gets cold. And most importantly the bathrooms were all in the condition of public restrooms at a bus station.

So I went through Signature Alley as I’ll call it. An interesting assortment of TV and Movie personalities. Basically if you were are somewhat famous. You rent a booth and charge money for a signature and whatnot. To be honest I have no problem with it. But as I mentioned in the beginning the fact that they charged me $30 bucks to get in for what used to be a free event just sucked. As they billed everything as meet and greet. Usually the top billed people are paid to show up and do a certain amount of things. But that wasn’t going to happen at this show.

Artist Alley had some good artists. I’m really into cover art and one of my favorites Billy Tucci was there. I also met another artist Greg Horn, even though he’s been at NYCC I never got a chance to see his work. He was really friendly and had plenty of stories to tell you about the artwork. So that took very little time and I looked outside and it was raining. And they had an fire marshall headcount happening and people had to wait in line in the rain to get inside. At that moment I just gave up on going outside to the other building to see a panel because I’d never get back in if it was full. Out of the signature fest. I did get one from Brent Spiner. I grew up watching ST:TNG so I got a signed photo by him.

Given that it 12PM nothing to do until 5PM when the costume contest was going to happen. I went over to visit the Naruto birthday meet for a few minutes. On the way over I ran into a Sanrio Statue display by Tom Sachs. Apparently its been there for the whole summer.

So I get back to the BACC and go through the costume contest. It was painful. They had one really bright light on the stage that only lighted up body and missed the head. And since its comic book cosplay almost everyone’s shiny. The only highlight was the Iceman cosplayer. He saw opportunity and noticed they had a group prize. So what does he do. He tells the judges he’s got a late entry and starts calling out his friends. They all run onto the stage and another cosplayer not part of the group jumps on with them. And during the judging the show promoters had nothing. They didn’t even plan for anything. So they gave the microphone to Iceman. Completely impromptu he asks for someone who can beatbox and another cosplayer jumps up. And he freestyles it. Really the only entertaining part to end the day. They also had another contest at night for their party. But they wanted another $20 so you could party with them.

So I found this on Youtube and this is the only thing that made it worth the trip that wasn’t even on the program.