Stella Mortis

There were some down moments of NYCC.

1. The line to get in Friday morning.  Yeah, I’m sure it was better than last year (we got there around 5 last year), but seriously.

People were divided into three lines with colored entrances.  The blue entrance was for VIP/pro/press passes.  The green entrance for anyone who already had a badge, and the yellow entrance for anyone who needed to buy/pick up a badge.  Sounds pretty straight forward, right? Not so much.

I would hazard a guess that probably 3/4 of everyone there had to go in through the green entrance.  I do seem to recall that the 4 day/VIP passes didn’t sell out.  When Rob and I got to Javits on Friday morning, we started on 39^th Street, the street closest to the green entrance.  And we followed the signs.  Down 39^th.  Around the corner to 12^th Ave and down the long block to 34^th Street.  Around that corner and up 34^th almost to the corner of 11^th Ave (yeah, not exactly a short distance-especially with really high humidity).  The volunteers holding the signs  just said to keep going.  We were almost to 11^th Ave before anyone said anything but keep going.  And that guy said-“Go in the blue entrance.  Today only.”

Seriously?  We walked almost completely around the building because there didn’t seem to be any communication.  Yeah, okay, fine.  It took about 45 min to get in.  Though I could be wrong; it could’ve taken longer.

2.  There was a panel I’d hoped to go to at 10:45 Friday morning.  I didn’t really expect to make it, not with waiting in line, but with the fiasco of the line?  No way was it possible.  And WTH did they have a panel at 10:45 AM?  Who’s actually there aside from the VIP/pro/press and the people who got in line at the asscrack of dawn?

I know it’s not likely to happen, but the line situation could possibly be somewhat fixed if they were to separate the lines more than they already had—multiple and single day passes.  That might help a slight bit.  And don’t schedule panels until a time when people are likely to actually be in the building.

Sunday morning line

3.  The cattle herding line on Sunday.  I understand there are safety concerns.  But again, separate lines—don’t lump me in with everyone who’s picking up their badges for the day.  Or at least try to make sure the AC is working better.

4.  I had really hoped to be able to go to see Return of the King at Radio City with a full symphony.  Rob and I saw Two Towers last year, and I’d so looked forward to that.  But that got delayed to next year.  There’s a traveling concert/showing for Fellowship of the Ring, which I’d also like to see, but as far as I know, that won’t be making it to the East coast.

Everything else that wasn’t great—I expect not to enjoy that stuff at a convention, especially one as crowded as NYCC.  People push and shove, block vendor tables, and they’re generally asses.  I don’t expect that to change, though sometimes there are those decent people who have manners.

This was only the second time Rob and I have gone to NYCC, but it’s already looking to be an annual thing.  And we’ve already developed some habits while there—but more on that in a bit (more posts to come, as well as pictures).

First-something of an overview.

We had three day passes, though we’ve since decided that next year we’ll definitely be wanting the four day passes.  That was something of a moot point when we bought the tickets, though, because neither of us expected to be able to take Friday off.  By some fluke miracle, we both managed that and got into the city early Friday morning.  And by early, I mean we woke up when Rob normally does at 5:15am—I had to have blood drawn, and we were on the train by 7am.

Once we were in the city, we got to our hotel—Yotel—and dropped off our luggage before heading to the Javits Center to wait in line (more about that in another post).  Inside, it was too late to get to the first panel we wanted to go to, and we started finding the booths we’d end up gravitating to over the course of the weekend—book publishers, Book Country, Her Universe, and Monarch Comics.

See, we go to ComicCon for the authors more than anything else.  We didn’t even have to go previous years to know that the TV/movie panels would be packed to overflowing, or that the gaming booths would be a trial to anyone who desired personal space.  Not to mention standing in line for one or the other to the exclusion of doing anything else.  We wanted to enjoy the con without spending all our time in long lines.  So, while I know from announcements that there were Avengers panels, and panels for Arkham City and The Old Republic and so forth, I didn’t even consider trying to get to those.

I don’t think this was a bad thing.

Instead, I got to talk with debut authors, New York Times bestsellers, editors, and others in the publishing industry.  This better fits me, anyway, since I’m working toward that kinda thing.  And, free books.

Rob and I have what could be considered a routine with how we approach the show floor.  And it started happening last year almost by accident.  One of my coworkers at Penny Press has a booth-Monarch Comics.  Last year, he was across an aisle from the Penguin booth, and there somehow managed to be breathing room on the edge of the booth.  So we’d stop by there and rest a bit before moving back into the crowd.  This year we did the same, although the Monarch booth was nowhere near the publishers.  It was near Book Country, though.  So we’d start a circuit at Book Country and move toward Monarch, eventually we’d get to the publishers and circle them a few times before making our way over to Her Universe.  There was a decent sized open space, with air conditioning, beside Her Universe because of the Chevrolet cars on display.  We did this kinda thing several times each day.

Friday night, we had wanted to go to a panel with several authors, but instead we ended up going with a couple friends to dinner at a little hole-in-the-wall Mexican place—Tulcingo Del Valle.  Quite good, too, not overly spicy like I tend to expect.  It was pretty slow, and we saw a picture of the line for the panel, so we didn’t think we’d have any chance of making it to Javits and into the room in time.  But that wasn’t too big a deal; Anton Strout recorded the audio and put it up on his Once and Future Podcast, so I was at least able to listen to it after the fact.

We spent the day Saturday walking around some more, though this time Rob and a friend were dressed as the Blues Brothers, so they got stopped quite often for pictures.  Also, more free books.  We managed to get to the Saturday panel we wanted to go to—Military sci-fi—and the signing the authors did afterward.  After that, we went back to Yotel to rest a bit before going to the Irish Rogue to meet Jim Butcher fans for a get-together that had been planned.

Sunday—more spending time with friends, and even more free books.  A couple free audio books, too.

Overall, the weekend was great, and I’m pretty sure the number of free books paid for the cost of both tickets.  Don’t know that I’d go so far as to say they paid for the hotel, though.