New York Comic Con - 2015

Welcome to the first of my continuing Comic Con series. I'll be using these post's to show you guys what conventions are all about. Fun, passion & fandom. Everyone has a favourite movie, book, TV show, cartoon or comic right? I hope these blog posts bring out your inner nerd & compel you to go to your first ever comic con, if you haven't already.

I suggest you do what the below image instructs, grab a snack & enjoy my first con post.

Something you'll need to know about me, if you haven't already figured out; is that I'm hugely passionate about cinema, TV & all the creative aspects that surround the two. This includes comics & art. I grew up with a comic & coffee shop in the family (pretty cool right?) . . . well, it wasn't cool when I was at school, but it seems to be cool to be a "nerd" or "geek" again & I am totally down with that. Being brought up with this culture of fandom & fiction meant I wasn't only exposed to what we were sold on TV or in the cinema. I had opportunities to read & study the influences & source materials of which a lot of our favourite childhood cartoons, films & shows were based.

Going to a comic con is a relatively new thing in the UK for most. The first one's I went to with my Aunt & Uncle 17-18 years ago were in race course's & dreary town halls. There were no booths with 25 plasma screens showing the latest TV trailers, no Deloreans, definitely no movie studios & you could only dream of your childhood hero's showing up for a panel. The Americans though, they have been working on this comic-con thing for a little longer & have turned into an absolute spectacle.

Pepsi had this awesome Back To The Future 2 booth. Complete with a MKll Delorean, Cafe 80's sign & Wild Gunman arcade machine. I wasn't lucky enough to get my hands on one the below Pepsi Perfect bottles (limited to 6000). But this very trusting young dude let me snap one & hold it!

This is my 3rd NYCC & it just gets bigger & bigger every time I visit. Just look at ONE of the lobby's below . . . 167,000 people made it this year.

Lets go in. First stop - THE BLOCK

This is easily my favourite part of any convention I've ever been too. The far front corner of the convention floor is dedicated to movie poster artwork, designer toys & independent art dealers. I'm a lover of alternative movie posters - you can find my Pinterest board here - https://uk.pinterest.com/danspry/alternative-movie-posters/

http://strongstuff.net/

http://hcgart.com/

http://www.spoke-art.com/

There were also a ton of awesome designer & limited toys from the likes of Kid Robot & Buff Monster. I don't collect these like I do with alternative movie posters, but still love the style nonetheless.

The rest of the con.

The floor at a convention as big as this is always guaranteed to be manic, but what I love about them is the sense of community & like-mindedness. Thousands upon thousands of people, being themselves, free from social norms & celebrating the love of creative pop culture. It's hard not to be sucked into to all.

Random geek blabber: I was so skeptical of Snyder's up coming Batman vs Superman movie at first. I felt like like introducing so many new heroes was a desperate attempt for DC to catch up with Marvels well executed cinematic universe (which it is) But now the time for this movie is getting closer, I'm totally on board for DC to kick of their universe.

This hulk-buster Iron Man armour was built by one man & he was inside it . . . just walking around.

Yup, that's Darryl McDaniels of Run DMC. He casually walks around NYCC every year. If you didn't know, Darryl owns his own publishing house called DMC - "Darryl Makes Comics".

http://www.dmc-comics.com/