It is Sunday at New York Anime Festival and it seems that everything is calming down from the festival of anime and manga.
We will be covering the convention in our audio podcast in the upcoming weeks on the WRAJ Internet Radio Podcast and video reports after our Otakon coverage is complete. A wrap-up report will posted as well on the Vidgle Blog in the upcoming days.
It’s the first night of New York Anime Festival. So far everything seems fine. However, the concern about last year seems to be this year’s as well. The convention ends to early in the evening, 9pm, which is not a late convention compared to other conventions that usually ends at 2 in the morning (such as Otakon and I-CON). Then again, in its New York City, the city that never sleeps!
I did last year recommend Reed Exhibitions, the operator of NYAF and New York Comic Con, to leave the Javits Center and move to another location. The suggestion of location was Time Square, such as the Marriott Marquis. Anime Expo and Big Apple Anime Festival were there and I thought it was at a great location I expressed to them. There are Pros and Cons with the location, such as the Javits is closer to Penn, and Times Square has more hotels and places to eats. I think you would say that to any con, large and small, there is going to be pros and cons.
We were unable to do the first podcast because the Con Goer’s podcast co-host, Fred, was not able to show up Friday. We will be doing a podcast tomorrow right from our hotel room. In February, we are planning to record audio podcasts at the convention floor of New York Comic Con at the Podcast Arena.
Hey guys! While typing this the con isn’t over yet. My feet hurt so I’m resting up and figured I could type a blog entry too. Otakon has been a lot of fun. I interviewed quite a few interesting people. My favorite has to be the L with all the sweets spread out on the table. Also, the Batman villains group. Its always fun when the cosplayers are in character. :]The dealers room was pretty good this year. I didn’t think I would find merchandise of the manga series I love, Ichigo 100% (also known as” Strawberry 100%”). I was able to buy three plushies and three small figures. They’re so adorable, I just love them. The dealers room has a lot of mainstream things (Naruto, Death Note, and Bleach for instance) so I was very happy to find obscure things. The most random, obscure thing I found at the dealers room had to be a Deady plush. Deady is one of Voltaire’s characters. So as a big Voltaire fan, you can imagine how happy that made me :D The artist alley was filled with lots of cute, funny, and interesting things. I bought a dark Pan’s Labyrinth bookmark from Cari Corene. It has Ofelia and the faun on it. Definitely going to use it for manga andmwhen I reread the sixth Harry Potter book for the movie!On Thursday, I was amazed by how fast the Pre-reg line was moving. I was very impressed to see that Otakon kept things rolling smoothly. Overall, I really like this year so far. ^^ better had back to the con!
It’s Otakon’s fifteenth con at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore Friday. According to Otakon’s website, 19,989 heads have been counted as of 6:30pm Friday, short by nearly 3,000 from last year’s total count as of 22,852. The final count will be Sunday.This is our third time at Otakon and so far, we are enjoying our trip. We hope to bring you most of our coverage including our Otakon Report in the upcoming week.
The 2008 New York Comic Con is the third gathering since it began in 2006. And just like any other convention we went too, you don’t need to be a comic manic to enjoy this fun-fill weekend at this con. There was a wide range of cosplayers, such comic cosplayers (Spider-Man for example), anime, or a video game cosplay. And with Sunday as kid’s day, New York Comic Con invites the new cosplayers of tomorrow as well has his or her family.
Located at the Javits Center in New York City on one beautiful weekend in April, New York Comic Con had an attendance of over 20,000. This was the third gathering of New York Comic Con that started in 2006.
We meet and spoke with hundreds of cosplayers and con-goers who all said that they had a great time and enjoying every second of it. We second on that as well.
Let us start with the Dealers Room. The Dealers room, by far, is the largest dealers room we’ve seen, over ranking our views to Otakon. There were over 20 aisles of artists, dealers, and events. Such dealers included Gaia, Nickeledeon, Funimation, G4TV, Video Games New York, and others. There was also a podcast areana on the dealers floor, which includes most audio podcasts. Unlike most other conventions we went too in the past, the artist alley is in the same room as the dealers room, which includes web-comic creators, artists, independent products, etc., which all of the shopping can be done in one room.
There were also several notable guests, including Stan Lee, Seth Green, and T.M. Revolution.
Panels were also another way to enjoy your time at New York Comic Con. Some panels taught guests of how to creat comics; such as “Comic, Concepts & Copyrights,” “self publishing,” and “Using Computers to Draw Comics.” Others include of how to get involved with industries outside the comic world, such as “Getting a job at a video game company,” “voice actors in the city,” and “writing video games.” Though the panel rooms can get a bit crowded, we suggest that next year, get to your favorite panels as early as possible.
New York Comic Con is not just for a typical comic-book maniac, but for anyone who loves to watch animations, video games, manga, and science-fiction. Its a convention that is a “must to go” for a typical con goer and it is a “must” to return back the following year, which we are planning to do.
Its early Sunday morning and the final hours of New York Comic Con is approaching. Saturday was our first day covering the con since we weren’t able to go Monday. So far everything has been going well, we had many interviews and meet interesting people. We even catch up with Tony DiGerolamo with his webcomic SuperFrat.com, we first meet him up at Jeff Mach’s Wicked Faire back in February. All pictures from the two days will be posted tomorrow night and video interviews will be posted by the weekend. More Updates to Come!
I-CON 27 was once again at Stony Brook University on one early spring weekend. Just like the past I-CON we attended, this was pretty much just like the I-CONs we attended in the past. However, this year’s I-CON will be the last year of its tradition of being held at Stony Brook University as it moves to Suffolk Community College in Brentwood next year as the school’s sports complex will be under renovation.
I-CON is a weekend full of events that relate to technology, literature, creativity of science. Basically, its a science fiction convention that combines anime, video gaming, fantasy, and comics.
First things first, there were many well-known media guests for such a medium-size convention. Guests include Billy West, Ray Parks, Tim Russ, Ernie Hudson, Jay Acovone and many others. All guests had their own panels, questions and answers sessions, and some of them even had a booth in the dealers room.
Next stop is the dealers room. There were not as many dealers as there were in the past. Some interviewees complained that the “prices were too high,” and that “there wasn’t that much variety of products.” Though we haven’t had enough time for the dealers room, we did notice most of “usual” dealers that attended I-CON in the past, such as Fourth World Comics and Video Games New York.
There were a variey of panels that anyone could join. Several panels include Anime 101, How to Pick up a Chick, . Some independent and fan films were also featured at I-CON, and a previewing for the season premiere of “BattleStar Galactica.”
There was a cosplay competition that most con-goers were excited to attend but a huge incident occurred that caused the competition to be delayed by two hours. “This was an unprofessional performence,” an interviewer said to a Vidgle reporter as she was upset with the location being in a gym and the way the situation was handled. The problem was the way the audio speakers were hooked up, the time when everything was back to normal, half of the audience has already left. One staff Vidgle talked to said “I think we did a great job, Stony Brook [University] responded pretty well when we had to take out another set of speakers. The skits otherwise were alright,
Next I-CON will be different as it will be at a different location, the Brentwood Campus of Suffolk Community College, as its home, the Stony Brook University Sports Complex, is being renovated. This I-CON on the other hand has been a different experience for the many con-goers, but overall it is a great weekend to catch up with friends and meet new friends at the same time if you live in the Long Island area.
There will be a full report of I-CON 27 on our blog in the upcoming day or so. I-CON 27 is over and the big rumor of the future of I-CON was confirmed on its website on Sunday. On the website it states:
“Due to circumstances beyond our control, after 27 years I-CON has to relocate away from the Stony Brook University Campus. From our humble beginnings as a student group here we have grown with the campus here, however now due to renovation at Stony Brook we don’t have a home for 2009. The Sports complex will be undergoing major renovations and will not be available next year as a result.
As reported on the Vidgle Con Goer blog in March, the temporary home of I-CON (28) for 2009 will be SUNY Suffolk Community College in Brentwood. Additionally to the Holiday Inn Ronkonkoma sponsor and official hotel, the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Ronkonkoma will be another facility.
There was a big, but yet, major shakeup at the skits at I-CON 27 on Saturday night at Stony Brook University. Not only the Pants Cosplay group was a no show, but according to our crew that was out at the skit said that the show was delayed by nearly two hours. “This is [was] an unprofessional act of Stony Brook (University) and I-CON,” said one interviewer who talked to Vidgle while waiting for the skits to start. The problem was audio trouble which was experienced during the first three acts. Placed in a gym this year instead of a lecture hall, the room was half empty by the time the equipment was replaced.
There will be an upcoming episode of the Con Goer of the entire skit performance, including the trouble coverage.
