Julian Cannon here for a new post. This time it is about my experience as a press member for NYC Comic Con 2013.
DAY ONE.
Thursday after I rushed out from work to get to the Javits Center, I went to the place and seen a huge line of people and cosplayers entering inside the building. As soon as I come inside the building, I snapped a few photos of cosplayers. One of them was rogue from the X-Men series. The woman said that she came all the way from England to go to the event. I have spoken to many other cosplayers but her story about going to the event takes the cake for me
Then I have went to the Press lounge upstairs and went over everything I had to help cover this week and a few things I covered as well. The team consisted of Robert, Chuck, Shalik, Bill, Crystal, Juan and me. I went downstairs to the floor to take some photos and then I went to the lower level and I met up with Chuck and Shalik. The line they were in was for a toy panel showing off new figures coming up for Star Wars, Marvel, DC Comics, Street Fighter, Tekken and a few more. Shalik was recording while I took some photos from the event. I should note that before the event started, There were raffle tickets being handed out for some prizes
After the press panel, The raffle started and I was the last one to get a prize. I was not expecting this to happened so I won a very huge hulk figure that I had a little trouble of taking it home with me but I made it work.
I also met Daniel from danielsden247.com. I was also invited to a cosplay party celebrating of the launch of an app game Hello Hero so I went there and met some interesting people. Leslie from downtowntraveler.com, Matt from levelsave.com. They are all great and very nice. Two other people I meet were the creator and developers of the game and they have demo the game in a press room. I think the game is really fun since I am into RPG games so I will download it once it launches. The party was really great and the launch event really gave the word out for the game.
DAY TWO
Lucky I took off from work to go early on Friday. Chuck was the first person I have saw on Friday and he had a few things to do but I decided to take a walk with him and took pictures at the same time. The new figures of some of the Final Fantasy characters looked very polished and lifesize and the upcoming figure of Big Boss from Metal Gear is not done yet but it was shown on display anyway.
Juan met with me a little later that day after I tried Dragon Ball Z:battle of Z and Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn and we went to a huge Justice League War panel. I had no idea this movie was coming out and some of the cutscenes that were shown was Batman meeting Green lantern and one funny one with Wonder Woman and a kid talking about and eating ice cream which I thought was hilarious. A few fans asked about Aquaman being in the movie but the panelists said that he will not be in the movie but he will get his own movie soon. After that, Juan had an interview with Vivek Tiwary and I was the one to hold the camera. It was about The Fifth Beatle and Vivek seemed very into the interview and showing off the product. I pre-ordered a copy from Amazon and it will be released in November 2013. The last thing I had to do for the day is that me and Juan went to the Bob’s Burgers round-table interview. We were kind of late but the round-table was just starting. The best information came from the creators of the show was that the season finale will be broken down into 3 episodes so I will tune into that once it comes. One thing I forget to say is that I took a picture of WWE Hall of Famer Sgt. Slaughter
DAY THREE
Saturday was really packed and the lines were extended to around the corner outside. lucky that I was second on the line though. I did not realize this until I got inside but WWE Superstar Jerry Lawler was right behind me and I snapped a photo of him and we chatted for a bit.The first thing I had to do was to go with Chuck to the Round-table interview with the cast of Da Vinci’s Demons on Starz. I loved the cast as they were very engaging and straight forward with the answers. Tom Riley, one of the cast members noted that he had a few injuries during the taping of the first season. What a warrior he is. Me and Chuck and a few other press members asked great questions and everyone was happy with the round-table. During the day, I met a few more people. Alexander from spiraken.com, Travis from godhatesgeeks.com, and the next two are from websites I go to all the time. the first one is the CEO/Founder of hashtagstudios.tv Drew Crowder and Greg Miller, the host and producer from ign.com. both of them are very cool and I was happy that I finally met them too. A few minutes after that, I Bumped into WWE superstar Sheamus while he was leaving the press room. Me and Chuck went down to the artist alley and it was more crowded than the floors. We met up with Erica and I brought a few issues of her comic M3. She autographed them too and that made me happy. Erica if u are reading this, #3 of you’re comic made me want to get a cheeseburger and watch family guy, I think you know what I am talking about. But I love the comics and I will buy more. Back at the Press room, the entire team was going over what to do for Saturday and Sunday and Me and Juan were supposed to cover the Pokémon panel but it was way over crowded. From a few people that I heard that went to that panel, whoever brought their Nintendo 3DS would get an exclusive Pokemon from one of the starter Pokémon from Pokémon Ruby/Saphire that was released in 2003 in the new Pokémon X/Y game.
DAY FOUR
The Only thing I had to cover was the cast of See No Evil 2, which features WWE Superstars Kane and Hornswoggle. But earlier that day, I had a conversation with Sara from theweekener.com. we talked about the crazy crowd from Saturday and joked around for a bit. When it was time for me and Shalik to go to the round-table interview, it was really packed but we did get our seats. Cara McMahon, one of the PR reps from WWE even said that she has not seen that much people at a round-table interview before. That shows you that wrestling fans are very dedicated (like me). I spoke to the directors and two twin actors and it was all great, Hornswoggle I have never ever seen him talk out of character before so that was a first for me. he seemed very nice and laid back. I gave the first question of how many rings he hid under and we all laughed for a bit. Then 10 minutes later, we get Kane. Now I have seen kane live many times on TV and in person but I have never talked to him. in fact, I was sitting right next to him and I was not nervous at all. Kane is a mean character on screen that a lot of WWE fans love but he is such normal once I met him. Everyone thanked us for the time and the interview was well worth it. The crowd for sunday, was however two times larger than Saturday due to kids getting free admission. Overall, I loved the press experience and I would love to do this again. Not only for comic con, but for other press events too. The four days were worth it
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