Archive for the ‘Books & Comics’ Category

NYCC 2015 Day 4

Sunday, October 11th, 2015

  
Since we could only stay at the con a few hours today we focused on one last sweep of the main hall (well, about a third of it) and some last minute purchases. 

 
As always I love the vintage and the unusual, and were it not for getting sidetracked by a pile of ancient D&D modules (all of which I then bought) I nearly purchased a crazy expensive boxed Ultraman villian from the 80’s.

I didn’t buy this though: 

 
Or any of these: 

 
And certainly not this: 

 
I have to say though, I love that someone’s even trying to sell that. Yet another reason this con is so much fun.

I haven’t spoken of our celebrity sightings yet. Aside from the X-files panel, we probably saw fewer this year than ever before, and much of the sightings were like this: 

 
There were also much fewer people signing autographs this year as well, which may have been good because I doubt anyone could have topped the bizarre John deLancie from last year πŸ™‚

Eventually, it was time once again for us to turn our backs on the con and head home. 

 
Since it’s KLS’s birthday today, we had sprung for a first-class room on the train home! It was cozy and comfortable, and came with a delicious meal in the dining car! 

 
Doesn’t she look happy!!

After four long and packed days we’re super tired, but once again we had a great time at NYCC. I’ll follow up in a few days with a post about some of the unusual loot we brought home with us…

NYCC 2015 Day 3

Saturday, October 10th, 2015

  
We awoke early and headed down the con to line up at 9 am for a bracelet that would get us into a panel over four hours later. Then we lined up for another bracelet to get us into another panel starting over nine hours later. All this took over two hours and while frustrating and boring is typical of Saturday – the day of lines – at this con. 

 
We spent the couple of hours we had in Artists Alley buying prints before heading back to the main hall and lining up again for the first panel which was The X-Files.

And it was amazing!

We got to see the entire first episode (which screens next year) and it vastly exceeded our expectations. It was followed by a panel featuring Mulder (Duchovny) and Skinner (Pileggi) and series creator Chris Carter himself. 

 

Since they didn’t want the episode leaking online security was very tight and included guys watching the audience through night vision goggles (!) to spot anyone trying to record it! Surreal… 

 
The afternoon was the usual con overload, gawking and buying and dealing with the intense crowds. No matter how much you walk around there’s always something new to be seen! 

 
Many things were bought, both for us and others. Dozens of 3DS street passes were obtained. Swollen feet throbbed in agony. 

 
We headed out for some dinner and to drop our loot off at the hotel. 

 
We returned for the cosplay contest, which was a lot of fun. Leaving the con after it has closed looks like this: 

 
Tomorrow – KLS’s birthday! – is the last day of this years con. Even after over 20 hours on the show floor there’s still things we want to have a closer look at. Since we’ve only got a few hours before our train, it’ll be a busy morning indeed!

NYCC 2015 Day 2

Friday, October 9th, 2015

 
Three shots taken from our hotel room which costs an arm and a leg and boasts a ‘deluxe city view’. The view earlier this evening during a heavy rainstorm was quite stunning. 

 
I’ll get the obligatory ‘insane lines’ comment out of the first. Yes the lines are insane and yes it can be frustrating but as old hands we knew what we were in for and endure it calmly like saints… but Christ there’s a lot of people here! 

 
That’s KLS getting her lips glittered. From the hundreds of exhibitors you can buy almost anything: it’s not all comics and toys. There’s actually a surprising amount of vendors selling clothing (mostly costumes), wigs, contact lenses and cosmetics. KLS bought some eyeliner from this booth last year, loved it, and was happy to find they were back! 

 
I particularly like the guys selling the ‘vintage’ collectibles because you never know what you’ll find. Take the above shot: a view master reel next to nazi memorabilia and a vintage Star Wars toy. Wonderful! Occasionally these sorts of vendors have some treasures like this: 

 
Which pales next to some of the ‘serious collector’ comics on offer, such as this: 

 
There are also a dozen or so original art dealers, from which you can buy the original art created for comics over the years. It’s a bit daunting browsing their wares though, when tiny pieces of art run into the thousands! 

 
No real comment on the above, other than its about 60 cm tall! 

 
That’s the sort of thing I would have gone berserk for as a kid. Not only does the set contain 12 gargoyles and 6 titans, but it’s also got 12 dragonriders and a mind-boggling 40 demons!! The fun I would have had πŸ˜‰ 

 
I wonder if this prototype shown at the Kotobukiya booth is a Force Awakens spoiler? 

 
The last silly item photo of the days goes to these perler bead faces of Stephen Colbert. Each (that’s 2 different items) costs $400 and is (much) smaller and in fewer colours than the one I made of Bernard earlier this year…

On to cosplay! As usual it’s everywhere, and sometimes you feel like you’re in the minority not being in costume. The eye-catcher at the show so far is this massive Hulkbuster that towers over everyone and is build around a sort of power suit the guy inside is wearing: 

 
You can see how popular it is! Here’s a shot of him putting the whole thing on: 

 
Impressive as it is (and it really is), I tend to prefer quirky stuff like this: 

 
Or creative (and pretty!) stuff like this: 

 
I don’t even know who she is cosplaying πŸ™‚

We’ve also spent hours walking ‘Artists Alley’, where hundreds of artists display and sell prints of their work to the public. Much of this is comic-related, but there’s also a bunch of other genres and themes and a good amount has made its way into our bags destined for our walls at home.

Tomorrow is the big day, and the only day with panels we are interested in (we missed the Rebels panel, which was held too soon after opening yesterday). Assuming we beat the lines and get wristbands hours ahead of time, we may even be able to sit in on panels with (omg) celebrities! I’ll swoon with excitement! Wish me luck πŸ˜‰

NYCC 2015 Day 1

Thursday, October 8th, 2015

  
That’s the sun rising in the fog as we rode the train to NY this morning for another (our 8th?) comic con. You know the drill by now, legions of people, otaku madness, great exhaustion, much excitement. 

And so it started again! 

 
We only had to line up for a half hour or so to get in, but the crowds are truly massive. Once inside it started off on a pretty high note, as I lined up to get my very own Yugioh token card made: 

 
I think I nailed the pose didn’t I? 

 
Usually seeing this piece of remarkable art made entirely of Jelly Beans would be quite a thing, but here it’s just one of an endless cavalcade of spectacles. One minute you could be checking out a display of costumes from the upcoming Warcraft film, next minute you could be digging through old comics or getting a wrestlers autograph and the next moment you could be shopping at a stand that only sold Star Trek merchandise: 

 
We saw all sorts of amazing figurines… 

 
We saw fine art, action figures and stuffed toys… 

 
We saw amazing cosplay: 

 
Really amazing cosplay: 

 
Old toys… 

 
And even an incredibly expensive pack of trading cards: 

 
It was a long day, and even after 6.5 hours we know there’s still much left to see (not to mention panels etc.)

But day 1 was a big success πŸ™‚ 

 
The giant Monster Hunter cat? That’s KLS’s birthday  gift πŸ™‚

The Fabulous Owlbear

Friday, May 22nd, 2015

First, read this post Adam did on his blog.

I’ve found a similar example. Here is the owlbear (an owl-bear hybrid monster) as illustrated in the first ever AD&D Monster Manual from 1978:

Owlbear

I have a copy of this book. It’s the 6th printing, from 1980, and was owned by KLS long before I met her. The owlbear in this version of the monster manual looks like this:

IMG_7069

Fabulous isn’t it! It’s the only monster in the book that has been coloured in, but we can only dream she had done more as a child πŸ™‚

Speaking of the owlbear… what’s this picture?

Owlbear2

Interesting isn’t it? A few years ago it was revealed that some of the unusual monsters in AD&D were based on plastic toys. You can read the full story here (with more wonderful pictures). Based on the toy, and the supposition (which seems reasonable) that the toys were bootleg Ultraman monster toys, it’s obvious the owlbear is nothing more than… a kappa!

The kappa is a japanese water spirit which has a very rich mythology. Here’s an illustration done by Hokusai (famous for his The Great Wave Off Kanagawa) in the early 1800’s:

hokusai

You can see the resemblance to the toy.

So what of the Ultraman connection? Japanese sentai shows often base their monsters on mythology, and it’s almost certain there is an early Kappa-based foe in one of the first few Ultraman series. I did a search and could only find one before 1978, a kappa-influenced alien named Tepeto in an episode of Ultraseven from 1967:

tepeto01-us41

Not very owlbear-like is he?

So my guess is the original kappa designs (such as Hokusai’s) influenced the chinese toy which influenced the owlbear in AD&D.

What of the owlbear today? Here’s the latest illustration:

DND-next-owlbear

A bit literal isn’t it?