The Unexpected Con or "I Can't Believe They Actually Gave Us A Press Badge"

One Thursday morning in October, I woke up late. Jen had called me five times and my phone was continuing to angrily buzz, fueled by her own impatience. Five hours of sleep, no food, no real idea what bus to take, an irritant significant other, and worst of all, a bad hair day, was how I started my mission to get a Rainbow Rocks DVD from one of the largest cons out there, New York Comic Con.

That Thursday was a bit of a blur. With barely any food in my belly (you try eating a whole-wheat bagel without a drink on a cold bus), a heavy camera, and barely any sense of direction, it was my job to find the convention center. Easier said than done. After passing by a pus-covered homeless man, Jen and I found our lighthouse in the fog, a dude in a Ninja Turtles outfit.  We followed this beacon of a man into a large crowd, whereupon I learned that she wouldn't be able to follow me into the press entrance, being a filthy commoner. So we drudged along, staying in the shadows of fat Sailor Moons and a metric ton's worth of Deadpool before finally tapping in and entering the Javits Center.

Being only an attendee at Bronycon, I had no idea what would await me. Giant banners, thousands of cosplays, and that "con smell", oh that con smell. A police dog almost shit on Jen's foot. That was funny. We got in, and took in the scene. At brony conventions you can expect around 1/3 of the people there to be cosplaying. At NYCC, it was like everyone was in costume, they really go all out. Knowing that the IDW panel was a ways away, I set out on my journey to find as much pony stuff as possible.

Hi you~

Yeah there wasn't much. IDW had their table, with a new comic centered around the Mane-iac and some other interesting tidbits, but not much else was found. Jen got an Edward Scissorhands comic, which was nice, and I got some new dice along
with tabletop nonsense. Not pony, not yet, but all around 'nice'. Finally, we came upon the Enterplay booth. Decked in purple and trussed up to the nines, they really liked showing off these cards that all started back in Summer Bronycon '12. Those were the days...

Anyway, after meeting an excited fan and picking up some exclusive cards ($65 right now, the mail mare can be yours), the two of us employed our ace in the hole for getting ebin seats at the IDW panel, the obsession dedication of one Purple Tinker. She sat in a panel room for four hours, no bathroom or food breaks, just so the three of us plus a seat for our merch could get in the front row. What a trooper.

The actual comic is pretty fucking baller.

The panel would turn out to be just as pony as the rest of the con, "not very". There was a new arc announced, a slight apology for the Sombra arc's quality, and an announcement for the Iron Will/Fluttershy "Friends Forever" comic. There really wasn't that much. Two small mentions raise an eyebrow, a DnD-style "Oubliettes and Ogres" gamebook was joked about from IDW's DnD comic writer, and Katie Cook declared that she "would write an MLP-Jem crossover for free". One can only hope both of these truly, truly outrageous ideas come to fruition.

After the panel, everything kinda packed up. Saturday didn't bring far too many excitements, and both of us were too wiped to go any of the other two days. What is of note is that one Dusty Katt will be recieving one "Lady Death" comic with a custom pony cover, courtesy of Purple Tinker's wallet and my own running-around-finding-the-artist-for-an-autograph skills.

When it comes to the disparity of pony news/stuff/general presence, what I picked up from Ms. Tinker is that apparently Hasbro prefers SDCC when it comes to dishing out the new pony news and merch. Regardless, we had a wonderful time and met some really great people, despite our search for a Rainbow Rocks DVD not working out in time for the MLP anniversary. Really sorry about this being such a short article for such a large event, but there was really nothing there worth noting that was pony other than the above. We'll do better at SDCC, I'm sure of it.

 

Met a newfag fan at the Enterplay booth.
You're famous now kid.

YO ANDY PRICE DREW NEWSIE
DAS SOME DANK SHIT DAWG

I'd like to personally thank every single HN reader for giving us the recognition needed to be granted a fucking press pass to NYCC, one of the biggest cons in the country. We've come a long way in this near-year's time, and none of the amazing things we do would be possible without you. Thanks space cowboys, and I'll see you next time.

Sorry about this being so late, I was busy with a certain Cup. Never5Get.