NYCC year 2

We went to the New York Comic Con yesterday for the trade show and a few hours of the public show -- and I'd say we liked it as much as last year if not better. We were able to meet up with several people and get some work-related stuff done, so that was good. And Emily had an awesome time, she was given cute stuff by people and dragged me over to see the BIG PIKACHU! (suspended over the Pokemon Center booth) about once an hour. We are skipping what I think will be the very overcrowded mash rush today although Evan is there on his own but we'll be going back tomorrow for more fun and hellos. It is a Big Show and not for everyone, but we had a good time.

Some highlights from yesterday:

- checking in with Funimation, who we may still be working for on Shin Chan officially fired our asses a few days later, and seeing the Shin suit making the rounds all day long, which entertained Emily a great deal Although when they took our photo with the suit she got really freaked out -- but then when they left she went "bye bye Shin-Chan! Bye bye!"

- making some plans for the monsters which I'm excited about.

- seeing old friends and meeting Vivien of Cute Salad in person for the first time, who is a crazy crafter and awesome designer, and having a nice long chat about sewing and fun clothes and shoes and things. Her husband snapped up the drawing of Lost Thomas and Emily got a little upset when she saw us handing "her Lost Thomas" away!

- picking up our New Year's Qees from the Toy2r booth and seeing all the other cool toys on display.

- on one trip back from seing BIG PIKACHU! I swung by Toy Tokyo's booth to get Emily a new Gloomy Bear. She picked out a red one she'd seen earlier and while I was paying for it they opened it up for her and she was hugging and kissing it - I noticed a guy watching her and smiling, and as we left the booth I saw that it was Mori Chack (the creator of Gloomy Bear) himself! Holy smokes! I'd have stopped to tell him how much we all love Gloomy here but he was accosted by some nut just that second who wanted to talk to him about selling Gloomy Bear here in the US. (Um, like, hello, you are right next to a booth selling a load of Gloomy Bears? They are sold here?)

- oh, and how can I forget? Emily was looking at the Julie Strain posters in the booth across from us and pointed out one in particular to me and said, "Oh, look. That mommy...that mommy is getting naked!" I actually burst out laughing. Thank god she didn't ask me why.

One downside is the astoundingly overpriced food (although they did have a funnel cake stand!), but since I had a 2 year old to feed I had stuff packed and didn't have to buy anything. And a friend of ours pointed out what may be a possibly major disaster on Saturday - the gaming area is at the far end of Artist's Alley, and both are in a separate space from the main hall. This space has a single escalator in. On Friday they were already stopping people from going up there, and while it sucks to wait forever to get to an artist you want to see, games are scheduled, and have big prize money. If people are trying to get to a game they're supposed to be in with a big prize and can't get up there...well, people have committed murders over a couple thousand dollars. I can't imagine the mayhem that will ensue if they aren't more organized today. And this will also keep people from getting to artist's alley. We'll see if he was right today, I guess. Well, Evan will I guess, since I'm here supervising a viewing of Totoro right now!

So my final show report: go! have fun, bring your own snacks, and avoid Saturday if you can.

(PS to Tenae - I did take some cute food, but no time to pack it cute! So no photos, sorry!)