New York Anime Festival Tickets Online!

NYAF 2008 tickets are now online! Head over to newyorkanimefestival.com to order your tickets now and be done in time for tonight's all-new Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica! Once you've picked up your NYAF tickets, come on back and let me know your guesses on the final Cylon. My money's on Starbuck, but is she too obvious?

NEW YEAR! NEW NYAF! NEW SITE!

New York Comic Con 2008 just wrapped, and this means it's time to get back into the New York Anime Festival. First up? A new newyorkanimefestival.com! We've taken our favorite elements from last year's site, added what we learned from suggestions and research, and also thrown in a few things we wanted to do just because.

We're taking a similar approach to this year's New York Anime Festival, too. We know what worked in '07 and what didn't. We're building off of the best aspects of last year's NYAF, including what's been recommended from both exhibitors and attendees, and also taking some risks that probably won't pay off but will be a lot of fun along the way.

The 2008 New York Anime Festival takes place September 26-28, dates that are right now pretty far away. As such, as you click through the site, you'll find a number of Coming Soon pages, but because "right now" will very quickly become yesterday, last week, and last month, you'll be seeing these Coming Soon pages replaced with information, announcements, and out-of-focus photos sooner than you think.

We're serious about the out-of-focus photo bit, too. One of the sections already online is NYAF's Downloads page. We've got the essentials -- banners, avatars, wallpapers, and logos -- online, but we're working on expanding the area to include some photo galleries, MP3s, and admittedly-ugly sketches. None of this stuff is critical to either an anime fan or an anime convention, but they're things that make us feel good making them and hopefully make you feel look taking a look.

You know you can't wait for the Random Photo of Office Furniture of the Week.

And, if you have anything you'd like to contribute, we're listening. The New York Anime Festival team is also the New York Comic Con team, meaning we had all been scrambling to make sure this year's Comic Con -- April 18-20 -- didn't explode, implode, catch on fire, or generally suck. Come April 21st, though, we entered into NYAF mode. No, wait, come April 21st, we were asleep. Come April 22nd, we hit NYAF mode.

So, throughout the lead up to New York Comic Con, we were listening, plotting, and planning, and now with NYCC over, like Vampire Hunter D springing upon a Noble, we're launching into action. Was the D reference kinda forced? Probably was. Why's it there? Don't know. Maybe it's a hint. Or maybe I just like Vampire Hunter D.

And with these words I encourage you to come, play, and explore at the new newyorkanimefestival.com!

New York Anime Festival Tickets On Sale... Soon!

New York Comic Con was a blast and a big success. Of course, it's over now, and what's on the horizon? The New York Anime Festival. NYAF is just five months away, and there's a lot we've got to do. What's the first thing? How about tickets? Expect to see tickets online soon.

How soon? Before the new episode of Doctor Who on SCI FI tonight.

NYCC 09 is NOT on Superbowl Weekend

Is it the NFL spreading this rumor? The Freemasons? I've heard it like 5 times, but no, once and for all, NYCC 2009 is February 6-8 the Superbowl is 2/1.

On this subject, I'm going to meet with the Javits Center on Monday to discuss NYCC dates for 2010 and beyond, plus the idea of finding more space for next year. I want you to know that we are working on making sure our panel room gridlock situation does not occur again......

Please bring your leftover Superbowl Sunday 7 layer bean dip to NYCC next year, I'll be looking for it.

Lastly a prediction - I'll be wearing purple at the con next year because my hometown Vikings just won the Superbowl, THE PREVIOUS WEEKEND!

-L

NYCC on Attack of the Show!

Guest Blogger - NYCC Kids Day, From Moms Perspective

By Christine Peterson

As one who caters to her inner geek with enthusiasm, both working at and attending the NY Comicon was an anticipated treat. To start, as I was processing pre-registered attendees I would have about two seconds to explain quickly the terms of the passes, where to find badge holders, where to wait for entry etc-and occasionally field a question or two. When someone at one point said to me as a response for a suggestion "well, I'll try", I was able to respond in perfect Yoda imitation "there is no try, there is do or do not"-which yielded the attendee smiling broadly and stating "it's good to know this show is run by some of our own". That was the general attitude that I felt throughout the day. The experience was a welcoming one.

Even more inspiring was the welcome displayed by both Reed and the attendees towards the next generation of Manga enthusiasts on Kid's Day. As a parent, I was happy to spend the day with my children embracing one of the things I truly do have in common with my children-the love of Comics, animation and Star Wars. As one who truly loves the genre, I felt like I was getting away with something-I was spending quality time with my kids, doing something I truly enjoy and expanding their interest in it-except there was not an ounce of guilt involved!

As my daughter and I sought Chewbacca out for her to get a picture with him, my son happily posed with a Shadow Trooper, and attended the NY Jedi light saber demonstration, where seasoned "Jedis" taught kids of all ages how to duel with light sabers. The NY Jedi were in full on Jedi garb, some even representing the various alien races show throughout the Star Wars saga-which really added to the experience. All the children were gazing with wide eyes as they were taught to swing a light saber the correct way, and dueled for a few moments with a Jedi. My son would not stop talking about it the rest of the day. Events like this in a child's life stick with them forever-years from now my son will probably be sharing the events of today with a friend, smiling at the memory.

My daughter attended the panels on how to draw animals, utilizing color, and how to bring animation to life via depth and shadow. Sitting quietly as she drew along with the instructor, answered questions and colored away, she was in her version of Heaven. This was her thing, drawing. As lucid and detailed as my son was going on about learning proper light saber techniques, my daughter's eyes glowed as she described her plans to draw her next comic. Again, a memory made.

Kids' Day was more than just bringing children to a Comic Book Convention-it was an opportunity for parents who love attending them to share with their children their hobby, and create a day that both parent and child could talk about for years after. At least I know that was the intent, and in the case of this mom and her two kids-it was a success

Hi We're The Replacements.....

I nearly forgot about the outside world during NY Comic Con. I took Monday off and mowed the lawn, petted my cats, smelled the fresh non Javits air. Well a buddy from DC Comics reminded me of something more important than air - The Replacements remastered reissues from Rhino Records with unreleased songs!!!!

Check a cool posting about it here.

Oh I love The Mats.....

Not to go all "print is dead" on you here, but it's strange that the albums are not available through iTunes so I'm facing the idea of walking into a record store for the first time in like 3 years.

Rock On.

-L

AMC's Sci Fi Scanner at NYCC

This is actually pretty funny.......And yes, I'm posting it becasue I'm in it.

Cap Mural from NYCC

Eric M. Maruscak worked on this awesome mural through the entire show - he was on his hands and knees drawing back near the Variant Stage for 3 straight days. i think all the hard work paid off. Even the union guys at Javits were impressed enough to take a picture for us at the very end of the show from a crane. Those guys are a tough audience! Thanks Eric, this is awesome!!!! Check out Eric's web site here.

Lastly, Eric said that Alex Ross never got over to the mural based on his work. If anyone has contact with him, send him the link as I'm sure he'd love to see it.

-L

New York Comic Con - We're Big in Japan!!!!

Can you see it? It';s a great crowd shot of the T.M.R. concert at NYCC in a Japanese newspaper! Cool!

-L

64,000 People Can't Be Wrong.....

Everybody likes to hear the numbers, myself very much included, I’ve been hounding Allison our registration manager all weekend for updates. So I sat with my team Sunday night pulling in stats and data from all the various sources as the con was winding down and we were prying the last fans from the show floor around 5pm…..

So what do we know?

At least 64,000 people attended New York Comic Con this weekend. We have more details to pour through from retailers and on site tickets sales, but as of tonight we know that at least 64,000 attendees were in the building over the weekend. That’s an intense jump from 49,000 last year and it seems to say this crazy little party we call New York Comic Con continues to grow as fast as a speeding bullet.

Stay tuned for final numbers in the next few days.

A reminder that the show will be in the exact same space next year and we are already working on getting more real estate to grow in.

Now I’m going to lay down, I plan to get up on Tuesday.

-L

Quick Sunday Morning NYCC Notes

You have to check out the time lapse camera of the con floor that CBR has got. Every wonder what happens on the Con floor in the middle of the night? Now you can find out!!!!

CBR's Almost Live NYCC Con Cam

Is there anything cuter than little kids dressed up as Star Wars characters? Kids Day here at the con is a great success so far!

The Harold and Kumar trailer we are going to show today is awesome! I watched it during the studio run through it is great!

Jon Stewart is here today just hanging out with his family. I love that. I Love NYC.

The Dark Knight surprise trailer yesterday was so cool. There were rumors of it happening, but no one knew for sure. I had fans texting me asking to confirm the rumor - but I kept my lips sealed.

The Hellboy 2 panel and screening was outstanding. The brought the animetronic characters out onto the stage with them and they are intense. Later you could get your picture taken with them on the con floor.

Here ends my random con highlights for now, more later I promise.

-L

T.M. Revolution Concert!

Beginning at least 2 hours before the huge T.M. Revolution concert Saturday night, thousands of TMR and J-Pop fines were lined up. In fact the line went from one end of the Javits Center to the other end and then some. That doesn't like much until you consider that the Javits Center is about 5 city blocks long!


The concert was awesome! Over 3,000 screaming fans, great video, light and sound and TMR! I can't believe it actually happened. We couldn't take pictures during thew concert, so this shot is of the crowd before TMR took the stage. Anime News Network will be streaming the entire concert though and we'll let you know as soon as it is live.


Thanks to TMR for an amazing night!!!!!


-L

NYCC Super Saturday

This picture is not the best as I was coming down a moving elevator, but it's a shot of the 12,000 plus people lined up in the queue hall waiting for the con doors to open on Saturday. We timed the wait (once the doors were open) at about 20 minutes!


I don't even know where to start, but if you want great coverage, CBR, Newsarama, IGN.com, The Beat, all are here in force and will give you awesome blow by blow, panel by panel recaps. For the behind the scenes perspective the day went amazingly well.

I don't have numbers yet as we will have to do a lot of hand counting, but it was by far, by far, the busiest day in the history of New York Comic Con. Here's a tour from Saturday afternoon that I took - I'm in the show office which overlooks the con floor and it is jammed. In the middle of the con you could barely see carpet.

I walk down to the IGN.com theatre to check on the Star Wars panel and every seat is full, the balcony is jammed and there are hundreds of people standing. I walk out of the theatre and the entire lobby area is full of roughly 2,000 people waiting for the next screening.

I walk over to the panel area and I hear bullhorns! Yup, Public Safety shut the area down for about 15 minutes to clear it - All 12 panel rooms were full to capacity and the entire lobby was full with about 1,000 people.

Simply amazing.

I'll write a more comprehensive con recap later (including where I think we need to do better in the future) but Saturday was off the charts.

More later but the onlaught of Kids Day is now upon me.

-L

NYCC on Fox National News!

Shameless self promotion - Look at me mom!

Guest Blogger Mike Drucker's Day At NYCC

There's an hour and twenty minutes until they open the doors forregular goers and I'm choking on Triple Espresso gelato. There's somesort of rocky, chipping thing in here, which is burning my throat onthe way down.

Well.

Already things are somewhat hectic. I met up with Ed Murray and Lancean hour ago. I received a Staff T-Shirt. I'm not staff, per se, but Iwill cherish having it more than is likely healthy.I also ran into my old boss Pat Driscoll and the Black20 comedyfun-time folks. As I talked to Pat, I could tell that a few of hisfriends didn't know me and were a hair's width away from turning onthe camera and editing me down into absurdity.

Spoke with Matt Little a few minutes ago and I'm now doing two comedyshows tonight: an early sort of run-through comedy show at 4:00 p.m.and the real, big one at 7:00. They're both on what's called theVariant Stage, and I need to actually find out where that is.

Ed just bought a burger.

Here's the last thing right now: the convention space is being sharedwith a much smaller showing by the City University of New Yorkpresenting a job fair. You've never seen the odd Mexican stand-offbetween people wearing Nightwing costumes and terrified collegestudents wearing three-piece suits.

Later That Day:

Just did my first set. Small crowd, but it was alright. Sort ofworking the three or four people hanging out. It was fun, though. Didsome older jokes I haven't done in a while. It's weird hearing "ArmyStrong, Army Smash" reverberate through the Javits Center, likelyannoying people pushing small-press comic books.

I used a Batman joke I haven't used in nearly a year.

Also, I now have a performer's pass. Take that, Dad.

Later that Night:

I'm home now. I did my last set and it went great. There were someguys from Wizard in the audience and they really enjoyed my set, whichfeels very, very, very relieving. For some reason, I wanted the guysfrom Wizard to like me a lot. But I did well and much later thatnight, two guys came up to me on the street and told me they enjoyedthe set. Bonus!

Ending Coming:

Here's What I Bought Today at the Con:

Colon:

1 Large Super Mario Plastic Statue
1 Large Goomba Plastic Statue
1 World of Warcraft Starter Deck1 Batman vs. Joker VS. Card Set
1 Spiderman vs. Doctor Octopus VS. Card Set
1 Magic: The Gathering Deck (my first in perhaps a decade)
1 Comic Book Legal Defense Fund T-shirt
1 Plush Red Mushroom (To Make You Grow Larger)
1 Plush Green Mushroom (To Make You Live Longer)
1 Duncan Yo-Yo

G'night.