On Saturday, October 9th, I got up at the crack of dawn and drove to the New Haven train station with Mike and his brother — my future brother-in-law! — Rob. If you know me, you know that I suck at mornings and regularly battle 5am and other such early times. But that Saturday was different, because it didn’t matter that I had the energy level of a dead microwave; we were going to New York City for New York Comic Con!

Growing up, I wasn’t into comics — at all. I knew what they were, and I knew who Batman, Superman, and Spiderman were, but that was about it. I watched the (better than today’s) Batman cartoon on occasional Saturday mornings, and watched Batman Beyond religiously. The only comics I ever read before meeting Mike were Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, Squee, and Lenore. I thought JTHM/JTSM was hysterical, and drew pictures of Nny while staring at the art throughout my sophomore year of high school. The Crow is my favorite movie, but I’d never read the graphic novel.

Then I met Mike, and slowly he taught me all that I had missed. Now I have a nearly full box of comics and a collection of my favorite comic book character action figures.

My main mission at NYCC was to meet James Marsters (Buffy) and Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead). When we got to the Javits Center, Rob went to a DC talent search panel, and Mike and I headed to Autograph Alley. I didn’t see Bruce Campbell’s line, but the line for James Marster wasn’t too bad. Unfortunately, he was running late, and when the lady waiting in front of us told me the prices for an autograph and photo, Mike misunderstood her and dragged me away; he thought that you had to pay to meet him, but just meeting James and shaking his hand was free. We went to Artist Alley and found Ben Templesmith, author and illustrator of one of my favorites, Wormwood. Ben was cool as hell in person, and pretty damn classy. He wore a neat pinstriped suit and he was really polite and down to Earth. We chatted with him for a few while Mike got Wormwood: Birds, Blood & Beer signed, then took a picture with him.

Mike and me with Ben Templesmith at NYCC 2010

We wandered around a little more, searching for artists and writers that we knew. There were a few there that we knew we’d never get to meet, what with the lines, so we just kind of walked around and stopped to see whomever we liked and got things signed if we had any of their work with us. (Unfortunately for me, none of the artists or writers that worked on the comics I read — except for Ben Templesmith — were there.) We stopped by to talk to Ivan Reis, and Mike had him sign Blackest Night, then it was time to meet Rob. We met up with Mike’s friend Caleb and his friend, and then met Rob at the Cartoon Network section.

We all split up again (though I can’t remember why), and Mike and I ended up in the Javits food court. The lines for the four restaurants there were insane, and then there was another line you had to get into after you got your food so you could pay. With low blood sugar and no rational thought processes, I decided there was no way in hell I was waiting in line twice, so we wandered around a little more.

We met up with Rob again and left Javits to go find a nearby restaurant. We found a McDonald’s, said screw it, and went inside… which was packed with tons of people from NYCC, and regular people who probably had no idea about the convention and just wanted to eat. We had to wait a few minutes to order and get our food, but it was nothing compared to how long we would have waited had we settled for one of the (only) four choices at Javits. Luckily, the McD’s had two floors, so we were able to sit down and relax for a few. Once we were all full and refueled, we headed back to the Javits Center and split again so that Rob could meet one of his favorite writers or artists, and Mike and I set out to find a few more writers and artists.

On the way back to Artist Alley, we noticed that James Marsters was there, and that the line was really short. I double checked with the employee managing the line and she confirmed that I could just shake his hand and talk to him for a few without getting anything autographed, so I jumped into line and waited to meet the guy I had known as Spike for years. (I did not know, however, that he’s written a one-shot for one of the Spike comics. I’m totally going to have to get my hands on it, now.)

I have to admit that I was pretty nervous. I mean, I had no idea what I was going to say to him. I didn’t want to gush or giggle, but I also wanted to chat with him for a few. I just didn’t know about what. I waited patiently behind a few people who were getting things signed, and then there was only one more person in front of me. She was young, maybe sixteen or seventeen, and had a small poster of James as Spike. James’s assistant told him that her name was Catie, and started to spell it, but James wrote a “K” before his assistant could stop him. He literally head-desked, which was comical, and then apologized profusely.

“I’ve really fucked this up,” he said. Catie just giggled. His assistant told him to turn the “K” into the “IE” of “Catie” by adding a “-” to the K, but when James did it, he said it looked stupid. He moved to another spot on the poster and wrote her name correctly, his assistant remarking to Catie that now it would be worth more because of the mistake. She just giggled some more, thanked him, and then it was my turn.

“Hey, how are you?” I asked, shaking his hand.

“Good,” he said. “Fucking things up.”

“It’s been a long day,” I said.

He nodded. “So how are you?”

“Good,” I said. “So what have you been up to lately?”

He said he is currently on four shows, and that odds are if I turn on the TV, I’ll see him somewhere.

“Holy shit,” I said. There were people behind me, and I felt incredibly awkward, so I shook his hand again and said it was nice to meet him.

“It was nice meeting you, too,” he said. We exchanged “take care”s, and then I walked back to Mike.

I do wish that I’d gotten the opportunity to take a photo with him, but they were only doing photo ops, at certain times each day, and for $60. Since I only had about that much on me, and had missed that morning’s photo op, I decided to not go with the $45 autograph and just take the opportunity to meet him so that I could buy something else if I wanted to.

We met Greg Capullo, who was so down to Earth that we went back and chatted with him and his wife a second time.

Mike with Greg Capullo at NYCC 2010

Oddly, Greg’s table had no line. We asked him what was up with that and he said that everyone was waiting in the line for Robert Kirkman — where Robbie was. Somehow, Robbie still managed to get his The Walking Dead stuff signed, even though the line had about a bajillion people in it.

When we met up with Robbie again, Mike said that he wanted to give me a chance to do something I wanted to do, since I’d basically been tailing them all day. So, I began a search for a Firefly/Serenity tee.

My Firefly/Serenity Jayne tee!

I found several Serenity tees in a huge booth. I had a hard time choosing, but finally decided on the Jayne tee. I also got a postcard with the vendor’s website from one of the guys, because they apparently have thousands of tee shirts on their site, and way more Firefly/Serenity shirts.

The three of us looked around the other vendor exhibits, and I found a Classic Nite Owl for pretty cheap. My Watchmen action figure collection is now almost complete.

We were all exhausted at that point, and Mike and I were in so much pain we were limping around, so the three of us decided to leave. Mike thought we’d be able to take a taxi back to Grand Central, and even though I hated the idea of walking all the way back, I laughed at him. “It’s a Saturday night in New York!” I said. “The odds of getting a taxi…” But I stood there with him and tried to hail one anyway.

Sure enough, we couldn’t get one. We walked — well, okay, Robbie walked while Mike and I limped — back to Grand Central. When we finally got there, we had missed the next train by literally a minute, and had a whole hour until the next train. Mike wanted New York cheesecake, so we asked someone if there was a cheesecake place nearby, and she told us that the best one was Junior’s Cheesecake, and that there was one right in Grand Central. We found it pretty easily. I hadn’t been to Grand Central in a long time, and didn’t remember it looking so much like a… mall. Mike asked if I wanted a slice, too, and I said no. Little did I know that I should have gotten my own slice! We sat down and he gave me a bite to try. The lady who told us Junior’s is the best wasn’t lying. I kept swiping Mike’s fork every time he put it down so that I could steal another bite.

We passed the time hanging out, going outside for cigarettes, and wishing we were home.

Finally, it was time to catch our train. We got on and every seat was taken. There were already people standing, so we literally had to pack ourselves in. Mike and I ended up getting split from Robbie, because there were that many people. There was no way we were waiting for the next one, though, so we found a place to stand. “It’ll thin out at the next stop,” I said, shifting back and forth on my aching legs. The train kept hitting bumps, because clearly someone hated us that night, and with nothing to hold onto, Mike and I kept almost falling over.

Unfortunately, it didn’t “thin out” until about an hour later, a couple of stops from ours.

Finally we got back to New Haven and drove home. The second I got home, I could barely walk, but it was so, so worth it.