By Ruth Johnson

I’ve never been to New York Comic Con before. I’ve been to big cons, certainly, such as RTX, Rooster Teeth’s annual convention that draws nearly 70,000 people by last estimate. But even that did not prepare me for how packed NYCC is. My mistake might have been wandering on the show floor at the very beginning of the day. That’s seemingly where everyone headed as soon as they passed through security and got their badges scanned. But I can’t blame them—it’s literally right there, the first thing beckoning you as you enter.

I’m still a little dizzy from the expo floor—expect a more balanced perspective in a later article—but here are some highlights. One of the first things I saw was a beautiful Iron Man statue at a booth selling costumes. I’m a huge Iron Man fan, so seeing him gleaming and shiny and big as life was pretty special, even if he was inanimate.

Next, I saw the Jelly Belly booth, which is one of my favorite candies. They were handing out little packs, so I took one, and passed a stunning portrait of Hermione Granger—completely made of jelly beans.

As the crowd slowly milled around, I eventually got to The Avengers showcase put on by Marvel. There’s a beautiful bronze-colored statue of Captain America that is can’t-miss . You don’t have to go through the queue to see it, just look at it from a distance. It’s stunning.

I then stopped by the SYFYWire live stage. At the time they were just starting their coverage, so I just snapped a photo of their schedule to remind myself later and went on my way.

I eventually made my way to the Star Trek booth, with costumes on display from Star Trek: Discovery. I then left the show floor for a bit to look at the Artists’ Alley, which I will cover in another article (it’s so big it’s earned it).

I came back and walked around the book area a bit. I stopped by Harper Collins and admired a signed copy of legendary writer J. Michael Straczynski’s autobiography, which I might return for before the con ends—please don’t tell my budget. I stopped by Simon and Schuster, where the clerks were friendly and eager to help. I bought a Star Trek mystery bag, which came with a free 40th anniversary Star Trek: The Motion Picture poster. The mystery bag contained the newest Star Trek: Discovery book, Gene Roddenberry’s adaptation of Star Trek: The Motion Picture and a model of a starship from Star Trek: Discovery, the U.S.S. Shenzhou.

Finally, I stopped by AWA Studios’ booth, and they were kind enough to give me an advance copy of their first couple of comics, including Straczynski’s new comic that he’s co-writing, The Resistance. The staffer and I commiserated over the fact that Straczynski isn’t able to attend NYCC this year due to a shoulder injury.

Then I came back to watch RWBY’s cast and crew at the SYFYWire live stage. Before they came to the stage, there was a Q&A with two of the actors from the video game Detroit: Become Human, Bryan Dechart (Connor) and Amelia Rose Blaire (Traci). I honestly don’t know that much about the game other than that people ship Connor and Hank, who is played by Clancy Brown. So it was cute when Clancy Brown showed up at the Q&A to see Dechart and Blaire, if ever so briefly.

The cast of Netflix’s Big Mouth came to the stage next: Nick Kroll (Nick), Jessi Klein (Jessi) and seemingly by surprise, Jason Mantzoukas (Jay). I don’t know much about the show, but I enjoyed their senses of humor.

RWBY came up next, with some tantalizing teasers and some fun times with a giant D20. I took another break from the show floor to head to the Hammerstein Ballroom for the RWBY panel (with a detour to pick up a portable phone battery), before returning to Javits to wander around some more.

By the time I got back to the Javits, the crowds had subsided somewhat, so it was easier to move around—which, thank goodness. I walked around some more—I found the RWBY poster at the CrunchyRoll booth, which I had seen on Twitter but hadn’t found yet.

I met the folks at Sparkle Designs, whose slogan is “Where Fashion Meets Fandom,” and that’s certainly true. Located at Booth #1375, my favorite piece of merchandise they had was a fantastic T-Shirt featuring Captain Marvel, Iron Man and Captain America in a team-up we should’ve seen in the movies.

I took a card from Superhuman Streetwear, which makes the most amazing jackets based on different fandoms. They’re all very expensive, but certainly neat!

I again saw Iron Man, this time on the Iron Man VR poster for the upcoming game on the PlayStation. After wandering around the Artists’ Alley once more, I decided my day needed to come to a close.

I passed the giant poster for Suzanne Collins’s new Hunger Games novel , teasing its title release due the next day on Friday, October 4th, which we now know is titled The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

All in all, it was a good first day, even if the crowds were a bit overwhelming. Stay tuned for more from my experiences on the show floor and in the Artists’ Alley.

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