On Friday, October 11th, I headed down to the Javits Center after school with my friends Zeanna and Kayla to go to my first ever Comic Con. I'm not into comics or anime or video games at all, really, but I figured going would be worth the experience since I had heard from several people how amazing the whole event is. Zeanna went all out and dressed up like one of her favorite characters from a show she watches, and it was fun to see how excited she was about the whole thing.
I was definitely taken by surprise when I first glanced at the Javits Center set up for Comic Con: I thought I had witnessed a huge crowd when I spent 7 hours there in the 4th grade when I auditioned (unsuccessfully) for Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader, but the Center was by far much more crowded for Comic Con. I was expecting entering to be a giant pain because of the specific instructions I had been sent in the mail when I received my ticket, but all the security guard did was scan my pass and I was free to go in .
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| Admission ticket |
The inside was incredibly hectic. If anything is an organized chaos, it is definitely the layout of Comic Con. There were stands upon stands upon stands of comics venders, clothing sellers, and random merchandise venue lining the insides of the venue; however, despite the incredible crowd making it almost impossible to move at some points, the whole center was laid out like New York blocks (at least like upper Manhattan), with straight rows and columns to help you navigate your way around. Zeanna, Kayla, and I spent a long while just walking around, trying to acclimate ourselves to the completely foreign environment. Eventually, we settled in and each began buying some stuff that perked our interest. I was surprised by my lack of desire to purchase everything for sale, but I eventually ended up buying a Totoro plushie.
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| You can see how packed the place was |
After walking around for about an hour, we came across a kiosk run by a company called I Heart Guts, which sells a variety of figurines and plushies of human body parts with faces on them. Zeanna and I were completely enthralled by the creativity of the woman who ran the company and talked to her assistant for a good 20 minutes or half an hour before finally deciding to buy anything. I eventually bought a stuffed testicle as well as an info-chart on testicular cancer, while Zeanna bought a Womb and an info-chart on the menstrual cycle.
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| Business Card!!! |
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| My stuffed testicle (notice the "having a ball" on the tag) |
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| the info-chart is actually incredibly useful |
Given my lack of enthusiasm for a lot of the main features of Comic Con, none of the other displays really stood out to me. However, one thing that definitely left an impression on me was the incredibly kindness and camaraderie almost everyone at Comic Con showed to each other: when someone one a cool prize at spin-the-wheel thing, everyone cheered with excitement; people constantly approached strangers and asked for pictures with them and gladly returned the favor and even did so for others throughout the event. Comic Con was bereft of the sense of judgement that often permeates social scenes, and instead proved itself to be a place where people are welcome to be who they are, actively interact with those around them, and outwardly display their interests. Although I don't feel the need to return in the future to purchase more stuff or view more displays, I would gladly return for the breath of fresh air it provided.
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