Sunday morning both Louis and I got dressed in anime costumes: he as Vash again, and me as Utena in the White Duelist costume Patti and Steph had made me. I had worn the costume for photos before, but this was the first time I was debuting it at a con. I can't tell you how many compliments I got on the individual medals that Patti took the time to make for me!

We got to the con and right away I spotted the most adorable little kid dressed up as Captain America, so I swung out my camera to grab a picture of him. This ended up being the last picture I would take with my own camera at the con, because the darn thing decided to pick that moment to die. Luckily Mario Rob came and found us right after that, and he was sweet enough to let me borrow his iPhone, which has a great camera as part of it, to continue to take pictures for the rest of the day. Thank you, Rob!

As usual, we headed right into the Exhibit Hall to browse the deals of the last day of the con. Thank goodness it was slightly less crowded than it had been on Saturday, but it was still very difficult to navigate and to find people. There were no shortage of costumes, however!

I was very happy to run into my friend Nora again, who had just come over from her ninja class. The fact that there is such a thing as ninja class (and here in New York, no less) makes me think that there's hope for the human race after all. It's a wonderful time we live in.

Not long after that I met up with my friend Ace from work! Three different coworkers of mine ended up at the convention that weekend, it's really amazing to see how comic books and beyond are entering the public's consciousness. But it was the first time anyone I worked with had ever seen me in costume, and I'm sure it was quite a lot to get used to! I also made sure to meet up with Yami, who is not only a coworker but a fellow cosplayer! Small world, am I right?

I also finally got to spend time with my good friend, B-chan, who has been the Anthy to my Utena in the past. B didn't have the Anthy costume on, but I managed to convince him to take the classic "sword-pulling" picture with me, anyway (what happened to that picture, anyway?) Then I introduced him to Mario Rob, because B-chan and Anthy have some cosplaying interests in common, and B-chan was able to give Rob advice backed by years of wisdom and experience.

It was very much Jedi Master speaks to Young Padawan, and once again I was touched by how much the cosplayer community is willing to help each other out. You have your elitists, of course, and your snobs, the same as in any social circle, but for the most part us geeks tend to stick together.

Of course, we couldn't get a whole lot of shopping done (not that I had spare money to blow anyway), but once again, it was not my fault: people were stopping Louis at every aisle to take his picture. Trigun may have ended on television 12 years ago but judging solely from people's reactions it's still immensely popular. Although I'm sure it doesn't hurt that Louis makes an excellent Vash, in my admittedly biased opinion.

We spent most of the morning in the Exhibit Hall, but by the afternoon we headed to the panel rooms for the first and only scheduled event we had planned for the weekend: the showing of Suck, a Canadian movie about a rock and roll band that becomes vampires in order to increase their appeal. We got there well ahead of time to make sure that we'd get good seats once the door opened, and we spent the time away from the press of the main crowd just gossiping and talking to old friends and meeting new people. Eventually we went in ahead of time and ended up catching the end of a documentary about Will Eisner. Sort of made me wish that we had gotten there even earlier, I love documentaries!

But before too long, the movie we had lined up to see started. Suck had Alice Cooper, Moby, Dave Foley, and Malcolm McDowell in it—Louis was sold. And I have to admit, it was a VERY good movie. The effects were good, the story was good, the music was REALLY good, and it was actually very funny. And by then my feet really appreciated having a chance to rest!

After the movie was over, we went back to the Exhibit Hall to take a final tour through the vendor booths. Louis was done shopping so we decided to focus more on some of the previews of the soon to be released action figures and other memorabilia the companies were promoting. We didn't get very far before we ran into Louis's friend LJ, who I refuse to believe exists. (Seriously, his initials are LiveJournal. This is not a real person!) I suppose the photo I took of them COULD have been Photoshopped...

Once again I mainly focused on taking pictures of people either in comic book costumes, or in costumes from my favorite fandoms in anime, manga, and video games. There really was such a wonderful mix of all four, plus a fair sprinkling of pop culture references, even down to the two girls dressed as the unicorns from Robot Unicorn Attack that we met outside. People are so creative and talented!

It was starting to get late and we were all more than a little tired and hungry, but Louis and Mario Rob were kind enough to indulge my girly side (hey, it comes out once in a while) as I ogled the dolls that were at one display near the main entrance of the Exhibit Hall. I'm not sure if they're going to be for sale commercially, or if they were custom orders or some other third thing, but they were absolutely exquisite.

Too many times when predominantly male comic book creators try to make female action figures and dolls, the faces come out VERY mannish. (I own one Chun Li figure from the 90s that I ONLY bought because I love Chun Li that much; it's truly fugly. And the Rogue action figure that was out around the same time was so bad, even my love for her couldn't get me to waste money on it.)

Like the costumes I mentioned above, a lot of the merchandise spanned all the areas of geek fandom, and the dolls were a perfect microcosm proving that: there were comic book characters made into dolls, the characters from the new Alice in Wonderland movie with perfect movie costume reproductions, pretty much the ENTIRE cast of Twilight in doll form, and, my personal favorite, the Muppets from Pigs! In! Space! I could have spent a good half an hour there, but the con really was winding down by this point and we wanted to leave before the official close time so we could avoid the entire mob trying to leave through the same exit at once.

Once we got outside we called our friends Steph and Anthony, who had been at the con the whole weekend but we had never managed to meet up! With Steph it's understandable, as she was covering the con for Gaming Angels, but I could really kick myself for not getting to see Anthony in his The Monarch costume again. They introduced us to a friend of theirs, and the six of us decided to go to Penn Station so we could all get different things from the food court they have underground and recap the con together.

We all had a ball having lunch/dinner together (seriously, meals kind of blend together when you're at a con), but all good things must come to an end, and pretty soon we all decided it was time to head for home. We had had a wonderful time at the New York Comic Con, but after three days of slathering makeup all over my skin, torturing my scalp with tight braids, stiff spray, and wigs and bobby pins, and then spending so much time on our feet, I was ready to drop in my tracks!

And that was the end of my 2010 con season. I can't believe I went to Otakon in Baltimore in August, Nan Desu Kan in Denver in September, and New York Comic Con in October. I LOVE going to conventions, I love getting new costumes, I love taking pictures, and I love having con reports, but I can't help but wish they had been a little more spaced out! It's March of 2011 and I'm just getting around to finishing up my con reports now!

Now to arrange my schedule for 2011...