Sunday morning, I cautiously opened one eye, and then the other.  I wasn't dead!  Leaving early, eating a boatload of food, taking the hottest bath my body could stand, and getting to bed early had stood me in good stead.  I would be able to go to the con!  Hurrah!

With only a few hours left of New York Comic Con 2015, I was running out of time to do everything I wanted to do.  My first goal, meet up with the other artists and creators I had missed the other three days!  This time I was smart, and looked up my friends booth numbers at home, and wrote them down, so I would be SURE to find them.  My first stop was fellow Middle Village native, Vinnie Tartamella!  (Though he's moved on since--Middle Village isn't the most conducive location to growth.)  His comic, Through The Woods, that he co-created with his brother Frankie, is still going strong, and it was great to get to see him again.

My next stop was to find the booth for Section 8 Comics, where I knew Eric Rivera and Wilson Ramos Jr. (who I had met through Louis back at Big Apple Comic Con 2004--good Lord that was a long time ago), President and Owner respectively, would be.   Their comics kill me, especially @The 8 Spot,  I absolutely adore the art style.   These boys, and the rest of their crew, work *ridiculously* hard, with five web comics and three currently published paper comics, and working on others besides, and what exactly have I done with my life?  My own insecurities aside, these guys are enormously talented, and you should check them out. 

I didn't want to take up too much if either Vinnie's or the boys of Section 8's time, they were there to work after all.  I had one more "must" on my list, but I still had some time to kill before it came up (this was one of the few things all weekend that had a scheduled time), so I decided to wander around a bit to see what I could see.  The crowd on Sunday was reasonable, about what I expected it to be.  Maybe on par with what it had been the year before, although after this long (so very long) weekend all memories of cons past had pretty much been wiped from my mind.  Certainly comparable to what Thursday had been.

There were still cosplayers, though!  Maybe not as big as the really elaborate costumes I had seen on Saturday, but very creative--possibly due to people, like me, who wanted to come up with stuff they could be more comfortable in.  One thing I noticed, though, there weren't as many little kids there (Sunday is "Kid's Day" at NYCC, and kids under 6 get in free, and there is a lot of programming aimed just at them) as there had been the year before.  I wonder why?  I always love seeing the little kids's costumes, and watch them get sucked into nerd culture right before my eyes.  Maybe they were all at the kiddie events and I missed them.

I wanted to get another look at the other Artist's Alley, the one I had pooped out on at the end of Saturday, so I headed there next.  This was, again, a good decision, as I ended up running into so many people there!  First was Ziggo, who thankfully could see a *lot* better now that he had his crazy contacts out.  He didn't recognize me at first--finally, proof that I'm not the only one completely thrown off by a wig!  His Spidey suit looked *amazing*--no pun intended.

As we were talking, this INCREDIBLE group of Addams Family cosplayers came up behind me, so I whirled around so I could get a photo of them.  Ziggo tapped me on the shoulder, and pointed to Cousin It.

"That's Lori."

WELL.  I don't think anyone could fault me for not recognizing her this time--look at how perfect that costume is!  You can't see a single bit of her face, and almost none of her body, I don't know how she managed that at all!  They had the whole group: Gomez, Morticia, Pugsley, and Wednesday, only  missing an Uncle Fester...hmmm...Zig, how do you feel about shaving your head?  All kidding aside, though, they were really, really awesome.  And you know what they say, the family that cosplays together...

I also saw CHris--first time I had seen him all weekend!  He makes a fabulous Hawkeye, so part of me was a little sad that we hadn't coordinated our costumes better...but on the other hand, no, I needed to do Nat on a bracketing day, either Thursday or Sunday.  I'm sure we'll get another shot, while I can't call myself the world's biggest Black Widow fan, I love that wig SO much I'm looking for any excuse to wear it again.  Maybe more of her costumes will appear in the future.

I also saw Richie!  He was, once again, filming--this guy has *so* many projects going on at once, it's hard to keep track.  But if I could recommend one, I'd urge you to check out SuperYOU FUNdation, a kid's empowerment program gaining momentum in the New York City school system.  It's too comprehensive for me to completely explain it here, but the short version is that it gets kids to make up their own superheroes, based on positive character traits, to get them to be the best "good guy" they can be.  (Ask me again: what, exactly, am I doing with *my* life?)

It was getting close to 2 PM, which was when the next thing I had scheduled on list was set to start, so I said goodbye to my friends, and headed back to the Exhibition Hall.  On my way, I ran into Brian Ngai!  I hadn't seen him all weekend, more's the pity: he's always great to talk to, and the photos he takes of me make me look faaar better than I do in real life (trust me.)  Thankfully he recognized me (since I was wearing the same wig I wear for Steampunk Batgirl, which he had photographed at Special Edition), but since he had a shoot to go to, and I had my thing to go to, we only had time for a quick selfie before we both moved on.

I did, however, manage to meet up with Linwood, who I had unsuccessfully exchanged "But where are you NOW?" texts will all weekend until that point.  He had finished his major shopping for the day by that point, so he agreed to accompany me on my next mission, and even offered to work my camera, so I could be in a few pictures that weren't selfies (which would be important in a moment.)

I arrived at the Workman booth in the Exhibition Hall well before 2 PM (my mother and my grandmother's favorite motto was: if you're not 15 minutes early, you're late), and loudly asked, "Is this where HAL JOHNSON, author of IMMORTAL LYCANTHROPES and FEARSOME CREATURES OF THE LUMBERWOODS, is signing books?"  Hal...actually wasn't there yet, which was mildly embarrassing, but hey: I hope whoever was running the booth got the message that Mr. Johnson is in GREAT DEMAND.  And should do more signings.  And write more books.

Hal did, of course, show up with his awesome wife Barbara, and I was FIRST IN LINE because of REASONS!  Hal laughed at me when I passed him my copy of Fearsome Creatures to sign, and since he was doing a little doodle in each book, he asked me what I'd like him to draw.  "A Crissy Monster!" I said, because I'm surprisingly egotistical for someone with such low self-esteem.  So poor Hal had to come up with a Crissy Monster spur of the moment, and he did a great job despite the fact I was pretty much hanging over him squeeing with delight, and now I have a Crissy Monster forever and for always.  Thank you, Hal.

There really was a line forming behind me (how awesome is THAT?  And have I mentioned yet that I've done absolutely nothing of value with my life?), so after talking with Barbara for a bit, I decided to clear out of the way so everyone else could get their books signed.  I had accomplished pretty much everything I had set out to do, so now it was just the wind-down of the weekend.  I went outside for a bit again, because just like the previous three days, it was positively gorgeous, and I managed to find a really great Hawkeye!  He was so nice about agreeing to pose with me--really, I know there are some bad apples in the bunch, but most cosplayers have absolutely no problems about being photographed with people they've never met before, it's really great.

There was one last thing I wanted to do before I left: find my Tony!  Pete's dressed up as Tony Stark at least one day per con the past two cons, and had decided to do it again on Sunday when he had fewer interviews to conduct.  He had one last one to film before calling it quits, so I headed back to the quieter Artist's Alley, and watched while he interviewed Donny Cates and Eliot Rahal, the writers behind The Paybacks, a comic about a squad of former heroes working as repo men, reclaiming all those "wonderful toys" superheroes always seem to have, but probably can't afford unless they're billionaires.  Donny and Eliot were absolute riots; they were so clever and just so wickedly funny I had trouble not braying my obnoxiously loud laughter while they were talking.  The comic is just more of the same--it's been out for a while now, but if you have a chance to pick it up, and you like really ridiculous but clever satire, you won't be disappointed.

Soon afterwards, we met up with Rog, his lady Jackie, and their little boy James (who is just so adorable, I could have happily spent all four days at the con entertaining him), and we were all starting to drag a little, so we decided to start wrapping things up.  We took one last tour through the Exhibition Hall, the boys said goodbye to all of their many friends and contacts (including Aub Driver, who works media relations for Dark Horse, and who I had previously met through Louis back when he and Freddy were setting up interviews for their podcast), and then we all traipsed out of there.

Roger and Jackie took pity on me, after four days of being on my feet (and mostly in uncomfortable shoes) virtually non-stop, and since we all live more or less near each other, offered me a ride home.  I was so, SO happy.  Rog and Pete and Jackie chatted the whole ride home, while I happily sang songs and played finger games with James.  (I may not want kids, but I love them.  They're so much fun to play with!  Adults don't know how to play anymore.)

I have to admit it, though; this con killed me.  Monday was Columbus Day, and at my job we have the option of earning a comp day by coming in, but there was NO WAY I would have made it.  I don't think I moved once the entire day.  I was exhausted, and sore, my eyes bothered me, my pores were clogged, and I was broke.  I had only bought a four day pass because they ran out of three day at Special Edition.  I had done it once, I had the experience, I don't ever need to do it again.

Then Alan Rickman died, and Ziggo messaged me to tell me they were putting together a Harry Potter group Thursday of NYCC 2016. I've been looking for an excuse to finish my Ravenclaw costume...son of a...

Sailor Venus

Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Saturn

Vinnie and me!

It took a few tries to get a good shot of me with the Section 8 boys...

...mostly because I make the stupidest faces.

Ziggo was REALLY SHOCKED I WAS ME. (That doesn't make grammatical sense, but you know what I mean.)

"Da duh duh duh..."

::SNAP SNAP!::

The Addams family!

Chris and me!

Christ I'm short.

"Richie stop making that face!"

Better. (Marginally.)

Brian and me

It looks like I scared Hal!

It may have been the wig

He figured out who I was, though.

Doing the signing

I gave my camera to Linwood

He took a lot of pictures

I am SO excited!

Me telling Hal I want a "Crissy monster"

Hal obliging

Crissy Monster's head

Almost done with the outline

Now time to add details

Like talons

And fangs

And long hair, of course

All done!

Dedication and doodle

All mine!

Me and Hal

I make goofy faces

Hal always looks awesome though

Okay now THESE are goofy faces.

Me and Rog and the baby

That boy. I can't.

Vinnie and me