I had originally planned on rewearing Utena to New York Comic Con this year, because I usually like to throw at least one anime costume in there, and Utena is one of my favorite characters, and it had been a while since I had worn it with all the trimmings. But about a week before the convention, Robert Frank of DC Cosplayers East posted to the group asking if anyone had a Zatanna costume so they could have a full Justice League group on Friday. ...well, shoot, I'm a sucker for groups, and completeness...and being asked to be in a group, really. I mean, I had the costume already, why not?

On the plus side, none of the DC cosplayers seemed to notice, and certainly everyone knew who I was supposed to be. I got to see Charlie again, who I had met at Special Edition the year before (coincidentally enough, while he was dressed as Flash and I was dressed as Zatanna!), and Kal El, who made his way through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, just to be Superman for one day. (I made the mistake of kissing him hello, while wearing my Long Lasting Red Lipstick Of Doom. He wore that kissmark for the rest of the day. I tried to warn him.)

The photoshoot was a TON of fun. There were so many cosplayers to pose with! And the organizers did a great job of making sure everyone got into at least half the shots. The best was when, during the battle scene, I pointed my wand at a Constantine cosplayer across from me, and said, "I've always wanted to do this, John," and he quipped back, "What, are you still mad over that whole 'I killed your father' thing?"

I love comic fans.

After the shoot was over, I made my way to the press lounge to wait for the crew of Pete's Basement to come out--I had seen Pete briefly the day before, but not Ramón or Penny or any of the rest of the gang. As I waited, checking my phone to see if anyone was looking for me, I heard, "...excuse me, but are you Vanessa's (shared last name) cousin?"

I could actually hear the tendons in my neck creak as I looked up slowly in utter confusion. You have to understand me. My cousin is the *exact* opposite of me. She got all of the looks in our family, I got the lion's share of the brains. She was a cheerleader in high school, I was in marching band. She can pickout a counterfeit Chanel from a lineup of identical bags, I can tell the difference between a Korean Cutie Moon Rod from a Japanese one even without the packaging. You catch my drift.

Nevertheless, Vanessa was one of those popular kids who, here's a novel concept, was popular because she was friendly with *everyone*, regardless of race, gender, or which lunch table you sat at, and the guy calling my name was a friend of hers who had even had Thanksgiving dinner with our family in the past. Vachel is good peoples, but I had no idea he was a comic book fan! New York may be a big city, but it's still a pretty small world.

At any rate, it turned out Pete was on his own at the moment and actually needed help, so I accompanied him to the Stranger Comics booth, where he was set to interview Sebastian A. Jones, one of the writers of Niobe: She is Life. You should check out Pete's Basement for the full interview, but just hearing talk about how much representation matters, how when a character of color is created, she reaches out to a much wider audience of people who were excluded before. People connect with characters who resemble them, we can't help it--it's why I chose Chun Li the first time I played Street Fighter, because I wanted to "be" a girl. I'm sure I still would have enjoyed the game if I had had to play as Ryu or Ken, but would it have stuck with me as long as it did? The "Li" in SunseenLi is a direct homage to the first lady of fighting games. And the best part, as Pete was conducting this interview, was seeing how many cosplayers come up to the booth to listen in awe, and in thankfulness. Someone was trying to give them a voice--who knows but that they may be inspired to go out and do the same?

As we were wrapping up, Penny came running up behind us, dressed as Tank Girl. I missed getting to walk around with her, as I've been her "con wingman" the past few years in a row, but she had a new job that, while keeping her close to the Javits Center, ate into some of her con time. She always has the coolest costumes and the best stories!

I also got to see Jess, who is not only a longtime friend, but someone who was there for me during a very, very difficult time in my life. I swear the fact that she is drop-dead gorgeous does not factor at all into how much I love her. (That's just a happy bonus.) Both Penny and Jess didn't have long to hang out, so Pete and I said goodbye, but Skye showed up at the con not long afterwards, so the three of us were able to head towards Artist Alley together.

This was a potentially bad idea on my part. See, the only thing Skye and Pete really have in common is a love of puns. No, wait, I take that back, because there is one other thing they both enjoy, and that's the look of suffering (or more likely, incoherent rage) on my face when I am subjected to puns, because HOLY HELL DO I HATE PUNS. They are literally the third lowest form of humor (the first two being pratfalls and fart jokes.) They cause me pain. To this end, Pete and Skye have created a group chat on their phones, which they have helpfully included me on, and send each other what has to be the worst jokes discovered in the course of human events. Why would I spend time with the two of them together? Because they're my friends? Or am I secretly a masochist? I'm actually still working on that answer.

Of course, as usual we were all also keeping an eye out for hot cosplayers--me to take photos for my website, Pete to take photos for his, Skye because hot cosplayers are really their own reward. It was still crowded, but not terribly so, so I'm not sure why I didn't take more photos--surely I couldn't have been tired already? It was only Day 2! And neither costume was really that tiring. Some of it might have been sensory overload, as well; after you've seen your fifteenth (we counted) Suicide Squad Harley Quinn, they tend to blend together. (I'm not saying that's a bad thing! I'm just trying to justify why I take pictures of what I take pictures of.)

On the plus side, I did run into my friend Nes! And this year I *finally* thought to give him my phone number, so we could actually *arrange* to see each other, and not just hope to randomly cross paths among 180,000 other fans. (No really, those are the actual attendance numbers. Granted those are spread out across four venues...but considering I can't tell you off the top of my head what and where those other three venus are, you can guess that the bulk were in the Javits Center.) We took some photos together before going on our way.

In retrospect I don't think I spent too long at the con on Friday; possibly because I was tired, possibly because I had already done everything I wanted to do that day, mostly because Saturday was, as usual, going to be the "big costume" day and I wanted to be well rested for it. Still, it's always fun to run around in fishnets and high heels. It's too bad I can't wear them to work.

Zatanna and Superman

Delivering one magical kiss

Zatanna and Constantine

Jesus that's some height difference.

Amandla Stenberg, the actress who played Rue in The Hunger Games, is Niobe's co-author.

Niobe is a half-elf, half-human warrior, one time orphan, would-be savior.

The art is by Ashley A. Woods and Darrell May.

I think it's up to issue 4 by now.

Stranger Comics is also behind the new Vampire Hunter D comics.

For once I am not the one being distracted! Score!

Me and Nes

Me and Vachal

Nes and me

Love seeing him!