I was excited on Friday morning of New York Comic Con mainly because I was going to get to be April O'Neil, and that was for two reasons (other than the obvious one of just liking her; I wouldn't have wanted to cosplay her otherwise): one, I had actually bought April for NYCC 2022 and didn't get to wear her on Saturday as I had planned; two, the delay turned out to be a good thing in retrospect, because I had somehow convinced Pete to cosplay with me again, for the first time in four years. I love cosplaying regardless, but cosplaying with other people beats it hands down. And cosplaying with my best friend is well...the best.

Once Pete agreed to cosplay with me (he was, in fact, one of the two major reasons I decided not to quit cosplaying--the other being Lady Terentia) and I knew I was going to be April again, I of course knew I wanted to carry the camcorder. Thankfully this time I knew where it was, and what I needed to do to get it up and running, and so I did. Friday morning I jumped into my jumpsuit, did my makeup, got my wig on, distributed my necessaries amongst my pockets (SO. MANY. POCKETS), took the subway, got to the con, fired up the camcorder...and it died.

Naturally.

Sigh. Oh well. It still made for a fun prop for pictures, and the bag made for costume-appropriate storage (along with the jumpsuit's pockets--did I mention SO MANY POCKETS?), so it's not like it was a total waste. Plus, I was about to have my very own human prop (sorry Pete), but of course he was running a bit late, so I decided to spend my time snapping a few pictures of the other cosplayers while waiting for him.

And that's when I saw him (at least, I assume it was a him, the cosplayer couldn't really talk so we didn't exactly introduce ourselves): not only a Ninja Turtle cosplayer, not only one of the best Ninja Turtle costumes I've ever seen, but Raphael, my absolute favorite turtle. I couldn't BELIEVE my luck! I ran over to ask if we could take a picture together, and then photographers started coming out of the woodwork (more for him than for me, I guarantee it). And then a Casey Jones showed up, and we took more pictures! I was over the moon. Cosplaying with friends is still best, but randomly running into other people who are cosplaying from the same thing you are is pretty damn great too.

And in the middle of this all, I saw ANOTHER person I had to chase down: Terry Bogard! The same one I had taken a picture with yesterday! I knew he wouldn't recognize me (I wouldn't have) so I introduced myself as the girl with the long hair from the day before, and asked if I could take another picture with him, and he was nice enough to agree. Two days in a row! If I had been wearing Lily, I never would have had that kind of luck. If I hadn't had the rest of my costumes planned out, I might have been tempted to wear her again.

Pete still hadn't arrived, so I decided to take a walk around the con to see what I could see. I hadn't gone too far before I spotted a familiar Captain Marvel costume...it was my friend Michael! We had met years ago at Big Apple Comic Con 2018 and been friends on Facebook ever since, though we hadn't run into each other in some time. We got to catch up, and he showed me this awesome picture of him and Zachary Levi (who is one of Lady Terentia's favorites, so I had to tell her about it!), and we took some pictures together, but he was on his way to meet some other people, so we said goodbye and I continued walking.

I decided to go exploring, and see if there were areas of the Javits Center I hadn't been to you--I mean, I couldn't imagine, seeing as how I'd been going there for 17 years or so, but I'm usually just tooling around the Show Floor with friends, you know? So first I figured I'd poke around the second floor (which is actually the ground level; you have to go below ground to get to the first floor), and see if there was anything near where the extension to the north hall used to be. There was a very large, very fancy, automated looking coat check system...that was absolutely empty, for some reason. I remember Comic Con having coat checks in the past, in an entirely different area, and for all I know that was still in place, but for some reason this giant space was just...empty. Not a person around. Well, at least no staff.

I did see two guys over there, one with a really professional looking camera, and of course they spotted me. "Yo, are you April O'Neil?" I confirmed that I was. "Would you mind doing a spot for our YouTube channel in character?" Mind? I was delighted! I can't remember what all copy they gave me to read, but I know I ended it with, "This is April O'Neil reporting from Comic Con for The Nerdy Life Show." Sadly, as of this writing they have yet to upload their Comic Con coverage so I can't show you myself, but I had an awful lot of fun filming it. I talked to the guys a bit, and then went to scout around some more.

Now, somehow, I had never gone to the very end of the north end of the third floor. The concourse, sure--that's where the north hall used to be, where the Artist's Alley used to be. But at the very end of the third floor, there was a little turn to the right, and a large open space, with I believe a bar (which used to be on the concourse level), and a great view of the concourse itself. I had never seen that space before. And, escalators! I knew there was a fourth floor to the Javits Center, because there's the River Pavilion, as well as some non-public spaces for con ops and all that. But that was all the way in the middle of the Center. I had no idea where these escalators went. I had to find out.

There was another "fourth floor" to the north, one that I *think* is new because I don't see it on old NYCC floor maps, so I'm guessing it's since they closed the north hall. Its outer walls are huge sheets of windows that look out over not only the city, but apparently a Rooftop Pavilion (that I don't think NYCC has access to, unless they have some ultra-exclusive guest only parties there or something), and a one-acre FARM. The Javits Center took the NYC green roof initiative and kicked it up to 11, growing 50 different crops, sanctuary spaces for birds and bats, and five honeybee hives. Color me impressed!

There was a large conference room up there, which had some sort of programming going (I forget what now, if I ever knew), but since it was just the one, and because I don't think too many people even knew it was there, this fourth floor was refreshingly empty, refreshingly airy. I almost hesitate to put this in my con report (although I am safe in the knowledge that so few people read it) because I don't want to ruin that, but if ever you're at NYCC and you're feeling overwhelmed/overstimulated and you need to get out of the crowds for a moment to just catch your breath and center yourself, this is the perfect place to do it.

A few people were milling about up there, including a girl dressed as Shampoo from Ranma 1/2, so I went up to her and told her I liked her costume who introduced herself as Amber. She was so pleased I recognized her costume that she gave me a ribbon...and that is the moment I realized that ANYONE can make and give out ribbons, it doesn't have to be con staff only. This is dangerous knowledge and might preclude future things. Somehow we got to talking about Sailor Moon (I'm not going to pretend that's unusual) and she showed me the absolutely gorgeous Princess Serenity costume she had made for the cosplay competition, and we ended up following each other on Instagram (which I'm still slowly learning to use, but I'm better than I was! Her handle is sunblade_cosplay if you want to check her out.)

For what it's worth I think there's even a fifth floor, but by this time Pete had texted me that he was on his way, so I said goodbye to Shampoo and headed for the main entrance again. I figured I could kill time taking a few more photos, and lucky for me I saw yet another Casey Jones! We actually ended up talking for quite some time, I believe he said he was a high school art teacher and enjoyed introducing his students to "old" animation like TMNT (to quote Sam Mackie, "He's out of line, but he's right.") He showed me how he made his seemingly wooden goalie stick was in fact made out of foam to make it safe for the con, and how he had let one of his students draw an April O'Neil faux tattoo on his arm (if he hadn't have told me, I would never have guessed--it looked so real!)

That's when I noticed that there was a little "store" area set up that hadn't been there the day before. Curious, I wandered inside, to see it was entirely Gashapon machines. These things are insidious: I think most of us grew up with the innate need to put a quarter (or two, or more depending on how old you are) in machines for high bounce balls and glittery unicorn stickers, but those have more or less phased out by now (except for high bounce balls, which will probably survive the Apocalypse.) Now they're filled with fandom related goods and are highly addicting. There actually wasn't as much variety as I initially thought, as quite a few of the machines were repeats, and thankfully I didn't see anything I was a super fan of--you know if there had been a Sailor Moon, Street Fighter, or X-Men one there I might've lost a day's salary.

I still had a little time, so I thought I'd head outside and check out the cosplayers congregating on the sidewalk, because that's a popular place for photographers to set up their lights and conduct shoots. Once again it seemed like there were way more "pop culture" costumes than strictly comic book related ones, maybe even as much as double. Then again, sometimes it's hard to know where to draw the line: do you count Ninja Turtles as a comic costume, because that's where they originated? Or as pop culture, because they only really became famous because of the movie? How about Captain America? Does Pokemon count more as an anime or a video game?

 

For what it's worth, there also seemed to be a lot more wrestling-related costumes, not just this day but throghout the weekend. I'm not sure why; there have been wrestlers at New York Comic Con before (I still remember the time they wouldn't let us take a picture of Sgt. Slaughter despite him having absolutely no one around), maybe there were more of them appearing in a group or something? For the record, I wouldn't mind meeting Brett Hart, Diesel, the Undertaker or my personal favorite Shawn Michaels, but honestly some of the cosplayers are so good, I don't really feel the need to stand in line or shell out money. (Though I've heard Mick Foley is a genuine joy to interact with. Then again I was never a fan of Mankind.)

At about a quarter to two, Pete arrived, and I'm aware I might be biased, but in my opinion he looked fantastic. My very own Casey Jones! Granted his Tony Stark will probably always be my personal favorite, but he pulled off Casey very well. I don't know what he did to his hair to get it quite that disheveled, but it stuck up atop the hockey mask exactly as it's supposed to. And he was comfortable! A sleeveless jersey, sweatpants, and sneakers--ten thousand times better for walking around the Javits Center than dress shoes and a suit. And if he happened to threaten people that day, it was all in character! The mask didn't even interfere with his vision. He didn't have to put up with any of the nonsense so many costumes create. Well, I was lucky too: I had pockets. I think I mentioned.

I also want to take a quick moment to give Pete some (rare) praise about his costume: he not only put it together himself, researching hockey masks and finding a foam baseball bat that was surprisingly realistic, but he also constructed part of it himself, painting the pauldron and figuring out how to attach a strap to it, and I don't know what all else. I realize that to people who make ballgowns and moving mech suits it might not sound like a lot, but everybody starts somewhere, and considering Pete was mainly doing this just to encourage me to keep cosplaying, I'm really impressed and very grateful.

We decided to just ramble about a bit at first, let Pete get used to the novelty of being at Comic Con in costume again. It does take a bit of adjustment to go from being there to see what you can see, to being one of the sights to see. And I won't say Casey Jones is as popular as Mr. Stark, but there were still a lot of people recognizing him (or me, or both) and stopping us for pictures. It's a small, free, harmless ego boost: what's not to like? And you do get to meet a lot of new people that way.

While we were wandering, Pete got a text from Rocco that he was outside and would like to say hello, so we headed back to the first floor and out to the sidewalk, where Rocco was doing a shoot with his ex-girlfriend, who cosplays Harley. (Beautiful girl, but unfortunately I can't remember her name right now.) I have to say I have massive respect for people who are able to reforge a friendship with their romantic partners; I understand that's not always possible when the relationship or the breakup was truly toxic, but as long as it wasn't, why not remember what it was you liked about the person in the first place, and keep that part of it? Not working out romantically doesn't have to be a personal failing. It warms my heart to see two level-headed people acting like adults, even while basically playing dressup. Those two are all right.

Back inside, we started navigating the aisles: because in cosplay or not, Pete's always going to do a *little* shopping. Towards the back of the show floor, we spotted a cosplayer who was obviously Krang, but "piloting" the Statue of Liberty! We had to take a picture with him and then ended up talking to him a bit. And that's how I learned that there's a a side-scrolling brawler in a similar spirit of the old arcade games named Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, where Shredder and Krang they are turning the Statue of Liberty into the Statue of Tyranny that Krang pilots. *And* it features all four of the original voice actors of the Turtles from the 1987 cartoon, AND April is a playable character! I think I need to check this out!

Not long after that I received a text of my own from LunarChandalure, saying that she and her betrothed had arrived! I hadn't seen Kit since their engagement party that May, and it was my first time seeing them in costume! This time they were dressed as characters from Steven Universe, which I've at least heard of from A) all of my friends and B) LunarChandalure and I used to watch a few episodes of during our shared lunch breaks when we we used to work together. But I admit I don't know much about the show beyond the basics, and I definitely hadn't watched as far as the episodes where Peridot and Lapis Lazuli appear. But their costumes were *amazing*--LunarChandalure's wig in particular!

The four of us decided to walk around for a bit together so we could catch up some more--LunarChandalure and I do text from time to time, but we miss the days of being able to see each other every day and talk in person whenever we felt like it. Granted we've both moved on to better positions, but even the best paying job can't take the place of coworkers who become good, real-life friends.

I didn't see anything I particularly wanted to buy, but I do enjoy getting free swag, even if it's stuff I have no earthly use for. A random Batman cosplayer came up to us and asked us if we knew who the founder of Wendy's was, and the only reason I knew it was Dave Thomas was yes because of the ads in the 90s but also because of Yatta flash animation that came out in 2001, and I have officially dated myself. And I got a glow in the dark Batman minifig that, once again, what am I going to do with, but I "won" it and so therefore I shall keep it forever. And this is why every surface in my house is covered with nonsense.

We had done most of the show floor, but none of us had been downstairs to check out the Artists Alley on the first floor, so when we got to the next escalator we went down...or tried to. Jesus. Christ. Bananas. Granted the Artists Alley is in a much smaller footprint than the Show Floor, but it was PACKED. No exaggeration, people were shoulder to shoulder. Just looking at that crowd made all of us (well, at least me) break out into a cold sweat. There was absolutely no reason to dive into that teeming mass of humans: I was going to be there another two days, and there was no one in there I particularly wanted to see anyway. We noped out at the foot of the escalator and rode the one next to it right back upstairs.

I was checking my phone periodically to make sure I didn't miss anyone who wanted to meet up, and I saw that I had gotten a message from Rich Wexler, the photographer who had taken the cool 3-D photos of me yesterday, asking if I wanted to meet up to take some more shots, which I most definitely did. We had a little trouble finding each other in the chaos outside, but we finally met by the food trucks (which I always seem to forget exist) and he got some really great shots of Pete and I, which I am very thankful for.

Pete and I were starting to flag at this point, so we said goodbye to Rich and left via the center exit. (Though I might have gotten distracted and stopped for a few more pictures along the way--hey, while I'd be back tomorrow, some of these costumes might not be!) We got to 11th Avenue and turned right to get to the subway station, when I saw a familiar face handing out leaflets to the people on their way out. It was Captain Zorikh, promoting Big Apple Comic Con! I haven't been back to BACC since 2018, and I really should go back, considering it was my first comic con (and in fact predates NYCC by a good ten years.) I didn't want to take up too much time as he was there on a mission, but I said a quick hi before Pete and I left for the 7 train.

We were both exhausted, so as much as I would've loved getting pictures of ourselves in costumes eating pizza, we decided to call it a night and just find each other tomorrow. Pete wouldn't be in costume, but I had a hair appointment at 9 in the morning that I had made a full month in advance that I didn't want to be late for!

Seriously this is screen accurate.

I don't look it because I was posing, but I was seriously so, SO happy (and impressed!)

Okay HERE I look happy.

THIS MAN DOES NOT AGE I SWEAR TO GOD.

I love meeting other cosplayers!

Especially cosplaying things that I'm cosplaying from.

See? Look at how realistic that looks!

I love that had both the levitating cloak *and* the light up mandalas.

That wig is INCREDIBLE.

Kit's wings are pretty awesome too

Normally I don't take pictures of cosplayers when they're trying to relax but this is just too fitting.

I did ask permission first.

Only a Ghostbuster deals in absolutes? IDK

Selfie time!

Andrew, Pete, me, and Andrew's friend