I (maybe?) visited the Baxter Building in NYC!

The Marvel Universe was created to be "the world outside your window", taking place in real world locations, as a way to serve as a contrast to the DC Universe, populated by fictional cities like Metropolis and Gotham. Most Marvel heroes, at the times of their creation, operated out of New York City, meaning readers could see famous landmarks that supposedly grounded the books' characters.

Yet for every Brooklyn Bridge and Statue of Liberty sighting, there was also Avengers Mansion, The Daily Bugle and - my favorite, naturally - the Baxter Building, home of the world famous Fantastic Four. Even though these locations are fictional, many reside in real neighborhoods or at specific addresses in Marvel's New York City, including the Baxter Building, which, according to a number of in-story references, is located at 42nd St. and Madison Ave., which is pretty close to Times Square and midtown Manhattan.

Here's a quite recent reference from issue #4 of the book's latest volume, in which the FF find out that they can't move back in to their home in the Baxter Building (sigh):

Back in October, I attended the New York Comic Con. After the show let out on Saturday night, I thought I'd try and track down the building's street address in our universe. It wasn't that far of a walk from the convention center, and the weather was still pretty nice, so I walked down 7th Ave. and turned right on 42nd St.

Only a few blocks later, I had arrived:

The intersection raises the obvious question, then: which corner does the Baxter Building reside on? This looked promising:

But turning around, I saw this:

This is obviously a case of thinking too hard about something that doesn't actually exist. Still, I was happy to walk to a rather inconsequential street corner and take a few pictures of seemingly nothing at all. Oh, and I had my Fantastic Four shirt on, too! Overkill? Maybe.

Oh, and the Chrysler Building is not too far away! I guess the Marvel Universe has two landmarks right across from each other:

This was more fun than maybe it should've been. Still, fun is fun.

Just a few weeks ago, I played the new Spider-Man Playstation game for the first time. Your friend (and mine) Larry has been doing all of the legwork and unlocking all of Spidey's various costumes, so when he invited me to take a swing (hey-ooo), I did what any self-respecting comic fan would do, and grabbed Miguel O'Hara's Spider-Man 2099 costume and ran over to 42nd and Madison. The game allows/encourages you to take pictures while in the game, so please enjoy this providential picture of Spidey 2099 swinging in front of the maybe Baxter Building:

The building actually does look like what's sitting on one corner of the street in real life. Look! It's the world outside your window!

Pictures from the 2017 Comic-Con International, part 3: Thursday, 7/20

It's time for more Comic-Con pictures! Thursday is the day that I said to myself, "I need to start taking more pictures". It turned out to be a pretty busy day. Let's get to it.

The Walking Dead always has a big display in the television area of the convention floor. It's always too crowded for me to do anything but walk by. But they sure do a nice job at adding zombies to the area, and keeping them from getting mobbed.

That's the Walking Dead, folks, in case you needed to know. They might as well keep setting up at this point.

This year seemed extraordinarily busy in the convention hall. Wednesday and Thursday seemed especially crowded compared to years prior.

I saw a number of brain slugs this year.

This is an unlikely pairing, but I like it.

The Sideshow booth is always filled with gawkers, such as myself, staring at the ultra-expensive, ultra-awesome statues on display. This Spider-Man 2099 statue is just incredible. After the show, I learned that there was a Beast Wars Megatron statue somewhere nearby. I wish I could have seen that, because I'll almost certainly never be able to afford it.

I spent some time at the New England Comics booth signing issues of the new exclusive comic with artist Ian Nichols, who drew sketches all throughout the show. When someone didn't have a preference on what was drawn, he drew Caped Cod, which we both got a kick out of.

There were some big changes at the Rotten Tomatoes panel this year. They moved to an offsite location, they had a whopping three shows, the shows took place during Comic-Con instead of at night, and they had a new co-host for the convention - Comedy Bang! Bang!'s Scott Aukerman! I got temporarily lost on my way to this particular show, but thankfully I made it in time to see the whole thing.

Grae Drake was there once again and her costume, as always, did not disappoint. I got up and lambasted Jurassic World this time around (it deserved it), and snapped this picture while the critics were discussing my (very correct) claims. Grae is such a wonderful person - it's always great to see her at these panels.

Incredibly enough, I got on "the list" and was able to get into the VIP section, where free swag abounded. I grabbed a lot.

After the panel, because I wasn't too far away, I made my way to Skeletor's Lair. I didn't get to go there last year, so I was happy to see it again. There were no Skeletokens this time around, which was disappointing, but everyone working for Super7 seemed thrilled.

That Skeletor piñata looks pretty cool.

And they always have room for a toy display, too.

If you weren't convinced that The Tick was just everywhere at Comic-Con, let me present to you: the Tick bathroom. This was located in the interactive zone across from Petco Park.

Far be it from me to be too good to take pictures in a bathroom. The pilot was streaming alongside one wall, blue lights gave the area an azure ambiance, and a little toy fell into a basket when you flushed the toilet. It was the full experience.

I don't want to stay inside all the time at Comic-Con, but the outside events are often almost hopelessly crowded. The interactive zone is almost shoulder to shoulder, and you're standing on a concrete parking lot in 80-degree, sunny heat. You have to be a real diehard (or someone without a pass) to brave those conditions in most cases.

I complain about Fox's mishandling of the Fantastic Four (and rightfully so), but I wonder what it's like to be an X-Men fan, hoping to see those characters meet up with the rest of the MCU. At least some of those movies and tv shows are good.

How the convention center stays climate controlled during the show is beyond me. They must have the air conditioning cranked up all the way, 24 hours a day to keep things relatively cool.

Gone are the days when people would wait until Saturday to show off their best costume work. There were some great ones on display on Thursday.

Red Sonja was apparently filming a tv spot.

I thought that this Teen Wolf costume was great, especially the mask. I wonder if this is the Michael J. Fox or Jason Bateman version.

The Dog Knight Returns.

I guess I spent a lot of time outside on Thursday. Near the end of the day, I made the trek to the Tick offsite location. Luckily for me, the line, which was hours long at the beginning of the day, had shrunk enough that I only had to wait about half an hour to get in. It gave me enough time to try and take everything in. Look at all of that blue.

As a way to steal your personal information, Amazon had information and trivia stations set up throughout the line. The trivia consisted of nine questions, and they weren't all about the show. There was at least one about New England Comics, which was a nice surprise. I got all nine questions right (thankfully), which apparently made the computer malfunction or something, given my final score.

Here's the Tick antennae from the back. They really moved!

And these controls were actually functional. With a nice aesthetic, too!

Lying Cat walked by as I got to the front of the line.

On this day, I went through the Tick scavenger hunt, which took place in a number of set recreations. It was all very detailed. On the screen, you can see Griffin Newman, who filmed some content just for  this exhibit.

There were a number of props throughout the event with show-specific references. I didn't steal any of them, but it was tempting.

At the end, everyone got a picture in front of a green screen. Here I am being blown up, I guess, next to an ad reminding you to watch The Tick on August 25th (only on Amazon Prime)!

After the convention ended, I went to the Music Box, a mile or so from the convention center, to see Comedy Bang! Bang! Live! Scott Aukerman was there again.

And he brought some friends.

The night still wasn't over, though. NerdHQ did not have a big presence at this year's show, unfortunately, but they did team up with SyFy to sponsor two big dance parties. I missed the NerdHQ panels, which are a highlight of the show, but I'm happy that this was still around. Hopefully it's a one time thing, and 2018 will see NerdHQ back at full power.

The party was a lot of fun. There was dancing, a photo booth, some free food (which is right up my alley)...

...and some classic arcade games on the bottom floor. It was very cool to see all of the old arcade cabinets lined up next to each other. I think I see Missile Command to the right of center.

Thursday was a really huge day! I'm not sure that I even realized it at the time. And the show was just getting started. More to come!

The Christmas haul, 2015

Is it weird that I post pictures of some of the stuff I got for Christmas? Maybe. But here's what I got for Christmas. I like it.

I got some great comics this year. The Gaiman/Williams Sandman prequel was collected just in time for Christmas. I'm now caught up on the Hellboy library editions. I'm very excited to read the comic adaptation of Don Quixote. And WOOOOOAH, I got the Complete Calvin and Hobbes hardcover edition, which must weigh about 50 pounds. It's really impressive.

Your pal (and mine) Larry got me some great Thing items. First up are these two figures. The first one is from Japan, and the second is part of a kid's memory game. Both are awesome (and both come apart!).

Larry also went above and beyond when he found these two gems from the 2005 Fantastic Four movie. Thing hands and Thing feet!

Check out this sticker on the Thing feet box. Was it necessary? You can see the feet in the box, and it says "THING FEET" just inches away, in big, capital letters, at the bottom of the box. The artwork doesn't fit the rest of the packaging, either. But how cool! Somewhere out there, there's a roll of these "Thing feet" stickers.

While everyone else is moving away from DVDs to digital downloads and streaming services, I am apparently doubling down on discs with bizarre additions to my collection like the Dr. Katz complete series.

I got a WiiU a few months ago, and now I have a few more games to play, plus my first Amiibo. What's an Amiibo? Why, it's a huge racket that forces you to buy toys to go along with your games. And here I am, falling for it! I think I'll get the Pac Man Amiibo next.

My Steelers sideline shirt from 2004 is nearing the end of its life. So here's my new gameday shirt, which maybe I'll wear for another 10 years or so. Let's get a picture now while it's still black.

And then there's my haul from the yearly Gallery 1988 sale. These aren't technically Christmas presents (since I bought 'em for myself), but they came in December and they are great. So we're listing them. These two Weird Al prints are from separate shows, but they obviously follow a theme. I buy a few each year in hopes that the many Weird Al prints don't sell out before I have a chance to buy them all.

This one is freaky but great.

Merry Christmas!