Pictures from the 2016 New York Comic Con, part 1: Friday (The Tick, Rotten Tomatoes, and a whole lotta costumes)

As in years past, I was able to make it to a few days of the annual New York Comic Con. The show is getting bigger every year, and the displays are getting fuller, too. In previous years, many of the big booths would simply have holdover displays from Comic-Con in San Diego; that still exists, but more often you'll see brand new or new-ish displays from some of the biggest exhibitors, many of which are also offering NYCC exclusives when they hadn't in the past.

I was able to make it to Friday and Saturday this time around, and I was able to spend most of the time wandering around as a fan, unlike in San Diego. This show remains too crowded for its own good, but it's starting to take on its own identity and the enthusiasm surrounding it is high. Let's take a look at some of the pictures I was able to take, this time from the Friday of the show.

I waited in line to enter the building for a solid 20 minutes before realizing that I was able to skip it with a professional badge. Oh well. While in line, I saw an unlikely team-up of Rick Grimes, Son of Satan and Quailman (from "Doug").

Here's a pretty decent Trump Taco.

"Stranger Thing" costumes probably outnumbered the next most prolific outfit 2-to-1. Incredibly enough, this isn't the only "wall" costume I saw at the show.

This is a really nice classic Superman!

Psylocke here even remembered the sash.

The shield here was really impressive. It a nice Captain America Hydra outfit.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is Space Ghost's wrestling granddad, Grandpa Ghostal. Fantastic attention to detail.

These flyers were at a number of places around the convention hall. Poor Barb. I care, too!

Outside, near the DC lobby booth, there was a costume contest and what seemed like a foot race between similarly costumed characters going on. I didn't stick around too long.

For example, here are a group of Green Lantern-related characters.

This might be my choice for best costume at the show, at least among the ones I saw. Love the classic battle suit Luthor, complete with tattered Superman cape. Very nice job.

Here's a shot of the lobby, near the DC booth.

Is this a Bombshell version of Wonder Woman? I'm not sure.

I love this Martian Manhunter mask! It was really well done. Get outta the shot, Spider-Gwen!

Thundercats group shot! It's gotta be challenging getting enough friends who are willing to dress up in elaborate costumes. Good for this group.

Video game character, yes?

I'm not sure that I've ever seen a Spawn costume before. This one is pretty good.

It looks like the Black Panther is trying to hand out a business card or something. This guy put a lot of work into this outfit.

This is the main lobby.

A really nice Wasp! The wings looked great. I wonder how difficult it is to walk though the aisles with wings. They must get bent and ripped off pretty often.

This is artist alley, in what appears to be a repurposed airplane hangar.

I was very excited to see this episode specific version of The Tick! He made the shirt himself. There were more than a few Tick costumes on display this weekend, which was great to see. Amazon even held a panel for some of its upcoming shows, including The Tick, which will return in 2017!

I will never see enough Futurama costumes.

Dr. Strange, Luke Cage and Iron Fist.

I guess Rogue stole Gambit's staff for this picture.

This was an odd setup. Batman and Superman worked really hard on their costumes, and they looked great. But why is Superman holding a dead Robin? Did I miss something by not seeing Batman v Superman? In any case, people loved this.

I, in turn, loved this Tick/Big Lebowski mashup, with a clever use of spoons.

Adult Swim had a big Rick and Morty display near one of the inside entrances. Last season ended with Rick in extraterrestrial prison, and you were able to get your picture in an cell next to him. I'm pretty sure I sold it.

After the show ended, I made my way to my only panel for the day, the Rotten Tomatoes panel, which I pretty much have to do at this point.

It was good to see everyone again, and the panel continues to be lots of fun. If you get the chance to attend one at a convention, you should make the effort to go.

Scott Mantz from Access Hollywood is a panel regular and a fun guy to be around. Access Hollywood...where else has that been in the news lately? Interesting!

Matt Atchity and Grae Drake continue to acknowledge my existence at these things, which is pretty kind of them. They are both wonderful people who slum it every time they take a picture with me.

Grae recently hosted a program on the SyFy channel. This is a pretty good picture of me.

After the show, it was off to Twin's Irish Pub, which I highly recommend if you're ever near midtown Manhattan. This started off as a small dinner with Jeff McComsey and Dom Vivona, but after a little while, other friends started showing up, seemingly out of the blue. This is one of the best things about coming to NYCC. A lot of friends who I collaborate with on comics are from the east coast, and most of 'em don't make it out to SDCC, so this is the one weekend out of the year that I get to see many of these guys. If you look closely enough at the table, you can see this year's giveaway, some series 1 Garbage Pail Kids cards, which were a big hit.

This was a busy trip. I made my way back into the city on Saturday, and I'll post those pictures soon. See you then! I guess.