The second day of Comic Con brought out even more of the weird, the wild and downright fantastic. Cosplayers donned their finest anime, game, comic and movie costumes to wander the packed halls of the Javits Center. Trying to get anywhere could feel like a Sisyphean task for some of these folks; everybody wanted a picture.
I ran into one father/daughter pair who took some time to chat with me about their NYCC experience thus far. Bear and Sandie (names changed on request, with the agreement that I can pick the alias) were some of the best pair-cosplay of the day. Certainly the cutest. We sat down and chatted with Bear, though Sandie chimed in from time to time.
DISCLAIMER: I am friends with Bear outside of the confines of this article.
The two are dressed as Wreck-It Ralph and Vanellope von Schweetz from Wreck-It Ralph. Sandie is only three, but she is a seasoned convention veteran. She has gone to more than me! How many? "I dunno!" she says, enthusiastically (it should be noted that everything she says is infused with gusto) "Let me think," Bear begins counting his fingers, "we've done Boston Comic Con three times. New York Twice. Granite state." "Granite State!" Sandie echoes.
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"So, nine." Three years old, and nine conventions already. And she turns four when?
"On my birthday!" a future smart-ass in the making.
Sandie may be young, but she knows how to work a camera. "I like taking pictures!" Bear chimed in, "That's right, she likes to get her pictures taken with the cosplayers." It had been a busy day thus far and Sandie, though still a font of energy, would be conking out soon. "Let's see, you got your picture taken with the Sailor Moon/Wonder Woman combination girl and she's had a few others. A lot of people ask to take her picture, but she asks, too. She likes Disney, a lot of Disney stuff."
"Yeah! I take a picture with Tinkerbell!" She is trying very hard to open a bottle of lemonade at this point. She next intends to dress up as Elsa for Halloween, because it is now legally required that your daughter dress up as Elsa at least once before she turns 10.
Bear has been a long time Convention attendee. Since the birth of his daughter, though, he's been trying to make the experience more memorable for her. So, he's been going around the various artists alleys at the cons he goes to and asks them to draw a sketch. Not of their favorite superhero or that artist's most iconic character, but of Sandie, who is more than happy to receive her artistic renderings.
"I was looking up things people do at conventions and some guy said that he liked getting sketches from different artists with a different theme," he began the story, "so one year the theme was the character that the person draws punching him in the stomach. And I was like, 'Oh maybe I could have them draw my kid. That's easy enough'. So this is the second year I'm doing it, and it's going pretty well. Got a lot of different sketches."
"Got Mike Mignola from Hellboy," he continues, "and that was probably the coolest one I got, because I hear he doesn't draw a lot for people. So that was really cool."
Obviously, having an adorable three year old with slightly curly, unkempt hair and big glasses and a goofy smile improves their chances.
He laughs. "That doesn't hurt. Yeah. The new thing I'm doing is Marvel covers, I'm trying to do a whole bunch of yearbook photos. What the people would look like in their yearbook. I pretty much always use Erica Henderson because I think she's really great. She just did the Punisher for me."
He rummages through his bag and pulls out the image. "What really kills me is the braid." he adds. A young Francis Castle with a braid. He would kill us just for mentioning it.
Bear and Sandie were taking a much needed break, resting on the floor, backs to the wall. Bear himself is here all weekend and his schedule is quite full. "I'm much more in the comic vein of things than I am pop culture. I'm not really big into panels or anything, you okay there?" Sandie is bent over, smacking her legs. "You're hitting your bottom, well keep at it! I'm more into the comics than I am anything else. So rest of the convention, I will probably try to track down some more neat stuff. I will probably try to get a few autographs. I was kinda hoping to track down Bill Nye, he's supposed to be here tomorrow. We'll see though, I don't know how crowded it's going to be." (Spoiler alert: very crowded)
Meanwhile, Sandie has moved from fidgeting with her legs and is now yanking the hairpins out of her hair in an adorable fit of rage. The costume itself is quite well done, and Bear helps remove the unwanted bangles. Costumes can be exhausting to wear, after all. The craftsmanship on the bangles and jewelry is impeccable. "I got this stuff off of etsy, and the woman who made it was Megan Random is her handle on etsy and she made both medals and the licorice hair tie and all the pieces and she was actually ridiculously cool and got me the stuff before I left. I waited until like the absolutely last minute so I wrote her an email and i got them in two days. It was unbelievably awesome."
The Con is half over. Would Sandie be joining her father tomorrow?
"I don't know, if she feels like it I guess. We'll see. Maybe, maybe not. hehe"
Hours later, as I was walking back into the area, I saw Bear walking out. Sandie was passed out on his shoulder. A perfect cosplay moment.
