November 3, 2025 • 40 mins
Friend of the show Joey swings by to chat about the good and bad of this year's New York Comic Con, and conventions in general. Much nerdery ensues.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and welcome to stuff. I never
told you production, I heard you, and today Samantha is
out sick, but I am very very happy to be
joined by a friend of the show contributor, Joey. Welcome back, Joey.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hello, it's me.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
I'm Samantha McVeigh for.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
The next.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Hour, however long we end up recording. But yeah, thanks
for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Annie. Always fun to be on the show.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Yes, I actually just spoke to Samantha before this and
she's she's she's she's got a lost voice, very croaky voice,
and she was like, tell Joey, I'm so said, I'll
miss it, but we both know it would have been
mostly the two of you talking.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Yeah, I mean, Samantha, wherever you are, where you're listening,
you are missed, of course, so sad that you're not here.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
But yes, even if she isn't on our same nerd level,
she's always got fun commentary, so we do miss her.
But we we we need.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Somebody in the room to bring us back to earth, you.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Know, Yes, somebody'd be like, no one knows what you're
talking about.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Nobody knows what you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yeah, so hopefully we don't go too off the rails
in this, But yes, we did want to have you
back because we recently had you on when you after
you went to flame Con, which was a convention that
was largely focused on LGBTQ plus people and creators, and
(01:49):
in there, of course we got to talking because both
of us have a lot of thoughts about conventions, and
you mentioned you were going to New York Comic Con
in October and we were like, well, I would love
to have you back after that and hear what it
was all about. So here we are.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Yes, I was on earlier this year for flame Con,
and yeah, of course Ellie is happy to talk all
all of the nerd things with Anny. But yeah, I
went to a New York Comic Con this past I
think by the time this episode comes out, it'll be November.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
But yes, I had to go to New York Comic Con.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Earlier this month. There's currently still October. I'm all were
recording this.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
I this is now the fourth year that I've gone.
I love it. I thought it was a time I
do as I'm going to get it into. Have a
couple of.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Things I didn't love this year are sort of you know,
trends where I think things are going but it's not great,
but also lots of fun things. I cosplayed three days
in a row, which was an experience. I think I
slept for like a whole day after it was over.
(03:07):
But yeah, I guess I'll start with like the fun,
happy stuff, because who doesn't love that? First of all,
again I did. It is October now. As we're recording
this Antie off Mike, we were talking about some of
our Halloween plans and I did realize mid October that
this month I literally every single weekend this month I
(03:29):
was at some point on public transportation in full costume
going to something. So like at the beginning of the month,
I went to the Rent Fair and like that was
super fun. That was great, and then then this was
common Kan was the second week, and then since then
it's kind of.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Been like Halloween party, Halloween party, another Halloween party.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
And I love Halloween, so I'm I'm not complaining, but
you know, this is a fun time.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
To be.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
To be somebody that likes, uh, dressing up in costumes
and also lives in a very crowded city where I'm
always just seeing people and people are seeing me. Although
I will say one of my favorite things, like okay,
like I don't go to like anime connor whatever, so
that's usually the one that I point you were. I
love those weekends and just seeing like people in random
costumes that I don't understand.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Like I'm like this, go you.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
I love that. That is my favorite thing. So I
hope that I'm that person for somebody, It's what I'm saying. Anyways,
So yes, I did go three days this year.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
This is the first year that I've tried doing three
days instead of just two.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
I cosplayed all three days. I made the really good decision.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
This was not intentional.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
This kind of happened by accident, but I'm going to
pretend that it was a conscious decision.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
I started with my hardest costume, like the most like
intense to wear on the first day, and then the
last day I had my like T shirt and jeans
costume that was like very little effort. Would recommend doing
that if you are going to a convention where you
are dressing up multiple days, if you're somebody who again
like unlike me, actually plans ahead. Because this sort of
ended up happen by accident, but I'm very very grateful
(05:02):
that it worked out that way because I was very
tired by Sunday.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
So the Thursday I dressed up.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
As Wigan from Young Avengers, Agathol Along, et cetera, Marvel Comics,
all of that. I also I dressed up at him
back in August.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
For Flame Con. He's one of my favorite characters.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
I'm sure if you've heard me on the show, you've
heard me talk about how much I love this character.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Annie, you know that I originally.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Was going to dress up as the Winter Soldier, and
then I procrastinated on making the metal arm, which is
like the majority of the costume, so that didn't end
up happening. But I have all the materials, so maybe
at some point.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
In the future.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
I did tell myself. I was like, maybe I'll just
save this for like Halloween weekend. I'll wear it one
of the days. I have yet to make any progress
on making this thing, so one day I will have
a metal arm. I just that might be in like
two years, but we'll see. But yeah, Wicked was fun.
That was again most annoying costume to wear. It is
(06:06):
just a like tight body suit.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
And a cape. I didn't have any pockets. That was rough.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Yep, but you know what.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
It was a fun time, felt good, looked.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Good, looked great. Coat sign thank you.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Thank you, I was saying, and Samantha definitely got some
pictures for me and a couple other heart people that I.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Ran into there. And then day two I dressed up
is buy from Arcane.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
I did have the realization that day that this is
the first time I've ever cosplayed a girl at a convention,
like a female character period, which I will get into
a little bit more later about some of that.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
It wasn't terrible. I could have had a worse experience.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
It was fun, though I also I'm not good this
is the type of place to get into it.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
She was one of those.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Characters that I'm like, to me, I'm still like, that's gender,
like she she this is the gender that I want.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
But that was a fun time.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
I had a jacket for that, so I did have
pot and I was wearing pants so I had pockets.
That was great. I don't know if I'm ever going
to no pockets route again. That was rough. Yeah, I
was really nervous about the wig because I'm I usually
will just I'll work around curly haired brunette characters, which
luckily there's a lot of them, so but yeah, oh,
(07:26):
this was the first time I did like the wig.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
That actually was fine.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
I did have a friend len me a like fake
nose piercing that was terrible.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
I don't know, I I am one of those. I've
had many people be like, I thought you had a
nose piercing.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
I have the persona of somebody who I guess people
assume that I have a nose piercing. I understand that
I can never it would annoy me way too much.
And then take three, I dressed Nico to Angelo from
Percy Jackson.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Again, this was my easiest costume.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
If you're familiar with the series, he wears just like
a big jacket and a T shirt and jeans and
that was great. Also that day I had two friends
that were organizing at like unofficial meetup. They actually there
was an official meetup last year that they had helped organize,
and then Comic Con this year decided not to greenlight it,
so it was an unofficial one. I'm going to get
(08:20):
into later some of my issues when I think some
of the organizing stuff and why wasn't you know I
think this maybe was a symptom of some other organizational
issues from the convention. But yeah, but that was super
fun and I think because it was like a smaller.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Kind of group.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
It still was a pretty big turnout for that meet up,
but it was a smaller group, so like people I
don't know, and it's nice to be able. Like that
was one where I got some like bracelets and key
chains from people that were just doing like like little
trades and giveaways and stuff, kind of similar to Annie.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
I know, like also.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Huge fifty if you that, that's kind of one of
the big Swifty things. It's like the bracelets, the beaded bracelets.
Also got some of those, which was fun. It's cool
to see that kind of become part of like larger
fandom culture, and I think especially sort of younger fandom cultures.
Percy Jackson obviously you know, I'm I'm gen z.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
I grew up with those books. Those were my favorite
book when I was a kid.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
They're I would say, most people I know that are
fans of it are a couple of years older than me.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
I'm younger. But yeah, so so it was a it
was a fun time.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
I personally, like I always say, comic con is fun
because you get to see like everybody's different neurotic tendencies
come out, which for some people means people are very
anxious and don't love crowds. I personally get distracted by
shiny things very easily, so I spent a lot of
it being like, oh, look, very cool cosplay. I'm gonna
go run after this person and ask for a photo.
(09:57):
So thank you to everybody who had to deal with
me those three days. But some of my favorite costumes
that I saw were there was somebody on Friday, whoever
you were that was there was somebody. I kept seeing
them and I kept trying to be like, oh my god,
I want a picture, and then I lost her. She
was dressed up as like the Lady Gaga meat dress. Yeah,
like she had the meat dress, and I was like,
I'm obsessed. I would not think to do that at
(10:18):
Comic Con, but I I wouldn't even think to do
that as a costume at this point.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
But I love it.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Iconic beautiful.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
There's always some fun Star Wars crossovers.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
There was a Barbie Mandalorian, Uh you know, oh of course, Annie,
I'm seeing you.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Nodding, I'm seeing you, nady.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
There was an Auna from Frozen like Han Solo mash
that was really cute.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
I loved that.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
That's great.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
One of my favorite like costumes that I saw this
year that was new was if Anybody's seen Sinners, there
were a bunch of the like Smokestack Twins.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
I love that movie. That was like my favorite movie
I saw this year that was super fun. Shout out.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
There was one due that I was like talking to
for like ten minutes and I was like, I need
to get a picture of them because I was that
was the day that I was dressed by and I
was like, oh yeah, because she's like Hayley Seinfolwed that'll
be funny. And then of course, like I left and
my friend I was with was like, weren't you gonna
ask for a picture And I was like, oh no wait.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Yeah that was we got to start to talking about
something completely different.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Oh no, ye crazy how that happens. But yeah, I
guess some more just like trends that I saw, because
I also think it's interesting to just see like what.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
People what is popular, what are people causplaying?
Speaker 3 (11:29):
As of course there's always a lot of like you know,
it is comic Con, there's all the comic book staples
there's a lot of X Men, a lot of Jean Grays.
This year, I saw a lot of Jean Grays, a
lot of Teen Titans groups, lots of Fantastic Four makes
sense the movie came out this year, same with like
Superman and a lot of the like newer version of
Supergirl too. Of course, always lots of Spider Man, lots
(11:51):
of Scarlet Witches. There were a lot of Obi Wan Kenobi's,
specifically right like, there was a lot of Star Wars
has places, but particularly like the younger Obi Wan Kobe,
which I love. I love obi Wan Knobi like let's go.
But yeah, I thought that was interesting.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
That was on my when I did my Dragon con.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
It's interesting. That was Dragon kon too.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
He round up I saw. I just saw so many
obi Wan Kenobi's and I loved it. It was fantastic.
There was one that I was like, you look exactly
like and he had so many ribbons Dragon konkaus that
ribbons he had, like, that's so many on his badge.
And I saw him get into some kind of tea
(12:31):
drinking duel with Darth Maul. I don't know, but there
were a lot of Obie wants. Something's going on on
the obi Wan site.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Guys, he just like he.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
I guess that's like he's the Spider Man character of
Ye Wars, where like you're always.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Gonna see him everywhere. If anybody is an obi.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Wan Kenobe cosplayer that wants to like, tell me why
there's so many still to this, Like, and again, I'm
not complaining great character, I get it, but I'm just like, Wow,
there's so much Star Wars content and I'm like, like
every five minutes, I'm seeing an obi Wan Kenobi walk
by me.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
So that was fun.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Lots of K Pop Demon Hunters surprise Prize back to
Star Wars.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
I didn't see some and Or Cause plays.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
The character I probably saw the most was Claya, which
I thought was really cool. There was a moment where
I almost was gonna go with Clia and I could
not figure out how to do the hair correctly, so
I didn't do that. But shout out to everybody those
I mean, big fan of that show obviously on the
on stuff, I've never told you love her characters specifically,
(13:36):
so that was super fun.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
I saw a couple of mon Mathmas too. It was
really cool, I think.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
For and Or to see like specifically a lot of
the female characters getting so much love and like getting
so much more attention than I think you see in
a lot of these franchises usually.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Yeah, I wanted to see one good mon Mathma dance
and I did, Yes, thrilled.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
I didn't see any I'm at the dance. I did there.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
There was one that I kept walking by, though, and
every time, like I like there were like three times
that I had walked by the same person, and every
time like this song would start playing in my head
and I just like stuck in my That was also
also definitely like at the point of the day where
I had like one.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Like Whiskey Coke and was just like, yeah, let's go,
let's go.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Honestly, you know what, next time if they want something,
should have had a big dance circle with that.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
What was going on? Missed opportunity.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Definitely definitely some a couple of cosplays.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
I was surprised to see.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
There were quite a few Lord of the Rings ones,
which of course always a classic, but I was sort.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Of like, wow, there's there.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Hasn't really been new Lord of the Rings content recently,
but nice love that I saw a few, not as many,
not many, but more than I expected. Uh, Harry Potter cosplays,
which that I thought was interesting.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Obviously it's still a very popular series, but like, you.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Know, things have happened, uh where you know, I personally
want to make the decision to costplay one of those characters.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
I think it's something like this.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
I did talk to a friend of mine about this,
who also, like the two of us were both really
big Harry Potter fans back in the day and I
kind of moved away from the series, and he pointed
out something interesting which I didn't even really think of,
but he was like, yeah, there's been a bunch of costplays,
but I have not seen like any merch like when
you walk around artists Allly.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Yeah. I was like, I don't.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
I don't remember seeing like a single like piece of
Harry Potter fan art that was being sold.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
So that, to me, I think maybe is more of
a sign that like JK.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Rowling has fallen out of favor obviously, like you know,
people are gonna cosplay whatever. There is something about like,
I don't know, I think it is complicated the idea
of like whether you're cosplaying a thing, are you contributing
to that thing? Making money or whatever. I think it's complicated.
I think I can see both sides of it. I
think it depends on how you go about it. But
that being said, I think the fact that like nobody
(15:55):
was trying to make money off of this series is
probably a more damning then the fact that there were
a couple of people dressed as like, you know, random
Hogwarts students. I did see a really good Bell Tricks cosplay,
so shout out to her.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Again, I don't know if that's a decision that I
would make, but the cosplay was great.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Another one that I was kind of surprised to see
there were quite a few Peggy Carters, which, again I
love this character, but I was sort of like, wow,
I'm surprised to see that, like this character is held
up so well. I think her last appearance was like
what like six years ago, I don't know, Like I
thought that was interesting, but again I this was a
character that, like I loved when I was a teenager
(16:38):
and those movies were coming out. Also, quite a few
Captain America's, which again, of course a popular character.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Not super surprising.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
I did think it was interesting that I think of
the Avengers that was probably the one I saw the most.
And I think again, given the fact that the Steve
Rogers Captain America character hasn't really made any appearances lately,
like it was interesting to me.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
But that is a character that.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
I saw more than maybe like other Avengers that are
still in movies and stuff like that, and you know,
given political stuff, I don't know, it was also kind
of interesting.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
I Captain America is one of those characters.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
To me, I'm like, I'm a big Captain in America fan.
I know a lot of people that I think like
align with po politically that also really love those movies.
I love that character, and I I find it really
interesting that like, even with all the messiness happening, that's
still character people are drawn to.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
M hm, he's a very Superman esque case.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
He is. I think it is similar.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
And I was thinking about also the like response people
were having to the Superman movie, and it reminded me
a lot of I think the discourse around like Steve
Rogers's Captain America as a character, because it was very like, look,
it's this like wholesome masculinity that's like about caring for
people and protecting people, which I think is interesting. I
think it's interesting that like that is a trope of
like male superhero character that is held up and again,
(18:01):
like I love Superman, I love Captain America. I also
am somebody that is like, you know, drawn to that
kind of character, feels very inspired by that type of character.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
There's obviously like good in a bad side to that.
M M.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
I think yeah, And I think just like, given the
state of things, it was sort of like, you know what,
it's nice to see that that is still something that
It's like, like the thing that really stands out to
people is the idea of like helping people and whatever
and all these it's not necessarily like the political jingoism
of it all. I did see a lot of peacemaker
causeplays too. Actually, on the other side of that, I
(18:38):
see a lot of peacemakers, a lot of vigil antes,
which that was fun.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
All the vigil anti ones were great. He's such a
fun character. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
And that's interesting to compare to. So it sounds like
Dragon Con was a similar sort of mix of characters.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Oh yes, I okay, So I'll go over So I
feel like dragon Con is so, I mean, I go
his disco Luke is so niche. So there are like
the big ones, there are the classics. But I went,
I was going over my like list before we did
this of just like some things that stood out to me.
(19:17):
Dragon Con does. And I know you're going to talk
about this later. I'd be curious because I've only been
to ComicCon once and I was there for work, so
I didn't really get to explore it as much. But
they do like huge, huge meetups, and it'll be the
most random thing. So like the blow up dinosaurs thing
is I mean just hundreds. But I did see. You know,
(19:38):
some of this is biased because you're looking for things
that you recognize. I did see not one, but two
Abby and Joel confrontations from Last of Us too.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
Oh my wait, wait a minute, there were a lot
of there were there were a lot of Last of
Us ones too, though of course relevant, But yeah, how
did that work?
Speaker 2 (19:57):
What do you mean confrontations?
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Like they've like played it out like we came in
with a golf glove. It was fantastic.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Oh my god. I love when people do like all.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
My favorite ones are always the like weird, obscure or
like like I said at the top, like when people
do like a like a Barbie Mandalorian or I love
a creative pun yeah again, like the Lady Gaga one.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Really yeah, Yeah, I'm the ones you see like that
that you're like, oh, I know exactly what that is,
but I never would have thought.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
I would have never thought of that. Yeah, Like, I
know what that is, but I never would have thought
of that.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
I love it. There was a lot of the last pus.
There was a lot of like mushroom yeah people. That
was very cool. I couldn't have I'm really bad at
just basic makeup, so I have so much respect for
people I can do like the all out special effects stuff.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Very cool.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
On the note of yeah, I think having the kind
of bias blinders on. I did also see a lot
of arcane cosplays, although I talked to a couple of
people afterwards too that I was like, I don't know
if it was just because I was dressed as this
thing and I was looking for people that were also
dressed as this thing, but there was a lot of.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Arcane that was my day that I listen.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
I one of the things that I love about cosplaying
at these kind of things is like getting to just
like stop and take pictures with people. I think it's
like micronosing being a celebrity h for a day. And yeah,
so that was super fun. So yeah, shout out to everybody.
I like kept forgetting to ask people to send me
(21:26):
pictures afterwards.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
So if anybody happened, there's anyone.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Out there that happens to type a picture to me
of me from that, please send it my way.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
But that was super fun.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Again, Yeah, it's it's just it's people are so creative
and it's so cool seeing the stuff for the Arcane
ones too. There were a bunch of people that had
like the weapons from the show that they'd like made,
and I I love that stuff. I like if I
had had the time, I would have done the full
Like I wanted to make her gloves.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
And I ran out the time. But it's okay, yes,
I yes, yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
But on your point about the meetups too, that is
also something that happens at New York Comic Con.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
I mentioned earlier.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
My friends organized this like an official Percy Jackson one.
Something I think is interesting because there usually are like
the big ones that like there's a big DC one,
there's a big Marvel one, there's a big Star Wars one.
There's like a specific section they're usually at. There usually
are a couple of smaller ones too. I think though
it sounds like this year, the actual official like Comic Con,
(22:27):
wasn't really sponsoring those. It was like people doing their
own thing. Yeah again, my my friends had done this
Percy Jackson one. I had a couple of friends that
were going to like a critical role made up I
think on the last day, I can't remember which day
it was specifically, but and that was like another one
where it was like somebody had just decided to organize
it on their own. I found out later a friend
(22:48):
of a friend had also organized like an arcane one
the Saturday, and I.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Did not hear about it till later, but that I
thought was interesting.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
I'm gonna get a bit more into this, but I
did have some issues, I think, with the organization from
Comic Con this time, and I think the fact that
there was kind of a blind spot for these meetups
that was being filled by people like putting their own
kind of like time and effort and energy into organizing
(23:17):
things like that.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
To me, I was sort of like, that's.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
Not great because yeah, again, like last year, my friends
had organized this meetup and they got like, hey, we'll
like put you on the calendar and you'll be in
this space at this specific time, and like they end
up getting calm tickets, which was very nice. By this time,
it kind of was just like Okay, you're on your own,
and it was like great, So now it's on us
to like find a space and like make sure nobody
(23:40):
else like takes that space. And also you know, yeah,
it is like putting time and labor to organizing this thing,
but then it is like not really being supported by
comic Con, but also it's drawing people to comic Con.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
So yeah, I don't know. That just seems a little
itchy to me.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Which brings me to some of my complaints this year.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
I think the main two problems were one.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Tickets got really expensive, and to the crowd.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
It was very very crowded this year. And you're probably.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Sitting there thinking like, no, it's gonna be expensive and
there's gonna be a ton of people.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
I know, I went into this like I've gone before.
I know it's super crowded.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
I think a lot of the issues this year were
like very easily preventable or at least could have been
like alleviated starting with the cost.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
So for some reason.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
They decided to raise the ticket prices like a month
before the event, and at this point, like they were
almost sold out, Like they didn't need to do this.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
I think at this point they actually had sold too
many tickets.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Again, I think going back to the crowd point, like
maybe they should have like sold all the lest I
don't know whatever, like maybe there's something they should have
done to have less people there to begin with. But yeah,
they sent out this email like a month before that
was like make sure you're getting your tickets out because
they're about to go up and like so now, and
they were raising them. They were like with the intention
(25:09):
of next year they're going to be discost They're ninety
dollars a day now, which is a lot of money
for basically, yeah, you're going to go shopping, right, Like
you're going through this thing to spend more money. I
don't think it needs to be that expensive. I'm going
to get back to why I don't think so later.
But the other issue that is the crowd, right, Like
if you're if tickets cost as much, you're the other
(25:30):
side of the problem then too, is Yeah, like there's
like too many people. This has been going on for
like a long time, like New York Kong kinda has
been going on for a long time. At this point,
it's been in the same convention center. There were a
couple of things this year that were different, and I
think they made it a little bit more difficult because again,
like I've gone New Years past where it has been
very crowded, I was sort of mentally prepared for that.
I get there Friday and I was like, this is
what Saturday crowd like. Saturday is usually terrible. Friday was
(25:53):
what Saturday was usually like Saturday. I could not move
around for most of it. The main issue which this
threw me off when I got there and I saw
a lot of people complaining about this. There was an
entire section that usually is open to the public that
they had blocked off for like VIP guess and people
from press and industry, panelists and content creators. I don't
(26:13):
think it's a bad idea to have a lounge for
these people, like obviously, especially if you're working at the convention,
like you should, you know, have a space to decompress.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Whatever.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
The space that they had blocked off was way too big.
It was like an entire like half of a floor.
This also usually is the space. The space that they
blocked off specifically is usually where like cosplay repair is
and like the med station and stuff like that, like
stuff that's important for people to know where it is,
and there was some confusion about like people not knowing
(26:43):
where to go for that.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
They moved it all to the basement, and the.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Basement is already pretty crowded because that's where like the
food court is, and you know that's where a lot
of the meetups are and stuff like that. So again,
I don't think it was the best decision. It was
a very big amount of space that I don't think
they needed to block off that. I think that was
part of why the main Florida up feeling so crowded
(27:07):
was there's was less spaces for people to go.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
And this springs met to talking about content.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
Creators, and this is I I'm gonna have tried carefully here.
I want to start off by just like defining what
I mean when I say content creators, because I think
it is a very vague term and there's kind of two.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Definitions that I haven't mind.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
When I'm talking about contract creators, I think most people
when they hear content creators, they think like some kid
with an iPhone and like maybe a bad ring like
camera making stuff I'm putting out on TikTok, which yes,
that's some people they're also it also could mean people
there are people that like make entire careers out of this,
and that means oftentimes they have like a whole camera
(27:57):
crew set up, maybe not like a huge like film
set type thing, but it'll be like a couple of
people filming them, some actual like nice cameras lighting all
of that. And so immediately after the weekend was over,
I saw a lot of chatter online with people complaining
about content creators and how they were sort of unfairly prioritized.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
And I really agree with this. I think that this
was a huge problem this year.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
Some of it was coming from people that were content
creators and belonging to this former group of like more
or less amateurs that are making content like for fun.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
It's not the re main source of income. There was
one guy that I found.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
She made a video that I think like he did
a very good job of like talking through what I
was talking about with this this section that was blocked off,
and he.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Was like, yeah, no, I thought it was really weird.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
I was allowed in the space, but it was like
way too much space for the amount of people in, like,
you know, the people it was four versus the people
in the entire convention center. Wish like kudos to him
for acknowledging that, Like I think, you know, there were
other people I saw online that got very defensive right away,
and I was sort of like, yo, like this.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Is not but nobody is attacking you specifically.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
They're talking about the fact that like the rest of
us like had nowhere to sit. My one quick note
is not to be shady about this guy. Again, no
disrespect to him. I when he's doing good for him.
I also am somebody that, like I, makes very similar content.
I probably would call myself content creator and some some
definitions of the word. I looked at his actual account,
(29:23):
and yes, he had a significant following.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
I think for somebody who.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
Like was given access to again like this like VIP
treatment and having a comp ticket. He didn't specify whether
it was like totally calmed or just discounted, but like
spending less money on the ticket. I was sort of
surprised that somebody with that following was able to get that,
and that also showed to me, like again going back
to this idea of tickets being so expensive or like
(29:49):
your average Joe, Yeah, if you have like if they're
being very liberal about what they're calling a content creator
and like somebody with under one hundred k followers on TikTok,
which yes, that might seem like a lot, but when
you really think about like some of the follower counts
of these people, it's not that much. Like, yeah, if
you have all of these people that you're coming tickets for,
(30:09):
you're giving them discounted tickets, like no wonder you're not
making as much money, and then you want to raise
the ticket prices for the rest of us, which just
doesn't seem like a good business model. I mean, yeah,
it's like you're getting that free advertisement, but at the
same time, it's like there's only so much that people
are going to be willing to pay to go to
these things. I already heard a bunch of people that
were sort of like, I'm probably not going to go
(30:29):
last next year? Is the problem my last year because
it just got so expensive this year, and you know,
they are sort of facing a problem right now about
not making enough money to keep the event going. So again,
to me, I'm not a business person, but I see
this and I'm sort of like, it seems like there's
a very clear problem here. And yeah, maybe again when
(30:50):
people are saying, hey, they're putting a lot of emphasis
on these content creators and giving preferential treatment to these
content creators, that is frusture. That makes me less likely
to want to go to this kind of thing. Like,
I get it, that makes sense, and that doesn't seem
like a good business model. That being said, I don't
think like this group of content creators is necessarily the
(31:10):
worst problem.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Again, like, no hate to these people.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
I think like content creators get a lot of hate
that is not necessarily necessary. I think the biggest problem
were again like these people that they're making content because
it's like their job, it's their career, it's what they
make money off of.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Listen, I work in media. I get it.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
It is hard to like have be under pressure and
have a short period of time where you need to
create content to go out to a big audience and
needs to look up certain way. Whatever that being said,
it does not give you a permission to be an
and some of the behavior that I saw from these
people was like abhorrent.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Like it was just really bad.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
So the way that the convention center is set up,
there's like this giant lobby area. There were a lot
of like camera setups that people had in this lobby area. Again,
they had this whole section that was blocked off for them.
I don't know why that was not being utilized more.
There were a lot of people on this main lobby
floor and then on the main stage floor that were
like taking up a lot of space to film content.
(32:12):
That is where people are trying to walk in and out.
People are going to walk into your shots. I saw
people getting yelled at. I saw people getting like pushed
off camera. I the third day that I was there,
I was walking to the bathroom, and again this is
a very crowded area, so I was sort of trying
to like make my way around people. I had a guy,
like one of the crew guys for one of these
creators like grab my arm and like pull me out
(32:34):
of a shot, which I don't think that's.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Okay, Like I'm not gonna rune. It was like a.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
Little and I was like grab I mean, like this
dude like pulled me like I was like whoa, Like
you could have just said, like, hey can you Also,
I'm like.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Hey you could you could cut that out of the shot.
It's not that hard, just start over again.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
That's the kind of thing that I think was most
frustrating to me because again I have a level of
sympthey where I'm like, I get you're trying to make
content because that's what your job is, but like, keep
in mind, you were going into a very crowded space
where people paid a lot of money to be here.
And I don't know, I think, like, I think it
(33:15):
makes sense that people were frustrated that like these sort
of people were getting be able to get away with
this kind of behavior and there really was no kind
of there was no accountability, there was no like and
it was also clear that they were like getting that
preferential treatment. So I think, I think it again, it
makes sense that people were frustrated. I was frustrated. So
(33:35):
I don't know what the solution is. I don't know
if there just needs to be like clear guidelines like
what people can and can't do if they're going to
keep this like space blocked off for content creators, maybe
there just needs to be more rules about like you
need to be filming content here.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
You can't.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
The other thing was too going back to the meetups,
like there were people that were like taking up these
big sections. It was also raining that whole weekends more
people inside trying to take pictures as opposed to outside.
But it's like everybody's trying to take pictures, everybody's in
their costume, everybody's here.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
To like have fun.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
You can't be like blocking out like prime, Instagram, real estate.
The entire like three hour period that you I don't know,
it just there was a lot of behavior that I
think like it felt it felt like rude, and it
felt disingenuous to like why people want to go to
(34:29):
these events. It felt like it definitely like it. And
I can see from the again, like comic CON's perspective,
they're like great free advertising.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
We want to prioritize that, but.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
Also think about the fact that it's like the people
that you're making money from, people that are paying you
to be there, they need to be having a good
time too, Like it is a supplying demand issue and
like you're gonna start losing customers if you let that
slide for the sake of Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Again, like a bunch of TikTokers. Not saying that.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
To TikTokers again, no disrespect, but like we're all here
for the same thing.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
Let people enjoy this, Like, don't just turn it into.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Shocking comic con of all things can turn into a
capitalist hellscape.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Who would have thought?
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Is it still at the Surprise Prise Javits Center?
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Dam it's gonna yeah, yeah, which have you been there?
It's a huge space, fun story.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
I actually the first time that I went to that
convention center was getting my COVID nineteen shot because I
had like the whole like National Guard set up there.
So every year it's kind of funny where I'm like, oh, yeah,
I remember like this entire place being just like filled
with like military dudes, and now it's Captain America.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Yeah, sure, I have a video. I think I mentioned
this last time we talked, but when I was there,
I did a walk through video of the whole thing
dressed as Winter Soldier, and it was content that we posted.
And I'm just trying to envision because that was a
long time ago, and I'm just trying to envision because
I feel like the media space I was in was
(35:59):
pretty small and it was upstairs and then there was
one that was there was one that was downstairs and
that was where you did interviews, and they had like
the backdrop, uh, and you know the media would just
go and interview this poor person over and over again,
but same questions I'm sure every time. But it didn't
feel that big. But it's also kind of an interesting
(36:21):
setup because it's it's long. It's like a the hallway
I remember being like a long walk to get to
the artist alley and then to get to the where
I want to where you want to go buy stuff.
It's kind of a like interesting setup. I suppose.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
Yeah, it is a weird it's a weird setup, and
I get. I mean, I think like going to what
you were saying, obviously a it is always very crowded
and be like.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
This has been a thing.
Speaker 3 (36:46):
I do think there should be like a space for
content creators. I do think there should be a space
for like for staff or press whatever. I think the
way that it was just set up this time was
so poorly done.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
That was the problem. I think it it was a.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
Issue of scale and it is like these are all connected.
If you're going to have more space blocked off for
content creators, you're going to have less space for the
general public. People are going to be upset about the
fact that they're all kind of because again, I'm used
to it being crowded, especially Saturday, it is usually like
very very crowded.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
That was the worst I've ever seen it.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
Like there were points on Saturday where like I literally
was just like I cannot move, Like I'm stuck on
the show floor and I'm just waiting for there to
be an opening for maybe.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
To be able to walk out.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
So I don't know, I get Yeah, And again, I
think I think it is worth like pointing out the
fact that it was something that I saw so many
complaints about. It's like, clearly there was something different this
year that was frustrating.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Yeah, Because again I mean.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
Like the show floor obviously super crowded as well. I
think that also, And again I mean I think this
is something that who knows what the solution is. Wasn't
the best organized things were. It was a little bit
hard to find things. I think they tried to spread
out some of the things that people they knew people
like there was the big like Marvel set up and
the big DC setup that we're on like opposite sides,
(38:04):
and there was like all these different companies and stuff
that was kind of funny. It was sort of like,
we're we have to separate them, and they were they're
gonna right, you're gonna fight.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
Shout out to I friend of the pod care from
it could happen here is also doing an episode about
Comic Con for that.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Very excited to hear that. I think it's gonna be
much for uh critical in depth.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
But something they pointed out we were walking on on
Sunday that I thought was interesting was they were like,
there's a lot of a lot of the stuff on
the show floor is like Instagram. It's for Instagram, like
it's it's so you can take the picture to post
on Instagram later, which yeah, I was like, that's interesting.
I do kind of wish there was a little bit
more like interactive things. That being said, I did also
drag them through the entire avatar set up to get
(38:49):
a picture with Apa so that I could put that
on the Instagram later. So I gotta get it.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
I can't.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
I can't complain too much because I did also definitely
feed into the the instagramification of everything.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
So yeah, I again I think a lot.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
My main issue is just that I think a lot
of the specific issues about the way the space was
organized that was providable, and that's something that I hope
and again, if they're going to be charging so much
for it next year, that that needs to be fixed.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Otherwise you're going to drive people away.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
It's not fun if you cannot if you literally cannot
do anything because you can't move around right.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Well, surprise, surprise, listeners, it turns out that things did
go off the rails without Samantha here and Joey and
I have a lot more to say about the ways
that cons have progressed, the ways they're backsliding in some areas,
and how that reflects on our society. So much more
to say, in fact, that we're splitting this into two parts,
even though it was originally supposed to just be one episode,
(39:49):
so stay tuned for part two. In the meantime, you
can check out Joey online at pat not Pratt on Instagram,
Hot Topic Dad on TikTok, and you can see their
work on podcasts like Outlaws and There Are No Girls
on the Internet with friend of the Show Brigit Todd,
and on other episodes on this very show, so please
(40:12):
keep an ear out for that and check those things
out if you haven't already. If you would like to
contact us, you can. Our email is Hello at Stuffnever
Told You dot com. We're on Blue Sky at MOLS podcasts,
and we're on Instagram and TikTok at stuff Never Told You.
We're also on YouTube. We have new merchandise at Cotton Bureau,
and we have a book you can get wherever you
(40:33):
get your books. Thanks as always to our super producer Christina,
our executive producer Myra, and yes contributor Joey, and thanks
to you for listening Stuff Never Told You to put
sh my Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
you can check out the ipheart Radio app, Apple podcast,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, this is Annie and welcome to stuff. I never
told you production, I heard you, and today Samantha is
out sick, but I am very very happy to be
joined by a friend of the show contributor, Joey. Welcome back, Joey.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hello, it's me.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
I'm Samantha McVeigh for.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
The next.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Hour, however long we end up recording. But yeah, thanks
for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Annie. Always fun to be on the show.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Yes, I actually just spoke to Samantha before this and
she's she's she's she's got a lost voice, very croaky voice,
and she was like, tell Joey, I'm so said, I'll
miss it, but we both know it would have been
mostly the two of you talking.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Yeah, I mean, Samantha, wherever you are, where you're listening,
you are missed, of course, so sad that you're not here.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
But yes, even if she isn't on our same nerd level,
she's always got fun commentary, so we do miss her.
But we we we need.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Somebody in the room to bring us back to earth, you.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Know, Yes, somebody'd be like, no one knows what you're
talking about.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Nobody knows what you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yeah, so hopefully we don't go too off the rails
in this, But yes, we did want to have you
back because we recently had you on when you after
you went to flame Con, which was a convention that
was largely focused on LGBTQ plus people and creators, and
(01:49):
in there, of course we got to talking because both
of us have a lot of thoughts about conventions, and
you mentioned you were going to New York Comic Con
in October and we were like, well, I would love
to have you back after that and hear what it
was all about. So here we are.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Yes, I was on earlier this year for flame Con,
and yeah, of course Ellie is happy to talk all
all of the nerd things with Anny. But yeah, I
went to a New York Comic Con this past I
think by the time this episode comes out, it'll be November.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
But yes, I had to go to New York Comic Con.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Earlier this month. There's currently still October. I'm all were
recording this.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
I this is now the fourth year that I've gone.
I love it. I thought it was a time I
do as I'm going to get it into. Have a
couple of.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Things I didn't love this year are sort of you know,
trends where I think things are going but it's not great,
but also lots of fun things. I cosplayed three days
in a row, which was an experience. I think I
slept for like a whole day after it was over.
(03:07):
But yeah, I guess I'll start with like the fun,
happy stuff, because who doesn't love that? First of all,
again I did. It is October now. As we're recording
this Antie off Mike, we were talking about some of
our Halloween plans and I did realize mid October that
this month I literally every single weekend this month I
(03:29):
was at some point on public transportation in full costume
going to something. So like at the beginning of the month,
I went to the Rent Fair and like that was
super fun. That was great, and then then this was
common Kan was the second week, and then since then
it's kind of.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Been like Halloween party, Halloween party, another Halloween party.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
And I love Halloween, so I'm I'm not complaining, but
you know, this is a fun time.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
To be.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
To be somebody that likes, uh, dressing up in costumes
and also lives in a very crowded city where I'm
always just seeing people and people are seeing me. Although
I will say one of my favorite things, like okay,
like I don't go to like anime connor whatever, so
that's usually the one that I point you were. I
love those weekends and just seeing like people in random
costumes that I don't understand.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Like I'm like this, go you.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
I love that. That is my favorite thing. So I
hope that I'm that person for somebody, It's what I'm saying. Anyways,
So yes, I did go three days this year.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
This is the first year that I've tried doing three
days instead of just two.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
I cosplayed all three days. I made the really good decision.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
This was not intentional.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
This kind of happened by accident, but I'm going to
pretend that it was a conscious decision.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
I started with my hardest costume, like the most like
intense to wear on the first day, and then the
last day I had my like T shirt and jeans
costume that was like very little effort. Would recommend doing
that if you are going to a convention where you
are dressing up multiple days, if you're somebody who again
like unlike me, actually plans ahead. Because this sort of
ended up happen by accident, but I'm very very grateful
(05:02):
that it worked out that way because I was very
tired by Sunday.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
So the Thursday I dressed up.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
As Wigan from Young Avengers, Agathol Along, et cetera, Marvel Comics,
all of that. I also I dressed up at him
back in August.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
For Flame Con. He's one of my favorite characters.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
I'm sure if you've heard me on the show, you've
heard me talk about how much I love this character.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Annie, you know that I originally.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Was going to dress up as the Winter Soldier, and
then I procrastinated on making the metal arm, which is
like the majority of the costume, so that didn't end
up happening. But I have all the materials, so maybe
at some point.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
In the future.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
I did tell myself. I was like, maybe I'll just
save this for like Halloween weekend. I'll wear it one
of the days. I have yet to make any progress
on making this thing, so one day I will have
a metal arm. I just that might be in like
two years, but we'll see. But yeah, Wicked was fun.
That was again most annoying costume to wear. It is
(06:06):
just a like tight body suit.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
And a cape. I didn't have any pockets. That was rough.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Yep, but you know what.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
It was a fun time, felt good, looked.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Good, looked great. Coat sign thank you.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Thank you, I was saying, and Samantha definitely got some
pictures for me and a couple other heart people that I.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Ran into there. And then day two I dressed up
is buy from Arcane.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
I did have the realization that day that this is
the first time I've ever cosplayed a girl at a convention,
like a female character period, which I will get into
a little bit more later about some of that.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
It wasn't terrible. I could have had a worse experience.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
It was fun, though I also I'm not good this
is the type of place to get into it.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
She was one of those.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Characters that I'm like, to me, I'm still like, that's gender,
like she she this is the gender that I want.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
But that was a fun time.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
I had a jacket for that, so I did have
pot and I was wearing pants so I had pockets.
That was great. I don't know if I'm ever going
to no pockets route again. That was rough. Yeah, I
was really nervous about the wig because I'm I usually
will just I'll work around curly haired brunette characters, which
luckily there's a lot of them, so but yeah, oh,
(07:26):
this was the first time I did like the wig.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
That actually was fine.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
I did have a friend len me a like fake
nose piercing that was terrible.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
I don't know, I I am one of those. I've
had many people be like, I thought you had a
nose piercing.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
I have the persona of somebody who I guess people
assume that I have a nose piercing. I understand that
I can never it would annoy me way too much.
And then take three, I dressed Nico to Angelo from
Percy Jackson.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Again, this was my easiest costume.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
If you're familiar with the series, he wears just like
a big jacket and a T shirt and jeans and
that was great. Also that day I had two friends
that were organizing at like unofficial meetup. They actually there
was an official meetup last year that they had helped organize,
and then Comic Con this year decided not to greenlight it,
so it was an unofficial one. I'm going to get
(08:20):
into later some of my issues when I think some
of the organizing stuff and why wasn't you know I
think this maybe was a symptom of some other organizational
issues from the convention. But yeah, but that was super
fun and I think because it was like a smaller.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Kind of group.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
It still was a pretty big turnout for that meet up,
but it was a smaller group, so like people I
don't know, and it's nice to be able. Like that
was one where I got some like bracelets and key
chains from people that were just doing like like little
trades and giveaways and stuff, kind of similar to Annie.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
I know, like also.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Huge fifty if you that, that's kind of one of
the big Swifty things. It's like the bracelets, the beaded bracelets.
Also got some of those, which was fun. It's cool
to see that kind of become part of like larger
fandom culture, and I think especially sort of younger fandom cultures.
Percy Jackson obviously you know, I'm I'm gen z.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
I grew up with those books. Those were my favorite
book when I was a kid.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
They're I would say, most people I know that are
fans of it are a couple of years older than me.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
I'm younger. But yeah, so so it was a it
was a fun time.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
I personally, like I always say, comic con is fun
because you get to see like everybody's different neurotic tendencies
come out, which for some people means people are very
anxious and don't love crowds. I personally get distracted by
shiny things very easily, so I spent a lot of
it being like, oh, look, very cool cosplay. I'm gonna
go run after this person and ask for a photo.
(09:57):
So thank you to everybody who had to deal with
me those three days. But some of my favorite costumes
that I saw were there was somebody on Friday, whoever
you were that was there was somebody. I kept seeing
them and I kept trying to be like, oh my god,
I want a picture, and then I lost her. She
was dressed up as like the Lady Gaga meat dress. Yeah,
like she had the meat dress, and I was like,
I'm obsessed. I would not think to do that at
(10:18):
Comic Con, but I I wouldn't even think to do
that as a costume at this point.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
But I love it.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Iconic beautiful.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
There's always some fun Star Wars crossovers.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
There was a Barbie Mandalorian, Uh you know, oh of course, Annie,
I'm seeing you.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Nodding, I'm seeing you, nady.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
There was an Auna from Frozen like Han Solo mash
that was really cute.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
I loved that.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
That's great.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
One of my favorite like costumes that I saw this
year that was new was if Anybody's seen Sinners, there
were a bunch of the like Smokestack Twins.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
I love that movie. That was like my favorite movie
I saw this year that was super fun. Shout out.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
There was one due that I was like talking to
for like ten minutes and I was like, I need
to get a picture of them because I was that
was the day that I was dressed by and I
was like, oh yeah, because she's like Hayley Seinfolwed that'll
be funny. And then of course, like I left and
my friend I was with was like, weren't you gonna
ask for a picture And I was like, oh no wait.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Yeah that was we got to start to talking about
something completely different.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Oh no, ye crazy how that happens. But yeah, I
guess some more just like trends that I saw, because
I also think it's interesting to just see like what.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
People what is popular, what are people causplaying?
Speaker 3 (11:29):
As of course there's always a lot of like you know,
it is comic Con, there's all the comic book staples
there's a lot of X Men, a lot of Jean Grays.
This year, I saw a lot of Jean Grays, a
lot of Teen Titans groups, lots of Fantastic Four makes
sense the movie came out this year, same with like
Superman and a lot of the like newer version of
Supergirl too. Of course, always lots of Spider Man, lots
(11:51):
of Scarlet Witches. There were a lot of Obi Wan Kenobi's,
specifically right like, there was a lot of Star Wars
has places, but particularly like the younger Obi Wan Kobe,
which I love. I love obi Wan Knobi like let's go.
But yeah, I thought that was interesting.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
That was on my when I did my Dragon con.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
It's interesting. That was Dragon kon too.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
He round up I saw. I just saw so many
obi Wan Kenobi's and I loved it. It was fantastic.
There was one that I was like, you look exactly
like and he had so many ribbons Dragon konkaus that
ribbons he had, like, that's so many on his badge.
And I saw him get into some kind of tea
(12:31):
drinking duel with Darth Maul. I don't know, but there
were a lot of Obie wants. Something's going on on
the obi Wan site.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Guys, he just like he.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
I guess that's like he's the Spider Man character of
Ye Wars, where like you're always.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Gonna see him everywhere. If anybody is an obi.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Wan Kenobe cosplayer that wants to like, tell me why
there's so many still to this, Like, and again, I'm
not complaining great character, I get it, but I'm just like, Wow,
there's so much Star Wars content and I'm like, like
every five minutes, I'm seeing an obi Wan Kenobi walk
by me.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
So that was fun.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Lots of K Pop Demon Hunters surprise Prize back to
Star Wars.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
I didn't see some and Or Cause plays.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
The character I probably saw the most was Claya, which
I thought was really cool. There was a moment where
I almost was gonna go with Clia and I could
not figure out how to do the hair correctly, so
I didn't do that. But shout out to everybody those
I mean, big fan of that show obviously on the
on stuff, I've never told you love her characters specifically,
(13:36):
so that was super fun.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
I saw a couple of mon Mathmas too. It was
really cool, I think.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
For and Or to see like specifically a lot of
the female characters getting so much love and like getting
so much more attention than I think you see in
a lot of these franchises usually.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Yeah, I wanted to see one good mon Mathma dance
and I did, Yes, thrilled.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
I didn't see any I'm at the dance. I did there.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
There was one that I kept walking by, though, and
every time, like I like there were like three times
that I had walked by the same person, and every
time like this song would start playing in my head
and I just like stuck in my That was also
also definitely like at the point of the day where
I had like one.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Like Whiskey Coke and was just like, yeah, let's go,
let's go.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Honestly, you know what, next time if they want something,
should have had a big dance circle with that.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
What was going on? Missed opportunity.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Definitely definitely some a couple of cosplays.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
I was surprised to see.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
There were quite a few Lord of the Rings ones,
which of course always a classic, but I was sort.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Of like, wow, there's there.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Hasn't really been new Lord of the Rings content recently,
but nice love that I saw a few, not as many,
not many, but more than I expected. Uh, Harry Potter cosplays,
which that I thought was interesting.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Obviously it's still a very popular series, but like, you.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Know, things have happened, uh where you know, I personally
want to make the decision to costplay one of those characters.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
I think it's something like this.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
I did talk to a friend of mine about this,
who also, like the two of us were both really
big Harry Potter fans back in the day and I
kind of moved away from the series, and he pointed
out something interesting which I didn't even really think of,
but he was like, yeah, there's been a bunch of costplays,
but I have not seen like any merch like when
you walk around artists Allly.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Yeah. I was like, I don't.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
I don't remember seeing like a single like piece of
Harry Potter fan art that was being sold.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
So that, to me, I think maybe is more of
a sign that like JK.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Rowling has fallen out of favor obviously, like you know,
people are gonna cosplay whatever. There is something about like,
I don't know, I think it is complicated the idea
of like whether you're cosplaying a thing, are you contributing
to that thing? Making money or whatever. I think it's complicated.
I think I can see both sides of it. I
think it depends on how you go about it. But
that being said, I think the fact that like nobody
(15:55):
was trying to make money off of this series is
probably a more damning then the fact that there were
a couple of people dressed as like, you know, random
Hogwarts students. I did see a really good Bell Tricks cosplay,
so shout out to her.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Again, I don't know if that's a decision that I
would make, but the cosplay was great.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Another one that I was kind of surprised to see
there were quite a few Peggy Carters, which, again I
love this character, but I was sort of like, wow,
I'm surprised to see that, like this character is held
up so well. I think her last appearance was like
what like six years ago, I don't know, Like I
thought that was interesting, but again I this was a
character that, like I loved when I was a teenager
(16:38):
and those movies were coming out. Also, quite a few
Captain America's, which again, of course a popular character.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Not super surprising.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
I did think it was interesting that I think of
the Avengers that was probably the one I saw the most.
And I think again, given the fact that the Steve
Rogers Captain America character hasn't really made any appearances lately,
like it was interesting to me.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
But that is a character that.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
I saw more than maybe like other Avengers that are
still in movies and stuff like that, and you know,
given political stuff, I don't know, it was also kind
of interesting.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
I Captain America is one of those characters.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
To me, I'm like, I'm a big Captain in America fan.
I know a lot of people that I think like
align with po politically that also really love those movies.
I love that character, and I I find it really
interesting that like, even with all the messiness happening, that's
still character people are drawn to.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
M hm, he's a very Superman esque case.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
He is. I think it is similar.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
And I was thinking about also the like response people
were having to the Superman movie, and it reminded me
a lot of I think the discourse around like Steve
Rogers's Captain America as a character, because it was very like, look,
it's this like wholesome masculinity that's like about caring for
people and protecting people, which I think is interesting. I
think it's interesting that like that is a trope of
like male superhero character that is held up and again,
(18:01):
like I love Superman, I love Captain America. I also
am somebody that is like, you know, drawn to that
kind of character, feels very inspired by that type of character.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
There's obviously like good in a bad side to that.
M M.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
I think yeah, And I think just like, given the
state of things, it was sort of like, you know what,
it's nice to see that that is still something that
It's like, like the thing that really stands out to
people is the idea of like helping people and whatever
and all these it's not necessarily like the political jingoism
of it all. I did see a lot of peacemaker
causeplays too. Actually, on the other side of that, I
(18:38):
see a lot of peacemakers, a lot of vigil antes,
which that was fun.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
All the vigil anti ones were great. He's such a
fun character. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
And that's interesting to compare to. So it sounds like
Dragon Con was a similar sort of mix of characters.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Oh yes, I okay, So I'll go over So I
feel like dragon Con is so, I mean, I go
his disco Luke is so niche. So there are like
the big ones, there are the classics. But I went,
I was going over my like list before we did
this of just like some things that stood out to me.
(19:17):
Dragon Con does. And I know you're going to talk
about this later. I'd be curious because I've only been
to ComicCon once and I was there for work, so
I didn't really get to explore it as much. But
they do like huge, huge meetups, and it'll be the
most random thing. So like the blow up dinosaurs thing
is I mean just hundreds. But I did see. You know,
(19:38):
some of this is biased because you're looking for things
that you recognize. I did see not one, but two
Abby and Joel confrontations from Last of Us too.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
Oh my wait, wait a minute, there were a lot
of there were there were a lot of Last of
Us ones too, though of course relevant, But yeah, how
did that work?
Speaker 2 (19:57):
What do you mean confrontations?
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Like they've like played it out like we came in
with a golf glove. It was fantastic.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Oh my god. I love when people do like all.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
My favorite ones are always the like weird, obscure or
like like I said at the top, like when people
do like a like a Barbie Mandalorian or I love
a creative pun yeah again, like the Lady Gaga one.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Really yeah, Yeah, I'm the ones you see like that
that you're like, oh, I know exactly what that is,
but I never would have thought.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
I would have never thought of that. Yeah, Like, I
know what that is, but I never would have thought
of that.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
I love it. There was a lot of the last pus.
There was a lot of like mushroom yeah people. That
was very cool. I couldn't have I'm really bad at
just basic makeup, so I have so much respect for
people I can do like the all out special effects stuff.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Very cool.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
On the note of yeah, I think having the kind
of bias blinders on. I did also see a lot
of arcane cosplays, although I talked to a couple of
people afterwards too that I was like, I don't know
if it was just because I was dressed as this
thing and I was looking for people that were also
dressed as this thing, but there was a lot of.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Arcane that was my day that I listen.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
I one of the things that I love about cosplaying
at these kind of things is like getting to just
like stop and take pictures with people. I think it's
like micronosing being a celebrity h for a day. And yeah,
so that was super fun. So yeah, shout out to everybody.
I like kept forgetting to ask people to send me
(21:26):
pictures afterwards.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
So if anybody happened, there's anyone.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Out there that happens to type a picture to me
of me from that, please send it my way.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
But that was super fun.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Again, Yeah, it's it's just it's people are so creative
and it's so cool seeing the stuff for the Arcane
ones too. There were a bunch of people that had
like the weapons from the show that they'd like made,
and I I love that stuff. I like if I
had had the time, I would have done the full
Like I wanted to make her gloves.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
And I ran out the time. But it's okay, yes,
I yes, yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
But on your point about the meetups too, that is
also something that happens at New York Comic Con.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
I mentioned earlier.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
My friends organized this like an official Percy Jackson one.
Something I think is interesting because there usually are like
the big ones that like there's a big DC one,
there's a big Marvel one, there's a big Star Wars one.
There's like a specific section they're usually at. There usually
are a couple of smaller ones too. I think though
it sounds like this year, the actual official like Comic Con,
(22:27):
wasn't really sponsoring those. It was like people doing their
own thing. Yeah again, my my friends had done this
Percy Jackson one. I had a couple of friends that
were going to like a critical role made up I
think on the last day, I can't remember which day
it was specifically, but and that was like another one
where it was like somebody had just decided to organize
it on their own. I found out later a friend
(22:48):
of a friend had also organized like an arcane one
the Saturday, and I.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Did not hear about it till later, but that I
thought was interesting.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
I'm gonna get a bit more into this, but I
did have some issues, I think, with the organization from
Comic Con this time, and I think the fact that
there was kind of a blind spot for these meetups
that was being filled by people like putting their own
kind of like time and effort and energy into organizing
(23:17):
things like that.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
To me, I was sort of like, that's.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
Not great because yeah, again, like last year, my friends
had organized this meetup and they got like, hey, we'll
like put you on the calendar and you'll be in
this space at this specific time, and like they end
up getting calm tickets, which was very nice. By this time,
it kind of was just like Okay, you're on your own,
and it was like great, So now it's on us
to like find a space and like make sure nobody
(23:40):
else like takes that space. And also you know, yeah,
it is like putting time and labor to organizing this thing,
but then it is like not really being supported by
comic Con, but also it's drawing people to comic Con.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
So yeah, I don't know. That just seems a little
itchy to me.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Which brings me to some of my complaints this year.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
I think the main two problems were one.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Tickets got really expensive, and to the crowd.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
It was very very crowded this year. And you're probably.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Sitting there thinking like, no, it's gonna be expensive and
there's gonna be a ton of people.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
I know, I went into this like I've gone before.
I know it's super crowded.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
I think a lot of the issues this year were
like very easily preventable or at least could have been
like alleviated starting with the cost.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
So for some reason.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
They decided to raise the ticket prices like a month
before the event, and at this point, like they were
almost sold out, Like they didn't need to do this.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
I think at this point they actually had sold too
many tickets.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Again, I think going back to the crowd point, like
maybe they should have like sold all the lest I
don't know whatever, like maybe there's something they should have
done to have less people there to begin with. But yeah,
they sent out this email like a month before that
was like make sure you're getting your tickets out because
they're about to go up and like so now, and
they were raising them. They were like with the intention
(25:09):
of next year they're going to be discost They're ninety
dollars a day now, which is a lot of money
for basically, yeah, you're going to go shopping, right, Like
you're going through this thing to spend more money. I
don't think it needs to be that expensive. I'm going
to get back to why I don't think so later.
But the other issue that is the crowd, right, Like
if you're if tickets cost as much, you're the other
(25:30):
side of the problem then too, is Yeah, like there's
like too many people. This has been going on for
like a long time, like New York Kong kinda has
been going on for a long time. At this point,
it's been in the same convention center. There were a
couple of things this year that were different, and I
think they made it a little bit more difficult because again,
like I've gone New Years past where it has been
very crowded, I was sort of mentally prepared for that.
I get there Friday and I was like, this is
what Saturday crowd like. Saturday is usually terrible. Friday was
(25:53):
what Saturday was usually like Saturday. I could not move
around for most of it. The main issue which this
threw me off when I got there and I saw
a lot of people complaining about this. There was an
entire section that usually is open to the public that
they had blocked off for like VIP guess and people
from press and industry, panelists and content creators. I don't
(26:13):
think it's a bad idea to have a lounge for
these people, like obviously, especially if you're working at the convention,
like you should, you know, have a space to decompress.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Whatever.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
The space that they had blocked off was way too big.
It was like an entire like half of a floor.
This also usually is the space. The space that they
blocked off specifically is usually where like cosplay repair is
and like the med station and stuff like that, like
stuff that's important for people to know where it is,
and there was some confusion about like people not knowing
(26:43):
where to go for that.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
They moved it all to the basement, and the.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Basement is already pretty crowded because that's where like the
food court is, and you know that's where a lot
of the meetups are and stuff like that. So again,
I don't think it was the best decision. It was
a very big amount of space that I don't think
they needed to block off that. I think that was
part of why the main Florida up feeling so crowded
(27:07):
was there's was less spaces for people to go.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
And this springs met to talking about content.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
Creators, and this is I I'm gonna have tried carefully here.
I want to start off by just like defining what
I mean when I say content creators, because I think
it is a very vague term and there's kind of two.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Definitions that I haven't mind.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
When I'm talking about contract creators, I think most people
when they hear content creators, they think like some kid
with an iPhone and like maybe a bad ring like
camera making stuff I'm putting out on TikTok, which yes,
that's some people they're also it also could mean people
there are people that like make entire careers out of this,
and that means oftentimes they have like a whole camera
(27:57):
crew set up, maybe not like a huge like film
set type thing, but it'll be like a couple of
people filming them, some actual like nice cameras lighting all
of that. And so immediately after the weekend was over,
I saw a lot of chatter online with people complaining
about content creators and how they were sort of unfairly prioritized.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
And I really agree with this. I think that this
was a huge problem this year.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
Some of it was coming from people that were content
creators and belonging to this former group of like more
or less amateurs that are making content like for fun.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
It's not the re main source of income. There was
one guy that I found.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
She made a video that I think like he did
a very good job of like talking through what I
was talking about with this this section that was blocked off,
and he.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Was like, yeah, no, I thought it was really weird.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
I was allowed in the space, but it was like
way too much space for the amount of people in, like,
you know, the people it was four versus the people
in the entire convention center. Wish like kudos to him
for acknowledging that, Like I think, you know, there were
other people I saw online that got very defensive right away,
and I was sort of like, yo, like this.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Is not but nobody is attacking you specifically.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
They're talking about the fact that like the rest of
us like had nowhere to sit. My one quick note
is not to be shady about this guy. Again, no
disrespect to him. I when he's doing good for him.
I also am somebody that, like I, makes very similar content.
I probably would call myself content creator and some some
definitions of the word. I looked at his actual account,
(29:23):
and yes, he had a significant following.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
I think for somebody who.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
Like was given access to again like this like VIP
treatment and having a comp ticket. He didn't specify whether
it was like totally calmed or just discounted, but like
spending less money on the ticket. I was sort of
surprised that somebody with that following was able to get that,
and that also showed to me, like again going back
to this idea of tickets being so expensive or like
(29:49):
your average Joe, Yeah, if you have like if they're
being very liberal about what they're calling a content creator
and like somebody with under one hundred k followers on TikTok,
which yes, that might seem like a lot, but when
you really think about like some of the follower counts
of these people, it's not that much. Like, yeah, if
you have all of these people that you're coming tickets for,
(30:09):
you're giving them discounted tickets, like no wonder you're not
making as much money, and then you want to raise
the ticket prices for the rest of us, which just
doesn't seem like a good business model. I mean, yeah,
it's like you're getting that free advertisement, but at the
same time, it's like there's only so much that people
are going to be willing to pay to go to
these things. I already heard a bunch of people that
were sort of like, I'm probably not going to go
(30:29):
last next year? Is the problem my last year because
it just got so expensive this year, and you know,
they are sort of facing a problem right now about
not making enough money to keep the event going. So again,
to me, I'm not a business person, but I see
this and I'm sort of like, it seems like there's
a very clear problem here. And yeah, maybe again when
(30:50):
people are saying, hey, they're putting a lot of emphasis
on these content creators and giving preferential treatment to these
content creators, that is frusture. That makes me less likely
to want to go to this kind of thing. Like,
I get it, that makes sense, and that doesn't seem
like a good business model. That being said, I don't
think like this group of content creators is necessarily the
(31:10):
worst problem.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Again, like, no hate to these people.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
I think like content creators get a lot of hate
that is not necessarily necessary. I think the biggest problem
were again like these people that they're making content because
it's like their job, it's their career, it's what they
make money off of.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Listen, I work in media. I get it.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
It is hard to like have be under pressure and
have a short period of time where you need to
create content to go out to a big audience and
needs to look up certain way. Whatever that being said,
it does not give you a permission to be an
and some of the behavior that I saw from these
people was like abhorrent.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Like it was just really bad.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
So the way that the convention center is set up,
there's like this giant lobby area. There were a lot
of like camera setups that people had in this lobby area. Again,
they had this whole section that was blocked off for them.
I don't know why that was not being utilized more.
There were a lot of people on this main lobby
floor and then on the main stage floor that were
like taking up a lot of space to film content.
(32:12):
That is where people are trying to walk in and out.
People are going to walk into your shots. I saw
people getting yelled at. I saw people getting like pushed
off camera. I the third day that I was there,
I was walking to the bathroom, and again this is
a very crowded area, so I was sort of trying
to like make my way around people. I had a guy,
like one of the crew guys for one of these
creators like grab my arm and like pull me out
(32:34):
of a shot, which I don't think that's.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Okay, Like I'm not gonna rune. It was like a.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
Little and I was like grab I mean, like this
dude like pulled me like I was like whoa, Like
you could have just said, like, hey can you Also,
I'm like.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Hey you could you could cut that out of the shot.
It's not that hard, just start over again.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
That's the kind of thing that I think was most
frustrating to me because again I have a level of
sympthey where I'm like, I get you're trying to make
content because that's what your job is, but like, keep
in mind, you were going into a very crowded space
where people paid a lot of money to be here.
And I don't know, I think, like, I think it
(33:15):
makes sense that people were frustrated that like these sort
of people were getting be able to get away with
this kind of behavior and there really was no kind
of there was no accountability, there was no like and
it was also clear that they were like getting that
preferential treatment. So I think, I think it again, it
makes sense that people were frustrated. I was frustrated. So
(33:35):
I don't know what the solution is. I don't know
if there just needs to be like clear guidelines like
what people can and can't do if they're going to
keep this like space blocked off for content creators, maybe
there just needs to be more rules about like you
need to be filming content here.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
You can't.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
The other thing was too going back to the meetups,
like there were people that were like taking up these
big sections. It was also raining that whole weekends more
people inside trying to take pictures as opposed to outside.
But it's like everybody's trying to take pictures, everybody's in
their costume, everybody's here.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
To like have fun.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
You can't be like blocking out like prime, Instagram, real estate.
The entire like three hour period that you I don't know,
it just there was a lot of behavior that I
think like it felt it felt like rude, and it
felt disingenuous to like why people want to go to
(34:29):
these events. It felt like it definitely like it. And
I can see from the again, like comic CON's perspective,
they're like great free advertising.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
We want to prioritize that, but.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
Also think about the fact that it's like the people
that you're making money from, people that are paying you
to be there, they need to be having a good
time too, Like it is a supplying demand issue and
like you're gonna start losing customers if you let that
slide for the sake of Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Again, like a bunch of TikTokers. Not saying that.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
To TikTokers again, no disrespect, but like we're all here
for the same thing.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
Let people enjoy this, Like, don't just turn it into.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Shocking comic con of all things can turn into a
capitalist hellscape.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Who would have thought?
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Is it still at the Surprise Prise Javits Center?
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Dam it's gonna yeah, yeah, which have you been there?
It's a huge space, fun story.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
I actually the first time that I went to that
convention center was getting my COVID nineteen shot because I
had like the whole like National Guard set up there.
So every year it's kind of funny where I'm like, oh, yeah,
I remember like this entire place being just like filled
with like military dudes, and now it's Captain America.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Yeah, sure, I have a video. I think I mentioned
this last time we talked, but when I was there,
I did a walk through video of the whole thing
dressed as Winter Soldier, and it was content that we posted.
And I'm just trying to envision because that was a
long time ago, and I'm just trying to envision because
I feel like the media space I was in was
(35:59):
pretty small and it was upstairs and then there was
one that was there was one that was downstairs and
that was where you did interviews, and they had like
the backdrop, uh, and you know the media would just
go and interview this poor person over and over again,
but same questions I'm sure every time. But it didn't
feel that big. But it's also kind of an interesting
(36:21):
setup because it's it's long. It's like a the hallway
I remember being like a long walk to get to
the artist alley and then to get to the where
I want to where you want to go buy stuff.
It's kind of a like interesting setup. I suppose.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
Yeah, it is a weird it's a weird setup, and
I get. I mean, I think like going to what
you were saying, obviously a it is always very crowded
and be like.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
This has been a thing.
Speaker 3 (36:46):
I do think there should be like a space for
content creators. I do think there should be a space
for like for staff or press whatever. I think the
way that it was just set up this time was
so poorly done.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
That was the problem. I think it it was a.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
Issue of scale and it is like these are all connected.
If you're going to have more space blocked off for
content creators, you're going to have less space for the
general public. People are going to be upset about the
fact that they're all kind of because again, I'm used
to it being crowded, especially Saturday, it is usually like
very very crowded.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
That was the worst I've ever seen it.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
Like there were points on Saturday where like I literally
was just like I cannot move, Like I'm stuck on
the show floor and I'm just waiting for there to
be an opening for maybe.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
To be able to walk out.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
So I don't know, I get Yeah, And again, I
think I think it is worth like pointing out the
fact that it was something that I saw so many
complaints about. It's like, clearly there was something different this
year that was frustrating.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Yeah, Because again I mean.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
Like the show floor obviously super crowded as well. I
think that also, And again I mean I think this
is something that who knows what the solution is. Wasn't
the best organized things were. It was a little bit
hard to find things. I think they tried to spread
out some of the things that people they knew people
like there was the big like Marvel set up and
the big DC setup that we're on like opposite sides,
(38:04):
and there was like all these different companies and stuff
that was kind of funny. It was sort of like,
we're we have to separate them, and they were they're
gonna right, you're gonna fight.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
Shout out to I friend of the pod care from
it could happen here is also doing an episode about
Comic Con for that.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Very excited to hear that. I think it's gonna be
much for uh critical in depth.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
But something they pointed out we were walking on on
Sunday that I thought was interesting was they were like,
there's a lot of a lot of the stuff on
the show floor is like Instagram. It's for Instagram, like
it's it's so you can take the picture to post
on Instagram later, which yeah, I was like, that's interesting.
I do kind of wish there was a little bit
more like interactive things. That being said, I did also
drag them through the entire avatar set up to get
(38:49):
a picture with Apa so that I could put that
on the Instagram later. So I gotta get it.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
I can't.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
I can't complain too much because I did also definitely
feed into the the instagramification of everything.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
So yeah, I again I think a lot.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
My main issue is just that I think a lot
of the specific issues about the way the space was
organized that was providable, and that's something that I hope
and again, if they're going to be charging so much
for it next year, that that needs to be fixed.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Otherwise you're going to drive people away.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
It's not fun if you cannot if you literally cannot
do anything because you can't move around right.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Well, surprise, surprise, listeners, it turns out that things did
go off the rails without Samantha here and Joey and
I have a lot more to say about the ways
that cons have progressed, the ways they're backsliding in some areas,
and how that reflects on our society. So much more
to say, in fact, that we're splitting this into two parts,
even though it was originally supposed to just be one episode,
(39:49):
so stay tuned for part two. In the meantime, you
can check out Joey online at pat not Pratt on Instagram,
Hot Topic Dad on TikTok, and you can see their
work on podcasts like Outlaws and There Are No Girls
on the Internet with friend of the Show Brigit Todd,
and on other episodes on this very show, so please
(40:12):
keep an ear out for that and check those things
out if you haven't already. If you would like to
contact us, you can. Our email is Hello at Stuffnever
Told You dot com. We're on Blue Sky at MOLS podcasts,
and we're on Instagram and TikTok at stuff Never Told You.
We're also on YouTube. We have new merchandise at Cotton Bureau,
and we have a book you can get wherever you
(40:33):
get your books. Thanks as always to our super producer Christina,
our executive producer Myra, and yes contributor Joey, and thanks
to you for listening Stuff Never Told You to put
sh my Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
you can check out the ipheart Radio app, Apple podcast,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Stuff Mom Never Told You News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Samantha McVey
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