To be Con-tinued

It was the revenge of ... no, the return of New York Comic Con, after obviously going a year without due to the pandemic. The return meant a few things were done a little differently (wearing masks and showing proof of vaccination now de rigeur across most of the land), but it was sure good to have it back any which way but loose. 

When tickets went on sale, there were individual day passes instead of the four-day variants. We were told overall crowd numbers would be down and availability thusly lower, but we scored the two days we wanted -- Friday and Saturday. It did seem like there were fewer people in attendance when we jumped through the hoops and entered the event Friday. On Saturday, the numbers seemed to pick up, but that could just have been a result of us being in certain areas of the Javits Center at certain times. We got many chances to marvel at the new building during the weekend.

As always, buying tickets in advance of the lion's share of guest announcements winds up being something of a gamble, but year after year, we've found it's more about the experience for the Sestras. Something we were reallly interested in did pop up in the panels -- Ghostbusters: Afterlife -- with director Jason Reitman and cast members in attendance.

I was excited about the chance for a photo op with Adam Savage, so I signed on for that before there were designated times. With the release of the panels list came a new system for getting those reservations on a first-come, first-served basis. The thing that was a bit of a struggle was that each adult had to log onto the system -- a really buggy one that did not work the way it was supposed to -- with a code sent to that person's email. So I couldn't get two for me and Sestra at the same time, I had to get one and then she had to get one.

But we did score the Ghostbusters reservations, and I added the Adam Savage panel and a couple of others for future consideration. There were two other panels I was interested in -- NASA's space technology and MTV's 40th anniversary -- but those were in smaller rooms and didn't require using the needlessly complex system.

For the first time ever, the signings and other photo ops didn't call much to either of us, this was the first NYCC in which I only did one celeb photo and no signings. We might have done more if there wasn't a plexiglass separation between the stars and the fans that made it seem like we were in different zip codes. (The Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell combo op springs immediately to mind.)

But that's not really a complaint, because there was still much fun to be had. My con began with the Savage panel, which started with a slide show of how he spent his quarantine time in San Francisco. He declared himself to be not a good enough machinist to do some of the building he did, although he was good enough to get his projects across the finish line. His favorite (and mine) was a spacesuit, complete with cooling systems.

In the slide show was a photo of Adam at a different convention with Robert Patrick. He recounted the experience of our favorite replacement X-Files agent yelling to him, "Come over here! What's that hat?" In their slide show photo, Robert's wearing the hat. Savage has an affinity for quick stories. When asked about his death scene in The Expanse, he said, "I want this whole career in television where I die on people's TV sets."

So many young people who have been influenced by Adam and his work went to the microphones during the Q&A period. He made sure to ask of them, "Your childhood home is still standing?" All the answers came in the affirmative. And Savage got understandably emotional when asked how people could best pay tribute to his late Mythbusters co-host Grant Imahara. Adam recommended parents giving teachers $20 or whatever they could afford since teachers are buying school supplies with their own money, and also just to put the tools of interest in front of children.

That was a recurring theme in my second panel of the day too, NASA's Explore Space Tech with astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, roboticist Zaykia Tomlinson, space technologist Lindsay Aitchison and moderator Aubree Hill. It may have seemed like it was a "women in space" panel, but Moghbeli hit the proverbial nail on the head when she said they were there because they were four experts in their fields and not because they were four women.

All of them recalled dreaming of working for NASA from very early ages. Jasmin did a book report on Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, in the sixth grade. Zaykia wanted to be an aerospace engineer even though she didn't know what that meant, and having toured Johnson Space Center at age 4, Lindsay was fascinated by the prospect of catching up to the M&M's she saw floating in space in an exhibit.

What came next was figuring out where each of them fit into the puzzle. Aitchison's work focuses on designing spacesuits to work better. "It really is a personal spacecraft," she said. I truly had never thought of it that way. Moghbeli, considered the potential future face of space exploration, appreciates how every day in the life of an astronaut is different. Her future moon mission will help set the stage for the eventual trek to Mars. And Tomlinson eventually did realize the perfect field for her was robotics.

The panel was asked what representations of space in movies or TV make them shake their heads. Lindsay offered up spacewalks, when people return without even breaking a sweat. Jasmin pointed out something similar when people push off of a ship and heroically grab onto something. (The Martian and Gravity sprung immediately to mind for me.) And Zaykia made the packed house laugh by simply saying, "I usually just tell myself orbital mechanics is a tough subject. I just let it go."

So conversely, what movies or TV series have gotten it right? Moghbeli immediately thought of Apollo 13 and related it to life at the International Space Station. She thought the movie drives home the point of dealing with challenges constantly in space, and how the team on the ground is every bit as involved in the process and the problem solving. Tomlinson picked From the Earth to the Moon for its attention to detail, and Aitchison specifically noted that mini-series' episode "Spider" about the development of the lunar module.

As I previously mentioned, the panelists were asked about engaging young minds -- and the discussion was capped specifically with a 4-year-old dressed as a fairy whose dream is to ride a rocket to the moon. Zaykia recommended Legos, Jasmin pointed out that anything hands-on helps children learn math and physics because they see it in action, and Lindsay added parents can play a big part by trying things out, taking things apart and putting them back together. In that situation, failure is an option because it's about discovering what makes things tick.

Not all panels got me as fired up. MTV's 40th anniversary panel joined my collection of yawners (MegaCon's Smallville and NYCC's Elementary have been the other two most notable entries to date.) As someone who watched the channel day and night the moment I found out we had it, I was looking forward to that discussion with co-creator John Sykes, director Tim Newman (Randy's cousin whose projects included the famed ZZ Top videos), former veejay Karen Duffy and Naughty by Nature's Vin Rock. The sparsely attended panel didn't provide nearly as much insight as the average episode of Pop-Up Video (also created by Sykes).

While I was in one of the panels, Sestra ran across the Shark Angels' table in the vendor room. The conservationist group came up with a unique idea of donations through stuffed shark adoptions. They had a trivia contest later in the day, although it was less about the things I might have known -- actual sharks and Jaws -- and more about Sharknado-type movies. We finished out of the prizes on Friday. I was incredulous, but not bummed, because I'm kind of glad I don't know how many insert-number-here-shark-headed movies have been made.

After walking the vendor room for a couple hours, it was finally time for the Ghostbusters: Afterlife panel. They had a full house on stage and off. Director Jason Reitman, Ivan Reitman (Jason's father, the director of the original movies and producer of this one), co-writer Gil Kenan, Mckenna Grace (Phoebe), Finn Wolfhard (Trevor), Carrie Coon (Callie), Logan Kim (Podcast) and Celeste O'Connor (Lucky) were on hand to talk about the experience.

Jason Reitman recalled initially having a couple of ideas in mind -- a girl in a field putting on a proton pack and a boy driving the Ecto through those fields. He didn't know who they were until beloved Harold Ramis passed and he knew those characters were the Spenglers. 

Mckenna, who played the girl in the field, laughed that her own grandmother didn't recognize her in the movie trailer. And Finn recounted knowing he was auditioning for a Jason Reitman movie, but without any idea it was Ghostbusters. He marveled at Logan, the newcomer who apparently showed up on the set like it was his 70th movie. 

Life on the set was interesting for the Reitmans. "On the set, you can't say, "Daaaaaad!" Jason said of his more animated discussions with Ivan during production. "It's like having your dad coming to work with you and commenting on everything you do."

The pandemic delayed the release of the long-awaited film and the cast marveled at the changes following in that wake. Grace noted the change in Kim's voice and Coon -- one of our favorites from The Leftovers -- recalled her baby was just learning to talk during filming. Now that child is 3 1/2 years old and she has a new 13-week-old baby.

Even before the release of the movie, people have been curious about whether Jason Reitman will be making another one. He had his answer at the ready. "We wanted to make a movie that opened the universe up to all kinds of stories," Jason said, who added he'd rather see more Ghostbusters films developed by his favorite directors.

And then the big surprise. They were going to show us the new movie about six weeks in advance of its official release. Everyone went wild! When we signed up for the panel, the reservation blocked out a long period of time and we wondered whether we would be getting to see it. But the next day, a time correction was made to an hour-long panel. So the screening obviously had been in the works. We were all sworn to secrecy about details of the film, but sufficeth to say, it lives up to sky-high expectations. The Reitmans and company did right by the originals. I can't wait to see it again.

After releasing reservations on two panels, we didn't have anything on the boards Saturday except visiting the NASA booth again (we found it too late the first day), my Savage photo op and another attempt at the shark trivia. That left us time to people watch, and we ran into my favorite cosplayer of the con -- a sad Jaws shark, although its portrayer was an ebullient young woman somehow maneuvering around on an injured fin. One of the unexpectedly funny moments was watching people pluck lanyards from the bin near the entrance way. Some took great care with picking them up like a game of Pick-Up Sticks. And some ... not so much, there were wayward lanyards on the ground nearby. It might not sound as funny as it looked.

I did a lot better at the NASA booth on Day 2, getting the first edition of the new interactive comic "First Woman," an enamel Artemis pin and various pieces of ephemera. Walking through Artist Alley was a lot of fun, because we can go down an aisle filled with an array of bright and interesting images on both sides, and with laser-like precision, Sestra can focus right in on an object I invariably want (for example, a teeny tiny pin celebrating the defunct Universal Studios' Jaws ride). She also found my new favorite booth, Monkey Minion, featuring an ever-increasing collection of pins and magnets for every astronaut. And it's not NYCC if I don't visit with (and pick up a few things from) famed X-Files comic book artist Joe Harris.

The Adam Savage photo op was set to wrap up our con, and while I was doing that, Sestra was going to give the shark trivia another shot. We bet a lot of the celebs weren't too displeased with the plastic barrier, it pretty much prevented anyone talking to them, asking silly questions, etc. during the taking of the pro photos. Basically my moment with Adam amounted to me tapping to him on the plastic and waving. Meanwhile, Sestra finished third in the contest (we had done some prep on the train) and won me some shark pogs.

And with that, our return to New York Comic Con was complete. It wasn't what we had become accustomed to after eight previous events, but it was still chock full of some surprises, great new items for my collection and the much-treasured quality time with my Sestra.