Day 2!
Day two dawned bright and beautiful – it’s always a good day when I wake up in my hometown. We made the trek into the city from Brooklyn excited with expectation that this was the day we would meet Mark Hamill.
A little backstory as I digress, you see, Star Wars is one of my most favorite movies, in the 90’s when there was a resurgence of the universe with the books, I read them religiously, my first ever written piece of fiction was a Star Wars love story featuring one Mr. Luke Skywalker. So yes, I was a tad excited (okay VERY).
Anywho, we made our way into the convention center with that one goal for the day, oh! And our photo op with Jason Isaacs was going to happen that day too! So, color me doubly excited. This was also the day I was going to find John Leguizamo and Darryl McDaniels to get my comics LOL.
As we entered the Javits there was a crowd gathered on the 2nd floor – usually that means there is something phenomenal happening and I was not disappointed. There standing in the center of the crowd was a model in the most amazingly beautiful dress I had EVER seen … just take a look after the jump …
Isn’t that gorgeous?
The dress was handmade by artist Ryan Jude Novelline and it’s called Beyond Blue. The pictures do not do it justice, I was just awed by it, see you can see LOTS more at a comic book convention than comics, anime and sci-fi, like Cars!
We also ran to a panel for the new Voltron animated series on Netflix, of which I am a fan. We got to hear from the creators and acting talent and saw a little bit of what was coming up for the series.
Then it was off to explore a bit before meeting Jason Isaacs. Now let me say if you want time to talk a bit with the performer you want to meet – photo ops are not the place for 
it. They really do usher you in and out, so we didn’t get any meaningful conversations with Mr. Isaacs, it was just nice standing next to Lucius Malfoy for a bit LOL and for some trivia he is also a Star Wars character (He was the voice of the original Inquisitor on Star Wars Rebels) – so I suppose this was our Star Wars photo day.
Afterwards as Charina and Stefi explored the anime section I ran down to Artists Alley to finally meet John Leguizamo, I had heard he was sitting at his table (this after me running around the previous day trying to catch him LOL). His line wasn’t too long and he was in a good mood, I told him I was disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to catch his new Broadway show and he thanked me. Got a quick picture and a comic before I jumped back over to Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez’s line to pick up another comic for my friend Vanessa (which I only just realized is still sitting in my office in an envelope waiting to be mailed GAH!). Beside him was Mr. McDaniels (See I told you they were all together LOL) and so I jumped onto his line to get a comic for my older brother, who was a huge fan, and a quick picture. He was fun as well and said I was a great little sister (I try to tell my brother how lucky he is ALL the time).
Finally, it was time to meet Mark Hamill. Knowing what I know about photo ops, I just wanted to savor the 30 – 45 seconds we breathed the same air. I mean he’s Luke Skywalker, he is one of the most AMAZING Jokers there are. He is legendary. When we walked in I was really surprised to see how upbeat he was. He’s got great energy. You must understand that they corral hundreds & hundreds of people in and out of this space continuously for about 45 minutes to an hour and he did this every day. He had a big grin and asked us who was going to get hugged, which is funny because that was the same thing Carrie Fisher asked us last year. We decided that like last year, Charina’s son, Solon, would get the honor. I quickly jumped to the other side of Mr. Hamill so that I could be as close as possible to him. Then once we were placed around him and ready to take the picture, he leaned back and put his hand on my face ……
Mark Hamill TOUCHED me.
Luke Skywalker, hero of my first (understandably bad) piece of romantic fiction touched me LOL. I know it’s silly, but it was like a little dream come true.
As far as convention moments go, this one was one of the most special for me.
But Comic Con is not only celebrities, we did a lot of people watching as we sipped on our Starbucks coffee. The Cosplayers are always fun to see.
And of course, there are the vendors, if you want it, you can probably find it at one of the booths.
I even snagged a gorgeous pocket watch at a steampunk stand called Steam Aged – they had LOTS of fabulous stuff for sale.
We also met up with friends (Hey Moises! Hiyeee Rhi!), but I didn’t get to see my cousin this time around (There’s always next year though!)
So I think that’s it. At least that’s what I can remember this far afterward. I do highly recommend going to a con if you can, and if it’s run by Reed Pop even better, they do a great job with this one. Now, that I’ve crossed a few “would love to meets” off my list I am hoping that this year I can meet some more.
Have you been to a con? Who have you met? Who would you love to meet? Let me know!
Until Next Time,
Amanda Jayde 