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An iFanboy guide to Surviving Comic Con

By Scott A. Rosenberg | scott.rosenberg@am-ny.com

6:47 PM EDT, April 15, 2008

In just two days, the elite of the comic book world descend upon New York for the third New York Comic Con, a mass celebration of the visual-storytelling medium.

As the convention inches closer and closer to the magnitude of the San Diego convention -- which gets in the ballpark of 125,000 people through the door -- you need to prepare for this event.

New Yorkers Josh Flanagan and Conor Kilpatrick are two convention veterans, and they also happen to be two-thirds of the comic book discussion site iFanboy.com, where they offer reviews, message boards, a weekly audio podcast and daily video podcasts.

Flanagan and Kilpatrick, along with their West Coast counterpart Ron Richards, have hit the con circuit pretty hard for the past couple of years and have learned a lot about traversing the crowded aisles -- and they'll be right alongside you on the con floor, interviewing people for an upcoming video show.

"Literally, I'd plan like I was going on a day hike," Flanagan says. "Get one of those backpacks that is easily balanced and you can keep water bottles in. Bring fruit. It will really help you in the long run; otherwise, you're just buying $8 pretzels."

The con will be filled with massive booths from publishers and film studios, dealers with miles of comics, toys, statutes and other ephemera.

One of the major selling points of a convention of this size is that you can meet so many of the creators.

"A guy like Rick Remender, he'll talk your ear off no matter who you are," Kilpatrick says about the up-and-coming comic writer. "You can't go to a film convention and talk to Martin Scorsese for an hour, but you can go to comic con and talk to the equivalent of Martin Scorsese for an hour."

If there is a Scorsese-type in the industry, it is probably Grant Morrison. The writer is currently working on "Batman," and will be helming DC Comics' major event book for the upcoming months, "Final Crisis."

"He's a true comic book rock star," Kilpatrick says. "Anybody who wants to really experience a mind unlike most others writing comics would probably do well to go to the Grant Morrison panel."

Besides Morrison, attendees can also hear from Stan Lee, Frank Miller and Neil Gaiman as well as some Hollywood stars plugging their movies, like the cast of "Hellboy 2: The Golden Army."

There is a colorful mix of people who will be roaming the con, but the most noticeable are probably the fans who go the extra mile and dress up as their favorite characters.

"I really like the costume people," Flanagan says. "They can be made fun of because they're such easy targets, but those are the people who are like, 'We really like to do this and this is when we get together and do our thing.' You'll see more of it this year, and more bikini slave Leias. God bless them."

A con is usually a fun time, but it's also unwieldy. The iFanboys have one last piece of advice for anyone braving the event.

"Hit the bathroom early in the day if you have to," Flanagan says. "Because by the end of the day, all hell has broken loose."

The New York Comic Con is at the Javits Center Friday through Sunday.
Time: Friday: 3 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tickets: Weekend passes are $45, Friday and Sunday passes are $30 each and Saturday passes are $35.
655 W. 34th St., www.nycomiccon.com