Highlights and fans from day three of New York Comic-Con. Photos by Dylan Moroses.

Dylan Moroses
Reporter

The Big Apple was full of Spider-Mans, X-Men, Batmans and a smorgasbord of comic book heroes and characters for New York City’s Comic-Con on Oct. 11-14.

Comic-Con is a series of conventions across the nation that promote everything from comics to video games to collectible action figures and trading cards. The largest Comic-Con event takes place during the summer in San Diego. But New York Comic Con has become a close second in attendance and prominence in the comic realm.

The event attracted huge video game developers and comic book powerhouses. Fans could get autographs from their favorite artists and authors, try out the latest technology and games and participate in contests and competitions.

There were various booths and stations scattered throughout the Javitz Center and  staggering numbers of attendees dressed up as their favorite characters from movies, games and comics. Patrick Birmingham, a fan who created his own steampunk character Captain Marcus, sported one of the most elaborate costumes on display at New York Comic-Con.

“My girlfriend and I worked on sewing the coat,” he said. “Almost everything on it we made, or at least got parts and put it together. So in total, I’d say about a year’s worth of work to get the whole thing together.”

Birmingham had been to other comic events, but this was his first time at Comic-Con.

The most notable events included a question and answer session with the entire cast of the AMC smash hit “The Walking Dead,” an autographing session with the creator of Marvel- Stan Lee, a book signing with WWE superstar Booker T, as well as a costume contest that was held each day of the convention.

Comic-Con also provides a venue for smaller comic book companies and game developers to receive publicity and promote their unique products.

A man known as Captain Coagula was promoting his self-titled 3-D graphic novel. Coagula said the event is an excellent venue for exposure of smaller scale comic books and entertainment.

“I don’t know of a better venue to do it, otherwise you get involved with agents,” he said. “I’m just trying to do it myself. I’m just trying to get discovered. It’s certainly not the conventional way, but the conventional way seems too difficult.”

“Captain Coagula is about a pirate vampire, that’s it,” he said. “And it takes place in the historical context of the mid 1600s. So, he meets with Charles II, Louis XIV. He participates in some of the events of that era.”

Along with small developers and authors, an abundance of small art institutions and game developing colleges were also at Comic-Con to attract students.

Josh Brannen and Madeleine Erhartt were on the main floor of New York Comic-Con near the much larger Square-Enix exhibit to attract attendees and promote the Academy of Interactive Entertainment (AIE).

AIE is a 2-year college with classes in game art, design and programming, among other fields of graphic design and game development, according to Erhartt.

“There are a lot of high school students that come here so we try and push for them,” Brannen said. “Even if they’re not in high school, we try to get them interested in the college to either expand their education or to get a second education in some specialty like game art design.”

Though they haven’t had much luck at Comic-Con events, Erhartt and Brannen said they have had success at other entertainment conventions such as PAX events. PAX is a series of entertainment conventions much like Comic-Con.

At the end of the weekend, ghouls, jedi, superheroes, anime and other characters filed out of New York Comic-Con Sunday evening after a packed four days of entertainment extravaganza.