New York Comic-Con, the gathering of all things geek, sci-fi/fantasy, comic books, and action figures, has hit the East Coast, as the Jacob Javits Center in New York City is hosting the convention all weekend. You can see our photos of Friday night’s coverage here below.

While certainly not as big as the convention held annually in San Diego (which is generally considered the archetype mecca of geek conventions), the NYCC has its share of zealous minions who congregate in the large glass and steel edifice that is the Javits Center, milling and moiling around its carpeted floors, checking out its voluminous amount of booths filled with sci-fi/fantasy arcana, figurines, T-shirts, original and reproduced artwork, comics books dating back to the Silver Age, and the artists, writers, and creators of said minutiae. But without question, one of the coolest appeals of the entire convention has to be the scores of fanboys and fangirls, just regular Joes and Janes, decked out in costumes of their favorite superheroes, ranging from dollar store versions to authentic, mindblowing replicas of the genuine articles.

Some highlights of Friday’s festivities included glimpses of the famed Batmobile, replete from the campy, original 1960s TV show Batman; the time traveling plutonium-run Delorean from the Back to the Future trilogy, and even The Mystery Machine from the teeny detective clan cartoon Scooby-Doo. Art and sculpture ranged from original prints from Mad Magazine covers that dealt with the superhero genre, a standout being the Mort Drucker-illustrated “Bats Man” which graced the cover of a 1960s issue; a large, hulking, wonderfully detailed humongous God of War statue; and knock-out art from local NYC artist Issa Ibrahim who turned the superhero fantasy genre on its ear and inside out and back again with his portraits of many seminal heroes of the genre, but with a more humanistic and highly creative bent included within its canvas.

Artists Alley sported many fine illustrators of comic and graphic novels and tomes: Menton J. Matthews III, best known for Monocite and Flood44 and the writer of the aforementioned titles Kasra Ghanbari; independent artist Horatiu Radoiu who we met via happenstance at a table and is a superb budding artist/writer; colorist Jeff Balke, and finally Brooklyn-based artist Michael Mongello, all of whom had some knock-out work which stood out in a room full of talented individuals.

Key fan costumes included a well physically rendered Boba Fett and Slave Princess Leia; the engineer from Ridley Scott’s sci-fi Prometheus; a female Loki and Thor; a Greatest American Hero who even sported the curly locks like William Katt (who played the original GAH on TV) did; a surreal Stormtrooper wearing a corset and wings which had to be seen to be believed; and a gentleman in a Boba Fett mask known as the Renegade Accordionist, who braved the oncoming autumn weather, playing songs outside the Convention Center on 34th Street and 11th Avenue.

But surely, the highlights had to have been us meeting Twister Sister’s front man, the enigmatic Dee Snider, who yours truly Stoogeypedia got to take a picture with and I even wound up snapping a few photos of our very own Dave3 with one of his heroes, artist extraordinaire Ben Templesmith. You can see those photos and plenty more here below. More to come from NYCC 2012 soon!

Photo Gallery

Photos by Dave3.