Capes and cowls

Have you seen the new trailer for Spider-Man 3 yet? Awesome, right? Sadly, it won't be hitting theaters till May 2007—but there are plenty of masked marvels at the 2006 Big Apple National Comic Book, Toy, Art and Sci-Fi Convention, which wraps up today.

Saturday saw the Penn Plaza Pavilion packed with retailers, fans, industry types and a swarm of B-list celebs, including Catherine Bach (a.k.a. the original Daisy Duke), cast members from The Warriors and Three's Company's Joyce DeWitt. (The erstwhile Janet Wood is still in the business of show, by the way, having recently starred as Gypsy Rose Lee in the Bucks County Playhouse production of Gypsy.)

The biggest draws for autograph hounds were former Batmans (Batmen?) Adam West and Val Kilmer, the latter of whom was garnering $30 for a signed autograph. West had his diva face on as well—as amateur shutterbugs were sternly warned not to take his picture. Sigh—there goes this year's Christmas card.

Bargain hunters won't be disappointed, though: In anticipation of the holiday shopping season, dealers are slashing prices on graphic novels, DVDs, games, T-shirts and toys. (Though, as a precocious nine-year-old loudly proclaimed when looking at discounted action figures, "The stuff on this wall is $5 because it's all crap!")

Of course the best part of these conventions is the crowd itself, and this weekend's show does not disappoint. Yesterday, fans dressed up like Superman, the Ghostbusters, Princess Leia and imperial stormtroopers (the Star Wars franchise is always well represented). We managed to snap a few shots of some of the more entertaining attendees:

That last one had us giggling like Orko for a full ten minutes. A quick YouTube search revealed Old Skelly is actually quite busy for an evil overlord without a job. Check out his video blog.
The Big Apple National Con runs through 7pm Sun 19 at the Penn Plaza Pavilion, 401 Seventh Ave at 33rd St. Admission is $15.

(photo credit: Hal Miller)