Nerd in the City Beautiful

Lessons I Learned from NY Comic Con 2011

Lesson 3: I’m not the only Lady Nerd out there!!!

Marvel‘s: Women of Marvel panel was truly excellent!! The panel consisted of Sara Pichelli (@sara_pichelli,) Marjorie Liu (@marjoriemliu,) Jeanine Schaefer (@j9schaefer,) Kelly Sue DeConnick (@kellysue,) Sana Amanat (@miniB622,) and Lauren Sankovitch (@PancakeLady.) Sorry if I missed anyone.

They tackled topics such as gender discriminations in the work place, the traditional objectification of women in comic books and how they handle the day to day awesomeness of working in the comic book industry.

Long has the comic book industry and the sci fi genre alike been thought of as ‘Boy’s Clubs.’ The idea that women can read comic books and enjoy sci fi, but not be fluent in geek speak is still a persistent mind set even today.

It was so refreshing to hear smart, talented, successful women share in their love of all things Geek and talk about the troubles or lack there of in breaking into that ‘Boy’s club.’

One audience member told of when she was younger, growing up with brothers, they would always make her play April from TMNT. It was like hearing my own story. I was April. I was Kimberly Hart, the Pink Power Ranger. I was Princess Leia. I was GI Joe’s girlfriend. Sure I enjoy being girly on occasion. But to tell you the truth, my favorite Ranger was Tommy, the White Ranger. And I would’ve much preferred to be Raphael from TMNT, he uses sais for Pete’s sake!!

Not many of my girlfriends up here in New York are Lady Nerds like me. I usually have to talk with the boys about the new Avengers movie. Or about the release of The Old Republic. These women gave me hope and showed me that no… I’m not alone in the nerdiverse and in actuality, if we wanted to, Lady Nerds could rule the world!! Sign me up!

100_3522 — A group of Power Rangers with Oscar the Grouch.

100_3555 — The Avengers booth was consistently packed.

100_3549 — The line was too long for me to sample the game, but I can't wait!

Lessons I Learned from NY Comic Con 2011

Lesson 2: Leave your inhibitions at the door

Whether it’s wand dueling, puppet construction, the costume contest or a Just Dance exhibit, convention activities are endless. There’s no use getting embarrassed! We’re all the same here.

From comic book fans to movie fans. From avid readers to devoted gamers. A nerd is a nerd is a nerd. And if you can’t embrace it among like-minded people then there’s really no hope for you!

So let your geek flag fly free and proud.

100_3516 — Costume Contest at the Hasbro stage

100_3481 — Pikachu and Venom moving too fast for film

100_3482 — More dancing, nerds love to dance!

Lessons I Learned from NY Comic Con 2011

Lesson 1: “There’s always a bigger fish”

In my head I’m pretty much the biggest geek ever. I mean I own a lightsaber, I’ve been to 3 Star Wars conventions and I can quote the entire original trilogy word for word. Yeah… it’s safe to say that I’m a nerd and proud of it.

But I am inevitably out-geeked time and time again and it continues to baffle me. Weirdly enough.

At the midnight showing of The Phantom Menace, I wasn’t first in line like I had planned to be. I definitely didn’t get my tickets fast enough got that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book release party. And at NY Comic Con, I was consistently behind 30+ people for every panel I wasn’t interested in. Qui-Gon had it right “There’s always a bigger fish.”