On a solo New York Comic Con panel this past Friday, Paul Reubens shared wonderful stories from his prolific career, prompted by questions from fans in the audience. One fan asked if Paul had any favorite moments working with Tim Burton, and that got him talking about how Pee-wee's Big Adventure became Burton's directorial debut (starts at 8:57). It's a long story, as he admits, but ultimately a real Hollywood fairytale. Shelley Duvall plays a part in the story, as does Maryedith Burrell. Sly Stallone plays a part too but may just now be finding out his influential role. As Paul tells it, back in the day, he offered Warner Bros. "150 to 200" names of working directors to choose from, they declined all but one. He was disappointed in their choice and stalled in the hopes of getting a better one.

"I had just worked like 10 years to get to the point where I'm sitting in Warner Bros. office with the presidents... and I have the opportunity to make a movie, and that's like the wrong director. That's not the right director. And I was completely inspired... and I don't think he knows to this day that he was such a strong inspiration... I was, at the time, completely inspired by Sylvester Stallone because, I'm not kidding, you probably... know this story, maybe some of you don't... Sylvester Stallone, when he made Rocky, very famously said 'no' to every single opportunity... that didn't include him starring in it.

Tired: cosplaying the carpet at Dragoncon (even if you do get bonus points for attracting spurious copyright threats from the venue!); Wired: cosplaying the venue itself!. (via Neatorama) Read the rest

On Saturday at New York Comic-Con, Marvel was scheduled to do a splashy launch event announcing the crossover between the Avengers and Northrop Grumman, a notorious arms dealer whose stealth bombers and drones have been front and center in the US campaigns of assassination in many theaters of war, declared and undeclared, in which literally uncounted civilians have been collateral damage. Read the rest

Backers of the Rocky Horror Saved My Life documentary post-production effort can one of these beautiful posters for a $20 contribution. I saw them in person today at New York Comic-Con and they're gorgeous. Read the rest

One of the highlights of each New York Comic-Con for me is seeing the latest gaffs and replicas from the Gemini Company (previously) -- this year's highlight was the $400 "Bengal Boy" conjoined skull gaff, shown here. Read the rest

Spotted today at New York Comic-Con, the wonderful, ghastly tees of Vertebrae 33: Third Eye Frankenstein, Nyarlathotep, and Cthulhu.

Vertebrae33

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Boing Boing reader Michael Matise shot some wonderful photographs of miniatures and models at New York Comic-Con 2013, and shared them in the Boing Boing Flickr Pool. A few are below. Here's the whole set. Michael tells us more about the photos below. Read the rest

Luminaries such as Sylvester Stallone and Signorney Weaver charge hundreds, but the thing that gets me are the nickel-and-dime (or, rather, $20) options you can have around it. $5 for a smile! Props to David Duchovny for having a nice flat rate...even if it is $80. [Gawker] Read the rest

Dave from the Electronic Frontier Foundation sez, "What we don't want to see is massive tracking using RFID chips (or any other easily trackable or hackable technology) in badges, whether that's real-time tracking or requiring check-ins at every panel entrance. Obviously, these are very public events and an attendee can't expect a lot of privacy -- they're likely to pop up in the background of hundreds of photographs posted to social media. At the same time, there is a certain anonymity in crowds, and it's an anonymity built into the culture of cons." Read the rest

This weekend, we hopped into the car and made the 6-hour trip to New York to check out its fast-growing Comic-Con. Since its founding in 2006, explosive growth now makes New York Comic-Con one of the largest such events in the country. Even the mighty Javits Center in Manhattan could hardly contain the throng, estimated at more than 120,000 over four days. Here, Superman and Batman consult the useless maps provided in the convention guidebook. Photo: Rob Beschizza Read the rest

Attendees at New York Comic-Con were required to register their new, RFID-bugged badges online, in a process that encouraged them to link them to their Twitter accounts. Little did they suspect that NYCC would use their signups to send tweets from attendees' Twitter accounts, in a loose, conversational style ("So much pop culture to digest! Can't. handle. the. awesome."), linking back to NYCC's website, without any indication that they were spam. I'm reasonably certain that the fine-print on the NYCC signup gave them permission to do this stupid thing, and I'm also certain that almost no one read the fine-print, and that rather a large number of attendees objected strenuously to having their Twitter accounts used to shill for a service that they were already paying a large sum to enjoy. Read the rest

A late addition to my New York Comic-Con posts: the Lulubell/Velocitron Decapitated Heads, which I knew I loved from the moment I clapped eyes on 'em.

Decapitated Head - NYCC GID/blue rub Read the rest

We've covered Jason Edmiston's genius monster illos here before, but this one deserves special attention. His "Monster Mash" comes from an alternate universe where Doctor Frankenstein has gotten a little enthusiastic with the needle. It's ghoulishly delightful. Spotted today at New York Comic-Con. $60 for a giclee print.

Dr. Frankenstein has been working on a little project in his free time. Much like Voltron, the big Universal 4 come together to make the ultimate creature. Mwah-ha-ha-haa!!!

Limited edition of 100, signed and numbered 17" x 22" giclee print, with archival inks on acid-free paper.

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Spotted today at New York Comic-Con, "THE 17,000 SINS OF SKELE-GORE" from Scarecrow Oven. Sadly, it is sold out. Let us hope for a restock.

THE 17,000 SINS OF SKELE-GORE Read the rest

John Weisgerber's Gemini Company sells handmade replicas of sideshow gaffs, including Fiji Mermaids, shrunken heads, two-headed baby skeletons, and other essentials. I saw these up close and personal today at New York Comic-Con and they look good.

Gemini Company

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Some post-steampunk ideas I had at yesterday's preview screening of Vintage Tomorrows (a documentary on steampunk and its relationship to technology), premised on the idea that new movements will simply subtract letters:

* Teampunks: dress like athletes * Eamespunks: design chairs * M-punks: use mobile devices * Punkpunks: inhabit a notional contrafactual alternate history where Malcolm McLaren is responsible for all technological innovation after 1977 Read the rest

Another find from New York Comic-Con: this epic Star Wars snark tee from Joel Watson, creator of Hijinks Ensue, a most excellent webcomic. Read the rest