A tip for New York Comic-Congoers: don't miss the Romanian booth for a look at some of the weirdest, coolest comics being made in the world today. See my piece in Forbes from a few years back on Romania's "otaci." Read the rest

Seen at New York Comic-Con, which I'm presently attending: the forthcoming "Create Your Own Zombie Action Figure" kits, which are available for pre-order, and sport arms, legs, torsos, heads, chest prosthesis, and wardrobe items that you can mix and match to make the perfect zombie toy. The box-art is fantastic -- the whole package stopped at 20 feet and sucked me in. The gentleman working at the booth is also the mad genius behind the reissue of the classic Mego action figures, which include a number of contrafactual toys that were never released but should have been, "re-created" with pitch-perfect packaging and design.

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Seen at New York Comic-Con, which I'm presently attending: Yaya Han's hand-cut foam cosplay wings, which come in a variety of styles, including devil, fairy, angel, cherub and steampunk. They're darned cute, and I bought a set of batwing devil versions for my daughter. Read the rest

Seen at New York Comic-Con, which I'm presently attending: Banana Design's whimsical bare-bones lights, which consist of flickering LEDs set into sweet, cut-out circuit boards that look like candelabras, fireplaces and angler fishes. The 9V battery on the back acts as a stand and stabilizing weight. Read the rest

Seen at New York Comic-Con, which I'm presently attending: Jason Edmiston's "Cereal Monsters" illustration (available as a print) which portrays the Frankenberry family of cereal monsters in the style of Universal classic monsters. Read the rest

Seen at New York Comic-Con, which I'm presently attending: this plea for 500 Jack Kirby fans to kick in $60 each to get a pop-up Jack Kirby museum in a Lower East Side storefront, to be curated by the folks who do the most excellent online Kirby Museum and Research Center Read the rest

Seen at New York Comic-Con, which I'm presently attending, the fabulous, ultra-deluxe gaming tables of Geek Chic, which sport a series of nested, pull-out play-surfaces, drawers, a rail-system for suspending drinks/bins/additional surfaces, erasable acrylic-coated surfaces, and so forth. Shown here is the "Sultan," their top-of-the-range item, but they have a variety of options for smaller homes and budgets. I like their slogan: "Suck it, Swiss Army Knife."

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Seen at New York Comic-Con, which I'm presently attending: illustrator Pat Dorian's excellent t-shirts, which took top honors in my personal "t-shirt I would buy if I didn't have about 40 times more t-shirts than I could possibly use" competition. Read the rest