The biggest news out of an otherwise gaming-light New York Comic Con this year was when Steve Jackson Games announced their agreement to license the recent hit Image Comics book, Skullkickers. Naturally, we had to catch up with company COO Phil Reed, who was in attendance, to get his thoughts. Check out our video highlights below to find out what's new with Steve Jackson Games.

By Elizabeth Keenan

What comic character would you bring to the anti-prom, New York’s LGBT prom alternative?

For comic writer Ivan Velez, Jr., the answer is Colossus, that well built wall of muscle. Prism Comics’ Zan Christiansen would bring Captain America—“a nice, wholesome boy my family could be proud of.” Marvel editor Daniel Ketchum would pair with Cypher of the New Mutants. And manga writer Rica Takashima would take Bubbles from the PowerPuff Girls.

Moderator Chris Shoemaker’s opening question set the tone for the New York Comic Con panel on LGBT characters in comics. The question is a joke—kind of. But it points to a greater presence of LGBT characters in comics (hello, Ultimate Universe Colossus) and to the growing number of LGBT comics readers (the panel itself had a standing-room overflow).

Last year, the tragic death of Tyler Clementi inspired the “It Gets Better Project,” a collection of video testimonials focusing on reaching LGBT teens, who are at much higher risk for suicide than straight teens. The “It Gets Better—with Comics!” panel ranged from serious topics such as representation of queer identity in comics, reaching at-risk teens, and the difficulty of striking a line between LGBT advocacy and reaching a traditional comics audience, but it also offered hope for helping LGBT youth through comics.

Panelists first tackled the issue of LGBT representation in comics, a potential minefield of issues. For example, is a flamboyant character representative of gay culture, or a stereotype? Read more...

Tags Ivan Velez, Jr., LGBT, NYCC, Prism Comics

By Gregg Sanderson

Not many people are lucky enough to be around for their 98th birthday. Fewer still can say they've had the cultural impact of co-creating Captain America, the four-color symbol of liberty and the best that Americanism represents. Luckily for us all, Joe Simon can claim both!

Just a few days after Joe was blessed enough to have his 98-candle birthday cake, comic book fans were treated to his appearance at New York Comic Con. The purpose of the panel was to hear Joe reminisce about his career, on the heels of his well-received autobiography released earlier this year, Joe Simon: My Life in Comics: The Illustrated Autobiography of Joe Simon.

With ninety minutes to go before New York Comic Con closed its doors until next year, there wasn’t a lot of time to pack eager attendees brains full of info about the latest comic book news. But Marvel managed to close it all out in style, with a jam packed hour of info on their popular X-Men books… Which, as frequent readers of this site will know, are due for a relaunch this very month.

Just a bit of background before we start: the mini-series event X-Men: Schism left the Merry Mutants split in two, half following Cyclops (the militant half), and half following Wolverine (who was reopening the school side of mutant-dom). That means all new titles, like Wolverine and The X-Men #1 by Jason Aaron, and Uncanny X-Men #1 by Kieron Gillen. But it also means new teams on pretty much all of the X-Men titles…. So naturally, you can expect there were some concerns from fans, some exciting announcements, and a several panel attendees developing secondary mutations. True story! Read more...

Tags Marvel Comics, NYCC, X-Men

At New York Comic Con, Mattel made their presence known by using their biggest fan-based action figure line: Masters of the Universe Classics! It's well documented that we LOVE these toys, so naturally we were sitting front and center (well, more to the right and with some of our fellow toy bloggers) for any and all announcements regarding He-Man and his cohorts. However, with Mattel's recent announcements at this year's Power-Con, there wasn't a ton of newness for readers of Geek, but we still scored info on 2 new figures and some of Mattel's SDCC plans for next year.

Read more...

Tags 2011 New York Comic Con, Horde Prime, Masters of the Universe Classics, Mattel, MOTUC, mtv, MTV Geek, NYCC, Snake Man-At-Arms, toy reveals

By Jamila Rowser from Girl Gone Geek

On Friday, during the often forgotten about New York Anime Festival part of New York Comic Con, Aniplex of America presented Blue Exorcist/Ao no Exorcist. The anime series is directed by Tensai Okamura and based on the manga by Kazue Kato. The Executive Producer of Blue Exorcist, Hideo Katsumata, was in attendance and introduced the first two episodes to the room joined by two cosplaying Blue Exorcist fans. Basically, the main character Rin wants to “beat the sh*t out of Satan.” It should be self-explanatory --however it’s also a bit complicated so let me explain.

Blue Exorcistis about Rin Okumura, an insanely strong teenager with a lot of bad luck, and who unbeknownst to him, is the spawn of Satan. Literally.Talk about daddy issues! Rin also has a twin brother, and you probably already guessed it, his twin Yukio is his polar opposite. He’s smarter (if the glasses didn’t tell you that already), great at sports, plans on being a doctor, the works. To make things more complicated for demon-human Rin, an exorcist priest Shiro Fujimoto raised him. When Rin discovers who his biological father is, he vows to go against his true hellish nature and become an exorcist. Read more...

Tags Anime, Aniplex, Blue Exorcist, Girl Gone Geek, NYCC

Cosplayers as Voltron and Bumblebee from The Transformers at New York Comic Con

Some fan costumes are HUGE -- the ones in this collection of photos we took at New York Comic Con 2011 barely fit in our studio, with heads (and helmets) scraping against the ceiling. Let's give a hand to those brave cosplayers who totally go there -- and apparently have no fear of heights! Read more...

Tags cosplay, Costumes, NYCC, Transformers, Voltron