Geico No-Go: Franchise Frustration at NY Comic Con 2014

Details

Parent Category: Expos and Conventions

Category: Reviews

Published on Tuesday, 09 December 2014 15:34

Written by Eric Lurio

©GEICO

I was amazed and angry. I know that at the New York Comic Con, there would be soft-core porn, bad Once Upon A Time parodies, panels I couldn’t get into and the like. I’ve no problems with that…well I do with the last, but that’s besides the point…. But I’d never expected what I saw on the floor and am still a bit furious. It was the most offensive thing I’ve ever seen at one of these cons with the singular exception of a woman selling “Boys are stupid, let’s hit them with rocks” tee shirts.

This was even worse than the Death of Archie® or the Book of Job action figure with real running sores! It was the GEICO booth.

Now for the full disclosure: I own stock in Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate that owns this insurance company. But just because of that doesn’t mean I like their commercials. I don’t and never have. So when I saw an old fashioned trailer surrounded by cardboard cutouts of their pitch critters, I was incensed. Don’t get me wrong. I know that cartoons and advertising have been hand-in-glove pop culture items since the beginning. Hell, the Yellow Kid pitched cigars in the 19th century! But branding isn’t what this event is about -- at least for me. It’s about the art form.

Cartoons specifically designed only to sell something else isn’t what I think should be at an event like this comic con. The product that is celebrated at such an event is the artwork or the TV show itself, not the advertising that pays for it. This is not about selling automobiles or insurance for automobiles -- it's about the creative impulse behind the work made, the characters developed.  If it was, then goddammit, they would have let Kellogg’s, Quaker Oats and Post Cereals have booths.

Toy companies and the like have been producing comics as promotions for years and years. If you go to YouTube and look at the opening credits for the Huckleberry Hound show, you'll notice that Tony the Tiger and Snap, Crackel and Pop were dancing around with everybody else. Then there was the Linus the Lionhearted show from the mid 1960s, where the Post cereal characters had their own episodes. While that managed to hold on for a while, (it was banned in 1969) activist groups came on it like a ton of bricks. They also destroyed a proposed Chester Cheetah show in 1992.

The question as to whether promotional premiums from fast food places or cereal boxes belong at a comic con is one thing. There didn’t seem to be too many dealers in antique stuff there (although there were people who would appraise your antiques or protect that copy of Superman #3 you have in your safety deposit box), and I don’t think there have been many Adventures of the Hamburgler comic books given away in the past 20 years anyway.

But the things that were supposed to be promoted were the ‘toons, video games, and TV shows, not commercials promoting insurance.The Geico characters are made simply to sell insurance -- there's isn't an innocent element of honest creation in the development of this gecko character or other related Geico concepts; they are just created as a cynical device for the sale of product. Celebrating this with a booth at NYCC is wrong.

Some things are just wrong.

Epic Cookies Emerge at NY Comic Con

Details

Parent Category: Expos and Conventions

Category: Reviews

Published on Tuesday, 15 October 2013 14:49

Written by Renzo Adler

When I went to the 2013 New York Comic Con this year, I knew there would be no shortage of ground to cover, panels to attend, and cosplayers to gawk at. All this running around is enough to tire even the most hearty con-goer. What I didn’t expect was to find a comic, a delicious snack, and an energy boost all at one modest booth.

Einhorn’s Epic Cookies are four delicious cookies, each packed with a fun little comic book, with some surprisingly decent art. It reminds me of the multitude of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle clones from my youth (COW-Boys of Moo Mesa, anyone?), but paired with some great treats that are of a less dubious nature than the old Ninja Turtle Pudding-Pies.

There are four flavors, each represented by it’s own anthropomorphic equine avatar. Houston is a chocolate chip cookie with potato chip pieces mixed in. Cadiz combines marshmallows, crisped rice, and sprinkles. Broxburn is a hearty oatmeal cookie with orange zest, raisins, and chocolate chips. Romsey is a daring combination of peanut butter, maple, and bacon. The cookies are packed with a comic that branches off in a unique path for each character/flavor.

Houston is a classic style chocolate chip cookie, with a soft and chewy body and a pleasant crunch bestowed upon it by the potato chips. The salty/sweet combo may seem strange at first to some, but I noticed that the friends I shared the cookies with still tore through them voraciously. One or two cookies in a bag might be overly salty, but that feels like a trade off for the home-made/organic quality of the cookies. Houston takes a great “classic with a twist” approach and does not disappoint.

You would think that Cadiz would be a gooey cookie, but the sugars in it makes it more brittle and crunchy, which is not unpleasant, just unexpected. It’s taste is slightly reminiscent of Funfetti, but without being overly sweet. I recommend it with a cup of coffee.

Einhorn’s Epic Cookies have a true home made appeal to them. They’re not uniform, and sometimes you might get one slightly singed, but that’s okay. These cookies show genuine care and craft in them, without the cynical attempts at one-up-manship you see in the foodie/culinary elite.

To learn more, go to: http://einhorns-epic-cookies.com

Hood by Air: The Look of The Underground

Details

Parent Category: Expos and Conventions

Category: Reviews

Published on Sunday, 10 February 2013 05:00

Written by Emily Heinz

Early today at Milk's MADE Studio, Hood by Air (headed by Shayne Oliver) premiered their Fall/Winter 2013 collection amongst a crowd of ravenous and eclectic bloggers, reporters, photographers, and editors.

Unlike the high-gloss of the shows premiering at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, Hood by Air took another approach, inviting guests into the large, clean-looking arena that is the MADE studio in the Meatpacking District of NYC. The venue reflected the aura of the show -- post-modern, structural, and unconcerned with the concerns of beauty.

The show opened with an array of lasers and a large white cloud of fog that obscured the models just before they came into view on the runway.

The show was exciting, the energy palpable. The show's theatric leaning added an extra dimension of interest, and differentiated it from the ordinary runway show. 

Watching it, I couldn't help but be reminded of Bernadette Corporation, which operated mostly strongly as a subculture phenomenon in the 1990s, a collective of people entering the fashion world and subverting it from the inside. Shayne Oliver borrows from the aesthetic of 1990s club and streetwear as well, with oversized, deconstructed pieces that look almost as though they are about to fall off the body, but miraculously cling, giving many of the looks the illusion of floating.

A fur hood that might otherwise conjur the idea of luxury, taken here for its own and subverted into something that exhibits strength and a unique taste.

The most striking thing about Hood by Air, though, is its conversation between street, club-kid, thumping underground and high society, and past culture.

Oliver includes accessories that might be seen on a rich woman on Park Avenue, such as a diamond earing or pearl necklace, but the piece is absorbed too by the seemingly haphazard style of everything else. When closely looked at, it becomes evident that these tokens of high society become grounding focal points for structures that are carefully planned out.

The collection involved some pieces with extremely angular arcitechture.

The collection inspires also a sense of the otherworldly, as a few of the models took on their own exterior, creature-like personas and danced, thrashed, and crawled their way down the runway.

The power of the clothing was enhanced by this idea of the near-paranormal, a unique style and attitude exhibited by those in the club scene. At the same time, many of the looks reflected inspirations of dress from ancient cultures.

Some looks included pieces of accessories from high society.

In the end, what this show and this brand really becomes about is power and self-expression without needing to convert to something from the mainstream.

[All Photos by Emily Heinz]