Looking for Photos of Early New York Conventions and Fandom

[aggr1103]

They would have all been alpha geeks if they hung out in my crowd.

 

I have never heard the phrase "alpha geek" used before. I am so using that to differentiate myself from my friends now.

 

And since you mentioned Big Bang, it reminded me of this...

 

 

"I am not some kind of nerd. I am the king of nerds."

 

[TupennyConan]

Alpha geek. Very nice.

[capt_comics]

GREAT thread

[That Ron Dude]

Yes, that alpha geek thing is my own, but there is no copyright on it. Use it with wit and pride.

 

Also, look at aggr1103's picture of the guy from Big Bang. The guy is handsome. He has nice teeth, nice hair and the glasses suit him. The suit suits him too. Now go back a page or so and look at the pictures of the guys at the early New York convention. Look at their clothes, hair, ample tummies and scrawny arms. Now the comic book guys at the con are my brothers. I am of them. The big bang guys are completely cleaned up Hollywood versions and don't represent the true geek at all.

 

Also, I believe the word we used to describe our kind was jerk. The more playful and respectable words geek and nerd were not being used much. I do remember hearing the word geek back then. A friend explained to me that a geek was an otherwise unemployable carnie. He worked in the freak show billed as the Wild Man of Borneo or something like that. His job on stage was to bite the head off a chicken.

 

Thanks for the Kaluta flyer. I have a file of weird Kaluta . I recognize the flyer and I will check to see if I own it. I haven't thought about it in years.

[tangelwood42]

WoW! Whatta thread! Kinda makes you curious what people will say 30 years from now looking at all the massed produced 21st century garbage

[Ringfinger]

When I was 17 I borrowed my brother's car and along with four friends drove from Toronto to New York. This was 1971, pre-Guliani New York. While Toronto was occasionally referred to as "Toronto the Good" New York was the big rotten apple. I had never seen anything like it.

 

Today Steve Martin jokes, "Let's go to Toronto. It's like New York but without all the stuff!" Back then Toronto was Canada's second city, a place where they had just stopped chaining the swings to the supporting bars on Sundays (no joke), primarily anglosaxon where the others were Italian, home of the architectural marvel "The Royal York Hotel" and for most of its life run by Orangemen.

 

New York, both inside and outside of the con hotel, was the strangest thing this poor boy had ever seen. You can watch Midnight Cowboy for New York or Goin' Down the Road for Toronto but you can also look at some of these old shots I took from the internet. This is how I remember the goings on outside the hotel.

 

 

Even back then Toronto had two million people in it. I wasn't hiking in from Iowa. But to me, prostitutes and homosexuals were about as real as pirates. I had never seen a burned out building. A porn film was something that Johnny Carson joked about. Our streets had two lanes, maybe four never six going one way, the black people lived at St.Clair and Bathurst, hippies were just kidding and a really tall building was thirty stories. Also, Toronto stunk, but it stunk like car exhaust. New York stink was unclassifiable.

 

Also, prices were high. We dined, broke fast and brunched at the "Chock Full O' Nuts". I hear that they have been reincarnated as Starbucks.

 

Geeks, which were known as jerks, were me and my friends. Could there have been fifty of us in a high school of 2200? Down in the comic club basement there were 20 of us at a time, once, and it was beyond claustrophobic. The Seuling Con had 500 of us in a room. Goodness (can I say God here?) it was weird.

 

 

You know, I sat through the first season of Big Bang on DVD. The people watching the show have no idea. Those geeks are handsome and witty. They would have all been alpha geeks if they hung out in my crowd. The chick across the hall would have looked like a young Momma Cass and we still would have frozen up asking her for a date.

 

 

Ahh...thats when Times Square was TIMES SQUARE! Not the sanatized tourist trap that it has turned into today...

 

 

Yeah, hate the tourist trap but like that it is cleaner and safer.

[aggr1103]

Also, look at aggr1103's picture of the guy from Big Bang. The guy is handsome. He has nice teeth, nice hair and the glasses suit him. The suit suits him too. Now go back a page or so and look at the pictures of the guys at the early New York convention. Look at their clothes, hair, ample tummies and scrawny arms. Now the comic book guys at the con are my brothers. I am of them. The big bang guys are completely cleaned up Hollywood versions and don't represent the true geek at all.

 

I'm a geek, but I have my limits. Personally I like the new status level you've attributed to us geeks and nerds that are now clean shaven, well-dressed, and have regularly scheduled dental cleanings.

 

You should watch the movie Nerdcore Rising . I think it has interviews with more of the geeks and nerds that would better be described as beta or lambda nerds.

 

And I agree the guys on big bang are not authentic representations of nerds we've all been or known, but I'm sure we can all find that we share similar qualities. I mean, my real name is Howard for crying out loud!

[That Ron Dude]

Is the movie now available? I watched the trailer on youtube. I am going to rotten tomatoes to see what else I can find out.

 

God bless Weird Al.

 

Back from Rotten Tomatoes and here is the review of the 2008 movie:

 

"Born out of the internet, nerdcore hip-hop is a genre of music created by computer-obsessed geeks. In this documentary, filmmaker Negin Farsad explores the musical phenomenon in which rappers boast not about money and cars, but Magic: The Gathering and internet porn addiction. With appearances by such nerdcore mainstays as MC Frontalot and MC Chris, this film offers an entertaining look at a rapidly expanding musical subculture."

[Trev]

Is the movie now available? I watched the trailer on youtube. I am going to rotten tomatoes to see what else I can find out.

 

God bless Weird Al.

 

Back from Rotten Tomatoes and here is the review of the 2008 movie:

 

"Born out of the internet, nerdcore hip-hop is a genre of music created by computer-obsessed geeks. In this documentary, filmmaker Negin Farsad explores the musical phenomenon in which rappers boast not about money and cars, but Magic: The Gathering and internet porn addiction. With appearances by such nerdcore mainstays as MC Frontalot and MC Chris, this film offers an entertaining look at a rapidly expanding musical subculture."

 

I watched it on Netflix streaming, so it is definitely out there.

 

Good movie.

[aggr1103]

Is the movie now available? I watched the trailer on youtube. I am going to rotten tomatoes to see what else I can find out.

 

God bless Weird Al.

 

Back from Rotten Tomatoes and here is the review of the 2008 movie:

 

"Born out of the internet, nerdcore hip-hop is a genre of music created by computer-obsessed geeks. In this documentary, filmmaker Negin Farsad explores the musical phenomenon in which rappers boast not about money and cars, but Magic: The Gathering and internet porn addiction. With appearances by such nerdcore mainstays as MC Frontalot and MC Chris, this film offers an entertaining look at a rapidly expanding musical subculture."

 

In a nutshell, the movie is a documentary following MC Frontalot on his first US tour. Lots of interviews with fans and show attendees. Lots of talk about what it means to be a nerd and how it impacts their lives.

 

I'm a huge Frontalot fan. He is friends with Jhonen Vasquez, who actually did the cover art for his 'Zero Day' album. There is also a zombie in one of the early Walking Dead issues that looks exactly like him. Not sure if Moore drew it as an homage to him or not.