The panels this year have been so good, and Saturday made sure the hits kept comin’. Cartoon Network showed off some upcoming Halloween themed episodes of Adventure Time, Regular Show, and Uncle Grandpa, plus, they premiered the second episode of the upcoming 10 part miniseries, Over The Garden Wall. Adult Swim followed that with a block of panels for Black Dynamite, The Heart, She Holler, and, the big, big one: Mike Tyson Mysteries. It was one hell of a day.

Cartoon Network’s Halloween screening and costume contest kicked off with the contest after a little delay because of some technical difficulties (an Uncle Grandpa cosplayer wound up winning the whole thing, beating out Ice King and Lemongrab). Once we began the shows, we saw Adventure Time‘s Halloween episode, in which Jake kills a fly that tries to eat some soup he made for himself to calm himself down. The fly then haunts Finn and Jake’s house in an attempt to finish the unfinished business he had.

Regular Show continues its tradition of Simpsons “Treehouse of Horror”-esque episodes with separate scary stories starring the cast. Everyone decides one Halloween that the scary stories are played out, and that they should do something else and land on making Muscle Man actually let everyone meet his mom for once. He concedes under the condition that they tell scary stories on the way. Pops tells a story of a hole with teeth in the park that every year, the group sacrifices someone to, because every year since a dense fog appeared, it has kept them alive. Benson tells a story that begins in the middle of Mordecai and Rigby’s funeral service, and continues when the duo haunt the house and the only way to stop it is to fire them once and for all. The episode ends sort of abruptly, so I think what we got to see was maybe not the entire episode– the Regular Show Halloween specials tend to be a half hour, and this was not.

Uncle Grandpa had an episode where some teens tell Uncle Grandpa that despite him being super weird, that he can’t scare them– they’ve seen all there is to see. So, he tries his best, and it’s a disaster that includes a giant brain that feeds on fear.

The Over The Garden Wall premiere was what really made me want to attend this panel. The 10-episode miniseries premieres on Cartoon Network November 3rd at 7PM and will run over five consecutive nights, and stars Elijah Wood. And, oh my god, is it gorgeous. I was stunned right away by how beautiful the show was. The backgrounds, the animation, character models, everything is visually amazing. The kicker there is: it isn’t just visually amazing, it’s just plain amazing. We saw an episode where the two main characters, Wirt and Greg, on their quest back home, stumbling upon a mysterious town in a search for civilization. The town is a dead zone. Nobody is around for miles, but they eventually stumble upon a barn where a group of beings with pumpkin heads and straw bodies are having a cult-like harvest ceremony. The two boys assume they’re all human, but they aren’t, and they refuse to let Wirt and Greg leave the town. This could be your new favorite show. It’s beautiful, it’s amazing musically, the story is great, the acting is brilliant. Over The Garden Wall is going to receive praise, and it deserves every ounce it gets and then some. This is a show you should absolutely not miss. Also, a comic is on its way from KaBOOM! on November 5th to coincide with the show. Watch out for that. We got a preview zine for the comic, and it looks to be as great as the show.

A couple of hours later, Black Dynamite kicked off the Adult Swim panel block. Comedian Hugh Moore moderated a panel of Carl Jones, Michael Jai White, Tommy Davidson, Kym Whitley, Byron Minns, and producer Scott Fuseler. We were treated to an episode from the upcoming second season. In it, on the first-ever first day of Black History Month, everyone in town gathers in Roscoe’s to celebrate and watch the premiere of the old miniseries Roots and they’re all shocked to find out about black slavery somehow for the first time. In response, led by Al Sharpton, they decide to start enslaving white people and selling them like they did to black men and women during the days of slavery. Black Dynamite spends a lot of time figuring out whether or not it’s a good idea or a bad one.

Carl Jones talked about what the show has coming in the second season, including some guest stars that include Samuel L. Jackson, and Melvin Van Peebles. Scott and Carl talked about the writers’ room process, and included that someone had pitched simply “black Jaws” and it wound up in the second season. Michael Jai White said that the cast is currently in development for a new live-action film. He said that Black Dynamite, the film, was part one of what is supposed to be a three part series of blaxploitation films, and that the next will be more in the horror genre. So look for that.

The show returns October 18th at 10:30 PM.

The Heart, She Holler also gave us the gift of a full episode before the panel. In it, Hambrosia and Meemaw have a ton of bizarre interaction about realities, and Hambrosia has a child via surrogate mother Hurshe, but Hurshe decides to keep what ends up being a bizarre giant maggot baby. Meanwhile, Hurlan hunts down some bubbles of crack he made that got away so he can have some confidence. It gets weird, but that isn’t new for this show.

The amazing Jon Glaser moderated the panel, and ushered in the cast by playing the America’s Funniest Home Videos theme song through his phone into the podium microphone. PFFR’s John Lee and Alyson Levy, Amy Sedaris, Scott Adsit, and Judith Roberts were on the panel to discuss season two. Adsit has taken over the role of Sheriff this season from Joseph Sikora, making him the second original cast member to leave. It was a hilarious panel thanks in big part to Jon Glaser, who joked and poked fun at fans, and had the entire panel audience compete with cheers from other panels next door with bigger cheers of their own– one of the cheers was literally “bigger cheer!” (he also had everyone yell “rock hard sweat” at one point because of something that was said during the panel, and told everyone to “shhh” the next panel that cheered loud enough to hear). It was a lot of fun, though a bit sparse with  news, but the show will return December 1st through the 10th, with an episode each night at 12:30 AM.

Finally, Mike Tyson Mysteries took the room, and hoo boy, this panel was a madhouse. When Mike Tyson made it to the panel room, he made it with a massive entourage of security guards and more. When Q&A opened up, people literally sprinted to the microphones, doing a bit of shoving on the way. I’ve never seen anything like it at NYCC before. He was on the panel with Hugh Davidson, and Rachel Ramras, and he understandably stole the show. We saw a new trailer with new content, all of which just as amazing as the stuff in the first trailer Adult Swim released in August. Larry Whitmore of The Daily Show With Jon Stewart moderated the panel, and mentioned that it was an incredible experience for him (though he did have to tell the Q&A lines after three questions about photos with Mike that they couldn’t ask for that or an autograph).

Tyson did most of the talking during the panel, and he was hilarious and at sometimes a little serious. When asked if he liked Scooby-Doo as a younger person, he responded simply that he was “aware of Scooby,” and if you’ve seen the first trailer and remember the clip in which he talks about beating up a Chupacabra, please know: he can’t actually pronounce the word, just like in the clip. That’s all real. When asked to compare boxing to voice acting, he said he approaches it similarly, because with both, he has a fear of failing, and doesn’t want that to happen. A man that came from Palestine just for the opportunity to speak to Mike asked him what message he wanted to convey through entertainment, and it was simple: don’t give up, and find your purpose.

Hugh stated that Tyson is a great person to work with and direct, because in acting, he’s without ego and will pretty much do what he has to. How the show came about is apparently a mystery to everyone, as it was being worked on before it even existed, really. Mike did a record and then asked to redo it to add more enthusiasm.

The first season sounds like it’s going to be amazing. One episode finds Mike has become an accidental serial killer of astronauts. In another, Mike, Yung Hee, Pigeon, and the Marquess of Queensbury find a man murdered, and decide to solve it, bypassing the police. Hugh said it’s more than anything the mystery of why they haven’t just called the police. In some others, Mike helps a couple find their dream home (it’s a mystery!), and helps Cormac McCarthy finish a novel. The pilot episode will be the episode that has Mike fighting a Chupacabra.

Mike Tyson Mysteries will premiere October 27th at 10:30 PM and it will no doubt rule.

Saturday was a big day. The biggest, probably, and now that it’s over, we have one more day to go and our time at the Javits Center will be done with for 2014. It went quick! Cartoon Network will be holding a panel on Sunday about pretty much all of their shows, and then the entire convention will be over with by 5:00 PM. It’s sad, but it’ll be back in a year.

For now, if you’re there, savor that last day. Get those things from the floor and artist alley you said you’d come back to. Scavenge free stuff. See a panel. Take some photos of some cool cosplayers. Take it all in as best you possibly can. If you’re not, keep watching here for news and a wrap-up (and get yourself to the con next October, you’ll love it).

NYCC goes by like a blur. Four days (or less, depending on the pass you buy), and so much happening at once that it’s easy to think back a day later and think it was a daydream or something. The memories that aren’t photographed or filmed feel like they didn’t happen, but you have bags of free stuff and stuff you bought, so they had to have happened. It goes by way too quickly and before you can really, totally, 100% savor the event and the atmosphere and all of it, the rug’s pulled out and you’re walking for your train.

That’s how I feel, at least. Don’t know about you.

Sunday was the final day of 2014’s edition of New York Comic Con. There wasn’t an enormous amount of stuff happening Sunday, but we were able to attend the Cartoon Network CN Anything panel this afternoon. It was a lot of fun, and there were some nice little highlights and cute stuff to enjoy.

The panel pretty much covered the entire current CN primetime comedy lineup. Represented were Adventure Time, Regular Show, Uncle Grandpa, Clarence, and the brilliant upcoming miniseries Over The Garden Wall. The panel took up the entire Empire Stage with multiple representatives for each show: Pete Browngardt and Tom Kenny repped Uncle Grandpa; Kent Osborne, Jessica DiCicco, and Jeremy Shada were there for Adventure Time; Rebecca Sugar, Estelle, and Zach Callison for Steven Universe; Paula Spence and Sam Marin for Regular Show; Spencer Rothbell (and also Tom Kenny again) for Clarence; and finally, Elijah Wood, Patrick McHale, and Collin Dean for Over The Garden Wall. It was a full table.

The Uncle Grandpa segment began the panel with a video from Adam Devine of Workaholics (and also Pizza Steve in the show) apologizing for not being there, but telling the room the big secret that he voices every character on every show. It was a pretty funny bit, and had Devine poorly do voices of various CN characters. Browngardt said that season 2 of the show is in development and that they have a Christmas episode on the way that’ll reveal a big secret about Uncle Grandpa. He said something about him meeting someone, and a relationship with them. No real details, so if you’re into the sure, be sure to watch.

Browngardt also said that he had contacted a variety of animators to create and direct Uncle Grandpa shorts in their own style and their own animation. We were treated to one from Michael M. Wartella. There should be a bunch on the way.

Next, Adventure Time‘s members talked about the upcoming season 7. “Ghost Fly,” an episode we were able to see during the network’s screening on Saturday, is the show’s Halloween episode and should be the first new episode back from the show’s break. Osborne showed off some images of drawings given to people working on the show that were used as a process the show’s staff has: a drawing is given to someone, who then uses that simple sketch to write out an entire episode pitch. Some never made it (like the one we saw with a huge cyborg Susan Strong, one where Princess Bubblegum has been turned into a horse and Marceline is simply ridiculing her instead of helping, and one that asks who the buffest man is, with a super-muscled Ice King and Finn), but some did, including the upcoming “Jake The Brick” which has a pretty self-explanatory name.

Another clip we saw from an upcoming episode has Finn’s ghost body floating around as he sleeps on the astral plane, and stumbling upon a party in the Cloud Kingdom:

Steven Universe wound up in focus next. Rebecca Sugar and Estelle had a song together on-stage with Sugar on the ukulele and Estelle singing. It was beautiful, and if you haven’t heard Estelle’s music, you should probably go give it a try. Sugar said that they’re finishing airing season 1 and season 2 is currently in development.

A lot of talk during this segment about music, and it only fit that the clip was a new song from the show. The episode is one that focuses on Lars and Sadie, the employees of the donut store in Beach City. They wind up stranded on an island with Steven, and have to fend for themselves. The two are fan favorites ever since the episode “Joking Victim” and the stuff that happens in the clip got some huge approval from the fans:

The Regular Show segment was up next and was pretty funny as Sam Marin had a skit prepared that starred Muscle Man, Pops, and Benson visiting New York City for the first time and interacting with moderator Eric Bauza. Benson is distraught at the shape of his park after seeing Central Park in the bit. We saw a little more of the upcoming Halloween special, pretty much confirming that what was shown at the screening on Saturday was only half of the episode. The clip includes part of a story that has something I’ve always loved about the show: ridiculous stories that incorporate mundane things from days past (mostly the 80’s and 90’s) in a story where Rigby decides to screen a supernatural tape that is supposed to be the scariest ever made:

Clarence‘s segment came next with head of story Spencer Rothbell. Rothbell will be taking over duties as Clarence’s voice actor from now on after show creator Skyler Page was fired from Cartoon Network. The show rolls on, though, and is one of the funniest shows the network has going. We saw a series of clips from episodes like “Neighborhood Grill” where Clarence sees his teacher outside of school for the first time, “Belson’s Sleepover,” in which Belson has a sleepover, and “The Forgotten” which has Clarence walk home for the first time with a friend after they were left behind at school. The “Neighborhood Grill” clip:

The other clips included one where Clarence was dressed in Belson’s mother’s clothing for a re-enactment of a horror movie scene, and one with an unnamed friend of Clarence’s and Clarence himself lost and in the sewer, which was a wonderful homage to classic sitcoms and even included a laugh track to make the gag just perfect.

Over The Garden Wall wrapped up the festivities. The creator, Patrick McHale, said that the show is a miniseries because “it makes sense.” There was a story they wanted to tell, and it only worked how they wanted it in a miniseries format. The show won’t be so much a comedy like most other current CN shows, but much more serious (and from everything I’ve seen so far, it does that and it is amazing at it). There’s still the comedy and comedic relief in younger brother Greg and some of the other things that happen, but it seems to be a bit creepy, a bit serious, and one amazing TV show (I can not stop praising this show).

We saw one clip, but Cartoon Network has uploaded two to YouTube. It’s possible we didn’t get to see one because the panel ran out of time, but it’s absolutely something to watch. The 6-minute clip is what we missed, and it’s wonderful and gives you a little taste of what this entire experience will be like come its premiere on November 3rd. The other is a short glimpse. Watch these.

I saw an episode of this show on Saturday and I can not stress enough how much people must see it. If you have any interest in animation and good story and good acting and beautiful art, you need to watch this show. It isn’t even going to be that long– 10 episodes across 5 nights– so you have zero excuse. November 3rd. Come on.

More than anything, this panel was a celebration of these shows and a little new-ness thrown in. That’s fine, too. They threw in some games in between segments, and one girl during the Q&A brought a ukulele and played a medley of songs from CN shows. It was a lot of fun.

But, again, the entire convention was a lot of fun. I had gripes, of course (rules need to be made for photos of people in costume. I understand the interest in taking group photos of cosplayers, I really do, but when you block an entire aisle to photograph that one pretty good Sailor Moon group cosplay, you make an already congested area a living hell), but they were few in comparison to the fun I had. Every year, I love these four days with a passion.

It’s expensive, sure, and getting dinner afterwards is an exercise in futility with local establishments from the center to Madison Square Garden, but nothing beats four days in a convention center with thousands of other people who enjoy the stuff you enjoy. Nothing beats sitting in panels with actors and artists you admire and enjoy. Nothing beats getting free stuff, or buying stuff you won’t find elsewhere. Nothing beats the cheer in the newly-christened Queue Hall that erupts when some idiot tries to run underneath the bars and knocks one down. Nothing beats the atmosphere of the convention. Nothing.

Nothing beats New York Comic Con.

ReedPOP put on another great show, like they’ve done each year I’ve been there. They make this thing work, and it’s a thing I love dearly, and so I love them just as much.

New York Comic Con returns in 2015 on October 8-11. If you were there this year, I hope to see you again next year. I also hope a bunch of you got my Mii via StreetPass. Maybe it sent you here! If you weren’t there, come! It’s great.

Goodnight, NYCC. See you in a year.