MetalSucks and Vertebrae 33 descended upon New York Comic Con this past weekend to create the most METAL booth at the entire convention. We passed out loads of free shit courtesy of our friends at Metal Blade, Live Nation, and, of course, ourselves, and wherever there’s free shit at Comic Con there are hordes of people ready to take it from you. We counted dude ponytails to pass the time until we got bored because it was too easy. Charred Walls of the Damned drummer / Howard Stern writer Richard Christy stopped by to sign autographed for a couple of hours, Paul Booth and Metal Injection stopped by to say what’s up, and several loyal MS readers introduced themselves to us. Good times.

But the real fun was in the people-watching; the costumes people trek across town to Javits Center are pretty outrageous. Lots of nerdy dudes and nerdy babes parading around gave us plenty to look at during the convention’s three full days. Check out some photo highlights from the MetalSucks Comic Con booth after the jump.

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I love the webernets. Our friends at The End Records put together a quick promo vid for Karl Sanders‘ (of Nile) new solo album using the nifty website Xtra Normal. My curiosity was peaked, so I tried my hand at making my very own Xtra Normal video, and this is what came out:

Make your own at Xtra Normal! It’s free and easy! Even your grandmother could do it! No, Xtra Normal aren’t paying us to say this! I just think they’re cool! Exclamation points!

-VN

Exhibit A: the below mockup, posted by “pigchop” in the comments of David Bee Roth’s Death Magnetic review (which inexplicably seems to have picked up steam lately). Click the image to see it in full size; the devil is in the details.

Someone was really bored in computer class.

-VN

So there’s a new metal website gracing the Interwebs this week. It’s called Believers in the Power of Heavy Metal (or BITPOM for short) and is owned and run by The Syndicate, who manage Shadows Fall, Protest the Hero and others. BITPOM — other than the name’s striking resemblance to a certain refreshing fruit drink — is in its early stages kind of a cross between MetalSucks and NoneLouder; intelligent metal commentary and discussion with an integrated social network built on the Ning platform.

What do you think of the new site?

They’ve asked me to do a guest column called “Ask the Blogger,” in which users submit questions to me about anything, and I answer ‘em. So if you’ve ever wanted to ask me anything, now’s your chance! Visit BITPOM and comment under my column.

-VN