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2026 Northeast Comic Con Spring Edition Wrap-Up

Since 2014, I’ve been lucky enough to cover the Northeast Comic Con (read my coverage here), a fun convention for fans of comics, pop culture, and collectibles. This Spring’s NECC is happened this past weekend at the Boxborough Regency in Boxborough, MA. I stopped by on Friday (day 1 of 3).

Here are some highlights of the guests I got to speak with:

The big headline at this NECC was the Thermian Reunion of Galaxy Quest cast members: Missi Pyle, Enrico Colantoni, Jed Rees and Patrick Breen. I asked both Rees and Breen about how meta and life-imitates-art-imitates-life it is that they were in Galaxy Quest, a fun sci-fi comedy that begins and ends at a convention and now they are meeting fans and appearing a convention!

Rees says "It's a little surreal. But really special because Patrick, Missi, Enrico and I we all get along really great and enjoy hanging out together. It's just a great time to come together at a convention. But the whole meta of it all, we were just talking about it today. Like Enrico is not here today and we were like 'of course he's not going to be here today' and we realize it's just like everyone complaining about Tim Allen in Galaxy Quest. It's a bit surreal, but it's all good!" Breen added "When we were first asked to do a comic convention, Jed and I did one in Pensacola, FL like six years ago. But that was the first time and I thought, that's really interesting. It's been strange, but fun - superfun! I've always had really good experiences. All of the fans come up, love the movie. I forget how many years ago we did that documentary about the fans [2019's Never Surrender: A Galaxy Quest Documentary], but mostly the fans are the stars of it. Some actors are in it like Brent Spiner and Wil Wheaton. But it's a fan experience, the movie Galaxy Quest is about fandom. It is credited as being the first film that honors the fan experience in an authentic way."

In addition to Galaxy Quest, Jed Rees appeared in numerous films including Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown. I asked him about working with him and Reed says "Cameron is one of the nicest, most generous, cool people I ever met. He cherry-picked the entire crew and everyone was really awesome in every department. It was a great experience and he is an amazing person".

Beyond Galaxy Quest, Patrick Breen has been in tons of movies, but I wanted to know about Get Shorty, one of the best Elmore Leonard adaptations (up there with Jackie Brown and Out of Sight). "That is my shout out to Barry Sonenfeld. He cast me in For Love or Money. Then he'd just call me if there was a small part - he directed Men in Black and I did a part in that. With Get Shorty, he just called and said 'Patty, will you come in and do a day in Los Angeles?' and I'm like yes! I had a scene with Gene Hackman, John Travolta, Bette Midler and Rene Russo. I was like, are you kidding me? Anyways - big shout out to Barry Sonenfeld!"

Comic book artist / writer Lisa Trusiani was also at the NECC. I am a huge fan of Alf and I subscribed to the Alf comic book, which ran from 1988 to 1992, published by Marvel. I subscribed to that comic. She said "I was an assistant editor with King Features and yes, we did Alf. That was fun!" I had to ask, the comic ran around the same time as the TV series and out-lasted the series, so I was wondering if they were in touch with NBC or creator Paul Fusco about the comic book stories? "I don't remember specifically. I believe our editor Sid Jacobson was pretty independent, but with licensed properties, you end up sending the script at some level."

Singer Cowboy Mach Bell is now a regular at the NECC. I first spoke with him at the 2022 Collectibles Extravaganza (NECC’s side convention). As the former singer for Joe Perry Project, he is still keeping busy singing and he performs in New England and did some performances at the NECC!