After 4 years, it’s hard to imagine an October without New York Comic Con on the agenda. with over 200,000 attendees this year, the annual convention features not only your favorite actors and panels but some of the year’s very best exclusives and creative cosplay.
Let’s talk about the great. As it does every year, New York Comic Con brings has stellar Main Stage panels. One such panel was on Thursday afternoon when DC Comics celebrated its 10th year of their animated films. The likes of Tara Strong, Bruce Timm, and the great Kevin Conroy headlined this star-studded panel showing clips of past films and character highlights, which were a joy to watch.
Friday’s Main Stage panels kicked off with the upcoming DC animated film, Gotham By Gaslight, which will be out in early 2018. The film is based on the popular Elseworlds universe by Brian Augustyn and Mike Mignola. It features a steampunk take on Batman as he pursues Jack the Ripper in turn-of-the-century Gotham City. During the panel, Bruce Timm explained that while the original comic was fairly short, they’ve expanded the story for the film in order to include more characters from Batman’s universe, including Harvey Dent and Selina Kyle. Along with that, they’re able to have more red herrings as the book really only had one suspect as to who Jack The Ripper was. It will also feature more adult material than a typical DC animated film and may receive an R rating.
Continuing the DC trend was Doomsday Clock, which covered the upcoming release of a 12 issue series. It’s been known since last year’s DC Universe: Rebirth one-shot that Watchmen character Doctor Manhattan has done something to the DC Universe and the upcoming series will be introducing Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen characters to DC Universe heroes likes Superman and Batman. During the panel, Johns was asked if he had ever previously thought of intersecting the worlds of Watchmen and the DC Universe.
“I never thought about it for a lot of reasons. I actually never thought about it until a year-and-a-half ago when I was writing the Rebirth special. For me, DC has always been about heart, heroes and humanity. It felt like some of the humanity had been ripped away from the books. Who would have the power, the inclination — the curiosity — to remove that humanity from the DC Universe? And the ability to do that? Doctor Manhattan and Superman, you’ve got one that’s an alien, that’s probably the most human of superheroes. And you’ve got one that’s a human, and is probably the most alien of all superhumans. I thought, a conversation between those two would be amazing. Back then, all I was going to do is hint at it. It wasn’t until the story that coalesced in my head, and I pitched Gary — Gary said, ‘I have to draw this story.’ Then we committed to it last year.”
Along with the added swag of a poster, pin, and a preview of the first 6 pages of the upcoming release, this panel was on its way to become the best of the convention for me, that was until Saturday.
Closing out Friday night was Marvel’s Runaways. Admittedly, I have never read nor heard of Runaways, however, it’s Marvel and if the past has proven anything is that you trust Marvel. Fans who stayed out late to see the panel were in for a treat as the series premiered its first episode on the main stage. While I thought it to be an inconsistent early one, the episode did a fine job of setting up not only characters but the narrative for the first season. I’ll keep watching.
On Saturday, I got the opportunity to watch Mark Hamill in action as fans were treated to an exclusive ticketed event with Luke Skywalker himself. Though this was the highlight of my nerd dreams, one panel stood out the most at NYCC. That was the one for Psych the tv show. I had zero anticipation to attend but was convinced to by Jen. I soon realized what an impact the show has made on its fans and it’s near and dear to their hearts. We were even treated to the first 20 minutes of the upcoming Christmas movie debuting on December 7th. I am now fully invested into binge-watching the show. Not only was the first 20 minutes entertaining and hysterical, but the dynamic between the cast during the panel was a sight to see as, despite the show closing shop in 2014, the cast seemed like they never lost touch and thanks to this year’s New York Comic Con, I am on the path to becoming a Psych-O.
Now onto the bad of my con experience. One thing New York Comic Con didn’t have was space. Let’s rewind a bit to April when tickets went on sale for New York Comic Con. ReedPop stated that because of the construction at the Jacob Javits Center, they would be eliminating 3 and 4 day passes “to give more people opportunities to attend the convention.” While this may have allowed a few people the chance, you could tell that some con-goers were there just to snag up exclusives to put back on the resale market. The elimination of 3 and 4 day passes seemed more like a cash grab for Reed Pop since attendees now needed to pay $50 a day to attend as opposed to $115 with a previous 4-day badge. Fast forward to this past weekend, the most glaring issues were the madness and inefficiency of the Funko Pop Vinyl booth, wi-fi connection, and the lack of space to move around. Now don’t get me wrong, it takes finesse to maneuver around the Javits Center because of crowds and this year was no different with Saturday and Sunday being the highest attendance days. If you go to a convention, you have to expect a crowd and one with people carrying bags of things they bring to it for autographs and items they’ll bring home. I think no location suffered more from the space limitations placed on Javits construction than Artist Alley. While you still got to experience and meet your favorite artists, their assigned space was smaller and we definitely think air conditioning conked out or was not raised enough to be felt in the tiny lower level they were placed. Many artists couldn’t bring as many prints so if you wanted something exclusive you needed to run their first or else not get it.
Now I don’t pretend I know what it takes to run a convention of this size or any size for that matter but I feel one thing you need to have is a capable wi-fi network. Thursday’s entrance process was seamless until you got downstairs to the queue line to tap your badge for the Main Stage panels. The wi-fi was failing and crew members were left having to scan with phones connected to LTE – one person to scan 1500+ badges at once. Because of the loss of connectivity, many booths that were using the badge scan system (those that were part of the lottery that went out two weeks prior for con-goers) were left tech-less and forced to check in their consumers by hand using a verified email list. Not a very easy process for them and for us on the other side waiting to get our exclusives.
Funko is quite frankly one, if not the hottest collectible on the market right now. As a fellow collector for over 4 years, I have seen this brand continue to grow in not only collectors but product lines. With that comes the price of resellers and hypes that are trying to make a quick buck. From those who ” talk shit about Funko” but proceed to be pretentious hypocrites and buy pops to the “quick buck” reseller that harasses con goers who were lucky enough to win a lotto to purchase the convention exclusives.
This year’s Funko exclusives not only had those headaches but added to that was the lack if Wi-Fi to scan the lotto winners in, which caused confusion and allowed those who were not selected as winners to enter the line. By the time my time to purchase Funkos had arrived, there was close to nothing left a frustrating experience that needs to be fixed in the future as Funko continues to grow, so should their staff.
New York Comic Con is in the books. Was it the best of the bunch I’ve had the pleasure of attending? I’m not sure. It definitely wasn’t the worst. While great panels and being able to purchase my comic book grail, Batman Adventures 12 (First Appearance of Harley Quinn), ReedPOP has a lot of work to do in regards to their organization of not only lines but electronic devices. Though nothing can beat the friendships and memories created throughout the convention every year, the main reason I always come back. It’s been real NYCC! See you next year!
