A Time to be Alive: New York City Comic-Con

As a comic reader, gamer, and overall nerd-one thing that excites me every year is comic con here in NYC. It’s a certain time of year when people congregate at the Javits Center and nerd out. There’s everything and anything you can possibly think of.

Aisles upon aisles of comics both old and new. Books that can be both collectibles that you don’t open and books that you can trash the hell out of and keep just for reading over and over(if that’s your thing).  This isn’t just for comics! There are tons of action figures and collectible figurines on display from certain vendors. Some of these you have to enter a raffle to win, and some are there just to tease you.

 Besides seeing comics and collectible figurines, the place is crawling with people who dress up as their favorite characters from everything  fictional. This is called cosplay, and man are they awesome. Some of them buy their costumes and some hand make them with all the little intricate details.

People cosplay as their favorite characters from all types of fiction which ranges from tv shows, cartoons, anime/manga(Japanese animation and comics) video games, movies, etc. The list can literally go on and on.

     One of the biggest announcements this year for comic books was the continuation of a crossover between two of the most famed comic book worlds: The DC universe and The Watchmen. While the latter is published by DC Comics, they’ve never ingrained them into the same universe with their most notable characters, it has always been kept separate.

Geoff Johns had the brilliant idea of mixing both worlds and making a great story out of it. It started earlier this summer and it’s going to continue where it left off this coming November. A lot of fans of both worlds were excited to see this crossover event. Geoff mentioned in the live panel interview that this is one story arc and it won’t span over multiple comics like a lot of stories in the recent years.

Both Marvel and D.C. Comics are known to spread a story over comics with characters that have their own stories, from what I feel like is a way to sell comics. With comics averaging $4 a book and a story that’s roughly 5 books long and spread through various issues, this can cost a pretty penny. Due to the nature of The Watchmen, this would most likely be DC’s first story line that is close to an R rating. Keep an eye out for the second start of this on Nov. 22, 2017.

While I had fun on Friday and Saturday, this year’s experience wasn’t all that great compared to the past years that I’ve attended. Here’s why:

• There’s nothing really exciting happening this year
• Most of the main attractions were scattered across town
• Ticket prices were expensive

Let me elaborate on that last point for you. Every year the ticket prices go up by a few bucks…no big deal. However, there are usually ticket bundles. Ex: 3-day and 4-day ticket passes which usually sell for close to $80-$105. That’s reasonable considering single day tickets used to go for around $45 a pop. This year they weren’t selling the 3 or 4 day passes because the Javits Center is currently under construction. This makes absolutely no sense because you SHOULD be giving ticket deals due to the inconvenience. We’re not getting the full experience like we did the previous years so give us a discount on the price! I’m not trying to rant and rave, but overall my experience this year was decent, I took a few pictures, got a few autographs from some actors, bought over-priced liquor…it wasn’t bad! I’ll try to put up some of the pictures I took on Friday and Saturday so you guys can at least see what NYCC is like. Hope to see you there next year!