Aka “Superjustinbros Goes to New York City: Part 1”.
Following a very eventful Summer season filled to the peak with events to attend (two big conventions, one smaller convention, a friend’s birthday party, and several different online events), I was finally able to scale back my agenda as the season drew to a close. And then, in mid October, right as spooky season kicked off, New York Comic Con roared its head back into the limelight with guns blazing, continuing to stand as the largest pop culture event in the East Coast especially thanks to its long history and its hosting location of none other than the Javits Center in Manhattan. I attended the first day of the convention and stayed till closing.
Traditionally, NYCC was either the last, or second to last, traditional pop culture event that I attended, and while I will say I do enjoy them, it’s for entirely different reasons than most of the other events I attend. When you tally up all the events I make sure to attend each year, there’s two main events and three side events that all qualify under this moniker, regardless of how big they are. EMCon was something of a warm-up to the bigger events that followed later in the year, Cradle Con and EternalCon were both larger events that managed to carry the energy of NYCC but on a smaller scale, and Long Island Tropic Con was more lax with a venue that also wasn’t very large. And yet, it was the perfect type of event to end the season with after just how huge Long Island Retro Gaming Expo was. But of course, NYCC would be arriving soon, and I needed to prep.
You’ll recall last year that I came out of NYCC 2022 with a few regrets, namely, not getting to see all of the Artist’s Alley from just how clogged up it was with attendees that year. It seems the staff working at NYCC noticed this and, in response, slightly reduced the number of artist tables at the event to free up some of the congestion that plagued the artist’s alley all day. And thanks to that, it was much easier to maneuver around the main body of the artist’s alley without repeatedly bumping into or being slowed by the crowds. There were still professional artists hired to join the artist’s alley by their parent groups joining the selection of artists that had to pay to get into the event out of their own pockets, and it made the smaller artists that I usually look for in artist alleys a bit harder to spot. Nonetheless I still was able to get more out of the artist alley this year by virtue of planning it as my first destination and then saving the re-visit later in the day for before the main venue would close down for the night. There was indeed a commission haul but I decided to delay it since two of the commissions I ordered ended up getting delayed to post-convention dates, and since I don’t have a solid lead on when they’ll be done and delivered as of this post, I may end up doing the commission post on my other blog early next month without them since I’ll eventually need to post the AnimeNYC haul as well.
After the typical convention Artist Alley run, I made my way up to the vendors for the next few hours. On top of running into some familiar faces from the year prior selling their goods in the massive vendor’s hall, there were plenty of sights to observe and tons of collectibles to buy within the many booths of the event. And each year, I am once again surprised at just how much of a presence Japanese companies and their respective media franchises had at this event. Bandai brought many of their name brands to the show in some capacity and Shonen Jump titans Dragon Ball and One Piece ruled the north side of the vendors with giant blowup figures. And if that wasn’t enough to show how massive One Piece has become in the West, they even had a demo model for what would become a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon float of Luffy himself. Now that’s quite an honor, considering the series had a much harder time trying to break into America pop culture compared to its many contemporaries like Dragon Ball and Naruto.
Going back on track, there was a surprising number of fast food and diner-themed booths in the vendors—including one dedicated entirely to Good Burger 2, a movie that I never thought would happen considering the original was very much stuck in the 90’s and the most I recalled of it in my youth was the “Grape Nose Boy” skit early in the film. I didn’t go in the booth, but from what I could observe there was a silly little mini game you could play on your phone- it had the depth of a 2000’s mobile game so I didn’t bother (combined with the typical packed convention lines just to get into some of these booths). Across from that was the booth of clothing brand Hypland, who partnered with Sega to produce a line of Sonic clothing, and in the back end of the booth was a whole demo station for a game that was very much real: Sonic Superstars. Since the game would be releasing soon, I didn’t bother trying it out for myself at the show, though in hindsight it would have been neat to feel the PS5 DualSense controller in my own hands for the first time. The Boondocks store was also at the event, but since the funds I brought to the event all went to commissions (and food… and parking) and I didn’t have any way of carrying around bigger pieces of cargo, I decided to pass on purchasing much else on-site. And that included a special 2023 Convention reprint of the original-generation Tamagotchi, which had two pretty neat custom shells but was still the original model from the 90’s that I was never really a fan of at the end of the day.
As typical of many comic events, the gaming section tucked away on the lowest floor of the event felt almost like an an afterthought, if not partially an afterthought. For console games, there were a bunch of 2D fighting games and racing games on hardware from the early 2000’s and onwards, with several setups dedicated entirely to Street Fighter 6. The selection of tabletop games was much more stacked, with a greater number of setups and shops to purchase or rent them, but well, I kind of fell out of them as the years went by, despite someone in the artist alley (I think) suggesting I try my hand at creating an Aozora’s Adventure board or card game since it’d be easier than trying to learn programing. I’d never say never, but I think I first need to escape this artist block and poor habits before I even consider trying to make a full-fledged Aozora board game. I heard there was a Pac-Man themed event somewhere nearby complete with demos of Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle Chomp Champs, but it wasn’t part of NYCC and was a separate event close by (and was only open on Friday and Saturday). At least Pac-Man was still at NYCC… as a recycling bin for the Gashapon booth in the main lobby.
After a few hours, the event’s vendors closed at 7, followed by the Artist’s Alley at 8. I promptly said my goodbyes to the dealers and what artists remained, took a few last-minute photos of the Javits Center, and drove off. After weeks of preparation and improving my cardio, I got a lot more mileage out of this year’s event compared to 2022’s. Is there anything I forgot to mention…? Oh right, seating. While the number of available seating was still next to nonexistent, my legs were not as sore on the way out of the event as well as on the following day, compared to last year where my legs were in even worse shape. It may have been because the vendors were carpeted (aside from stepping on the wiring hidden underneath) and I planned a better route through the convention, but that still not a valid excuse for an event that isn’t focused on gaming to skip out on installing seats around the venue.
And that was New York Comic Con 2023. A definite improvement over last year and probably in the running for one of my favorite events of the year, next to Castle Point Anime Convention and Long Island Retro Gaming Expo. That said, I still have one more big event this year, and it's a return to the Javits Center approximately one month later for AnimeNYC. Until then, catch you later, and Happy Halloween if you manage to catch this the day this post goes out.
