Hello all and welcome to Part 2 of the big convention write-ups of the year of 2024. Last time, we discussed EMcon and Castle Point Anime Convention, two back-to-back different-sized events that I quite enjoyed. With Part 2, we’ll be taking a look at CradleCon and Brooklyn Comic Con, the events I attended in May and June respectively. Both of these events share the same mold in their focus on general pop culture, ala what New York Comic Con would gravitate to over time. And while Cradle Con is definitely rooted in its focus on being a comic convention, BKCC (not BYCC, as I foolishly tagged the event under on Twitter) had a much broader genre representation between comics, video games, and anime.
With the intro done, what better way to start than with CradleCon 2024? As one can tell by its title, this event is located at the Cradle of Aviation, a museum that also doubles as a convention center throughout most of the year. You may recognize this as the same location that hosts the Long Island Retro Gaming Expo (as well as its holiday spin-off, the Festival of Games) each year. It’s quite a versatile location in terms of what it can be suited up for, considering it has done both comic conventions and gaming conventions year by year. For this year, the layout remained much of the same: Vendors on the first floor, artists on the second. Of course with me being Mr. Artist Alley Guy I pretty much remained on the second floor for the grand majority of my visit, with occasional visits down to the lower flower to roam the vendors.
Since the event takes place on Long Island, many of my local artist friends that table at next to every local event on my schedule throughout the year were present and had tables at Cradle Con. Others I would recognize from the same event last year also attended and easily remembering me back when I came up to their booths to chat. As for the artist alley, it was an enjoyable one; Smaller than most of the other events I attend yearly (with only EMcon and the Long Island Retro Gaming Expo having smaller artist alleys) but still offering a decent chunk of artists to chat with and buy from. Being an event closely themed around comics, there were a lot of comics and comic-related art being sold across the vendors and the artists’ alleys. Obviously, comics are not exactly my thing, so I tend to skip on buying comics unless it’s an indie-published comic that has a cool hook that I enjoy or one done by a close friend that I’m very familiar with.
Unlike most of the events that I attend year-round, CradleCon closed its doors completely at 5 PM. It gave me enough time to make several rounds through the building, converse with various artists, and then get out with a good chunk of photos of the venue and commissions from the artists. Compared to the Retro Gaming Expo, not every space of the event was filled with something to do- it was mostly confined to the main lobby filled with vendors, the cafeteria area that was also filled with vendors, the second floor where all the artists resided, and a small section of the Gallery (the eastern section of the museum) that was used to host professional artists, celebrity guests, and cosplays. The venue’s third floor was completely vacant and only saw use as a hangout space away from the rest of the convention’s activity. There were a few panels but I didn’t recall the full schedule of them, other than some of them being held within the Planetarium Dome Theater which is probably the coolest room I’ve ever seen a panel be hosted inside. A massive number of seats and cool colorful lighting all go a long way to make a panel held in this room mesmerizing.
Overall, Cradle Con was pretty fun and I’m glad I got to attend and get out one more big event with the local comic artists of Long Island before summer would hit. I even got to treat myself to a snow cone from one of the food trucks outside before making my leave. Getting a healthy number of commissions was the cherry on top and you can see the complete set here. Sadly I did not take any cosplay photos at the event as I was focused on other parts of the event, and considering I took tons at Castle Point only a few weeks earlier, I wanted to give myself a break from snapping more.
You can see the full gallery of Cradle Con convention commissions here. Of course, the end of Cradle Con meant the beginning of preparations for another big convention. And that sounds like the perfect segway into…
Brooklyn Comic Con. Since AnimeNext pulled out for the year, I decided to attend a different event that was shifting over to an entirely new venue. The focus remained on general pop culture and most of the advertising was sure to include everything: Comics, Video games, Anime. Pretty much no fandom was left out in Brooklyn and everything got mostly equal focus. But alas, the event had a few minor mishaps and questionable design choices that I’ll touch on as we go:
Starting off the bright and cheerful Sunday morning, I accidentally arrived an hour and a half early, as I had gotten accustomed to conventions opening their doors at 10 AM. Brooklyn Comic Con’s intended opening was actually at 11:30 AM, and further issues occurring within the event’s venue caused it to stall for another hour and the line of attendees continuing to grow. I stood in line until around 12:30 when everything was all sorted out and attendees were allowed to enter, and the true fun began.
The Major R Owen’s Community Center is, truth be told a rather small venue to host a convention in. But as events like EMcon and Castle Point Anime Convention showed, you can still have a good functional event in a smaller venue. The venue was divided into two halves: One side was the vendors and artists all combined together into a single lineup, and the other was everything else and the kitchen sink.
The artists represented one of the most diverse lineups of artist types and styles but, surprisingly to me, focused more closely on anime art styles with some occasional comic influences. The vendors, by contrast, followed the comic convention’s main focus on comics. Only a few booths within the gallery of vendors would sell existing comics and goodies—the remaining set were dedicated to selling their original indie comics made from the ground up. Of course mainstream comics like Marvel and DC appeal to me only slightly, but something about indie comics and supporting artists by purchasing their comics makes me unable to resist purchasing said comics and taking them home. Especially in the Western convention scene where works featuring original characters are very hard sells to the attendees (just look at the state of anime convention artist alleys swimming on hot trends). And speaking of original creations I of course was able to snag several character commissions during the event, totaling up to eight commissions total.
What I was surprised to see with the artists at the event was a convention buddy that I met all the way back at ICon 2018, a now defunct Long Island-based convention. And of course a few other familiar faces within both the comic and anime convention scene attended and sold their art and.or comics. The vendors that didn’t specialize in original works featured things like the almost iconic “wall of vintage comics” that is at every comic convention and the video games and video game soundtracks at the Video Games New York booth. Said booth also played a few fun and recognizable tunes throughout the event, some of which I jammed to during my trots through the vendors and artists.
Most of the event’s general design was geared towards cosplay: About half of the attendees were in some form of outfit repping their favorite comic, anime, or game character. A few of them did catch my mind and I couldn’t resist starting a bite-sized collection of Cosplay Convention Shoots midway through the day. Cosplayers also received a special Cosplayer badge and some were allowed to enter the venue prior to opening. 4PM on both days featured the Cosplay Runway; a runway where cosplayers walked across a red carpet through the vendors and artist alley. Seeing all the cosplayers at the event all gather around in a central and easy to access spot was very welcoming, although it cut into an excursion through the vendors and artists as I had to navigate around all the cosplayers.
And then there was the other half of the venue, the “everything else” section. Featuring activities for people of all ages; there were tons of video games, a wrestling ring, a bouncy castle(…?), a playable Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit track, an inflatable obstacle course and slide, and a section for LARPing in cosplay and/or with foam weapons. With conventions like these being paid ticketed events that don’t attract many children, a few of the entertainment choices at BKCC felt, to keep things brief, unnecessary. Especially since the inflatable obstacle course took up most of the space in this area and ended up deflating only a few hours in. Then again, AnimeNYC last year had an entire section devoted to the military because they were sponsored by it even if a sponsor like that would more strongly fit NYCC. On a more positive note, the video gaming section was a solid addition as they usually are for any kind of event and it included a large number of current-day and retro games to try out. Seeing as I already own or have access to these games through other means and most of the games had people sitting at them all day, I unfortunately didn’t bother but otherwise was tempted to try out the small Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit track even in the instances where it had to be repeatedly managed by staff.
One thing the event sorely lacked was a good variety of food. Unlike other venues I’ve attended, there were no food courts inside the Major R Owen’s Community Center, leaving only the food trucks outside as the sole sources for grub mid-day. And the trucks that were chosen for the event were… not great; consisting of mostly exotic foreign food managed by staff that didn’t understand English. In fact, looking at the map of the venue that was posted, there were plans for even more food that didn’t show up. One truck in particular even refused to serve customers until 8 PM when the event’s main venue closed for the day. And if you had to step out to get food at any moment, you were forced back on line to keep the event’s venue manageable. And speaking of the venue, and as much as I enjoyed being there, it did have a few small but significant issues. Firstly, the loudspeakers used to play music and share announcements for panels and events through the day were all set too high, forcing me to speak very loudly or cover my ears when trying to speak to the artists and vendors at the event. And second, the sun’s position throughout the day shot a beam of bright sunlight through the west end of the event making me struggle to chat with the event’s many east-facing booths.
In spite of everything I had to point out, I had a great time at Brooklyn Comic Con 2024. Meeting up with artists I have not seen in a while and being introduced to and getting to chat with plenty of new artists from the local convention scene always makes for a good time. Especially in this rare kind of event that seemed to cater to every demographic possible: Comic books, Anime/Manga, Video Games, Retro Games, Fighting Games. Not a stone was left unturned. I never thought the fun would stop, but it did: Towards 8 PM, announcements that the event would close for the day became more frequent. I had two final commissions that I had to scramble and obtain before the venue closed in the event’s last ten minutes. The Video Games New York booth would really set the mood by playing one last song: Game Over from the Mario and Chill album by GameChops. I watched as the artist alley became a ghost town of closed-up vendor and artist booths and the venue’s internal lights went on. And so with no other options and no desire to join the event’s afterparty, I took a few last-minute shots of cosplays and the venue itself before making my leave.
Overall, the event was a solid good; about on par with most of the local events and some of the more medium-sized conventions. It had a great vendor hell and artist alley with tons of fandom representation and being able to meet and support tons of people is a strong part of any convention form me. Unfortunately, the excessively loud music loudspeaker audio, the lack of options for food, and some choices for entertainment that don’t exactly fit the event’s biggest target demographics. It reminded me of last year’s AnimeNext and some of the mishaps it also endured, although Brooklyn Comic Con’s flaws were not as significant nor easy to point out. For example, AnimeNext didn’t have background audio that made it impossible to communicate at times and had better options for food (read: not just foreign food), but Brooklyn Comic Con had all its panels, video gaming, and everything else under one roof and didn’t require a shuttle bus just to experience the whole event. And while both events have ways to improve, BKCC’s flaws were not glaring enough to completely kill the following year’s event. Meanwhile, AnimeNext’s reputation from having to cut costs and split its experiences between two separate venues let to it its show for this year and there’s strong hints that it will not be hosting another one in the future.
As for me, I’m currently unsure if I’ll be attending Brooklyn Comic Con 2025. Mostly since this year has been quite a busy one for me in more ways than one and I have not had much of a chance to sit back and take a chill with all the nonstop conventions, mobile game events that require me to get out of the house, various fighting game events and Games Done Quick, and my friend’s birthday party all occurring one after the other. While I am certainly up for returning to Brooklyn Comic Con after all the fun I experienced this year, everything that I listed above is making me think really hard about coming back next year. I won’t forget about BKCC and the many cool people and artists I met, but I don’t know if my love for the rest of the event is strong enough to want to come back.
With my full coverage on both CradleCon and Brooklyn Comic Con over, I’ll leave you with the commissions and cosplay shots of the event. Since EternalCon was canceled this year, the next events that I’ll cover will both take place next month: Long Island Retro Gaming Expo and the recently-rescheduled AnimeNYC.
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