If you listened to some of the folks at New York Comic Con this year, you might have thought they hadn’t had a convention last year at all. I assure you, it happened. I was there. But the reality is that after a year off in 2020, and a limited rollout in 2021, 2022’s NYCC was bound to be buzzing with enormous crowds and a return of many vendors and artist alley denizens who may have held out or couldn’t attend due to the (ongoing) COVID pandemic. Having spent the weekend in the Javits center, I can attest – this was very much a return to form, but not without its changes. What follows are some observations of what was good, what was bad, and what felt entirely different at this year’s NYCC.
The Good – NYCC is Back Baby!
The ongoing celebration about returning to full attendance was palpable. Hosts welcomed crowds back at panels, “exclusives” and “experiences” abounded, and the sometimes over-the-top presence of vendors missing from last year’s con made it feel like everyone wanted to make sure we knew NYCC was here to stay. All the regular mainstays from awkward PR blitzes to endless lines were present. The con felt far more “normal” than it did the previous year, but that was for a multitude of reasons we’ll get into here.
The Bad – The Crowds are Back Too!
Of course with the floodgates open, full attendance led to the normal wall-to-wall people we’ve come to expect at NYCC. Trying to make my way across the show floor on Friday and Saturday wasn’t terribly difficult since I was on my own, but I did witness a truly worrying traffic jam of crowds trying to exit and enter panels in the Javits’ new tower area that I was sure would end with someone being crushed. Too many people in any given space is a recipe for danger, and more could have been done to safely direct the masses.
Good – Masking Requirement
Weeks before the convention, NYCC announced a mask mandate for the convention. Originally, the con had no precautions whatsoever in place, a sharp contrast to the previous year where COVID vaccination cards and masks were required to enter. Compliments to the many clever cosplayers who worked masks into their costumes. However–
Bad – No Mask Enforcement
I came prepared with the requested K95 mask on my first day and continued to wear it as I started to walk Artist Alley. It became apparent almost immediately that large portions of the crowd were considering the mandate optional. By the afternoon, it was about 50/50 who was wearing a mask and who wasn’t. And by Saturday, the majority of the crowd didn’t have them on. Who can blame them? Limited staff were handing out masks, but there was no effort to require them to enter or to keep them on.
Good – Artist Alley
Artist Alley was filled to the brim with talent this year, many of them newly represented by groups like Comic Sketch Art and their counterparts. There was very little fan art filler with the aisles lined with pros and incredible up and comers. Many of the artists I talked to had full commission lists and were drawing like crazy, taking breaks from signing and using signage to announce when they were working on art and when they were available to talk and sign, allowing fans to better plan when they could meet someone on their list. The art that was being made was absolutely stunning and was often shared on social media so make sure to check your favorites’ Instagram accounts for some amazing work. Also, props to anyone who worked this show. It is not easy to juggle drawing, signing, paneling, and whatever else was on the schedule. Now if only these folks would remember to take breaks to eat something!
Different – Paid Signatures
I usually squander my meager budget on back issues on the show floor. This year, I found most of my money going to autographs in Artist Alley. It was rare to find any talent offering free signatures this year, with the going rate about $5. But bigger names charged far more even for one signature. Joe Quesada asked $30 for his, the 5-person creative team behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Armageddon Game charged $50 with a $7 per item fee for any additional signatures, and Jim Lee sequestered himself behind curtains in the rear of the hall, charging $50 with a one item limit. Fees for witnessed signatures for grading pushed those prices even higher. Working a con can be incredibly expensive, especially for artists coming from abroad, so expect this trend to continue. But there did seem to be another driver for paid autographs and that was…
The Bad – Speculators
We need to talk about Peach Momoko here for a second. Peach was obviously the hit artist of the convention, drawing enormous lines all weekend that wrapped down Aisle D and zigzagged along the side of her table. Unfortunately, popularity can also summon the vultures, and Saturday morning saw a group of vendors lined up before the convention even opened, each with their own pile of variants to get signed and sell upstairs. By Sunday, Momoko had had enough of the bickering, shoving, and shouting in the line, posting a sign that read, “NO SIGNING, NO REMARKS, Marvel @ Noon,” referring to a showfloor signing. There is simply no reason to put this kind of pressure on an artist. Those trying to make a quick buck on this extremely talented person make everyone present look bad. Expect more restrictions on what can be signed, how much it will cost, and the availability of top talent if this kind of behavior continues.
The Good – This Felt Like a Comic Book Convention
Even if it wasn’t representative of the entire industry, publishers were back this year in good numbers and were pushing books. Freebies were distributed, panels ended with exclusives, and presenters went to lengths to praise comics as the ultimate mode of storytelling. Likewise, a third of the floor was devoted to good old fashioned longbox digging, and there was no shortage of folks looking for random issues, complete sets, or the random oddity. There were still a good number of booths pushing exclusive variants and graded slabs, but it still contributed to an overall sense that a huge number of those attending were still there for the “Comics” part of NYCC.
The Bad – CGC and NFTs
That said, does everything need to be in a plastic case and sealed off forever? If CGC has its way, any and all collectibles will get the graded treatment. Lines for their booth where they advertised sealed comics, trading cards, and video games were long, but the practice means less raw copies of classic books on the market. Even worse were visible showcases by Marvel, Topps, and others for NFT sales. Not taking the hint after the market collapsed on this environmentally destructive fad, they were still hawking these receipts in the blockchain as the wave of the future. Enough. Please.
The Good – Amazing Collectibles
No matter where you looked on the show floor there was a huge selection of toys, statues, fashion, and whatever else you might have been looking for. Tokidoki, BAIT, Super 7, Concrete Jungle, and Martian Toys were but a few of the booths I spent time at, admiring their handiwork. And their staff did solid jobs corralling lines and making sure everyone got to the register in a timely fashion. I resisted buying wraparound Jim Lee X-Men shirts and a Wakanda Forever varsity jacket so I didn’t break the bank, but those with a healthy budget probably found some pretty great stuff to take home with them.
The Bad – Funko
To get into the Funko booth, you had to go through the NYCC online registration, a process that went so poorly in its first round that NYCC had to switch which third party they did the virtual queue for and postpone for several days. When it was finally time to register, many found a limited selection of sold out entrance times. There was a standby line, but it started at 1PM, and those desperate enough to wait sat around for 3 1/2 hours just to be escorted up and wait in line again on the show floor. NYCC should really go back to a lottery system for this next year to avoid making anyone pay for a badge and waste half their day in an empty hall for their chance to buy a toy.
The Good – Unique Experiences
If I told you Disney set up a booth solely to promote a Guardians of the Galaxy ride in EPCOT, would you believe me? Lots of the show floor booths featured fun interactive promos like the Garbage Pail Kids’ Adam Bomb Fortune Teller machine or the whatnot soda can dispenser. The EPCOT thing featured actors who you traded Earth artifacts with for bags of Xandarian Zarg Nuts. Little kids could ride Batmobile themed power wheels outside promoting the Batwheels cartoon. Online reseller Whatnot drove account signups with giveaways via soda machines. Over at the Marvel panel, you could get your picture taken as if you were an action figure in a Marvel Legends box. Yu-Gi-Oh players could go head to head right on the show floor in a dedicated area. And there were plenty of photo ops with gigantic inflatables and statues of characters from One Piece, Stranger Things, Gundam and more. Wherever you turned there were fun things to do if you were willing to wait a few minutes to get to them.
The Good – Cosplayers Rule
As always, the good people of all fandoms will always amaze the world with their costume creations. Were there one too many middle aged men walking around as Eddie from Stranger Things? Perhaps. But there were just as many giant robots, winged creatures, and . . . well, Deadpools as any year. And props to all the prop-handling many who went out of their way to truly astound. A lifelike Mojo was seen prowling the halls, a many-pouched Cable may have actually been Cable, and the gentleman I saw walking fully clothed down the street with a large inflatable shark did boldly strip down to his green briefs for a striking portrayal of Namor. As trends go, I saw far more fantasy characters a la House of the Dragon and Rings of Power, and far less Joker and Harley duos. It was refreshing.
The Bad – Weird Synergy
This was on every block! I swear!
It may not have been as boldly hypocritical as the publishers of Iron Man partnering with Northrop Grumman, but there was a huge presence pushing Marvel’s promo tie-in with … DoorDash? This included a flurry of ads across midtown’s digital billboards and a setup outside the Javits Center. It left me scratching my head about whoever thought this was a good idea.
The Different – Detecting Detective Comics
DC Comics has historically kept NYCC at arms length in recent years, rarely setting up a booth on the scale of their main competitor, and favoring their own DC Fandome as a promotional launch vehicle. This year, they held a peculiar event in Hudson Yards specifically for holders of their “Batcowl” NFTs to promote. . . something Hush related? Jim Lee also took a break from his scheduled signings for a “Jim Lee and Friends” panel, and there were a few other signs that DC was in the house with panels about Batman and several of their TV shows. Still, given that the hierarchy of power within the DC Universe is about to change so drastically, it did seem odd that there was zero presence for The Rock’s Black Adam. But I get it, he’s busy with people handing him babies.
The Bad – My Calves Hurt
A good sign of a terrific comic convention means it kept me on my feet moving from one point of fascination to the next, and boy do my legs ache! It is safe to say that NYCC 2022 proved ReedPop was capable of getting back to business this year despite some of the negatives I mentioned above. I’m also pretty sure that my coverage of the con gave the rest of the CXF crew some serious FOMO, so you may see more of us there next fall. Until then, you can listen to the upcoming NYCC episode of Battle of the Atom on Oct. 17 featuring interviews with Bill Sienkiewicz, Zeb Wells, Danny Lore, Steve Orlando, Maria Wolf and David Nakayama!
Adam Reck is the cartoonist behind Bish & Jubez as well as the co-host of Battle Of The Atom.
