I've lived my entire life in NJ and NYC. I'm used to massive conventions with thousands of people creating an unending traffic jam from morning until night for the duration of the event. There's an energy a crowd that large brings, but it also makes it harder to actually have really personal interactions with guests, artists, and other exhibitors. Special Edition: NYC, the newest fan convention to hit the Jacob Javits Center in NYC, finished its two day run last night. It was not the kind of convention you would expect in a venue that large and that's a very good thing.
I was only able to attend on Sunday due to work obligations and I wish I could have been there on Saturday, as well. I made it just in time to experience the queue line to enter the one hall being used at Jacob Javitz Center. It moved fast and everyone got in within minutes of opening.
The one hall thing is pretty significant. NYCC (which I love, but it's an entirely different beast) uses every square inch of the massive convention center. Special Edition: NYC was contained almost entirely in the one hall that usually houses just the Artist's Alley at NYCC. Yet somehow, that was the perfect size for a purely comics-themed convention in this area.
The vibe was completely different from any other convention I've experienced. It felt like a party for just a couple thousand like-minded fans. The entrance, lined with Batman cutouts, was flanked by a DJ mixing live music all day long. ReedPOP, the company that runs the convention, had there merch booth to one side. Everything else went from large to small on the actual show floor.
The front of the floor held large booths for larger publishers, including Marvel, Valiant, and Archie Comics. Behind them were a mix of indie publishers, web artists/writers, and brick and mortar comic book shops peddling their wares. They filled the front half of the hall and, honestly, you could have spent an entire day just wandering through the stacks of comics and toys.
The back half of the hall is where I spent most of my time. That was Artist's Alley. I love these sections at any convention, but Special Edition: NYC had one huge advantage over any other con I've been to: space. Even when the hall started to fill up in the afternoon, the layout of Special Edition: NYC meant that I was able to actually have conversations with these artists about their work and their experience at the con. Usually, with this many exhibitors in a room, you're lucky if you stop long enough at a booth to throw money at someone and walk away with product.
Special Edition: NYC didn't lack for content, either. The vendors brought a lot to play around with. New multimedia comic/video companies had video demos and even live actors walking around. The Mary Sue editors set up a table and played Zombie Dice with anyone who stopped by for a quick chat about geek culture. Vendors were quite nice about browsing (unwrapped) products and most of the artists and publishers encouraged you to pick up a book and start reading.
ReedPOP didn't disappoint with scheduled content, either. They brought back the amazing Secret Walls live art battles and put them right in the front of the room. The various plays on superheroes drew a huge crowd all day long. I just wish I could have stayed long enough on Sunday to see another set of artists go at the canvases that were flipped over while I was leaving.
The convention also had a very strong line-up of panels all weekend long. This is why I had to specify it mostly took place in one hall. Special Edition: NYC used the two largest rooms available (outside of the massive theater) in the Jacob Javits Center for panels. They were just located on the opposite side of a convention hall that spans two NYC blocks. I enjoyed the perspective on just how intimate the convention was compared to NYCC. I've never seen so little happening at Jacob Javits Center, but I've also never gotten to do every single thing I wanted to at a convention in this location.
The best part about the panels was the size of these rooms. No one was turned away at the door. If you wanted to see DC comic artists talk about the 75th Anniversary of Batman, you had your choice of seats in a large room. There was even a huge monitor set up so the back half of the room could see the PowerPoint presentation projected on the large screen in the front. If you wanted to see a lecture on the strangest superheroes from the Golden Age of comics run by one professor, you could show up right at the start of the presentation and get a seat. The staff were instructed to request people return closer to the start of a panel rather than line up and create unnecessary traffic. It worked.
I'm aware that Special Edition: NYC is very likely to grow into something much larger in the future. That's not a bad thing. I just hope that ReedPOP manages to keep this sense of intimacy and this laser focus on comics for years to come.
And here's the other big hope. Special Edition: NYC has that colon in the title. Will ReedPOP actually branch out and try running these smaller comics-only conventions in other major markets? I sure hope so. Every comic fan deserve the chance to attend something this well-run and inviting.