The #NYCC 2021 Experience
This weekend, from 7-9 October, I visited New York Comic Con for the first time in many years. I have done a lot of work since I got pushed away from my event writing by a particularly abusive teaching job. That’s a story for another time. I was actually going to dip my toe back into the waters of convention coverage back in 2020 and then a global pandemic started, cancelling all the in person events for over a year.
Once I got over the shock of my first visit to NYC in over two years and being near so many people, stepping back into the Jacob Javitz Center for NYCC was like riding a bike. You never forget how it actually works.
I did take it easy on myself, focusing on what I wanted to cover and avoiding more high stress events for me. I accepted nor requested any formal interviews and did not stop strangers for cosplay photos. I didn’t have it in me. I also took breaks in the relative quiet of the press room, reconnecting with people who literally haven’t seen me at in person events since either 2016 or 2017. That was nice.
The crowds for the outdoor events at NYCC, including Doom Patrol, Funimation, and Neverwhere Season 2.
I’m going to have an entirely different article about the safety measures at the convention coming this week. What I’ve been very vocal about is advocating for my own health and safety. Once I got the press pass confirmed, I went on all my social media and consistently said that I would leave and not come back if I didn’t feel safe and would sound the alarms. I did come back and I did mostly feel safe.
There was an extra check-in point this year. You had to stop by a series of tents about a city block away from the convention center to show proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test. There was an app you could scan your vaccination card into that made it super easy. Show your phone, get your wristband, get onto the floor. From there, it was the typical tap-point check-in with your activated badge and metal detectors.
I give NYCC a lot of credit for their ADA program. Because of my PTSD and my chronic pain issues, I decided to request the medical sticker this year. Why not? The staff were trained to check for the metallic “M” sticker on the badge in case someone was asking for help. I checked in at the table, handed over my badge, confirmed my name, and had a sticker in seconds.
That sticker meant having help getting a side aisle seat at panels/screenings so I didn’t feel trapped and being able to move to a quieter spot before asking any questions from staff. It also meant not having to take my collapsible cane out of my carefully packed backpack to go through the medical detector. They saw my sticker, scanned my bag (it was an x-ray machine like at the airport), and let me straight through. Shout out to the staff who saw my sticker and would help me out by creating an extra buffer when I dug out the cane as needed. All of this made a huge difference in my convention experience. I felt welcome and supported for the first time at NYCC.
But Robert, you ask, why didn’t you do this before? Because I was terrified of asking for help before the pandemic and now I don’t always have a choice. Closed mouths don’t get fed and the staff at NYCC were more than happy to help me throughout the weekend.
A giant ice cream truck covered in bloody graffiti for the new Chucky series.
As an event, NYCC was as thrilling as always. The most exciting part was how much other companies stepped up for elaborate experiences when the big companies you’d expect like Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, and Image all didn’t show up. Funimation, Toei Entertainment, Amazon Audible, HBOMax, and a slew of other companies had massive photo-op friendly booths with original programming, games, and giveaways. While I didn’t get to go through the Chucky ice cream truck experience (a combination of consistently long lines and my claustrophobia stopped that), it was a huge draw and great conversation starter.
The lack of the big comic publishers also meant smaller indie presses, artists, authors, and vendors got to dominate the show floor. Fun fact: I almost had a booth this year. I applied just too late to get sorted into an appropriate price point and show floor placement to promote Haunted: A Slip Story and sell my other books and art. I wish I could’ve made it work (not to go into specifics, but what they could offer me was over twice my budget for renting a space; I’ll apply early next year), as the show floor was filled with smaller brands doing big business. I have a post coming up this week shouting out some of the kind, talented artists who took the time to talk to me throughout the weekend.
The lighting split at Artist Alley. Bright white lights in the distance; low ceiling and dull amber lighting the foreground.
The biggest disappointment to me was the Artist Alley experience this year. That is not a criticism of the quality of artists and authors on the floor. Basically, half of the Artist Alley area had horrible lighting because of NYCC’s floor planning skills. The ceilings were lower and featured sparkle ballroom lighting, not bright white lighting like every other area of the convention. I couldn’t even spend a lot of time in there because that style of lighting tends to give me migraines. I feel bad for those artists that paid that much to have their work distorted by bad lighting. There was plenty of space to have the entire Artist Alley in good lighting, but that would mean moving the queue corral for the Main Stage and they were never going to consider that.
All in all, New York Comic Con 2021 was a fun event. The reduced crowd capacity made it much easier to navigate the floors, though people who never went before were shocked by how many people were in attendance. Believe me, that Saturday crowd felt like the old Thursday preview crowd for Press and VIPs. I know capacity will inevitably increase in the future, but the crowd size made it a better event for every ticket holder.
