New York Comic Con has always been the premier geek convention on the East Coast, rivaled only by its sister convention in San Diego, and this year was no exception. Representatives from comic book giants like Marvel, DC and Dark Horse were there, as were various Internet artists.
Tabletop gaming was also represented—largely by Wizards of the Coast—and video games also made their way into the forefront, with developers like Rockstar Games and Activision showing off upcoming releases. Finally, there were a plethora of panels, which ranged from comic book writers and artists to creators of Adult Swim TV shows such as Robot Chicken and Superjail!. All in all, it was a good year, albeit a smaller one for the convention.
Artists, Comic Writers and Gamers Abound in Panels and Booths
This year, the Comic Con attracted a smaller, yet equally prestigious number of pop culture figures in the comic world. Webcomic superstars Penny Arcade were present, as were the crew from Cyanide & Happiness, Blind Ferret Entertainment, and VG Cats, to name a few. While the panels given by webcomic artists were limited to Penny Arcade, the artists were all in good spirits at their booths and happy to sell their swag, sign merchandise, and just generally hang around and chat. Other comic artists were present, and most notable was by far the panel with former Deadpool writer Joe Kelly.
In addition, there were lots of booths for gaming, ranging from Wizards of the Coast's demos of Magic: the Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition to Radical Entertainment's demo for their upcoming sandbox game Prototype and Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the Nintendo DS. Of course, most of the developers were giving out free products, ranging from shirts and bags to cards and actual gaming apparel. Wizards even held raffles for a free Xbox 360 to advertise their new game, Duels of the Planeswalkers. The hype was all there, and fans certainly seemed to enjoy the booths as much as the panels.
New York Comic Con Smaller But Not Lesser
Although this year, New York Comic Con was considerably smaller than it had been in the past, there was still plenty to do. There were thousands of booths, multiple panels going every hour, and not to mention Artist's Alley and the gaming rooms, but the downsizing was still noticeable. The convention only took up about half of New York City's Javits Center, and it was more crowded than it had been in the past (although claustrophobia is fairly universal and mandatory for Comic Cons). In addition, the panels were notoriously difficult to get into, and organization was not the best.
Still, the Comic Con was a fairly large event, and for its size it was pulled off very well. Unfortunately, New York Comic Con does not appear again until October 8, 2010, but their website has other convention dates on the East Coast.
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