20 YEARS OF NEW YORK COMIC CON
转载声明：本文转载自 The Aquarian，版权归原作者及原媒体所有。
New York City’s largest and most enthralling comic book convention turns two decades old this year.
It’s hard to believe we’ve had 20 years of New York Comic Con already. I, the author of this piece, actually attended the very first one back in 2006, and I only heard about it because the woman I was dating at the time, a columnist for Long Island Press, had a publicity contact who allowed us to check it out for an hour. It was already apparent from the long waiting line, which would have taken an hour to get through, that NYCC was going to blossom into something really big. By 2009 and 2010, we were already covering major panels at NYCC for sites like Fandango and MSN Movies.
Although San Diego Comic Con is still the most famous of all the comic cons, New York Comic Con has consistently drawn equally big, if not larger, crowds. While it feels like NYCC has a bit less cache these days within the film and TV world, what makes this event special is the mixture of people coming from points near and far, the diverse panels, the comic book bins holding untold treasures, and of course, all the great cosplay that we marvel at every year.
This year I had the pleasure of moderating a panel called “Level Up the Fanbase: Music Marketing in the Age of the Superfan.” Josh Goldfeder from the Syndicate asked me to join them, and I happily obliged. We were joined by Claire Anders (Sony Music – Legacy Recordings), Randy Derebegian (MNRK Music Group), and Mike Spinella (SoundCloud) for an animated 45-minute discussion about reaching out to, engaging with, and cultivating superfans in the age of digital media and influencers.
Getting to the floor, we have learned that Thursday is really the day to start doing your shopping because a lot of the good books are going to get snapped up pretty quickly. Then on Sunday you look for the last-minute deals, although they’re not as plentiful as they used to be. On Thursday this year, I met a man from Australia named Paul who is close to my age. Not only did we talk about all the great comics he found there that he couldn’t buy Down Under, but we riffed on classic Australian rock and pop from the ‘80s which has become a recent obsession of mine. That’s what’s great about NYCC – you can meet random strangers and start up friendly conversations because you know you’ll have mutual interests.
Shopping wise, I unearthed great $3 comic book deals spanning 1960s horror to 2000s superheroes. I always advise people to bring along a list of what you’re looking for, especially as some of us avid collectors occasionally end up with a double that we didn’t need to snag. Lists are crucial.
One of The Aquarian’s favorite parts of the convention is checking out the cosplayers. Some of these outfits have taken months to assemble. There are popular characters that always emerge like the Black Cat, Harley Quinn, and Superman, but you also get a lot of offbeat ones that you’ll see in the Instagram reels attached to this piece. Cosplayers are always a highlight of the event. It’s their time of year to shine. The winner this year, for me personally, was the leashed velociraptor stalking the floor. The person inside the detailed suit had a fan blowing on them. Good call! A great Ultron and a minotaur was present on the floor as well.
There were a number of interactive exhibits including a Crystal Lake escape room, a Star Trek / Magic the Gathering teleportation booth, and a photo opportunity with the Crypt Keeper. The lines for the latter two were easy, but if you wanted to get into Jason’s world the line was considerably longer.
There were also a plethora of film and TV panels, some of which will be covered on this site soon. Ben Stiller speaking to William Shatner about Star Trek was a highlight. At 95 years old, Shatner still has plenty of energy. On the flip side, there was one notable fan complaint this year: Most of the hundreds of people waiting in line for the Godzilla Minus Zero panel didn’t get in because the previous panel audience wasn’t cleared out of the room. It is apparent and understandable why they were unhappy.
Finally, one should always go down to Artist Alley to see who’s there. At the very last minute, we got the chance to speak with Argentinian artist, Martin Morazzo, who has worked on Ice Cream Man for Image Comics and the new Deadman series for DC. We had a wonderful conversation, he signed the latest issue of Dead man , and I promised myself that next year I need to obtain some art from him.
Unlike those of us who get a four-day press pass and tend to use it, some people only have one or two days there, so there’s never really enough time to do everything at New York Comic Con. But the most important thing is the sense of community that the event brings. Geeks and nerds tend to be very polite people, and they like to connect with their own kind. I was an ’80s honors high school student who liked heavy metal, comic books, Godzilla, and horror movies. I wasn’t a lonely kid, but I wish this type of event had really flourished back then because I suspect I would have made a lot of interesting friends in the process.
Yet even in adulthood, NYCC brings out the inner child in many of us and allows us to unite amid different worlds that are more enticing than what we deal with every day.
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