So here’s the deal: When it comes to comic book conventions on the east coast, I am what is known as a “vet”, a veterinarian if you will. I started going with my dad to the Big Apple Comic Con which happened in what seemed like the actual basement of a downtown hotel. We’re talking yellow fluorescent lighting, matte tan walls with molding and fake wood panels a third of the way down, church swap meet tables that bit your finger if you put em up wrong and and just the worst white guys you can imagine without business degrees. Oh yeah! I’m talking about a time when if you wanted to get your book signed by the artists who drew it, you were going ten miles into Jersey, to the dining hall of a Marriott you’d only stay in if Delta fucked up your flight.
Boy, things are different now. Comic Conventions are huge now. Not just in space they take up and crowd size, but also in business figures. According to Reedpop, NYCC ‘23 had a turn out of 200,000 fans with over 1,250 exhibitors, creators panels and events, with a reported 12% of the programming actually related to comic books. That’s a LOT of really cool stuff to see and an obscene amount of people to wade through on any given day. This is why those of us who have done the con scene for a while make very judicious choice our attendance regarding and listen… if you promise to keep this to yourself I’ll let you in on the pro tip to get most New York Comic Con bang for your buck. Here are…
Top 3 Reasons Sunday is The BEST Day to Attend NYCC:
Note: This advice is NOT for everyone. If you are coming to comic con to jam into the main hall and see all the upcoming previews and cool events or if there is a specific writer/artist you need to get a signature from who will only be there on Friday or Saturday, then this advice won’t be as well suited. There are really good reasons to attend any if not all of the days. Having said that:
1. The Discounts
Let be real; Capitalism, not comics is the real reason for the season. If you come to a con and spend no money, I want to congratulate you on your willpower and ask earnestly, why the fuck are you here? There are movie quality props and various collectibles from every fandom imaginable that come to New York from all over the country and all of it is available for purchase. Alas not every Deadpool plushie finds its forever home which means the vendors will have to take them back across the country at the end of the con. If you add to that the simple truth that less stuff costs less to ship than more stuff, what you find yourself in on Sunday is what we deal seekers like to call a “buyers market”.
You can regularly get 90% off a brand new hardcover single printing omnibus, retailing for over a hundred bucks until it goes out of print and sells for much higher later. These sorts of discounts will generally be true for any item brought to the con in bulk and over a long enough distance. Basically the more they got and the heavier it is the cheaper you can get it for. This also works for more high end collectables but the discounts won’t be as severe and be prepared to haggle.That being said I’ve gotten stuff like solid aluminum and leather Captain America-style shields, full-tang Damascus Steel samurai swords and other hand-crafted artisanal fantasy fare at around 30 to 60 percent off their asking price. It’s not just small mom-and-pop stands either. I once got An embroidered and embossed limited edition Black Panther bomber jacket directly from the Heroes and Villains booth for more than half off in the final 10 minutes of the show, one year.
2. The Vibes
Am I saying that Sunday is a less crowded day? No. Objectively it’s still a quite crowded pop culture headrush but Sunday tickets are cheaper and explicitly inclusive to families with little kids and unless you’re an infinite asshole, small children are always more rewarding to be around than sweaty, nerdish adults. all of the same cosplayers are present, but now there are little five-year-olds running around in fully transforming Optimus Prime outfits that ensure your death by Kawaii.
Also, if you’re anything like me, the comic book convention might be the only time you see a whole host of friends who are normally scattered all across the country, but came to the big apple for three days of genre consumption and people watching. So Sunday winds up being the goodbye day you make arrangements to meet with friends and you give out hugs and you wish everyone a better year than the previous before you go your separate way through the security check gates and meet the wall of pedal carts, each blasting a different song in unison. It can be a rather wistful time as Green Day’s “Time of Your Life” plays non-diegetically in the background.
3. The Artist and Writers
Come to enough cons and you see that if a writer or artist is big enough that there is no way in hell they are schlepping down to the Jakob Javits Center to hawk their wears in a weirdly, loud, pale gray basement/super spreader event if they don’t ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO. Chances are your big faves took the Lord’s day to rest and as such your last day to see them was Saturday. This may sound like a bummer, but what you have to understand is that everyone left is absolutely about this comic convention life.
They’re the ones who will remember your name next year.
They’re the ones who will personalize their signatures above and beyond any reasonable expectation because they are genuinely happy to have you as a fan.
They are the ones who, if you were cool enough, might go out for a drink with you after the show (provided you paid for the first round). Now mind you this is not guaranteed, you can’t be a fucking weirdo and act entitled to their free time AND every artist or writer or creative as well within their right to tell you to fuck off if you’re being a creep… I have friends who hang out with Eisner Award-winning artist and other comic industry people during the week of comic conventions, off of relationships that started on a Sunday with a firm handshake and an earnest admission of admiration of their work.
So you got the guys who really love comic book conventions who you have a chance to get to know better as human beings but also on Sunday you have the scrappers. The people for whom this convention might actually cost them money to attend then they made selling their art and trying their best to network and get a foothold in the industry. These are the creative that would really appreciate you coming by and showing some love. They are often people of color but not always and every so often they’re someone on the come up who after they hit big you get the privilege of being able to look back and appreciate how you were there at the beginnings of their success. For instance, author Matthew Rosenberg, who is currently writing ”DC vs. Vampires: World War V” used to work at a comic book shop in New York City with a couple of friends of mine and he went from publishing his own stuff and selling them at conventions to getting a chance to write comics with big name rap artist, until eventually, he started riding for the big three doing books like Punisher, Daredevil, and a number of other great titles. What I’m saying is that the next big star who will create the next huge story in pop culture is absolutely an Artist Alley on Sunday and you’re doing yourself a disservice by not popping by showing some love.
