CONVENTION REVIEW: NEW YORK COMIC-CON 2018

Geekdom was in the air as soon as I stepped out of the 7 train in NYC! As soon as you stepped out you were in the comic book universe of your choice! Cos-players were everywhere as were fans, families rushing to get into the East Coast Mecca for Fandom that is NYCC!Â NYC was alive and kicking, I truly felt like I was in a city in a comic book!Â This con was amazing! This con is not ONLY at the Jacob Javits Convention Center but all across the Mid-West Side of Manhattan! You could go to panels, signings at local bars, Hammerstein, and the legendary MSG!

Now let’s get into it.

Thursday:

On Thursday I went with my baby bro, Chris Crash, to cover day 1 of NYCC. I was amazed by the size of the crowd, Chris asked if anyone in NY was working that day! Honestly looked like a Saturday at any Northeast Con! the energy was amazing, the people were into it! being on the press side and having to see the hate via social it was refreshing to see that NONE of it was prevalent at this show! It was a love fest of all forms of geek-dom! We had comics cosplay, anime cosplay (Anime Fest was at Pier 94), TV cosplay, pet cosplay and more….. Once we hit inside the Javits it was on! The show floor was packed instantly, people ran for the exclusives, including Chris on behalf of Toyverse, for Mezco, Storm, Diamond, Storm, etc.. It was an instant madhouse, but I loved every second of it!Â As press we had an exclusive opportunity to chat with the Impractical Jokers at a press panel.Â (minus Joe). They spoke about where the show is going and some of their favorite punishments etc… They are a classy group of guys and was a real treat to meet them.

“My baby bro has bad timing with pics apparently! lol”

From there Chris and I enjoyed the rest of the con. We visited several booths, chatted with many creators and took several cosplay photos. I also got the chance to talk to the amazingly talented Andrew MacLean, creator of Head Lopper, recording will be up on UCPN soon!

Friday:

This was an awesome day! On Friday it was wifey, Arelis Perez and IÂ and started off the day with the Impact Theory press Panel with the amazing Steve Aoki as well as Fortune 500 Entrepreneur Tom Bilyeu and legendary comic creator Jim Kreuger. We got lots of cool insight into Neon Future and Impact Theory Comics.

After the press panel my wife and I hit up artists alley! There we met many amazing creators from ALL over the world. I was extremely happy to see so many Latinos/Hispanics and Women at artists alley and of course the legends of the industry. Their works looked phenomenal and I look forward to seeing all their names splashed somewhere on a billboard one day! They ARE the future of comics based on their talent!

Saturday:

I tried to make Saturday, Family Day (even though was working too) as I went with wifey and our daughter. It was great to see so much fandom from all ages in this show! We spoke to an amazing female creator, the CEO of Shero Comics, Shequeta Smith, she has tons of plans to show POC characters on a worldwide scale! Watch out for Shero comics and their creation Rayven Choi.! From there we also met a boatload of indie creators with fantastic projects. many were at teh show pitching and looking for a new opp as new fans found their works. At Artist Alley we also got the chance to meet the legendary John Leguizamo, DMC, and more….

I also had the pleasure of meeting Mark London, CEO of Mad Cave Studios, and we talked about the stuff headed our way and I really can’t wait to see. While talking to him, TeamCC/UCPN friend, Ben Goldsmith was there and was able to tell me he is working on a new amazing project at Mad Cave, stay tuned! Caleb Thusat the indie creator behind Zed and Alter-Life was hanging otu as well. I got to look st the hard copies of the book and they look amazing! He also let us know about his latest Kickstarter Zed 2 among other plans! I kept running in to amazing indie creators along the day and it was fun!

For a Saturday it wasn’t as crazy as I thought it would be but that is also because so many events were held “off-site” that it truly helped with foot traffic.

Sunday:

On Sunday our media partner Critix went to experience NYCC. They got the chance to hit up a few press panels and they got to talk to The Gifted cast as well as the Cobra Kai cast.

NYCC Cosplay:

I spoke to many fans and there was a consensus, I had asked ALL of them what’s the difference between SDCC and NYCC IF any? They all replied the same! NYCC is TRULY about comic books as where SDCC is more “Hollywood”. In speaking to many creators, they concurred and most stated they may skip SDCC to hit NYCC. So with that said, looks like NYCC is THE Mecca for comic book creators and fans!

I can state whole-hardheartedly this is my favorite comic-con EVER! It was an experience on the press side I/We haven’t had, an event of this scope I haven’t experienced in quite awhile! This is a fun show for the whole family with tons to do! You gotta get a multi-day pass in order to truly experience the event!

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We’d like to express a warm Thank You to Reed Pop for the press passes to attend the event, and a big thank you to all the staff, handlers, agents, celebs, creators, fans that made this experience one of the best I’ve EVER had at ANY convention! We look forward to next year!

Author Profile

Al Mega

I'm Al Mega the CEO of Comic Crusaders, CEO of the Undercover Capes Podcast Network, CEO of Geekery Magazine & Owner of Splintered Press (coming soon). I'm a fan of comics, cartoons and old school video games. Make sure to check out our podcasts/vidcasts and more!