A Newbie’s Time at Comic Con
New York Comic Con, the East Coast’s largest pop culture convention, welcomes thousands of fans to gather and appreciate all things entertainment and media. It’s an intimidating event at first glance that draws in niche or diehard fans that are willing to go all out for the event. My friend went on to describe it as the “fandom Coachella.” It’s a little nerdy, it’s a little quirky, but more than anything, it’s community building.
This year, I was lucky enough to be given tickets as a field trip for my class Television and Participatory Fan Culture with Professor Gregory Erickson. We were tasked with taking on a project of any sort that examined fandom and fan practices based off of what we saw at Comic Con. This has by far been my favorite class I’ve taken at NYU, so I was excited that NYCC was highlighted as essential to fan studies. This was my first time ever attending a Comic Con or anything like it, so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect.
1:00 pm arrival - Located right along the Westside Highway, the convention center was a bit of a walk from the Penn Station stop that my class got off at. I imagine that we looked a bit silly walking through the city, twenty NYU students led by a professor dressed as the Fourth Doctor from Doctor Who complete with a fedora and tan coat. As I approached the Javits Center, I was immediately intimidated and overwhelmed. The sidewalks were filled with clusters of people all dressed in cosplay for the event and rushing to get inside. An array of characters from different comics or shows could be seen lining up with anticipation to get in. There was a line at every entrance with little indication of who was supposed to go where. I felt extremely out of place at first, as if I was there for the wrong reasons and didn’t look the part. The convention center itself seemed out of place as a large all glass building that didn’t fit into its surroundings.
Once we got past the crowds and figured out which line we were actually supposed to be in, we entered and were greeted by a large banner that read “WELCOME TO THE ONE AND ONLY NEW YORK COMIC CON.” At this point, my class began to split off into different groups to explore and conduct any research for our respective projects. I gathered with a small group of friends as we tried to decide where we wanted to go first. In my group of four, only one of us had attended a Comic Con in the past and we put a lot of faith in her to help guide us. We tried consulting a map at first but realized that the map given out only vaguely detailed a fraction of the whole convention center. We decided to steer away from the largest crowds to begin with and headed towards the Artist Alley.
1:27 pm inside the Artist Alley - Feeling much calmer at this point. This hall is significantly less crowded and is laid out with aisles of artists booths. My group was able to walk up and down the aisles, going at our own pace, admiring what different artists had to offer. Many of the featured artists work within the comic book industry, making comic books of their own or putting their own spin on other popular media. Other artists sell a variety of merchandise of their own from prints to keychains to notebooks. I appreciated seeing the vast creativity within this space from more “official” media producers to small business owners. It was interesting to see how fans presented themselves and their work in the space. While I loved walking around the hall, I will admit that it wasn’t exactly my fancy. One of my friends noted that it felt like the other Comic Con attendees in this area came in with the specific goal of buying art or looking for a particular artist. Truthfully, for me this area served as a good jumping point to get acclimated to the convention and got me away from the large crowds in the front. After a good 30-45 minutes in the Artist Alley, we made our way to the show floor to see all the booths and exhibitions.
2:15 on the Show Floor - I went in feeling pretty good. I’ve prepared myself by walking through the Artist Alley and I’m ready to make some observations for my class project. I wasn’t really expecting much and really accepted the fact that I was there as a student more than anything. I wandered around not expecting to find anything of personal interest. I still felt a bit out of place, as though everyone was attending out of passion and I was the only one who wasn’t. After just a couple of minutes checking out the booths, I was in love. I had this preconceived idea that Comic Con served some niche audience that I wasn’t a part of but quickly realized that there really was something for everyone here. Making assumptions from the convention name, I assumed that most of the content would be very comic related. While I personally love a good Marvel movie, I’m not super connected to the comic community. Entering the show floor, I was immediately enthralled by a humongous display for My Hero Academia. It seems as though I completely forgot that Comic Con drew in a large anime fanbase. I felt like a little kid at a carnival going from booth to booth for different shows or companies I recognized.
While it may be expected that comics and anime are present at Comic Con, there were still a million other booths for virtually anyone to find their interests in. Book publishing, video games, popular culture – if you enjoy consuming any sort of media, there is definitely something for you. However, the show floor is incredibly easy to get lost in and the map first provided at the door seems more useless than ever. My group was able to navigate based on the limited booths included in the map but I can’t imagine it would be easy if you’re going in looking for a specific booth. From what I gathered, that information could be found on the NY Comic Con website but naturally, cell service and wifi was limited once inside the Javits Center. My best guess is that it would be useful to screenshot important pages of the website to easily pull up on your phone without having to rely on the internet. Luckily, my group was more focused on exploring the floor in general and we had a great time looking into the different booths we were all into.
One major caveat of the Show Floor is the strong all-surrounding smell of popcorn. It was everywhere and simply unavoidable. No matter how much I wanted to escape it, I couldn’t. The smell was so intense that I couldn’t help but crave it. It took everything in me not to cave and buy a bag of popcorn. With this in mind, the popcorn smell will really get to you if you’re already starting to get hungry. My whole group felt this and as we finished up on the show floor, we took it as a natural time to grab some lunch.
3:37 pm after lunch - My whole group grabbed some dumplings downstairs and we were able to grab a little table away from the crowds. The dumplings were a solid 9/10 (though this review may have also been influenced by my immense hunger) but were also insanely expensive. I had packed a few snacks for myself that were also able to hold me over but if I could do it again, I would’ve packed a whole lunch. There were plenty of options of food from a dining hall and line of food trucks but everything was extremely overpriced. Though I will say, for overpriced food at a convention, at least it was good.
At this point though, I was mentally and physically exhausted. I should’ve prepared myself more for all the walking and mental power this would take. I originally wanted to attend a panel or two after lunch but it didn’t seem as though it was in the cards for me. With nothing to gain or lose by going, I personally had no problem with skipping out and heading home. I gave myself another hour or so to wander around with my group but left Javits a little before 5 pm.
Despite missing out on the panels, I was more than satisfied with my first Comic Con experience. I had the opportunity to explore a space and event that I never would have gone to before, and I ended up loving it and healing my inner child. It’s not often that I find spaces as an adult where I can be engulfed in pure fascination. Free of judgment and free of worry. I was impressed by the variety of media presented and found that this was a welcoming experience that anyone could enjoy. In addition to what the convention offers, it was crazy to see the creativity of different fans shown through their cosplay or art. I went home feeling fulfilled and took the greatest nap of my life afterwards.
