NY Comic Con Vs. Dragoncon
I attended NY Comic Con this Friday and Saturday. I had a great time and I recommend going if you have the means. That being said, I found myself constantly comparing it against Dragoncon and missing the mark.
Part of the problem is me, of course. I am not a comic book super-fan, I’m much more into books, movies and TV. Not to say I am completely clueless about comics- I just find that I like binge input instead of episodic installments (entire tv season in a week? yes, thank you!). I really enjoy graphic novels because they have a complete story line (most of the time.)
NYCC’s report card:
Food: F Pack your food before you come, or grab something on your walk over to the Javitts center. $4.75 for a soda? These prices are worse than Disney World. They had a variety of choices, both at the food court and on the show floor, but while the crepes looked tasty, I was not willing to pay $13 for one. Dragoncon has the advantage of being next to a mall food court, full of tables and reasonably priced chain fast food.
Panels: B- There were usually twelve panels for each time slot. Most panels were focused on comics, but there were also panels on books, tv and movies. There was only one ballroom, the rest of the panels for that time slot have “small” rooms. This meant that a lot of people were turned away from each panel. I missed out on three panels because of this, including the Mary Sue panel I really wanted to go to (I mistakenly thought 30 minutes early would be enough). The hallway for the meeting rooms is concrete. Most people stand instead of sit in line. So, to clarify, it is important to be waiting in line for a popular panel about an hour before it starts, and the waiting area is cold dirty concrete. To be fair, some of the waiting lines for Dragoncon are outside. In Atlanta. In August.
Crowds: C- Friday was less crowded than Saturday. If I go next year, I’m going to go on Thursday (pros, teachers and librarian’s day). The advantage of Dragoncon is that it is spread through five buildings. There is still crowding and picture-taking bottlenecks, but not to the extreme that I encountered at NYCC. I realized what it was. The dealer’s rooms were not the main place to show off costumes there, but at NYCC, people were pausing for pictures in the middle of retailer’s booths. People, for the love of all that’s holy, there is some etiquette to grabbing pictures of cool costumes- don’t back up without looking behind you, don’t block traffic and be courteous to the person you are taking a picture of! I know that in crowds it is easy to bump into other people, I did it myself. There is a difference between that and being plowed into by someone who feels that your existence is an annoyance. I think that kind of rude shoving happened once or twice at Dragoncon, but I lost count of the times it happened at NYCC. If I had one of the giant hammers that the Harley Quinn cosplayers were holding, I would have been hauled away by security.
I think I’ve lapsed into whining. Enough about what was bad!
What was cool:
- I got my New Mutants graphic novel signed by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod.
- I met and talked to the guys who play Vince and Dave on the tv show Haven.
- I collected signatures from Elizabeth Bear and Peter Beagle
- Shopping! I especially loved Android Sheep, Welovefine, Whimsic Alley, Superhero Stuff and Geek Chic.
- Legend of Korra sneak preview
- Marvel panel on what’s coming out soon
- Lost Girl panel- the actors who play Trick and Vex. The guy who plays Vex is redonkulous.
- People watching- costumes, people sharing their enthusiasms, odd interactions of characters.
- Geek Geek Revolution- a trivia game show for authors- the winner got a bottle opener, last place got a Jar Jar Binks mask.
