New York Comic Con 2011

02 Nov, 2011

New York COMIC CON 2011

Location: Jacob Javits Center in New York City

Date: October 14-16, 2011

What started out as a noble ambition to offer the North American east coast a similar taste of San Diego’s massive comic book themed convention, has quickly become a rapidly growing giant of a rival to California’s own in a matter of five years

New York City’s own Comic Con is now officially the largest and most exciting convention on the east coast to showcase the latest and greatest in comics, graphic novels, anime, manga, video games, toys, movies, and television.

IntunedOnline’s own BK201 attended the gigantic monolith of an event during its primed schedule on Saturday to provide some coverage for those of our readers who wanted to but couldn’t go. Our initial impression was, BIG!

For a convention situated in the most crowded space-deprived city in the world, NYCC was big in everything it aimed to offer. Big in attendance; NY Comic Con far exceeded over a hundred thousand attendees. Big in variety; major companies from all across the pop-culture entertainment industry attended. Big in presentation; each company booth showcasing their A-game with glossy flashing art displays and booming flat screen TV screens designed to dazzle and bombard the synapsis of every attendee walking by to stay and check out what is being offered.

NY Comic Con was big in everything else, except for the one thing it was all supposed to be about… comics. As I found myself wandering around aimlessly for hours inside the giant halls of the Showcase Floor littered with prominent company booths battling for everyone’s attention, it finally occurred to me how overshadowed the comic book genre was in this potluck of pop-culture industry convergence. In comparison to my experience of attending and exhibiting in previous years of both New York comic con and California's San Diego comic con, where people would normally expect to be able to see a line up of creators and publishers in their respective booths eager to meet fans, this year's NY Comic Con for 2011 was all about the glitters of every other strong entertainment genres such as TVs, Movies, and of course the ever expanding lucrative Video-games industry.

What "comic book" exposure I felt in New York Comic Con 2011 was found far back into the isolated corners of the Artist-Alley section. Although it had its own benefits to encounter some of my most favorite comic book creators and publishers in a secluded quieter area, the sight of them of being content with a table or two and a backdrop display of their respective logos prompted me to wonder if the convention organizers deliberately intended to belittle the importance of this section, or if in fact the arrangement simply depicted how the comic book industry has fallen further back on everyone's list of favorite past time in favor of video games. As every single major video game company attended the convention and they were all promoting in full swing. So much so, that if the banners of New York Comic Con 2011 weren't littered all over the Jacob Javits Convention Center, anyone attending would have been under the impression it was E3 or some other video game Expo.

With that said, let me just point out that my experience attending New York Comic Con 2011 was still mirrored by the 100,000+ attendees, it was a pure BLAST of a good time! From the sheer fun of going with like-minded friends as we trudged through a vibrant ocean of costumed fans, to being dazzled by the latest previous of new exciting games and movies, or the instant where I was almost stomped on by a rampaging life-size life-like giant Bumblebee Transformer robot costumed attendee, IntunedOnline would like to thank New York Comic Con for allowing us to attend and experience what everyone on the east coast would have had to shell out nearly a thousand dollars of travel expense just to attend the other (non-affiliated) comic con located in California.