NY COMIC CON 2013 was Bigger and Weirder Than Ever!

Only three hundred fifty nine days left until NY Comic Con 2014, baby!  I am already counting down the days.  NYCC 2013 was a complete blast.  I was there for all four days, and I am fiending for more.

This year’s NYCC was busier than ever.  Over 130,000 unique attendees were at the con, 14,000 more than last year, making it around the same size as San Diego Comic-Con International.  In past years, Saturday is the busiest day, but this year Friday and Sunday seemed equally crowded.  The busyness is part of the fun.  At most other times of the year, many of us feel like outcasts in normie society, but at Comic Con we stand united in a mob of thousands of other nerds, geeks and weirdos!  I hope next year it is even more nuts.

I felt less like a comic fan this year, and more connected to geek culture as a whole.  In the past, I was the cat who complained about gamers, manga-nerds and movie fans infiltrating comic con, but this year I was proud to be in their company.  Geek culture is about fans celebrating our creativity, weirdness and our love for the characters we adore.  Comic con allows us to escape the reality of our nine to fives and be ourselves, surrounded by other freakazoids.  The actual comic universes still lack diversity and in no way represent the actual demographics of the nerd fanbase.  This weekend I was surrounded by fanboys and fangirls from all different backgrounds.  We come in all shapes, and sizes.  Geeks are black, brown, queer, straight, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Irish, Puerto Rican, Italian, Nigerian, Israeli, Iranian, and on and on.  We were all there representing. It was such a lovely festival of weirdos!

 I attended many panels, but mostly the smaller ones.  The only big two panel I hit up was the X-Men panel because I am such a blind follower of mutant titles.  Other than that, it is not worth going to the big two panels because they are quickly recapped online.  There were many exciting panels such as: Women in Comics, New York Times OUT and Geeks Out present LGBT and Allies in Comics, Boom! Bap! Pow!! Comic Books & Hip-Hop with DMC!, Bleeding Cool – The Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘N’ Roll of Comics, Revealed, The Mary Sue Presents Representation in Geek Media, Geeks of Color Assemble! : Minorities in Fandom, Using Comics and Graphic Novels in the Classroom: Whys and Hows, and Women of Marvel.  I went to as many as I could, but I did not get into half of them because of the incredible turnout!  The Women of Marvel panel had a turnout equal to the big movie panels!  This makes me so happy; I have never been so excited to not get to attend something.  A sell out is a wonderful thing.

In the battle of comic companies at the con, DC lost to everyone.  No one even knew where their booth was. They were literally hiding.  Plus, other than Stephanie Brown’s big return and a few other things, they had very few major announcements. Every other company at the con was more visible than DC.  Even the smallest indie company seemed to have a larger presence. Hmmmmm, was DC hiding because they were afraid of their fans being upset at them?

There was no internet access and, at times, no cell phone reception.  This could have been a nightmare because I could not post articles, but instead I said “screw it, Imma do me and have some fun.”  It was actually a relief to not have any internet.  I felt like I was stranded on a deserted island with only thousands of freaks and a crapload of comics.  I was able to focus on my interviews with my heroes (which will drop on the site soon).  It also gave me the opportunity to attend more panels and buy goodies.

I was the king of buying crap.  I know how to hustle and haggle deals like a pro, baby.  I purchased five trades for a total of $25- Watchmen, Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel (I’ve been looking for this forever), Dwayne McDuffie’s run on Fantastic Four, Marvel 70^th Aniversary Collection (a huge book with many classic stories), and Marvel Firsts: The 1970s (I love reading 70’s comics because it was the first time we saw prominent African American characters, and sometimes they were really weird).  I bought all my graphic novels on Sunday because that is the cheapest day to buy.

I also got my ridiculously large and gaudy Welovefine My Little Pony bag by buying a t-shirt from them.  I absolutely adore these crazy over-sized bags, and even though I will never ever use it, I purchase one every year.  I also purchased an exclusive Stan Lee Pop! Vinyl Figure from the ConventionExclusive.com booth.  It was a battle to get one.  They only handed out a small amount each day, and if you didn’t get to their booth within the first 10-30 minutes you were out of luck.

I wish I got the Rocket Raccoon plush exclusive from the Marvel booth, but the lines for it were insane and it was sold out by midday Saturday.  Probably my favorite thing I bought was a Miles Morales print from David Marquez.  The print means so much more to me because I had the opportunity to talk with David and he is a true mensch (great, great dude).  (The interview I did with him will be on the site soon. It is awesome stuff, and I ask him many deep questions!)

By the end of the convention I was essentially a walking zombie.  My feet were freakin’ killing me, and I had not slept well for days.   No matter how tired I was or how swollen my feet were, I wish it went four more days.  I could have walked around the con ‘till my feet fell off.  But, like every year, Comic-Con has to end.  Now, I have fallen into my post Comic-Con depression.  Luckily, the dates were just announced for next years con.  See you October 9^th through the 12^th, 2014!

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Jay Deitcher, LMSW(@mrdeitcher) is an educator on comic history and runs successful Free Comic Book Day events yearly.  You can see a listing of his incredible articles at JayDeitcher.com.