What Can You Accomplish In Just One Day At New York Comic Con?

I will always have a special place in my heart for New York Comic Con (NYCC). The Jacob Javitz Center marked the first "big" convention I ever went to. It's grown steadily over the years, to the point where tickets that used to be available at the venue DURING the weekend of, have since become unavailable within the first hour or two of online pre-orders going up. It's been quite a wild ride, and somehow, I'm still here to talk about it, even now. The removal of weekend passes, forcing con-goers to purchase individual tickets for each day of the event, really struck a chord with many, including myself. My finances haven't been the best as of late, and I originally decided this would be the first year I would NOT be attending as a result. So, what happened? Well, as time went on, Thursday passes continued to stay in stock, up until the last few days before the convention. I happened to catch one of the guest announcement emails, stating that Peter Capaldi and Pearl Mackie would be attending on said Thursday. After that, I decided "Okay, I guess if for anything, I can at least go to take a photo op with them. Let's give this a try!" So, how much can you accomplish at New York Comic Con in a single day? More importantly, how much can you accomplish on a Thursday!? The answer may surprise you.

After arriving at the Javitz Center around 11:00 AM or so, my friend and I were thrilled to see there was no delay getting inside (other than everyone being directed around the building to reach a specific entrance. It was a little annoying, but I admit it helped move the line along smoothly, so I really couldn't complain. Having TWO entrances instead of one this year was also a godsend). We wanted to approach the show floor first, in order to see if it was too late to get in on a signing. This was for Koji Igarashi (of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and the upcoming Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night), signing a small art poster for Bloodstained. We had assumed we were going to miss out on this one (since it began at 10:30 AM) and had figured the line would be capped by that point. To our amazement, it was not. Stranger than that, the line wasn't even very long! My friend and I got to the front in less than 20 minutes, with beautiful signed posters, and a great picture with Igarashi himself!


Keeping our eye on the clock in order to make a 12:45 panel, we looked around the Show Floor some more, in order to see if any exclusives we wanted were still lurking around. At the Oni Press booth, I picked up a variant cover of the Rick And Morty comic, designed to look like the cover art of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door for the Nintendo Gamecube. We also had a great discussion with some of the people working the booth (who have worked with Oni Press for years), who explained just how they've grown off the sales of Invader Zim and Rick And Morty alone. It was really insightful, and I'm glad we had enough time to chat with them before heading back downstairs to the Main Stage.


My friend happened to win a lottery for the Batman Ninja panel at 12:45, who was also able to include me as a guest. The good news is that even if he hadn't won, there was still plenty of room left to get into the panel, up until the final minutes before! I admit, from the second I had heard about the team behind this project, I knew I was going to be interested. It includes Takashi Okazaki (Afro Samurai), Kazuki Nakashima (Gurren Lagann and Kamen Rider Fourze), and Jumpei Mizusaki (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure), making this one heck of a lineup. All three were able to attend the panel, with an excellent translator to tell us their thoughts on the movie. They did not allow us to record the teaser trailer (though I admit, being among the first in the world to see it was a nice tradeoff), but it was quite a sight to behold! I am not typically a fan of CG-styled anime, but this one immediately won me over by being so stylish and interesting. (If you are familiar with any of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure openings, it's very reminiscent of that, only more fluid.) Seeing many of the Batman characters we know and love in armor and sword-fighting was also quite a treat. The Joker in this trailer actually reminded me of Kefka from Final Fantasy VI in his appearance, and I mean that in the best way possible. Near the end, I even got to ask the panelists a question of my own: Whether or not we were going to be seeing any new characters (or even villains?) alongside the classic ones that we know. While they admitted that was not really the focus in this case, Kazuki Nakashima noted that I was "very observant." Having the writer of such famous shows as Gurren Lagann and Kamen Rider Fourze tell you that, is quite a unique feeling.

After the panel, we were all invited to go up to the Bandai booth for a free signing with the panelists, and it was a ton of fun! We got to thank everyone up close for their efforts, and even got a nice signed postcard for coming up. It was overwhelming how many famous Japanese creators I got to meet in a single day, by this point. But we weren't done yet; not by a long shot...


After grabbing some quick lunch (because food is important; don't forget!), my friend and I headed over to check out the new Artist Alley location. Since the old one got closed down, it was now located to the left of the Main Stage room. I admit, there were a few times I felt like this location was more cramped than the previous one. I can't actually confirm that though, so I wouldn't try to pass it off as a fact. This section of the con was always my favorite in previous years, and though I didn't have much time in it, there was still great fun to be had. I already had my first issue of Batman/Superman signed by Greg Pak, but this year, I also got to meet Jae Lee. He was happy to sign my issue, and a very nice guy to talk with. I also found Joe Benitez's booth, and finally got my first four Lady Mechanika issues (#0-4) signed by him. It's an excellent series that's not nearly popular enough. I hope that changes as time goes on. Although I had missed my chance to meet Tom King and David Finch for the day, their booth was actually selling signed copies of Batman: Rebirth Vol. 1, so I decided to go with that. As much as I would have liked to talk with them in person, it was still a nice opportunity, and it's not like these two are going away anytime soon. I also got to briefly meet up with my friend Sarah (with her own booth in the Artist Alley!), who I hadn't seen since around the time Batman Vs. Superman came out. She makes cute buttons and you should all buy them.

No time to breathe! It was now around 4:30 PM and I had a photo op with Peter Capaldi and Pearl Mackie (of Doctor Who) at 5:00 PM. This may be the only part of the convention I had some hassle with. While pre-purchased photo op tickets have always said to come about 15 minutes before your photo op starts, this was the first time I ever saw the policy seem to get implemented. I was told to come back "closer to the time of the photo op," even though it was less than 20 minutes to. I basically stood with a large crowd of people, all waiting to get into the right line. It seemed all of the line spaces were completely filled up for other things (and the majority of it appeared to be for Mark Hamill, though I may have been wrong about that). As a result, we were finally directed to line up, but couldn't do so from the front. Instead, we were told to go all the way around from the middle section of the room, to the back of the now empty section, and walk up to the front to line up there. If that sounds confusing, it's because it was. None of us were certain that we were even in the correct line, and it didn't help when they started lining up more people for the same photo op in a separate line to fill up the spaces. While we did thankfully move right in at 5:00, that was a huge anxiety attack that I didn't feel had to occur. I've done photo ops at this convention for many years, and never run into any issues like this before now. Despite all this, things still went smoothly once we got in, and Peter and Pearl were both delightful to talk with. (They also give really big hugs too!)

After that anxiety attack was diluted, I decided I'd go get some iced coffee to keep up the pace for the remaining hours. Ironically, this was the longest line I stood in the entire day! I couldn't even be mad, since I was too busy laughing about the fact. During my time there, I got a text from my friend, saying he had just talked with Pete & Pete (yes, THAT Pete & Pete!). I sighed, took a large gulp from my plastic coffee cup, and made a mad dash to the booth he told me they were at. Sure enough, it really WAS Pete & Pete (with their real names of Mike Maronna and Danny Tamberelli). They were some of the most casual people I met the entire day, and I even got into a great music discussion with Mike (since he turned out to be a huge fan of The Replacements, one of my personal favorite bands)!

You would think the excitement would have died down by now, but you'd be wrong! Following one more run through the Show Floor, I got some free JoJo's Bizarre Adventure postcards for doing a pose and getting a picture in front of their giant Jotaro statue. I was also accompanied by an excellent Noriaki Kakyoin cosplayer for this shot. With about 40 or 45 minutes remaining until our next panel, my friend and I decided to head back toward the Main Stage to begin lining up.

For the next panel (StarTalk Radio with Neil deGrasse Tyson and Adam Savage), I happened to have won another lottery, allowing my friend and I some spots inside. Once again, even if we had not won these lotteries, there was still room to get spots for the panel earlier in the morning/afternoon. Though it did fill up much faster than the Batman Ninja panel, it was still open for a reasonable amount of time. (With that said, I DID appreciate the peace of mind, though!)

Although we were much farther back in the line to get inside, my friend and I made our way to the left side of the stage, and still got seats very close to the front. My phone's camera is terrible (and my friend's phone had completely died by that point), so I didn't get any great pictures from this panel. That said, it was well worth the wait! Dr. Tyson, Adam Savage, Chuck Nice, and S. Matthew Liao all had a fascinating discussion on human augmentation, the concept of giving various forms of enhancements to humans; some for increasing our natural capabilities, and others for simply allowing those with disabilities the same opportunities as everyone else. They went into the topics of how far we've come, how far we are going, and the question of if we can or will ever go too far. Don't fret however, as there were plenty of laughs along the way (especially from comedian, Chuck Nice, who had the audience howling with laughter more than a few times). I wish I hadn't been feeling so tired by that point of the convention, as the discussion was truly insightful, and it left you with a lot to ponder once all was said and done.

With the last panel of the convention finished up, it was time to get some (late) dinner and finally head home. My ears were ringing, my voice was a little shot, and I was pretty sure my calves were never speaking to me again. (So far... No, they're still not.) When I finally had time to process all my thoughts from the day, I simply looked back in disbelief at everything we had managed to accomplish in just one day of this convention. While it's true that experiences from Friday-Sunday may have varied, Thursday was an absolute blast! If anyone tries to tell you that you can't get anything done in one day of this convention, I hope you'll be able to show them just how wrong they can be. One day or four, this con is always a blast to attend, and I'll never forget the new friends and experiences I met along the way. I only hope your future con experiences are as fun as mine! Let me know of your NYCC experiences in the comments below!