HELLO NEW YORK CITY!!!
It's October 7th, 2021! It's been two years and it's finally time to return to New York Comic Con!
With the biggest question on my mind being how the heck does a comic convention the size of NYCC happen during a Global Pandemic?
Well I found out. And you'll find out as well after the break!
Two years have definitely passed since I last look at this little corner of NYC.
I know this because there used to be a building in front of that McDonalds.
And also a building on top of it. I would question HOW a McDonalds could remain standing when the building ont op of it was completely disassembled, but at this point I know better than to question the power of those golden arches.
Moving on...
... to the Javits Center! Oh how I have missed that Crystal Palace!
But what are those banners that are on the fence?
Oh yeah... Star Trek: Prodigy's world premiere is happening this Sunday!
I have my seat reserved for that panel and I cannot wait to see it!
But first I must head up and see how ReedPop has set up the Exhibition Hall for NYCC this year.
...I was not expecting enough room in the aisles to be able to drive two cars in opposite directions down.
With one lane road off shoots.
Usually the exhibition hall is filled with as many booths as possible while maintaining a width for each aisle which allows between 4-6 people across. After going to NYCC for over a decade now, seeing the aisles this wide this was really strange.
It was also really appreciated. The wide aisles give the attendees the ability to social distance. Added to that is the mask and vaccine mandates for this show and it is crystal clear ReedPop is taking the pandemic seriously.
I approve.
Though that doesn't mean there aren't some changes.
This area right here is usually NYCC's SyFy Lounge, and SyFy is set up with a plethora of stuff around.
This year? Nada. It was surreal to see this area empty.
What was not surreal was seeing the main entrance for the exhibit hall open up.
Yes I did miss those huge doors. And seeing them up as the con staff slow let people in the hall just felt right.
I was not expecting the vert first thing I saw to be to Vegeta in his Oozaru form.
Followed by the Ginyu Force striking their iconic poses.
And the Z-Fighters posing for a photo under Shenron.
It was really nice to see Toei Animation make the trip all the way from Japan out to New York City to celebrate Dragon Ball!
And also premiere the full trailer for Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero! Did you all catch that this morning?
It was definitely an exciting trailer. Though the use of the 3D CGI models was a little off putting.
As for the crowds themselves, well if you were waiting for anything, it was New York Line Con.
It was nice to see that some things really haven't changed.
Even though everyone was a wearing a mask.
What was a big change was seeing the gaming area for the show in the exhibit hall. Usually this is in its own dedicated room at the show.
I can understand why this is in the exhibit show this year. There's a lot more room to spread out.
I seriously cannot get over how wide these aisles are. Just look at how everyone isn't packed in like sardines. It's crazy!
The food trucks offering lunch for the venue were not crazy. And they were basically all the same trucks, with some new additions. They all looked good, but I went with something Mexican.
I was hungry after getting through the exhibit hall in only a handful of hours as opposed to whole day.
It's weird. Usually I try to break up coverage of the convention into different days because it usually takes forever to do anything at the show simply because of the size of the crowd.
But because the crowd is much smaller and more spread out, I think I'm going to go cover what I usually cover on day two.
Hello Artist Alley! It's time to go check in with the My Little Pony Comics crew!
To start things off we have MLP Comic Writer Thom Zahler. Yes he is at the show. And he is selling his my Little Pony trade paperback, the Ponies of Dark Water treasure edition, and what few trades he has left of his creator owned work.
As for what he has been up to during the pandemic, well he's been working on another volume of Love & Capes! This volume is subtitled "In the Time of Covid." He's been releasing this comic weekly on his Patreon for the past year (because it's a fairly relevant topic). The story is about to wrap up in the next couple of weeks, however he's also launched a Kickstarter to collect the whole story into a perfect bound physical release.
If you want to get your hands on the physical volume, go back his kickstarter.
Next to Thom is the always wonderful Andy Price!
He didn't really have too much in the way of new merch at this show, but he did have all of his remianing limited edition prints. Including his cover to issue 102.
Speaking of issue 102, the final issue of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is out next Wednesday. It's a little bitter sweet that this is the last NYCC before the MLP:FiM comic series ends, however Andy is taking it all in stride. He's got other projects in the works, that he can't talk about at the moment, that he's working on right now.
Stuff that he's been really looking forward to working on for a while now.
Up next was Sara Richard.
She spent the pandemic working her first entirely creator own work, "The Dead Hand Book." Which is up for preorder now via Amazon.com,
Aside from that she has also been working on a cocktail companion book for the greek goods book that was released earlier this year.
The cocktail book is due out later in 2021.
Agnes Garbowska spent her time working on DC Superhero Girls for DC comics and she is happy to be back on pony illustrating the covers for the My Little Pony: Generations mini-series.
Not much to catch up on with Agnes. But it was wonderful to see her again.
And speaking of wonderful to see again, Jay Fosgitt made his annual appearance at NYCC.
He's been keeping busy working for Disney on a comic book that so far has only been released internationally called Young Donald. It hasn't been released in the US yet, but form what I have seen, this is not a work from Jay to be missed, regardless of what language it is in.
In between working for Disney, he has been spending his time continuing his work on Bodie Troll. He is almost finished illustrating the whole comic and absolutely cannot wait to get it out to into the world.
One really notable vendor who hasn't been to NYCC before is our good friend Chocopony. This is their first time vending at NYCC. Which is also their first ReedPop Convention.
They are really looking forward to seeing how they do at this convention. If you are a veteran of the MLP convention circuit, consider stopping by the Transformative Art table in Artist Alley to say hello.
While some changes, like the addition on Chocopony to the convention are good, the specter of the COVID-19 Pandemic continued to makes its presences known throughout the festivities.
Areas in the Javits Center, like this wing, near the entrance to the new Javits Center Expansion, is usually filled with the NYCC Official Convention Store.
They are split between two locations in the exhibit hall this year, which leaves the particular hall barren and empty save for a single seldom used food kiosk.
Or this hallway on the opposite side of the Javits Center above the stairs leading to the autograph area.
Area was previously occupied by DC Comics to promote what their latest and greatest DC Movie was for the year. Seeing these areas empty, along with the masks on everyone in the convention were constant reminders that even though the show is back, the pandemic is definitely not over yet.
It was a sobering realization to have right before I decided to call it a day.
Though before I left for the day there was one last booth I absolutely needed to see.
At NYCC 2019, VaicomCBS had a Transporter Experience setup for their Star Trek booth. It was an LED room that simulated the experience of transporting from the USS Discovery's Transporter room to various places on the ship.
Even outside during a space battle for some reason.
After being gone for two years, and with an obvious reduced booth space, I was wondering what they could have possibly come up with to make Star Trek Prodigy's debut at NYCC truly memorable.
They thought of something. It was a photo-op...
...where you sit in the captain's chair of the USS Protostar.
Sitting in the captain's chair of a Federation Starship is something I have wanted to do since I was 3 years old.
I finally got to sit in the big chair. And it reminded me of why NYCC is one of the best conventions in the US. Because every so often, you get to experience magic.
With that my first day NYCC is in the books. What will tomorrow hold?
Well first of all it will be me meeting Sam Maggs in person for the first time since SDCC 2019. Really looking forward to seeing her again.
Second, I'll be hunting down that MLP Gen 5 mystery box. I am morbidly curious to find out what is inside.
Until tomorrow folks, this has been The Illustrious Q.
