New York Comic Con keeps the fans front and center at 20th anniversary
By MAYA PHILLIPS
When you think of a comic convention, you may envision a convergence of the biggest entertainment companies in the world, all promoting their upcoming TV series and films to eager fans. But that’s not quite right, at least not for New York Comic Con, which celebrated its 20th anniversary this past weekend. The story of this convention over the last two decades is less about how companies drive interest to their new intellectual properties and more about the organic fan communities that continue to grow — regardless of which blockbusters are hitting the big screen at the moment.
The first New York Comic Con was held in 2006 at the Javits Convention Center and was an immediate sensation. Attendance was more than double what the organizers expected and once the number hit 10,000, fire marshals showed up and locked the doors. Since then the Con has expanded to a four-day behemoth of nerd activity. I’ve attended most of the conventions held in the last 20 years and have seen the evolution through the decline of cable and rise of streaming services, through a pandemic, a Hollywood strike and a superhero boom and decline. And I’ve seen the convention shift from a fan-driven affair to a more industry-driven promotional showcase back to an event for and by fan communities.
The early years of Comic Con were mostly just for comic book collectors, where fans could sift through boxes of old issues and meet some of their favorite artists. But there was an inflection point around 2011 when big networks and brands invested in the con to promote their new media. Suddenly FX, AMC, the CW, Adult Swim and others took over large panels, sometimes screening new episodes, even full pilots. In 2011 the excitement around a panel on the new Avengers movie brought new levels of fervor to the convention hall.
Though fan response at that Avengers panel served as an accurate predictor of the film’s success, superhero movies have been sparsely promoted in conventions since. Even this year, as Marvel banks on its biggest success in years with “Avengers: Doomsday,” there was nary a mention of the coming doom on big screens.
Though the absence was notable (and Marvel TV shows including “VisionQuest” and “Daredevil” were represented), it also didn’t seem that unusual, especially considering one of the most essential data points of the convention — attendee cosplay. Granted, there were still hundreds of Spider-Men, and a relatively meager showing of other cape-and-masked heroes of the big-budget variety. But there were X-Men galore, especially Rogues and Gambits, given the captivating conclusion of Season 2 of the animated “X-Men ’97” series this year. The red-heart boxers worn by the hero in the popular LitRPG series “Dungeon Crawler Carl,” which is being developed by Peacock into a live-action show, were everywhere in sight. And there were countless anime cosplays featuring characters from “Jujutsu Kaisen,” “Witch Hat Atelier,” “The Apothecary Diaries” and more.
Over the course of Comic Con’s 20-year run, anime has had one of the most prominent arcs from niche into the mainstream. Anime wasn’t even a part of the early cons; in 2010 for the first time New York Comic Con shared the Javits with the New York Anime Festival. But for a few years there was still a separation between the anime content and vendors and the rest of the comics-related content and vendors. Anime was physically relegated to its own corner of the convention center, until the fan interest grew to a level that couldn’t be ignored.
By 2013 the con was inundated with fans in Survey Corps cosplay as “Attack on Titan” hit its peak popularity, and gradually anime was incorporated into the show floor and big panel rooms. Now anime is more prominently featured than a lot of the traditional comic book hero media. This year the giant Empire Stage roared with applause at a “Naruto” panel, and the “Avatar: Seven Havens” panel with creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko was another hot ticket item among the many Avatar cosplayers. (Full disclosure: That includes yours truly.)
The surge in fan-driven anime content is representative of NYCC’s place in the Comic-Con universe. It’s not and will never be San Diego, the home of the original Comic-Con International, which is annually teeming with Hollywood stars and exclusives. In the last few years, especially since the COVID pandemic, New York has seen a considerable uptick in the number of panels, meet-ups and events that are the opposite of the celebrity-driven fare and are simply meant to foster community.
The number of nostalgia panels for series and movies that have long concluded and have nothing new to sell have increased. So have panels where audiences and guest speakers just gather to discuss motifs, politics and representation in their fandoms. There are spaces exclusively for LGBTQ+ fans, fans of color and fans with disabilities to talk and gather. The schedule is packed with group cosplay photo ops and card game meet-ups. There is even a showing of Broadway fandoms.
As I left the Javits Center on Sunday, after four days of moving through rooms packed with magical girls, mutants, Pokémon and sorcerers all talking about and taking in their shared passions, it confirmed something that, even before my years as a critic, I’ve always known to be true: Hollywood has never defined conventions. Fans have.
