New York Comic Con-February 24-26

[tstidm1]

New York is getting a pretty good Comic Book Con next month. It is at the Javits Center. Ny Comic Con is the website address. Mari Ijima is going to be there along with Joe Quesada, Kevin Smith, Greg Ayers, Eric Bresler (of Otaku Unite), some Manga-Ka and others. This should be a pretty good first year con.

Who else is going to be there? I need to figure out a way to make it more than a day con for me. I am looking for a cheap room share or a ride from Baltimore.

[Marmalade Brat]

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Redneck Otaku said:
I need to figure out a way to make it more than a day con for me. I am looking for a cheap room share or a ride from Baltimore.

[/ QUOTE ]

Cheap and NYC Hotel don't go together. You might want to check out the New York Inn at 765 8th Avenue , New York, NY, 10036, but they might be booked up by this point.

[AmusedObserver]

Just a quick bump for this event. Looks like all the major manga publishers will be there.

I'm attending on sunday.

[LadyFae]

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Amused Observer said:
Just a quick bump for this event.

[/ QUOTE ]

uhm, I think you know better than to bump *waggles finger*

[sir_integra]

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Amused Observer said:
Just a quick bump for this event. Looks like all the major manga publishers will be there.

I'm attending on sunday.

[/ QUOTE ]

Should be better for you than it was for me.

On Saturday, the con was so disorganized, I almost left right away. The staff had no idea where anything was, nothing was marked. I got pushed around to different lines for 30 minutes because they didn't know what they were doing. And I preregistered!

They did get many more people than they were expecting but they never had a plan to recover order. Few signs, no marked pathways. Then they had signings in the exhibition room which have a tendency to back things up.

Really awful. Most of the people I talked to who had weekend passes weren't coming back Sunday. So, maybe it'll be better.

[eugene_cheng]

I'll be going there today, so I'll let you know.

[monkeebiz]

Thanks for the report. I really wanted to go, but my knee was bothering me and I was unsure how huge the place was and how far I would have to limp. [img]/images/graemlins/sdsmiley.gif[/img] But there was an article in the NY Daily News today that said fire marshals ordered the convention to stop letting people in after the first 10,000, even people who already had purchased tickets. (Heh, that totally would've been me stuck outside looking in.) A spokesman for the event actually was quoted as saying they were discouraging people from coming Sunday.

Besides all the special guests and programming, what was the dealers room like? What were the industry booths like? What percentage of the whole was manga/anime?

[sir_integra]

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monkeebiz said:
....
Besides all the special guests and programming, what was the dealers room like? What were the industry booths like? What percentage of the whole was manga/anime?

[/ QUOTE ]

There was no "dealer's room". it was an "exhibition hall". Lots of manga dealers and publishers plus Borders, Kinokuniya...

There wasn't anything there that you couldn't have got online for cheaper. I did buy some TP that I wanted but I already had everything I wanted from Viz. Viz was really promoting subscriptions to SB and SJ. ADV was there. Dark Horse was there. Some booths were selling, others doing promotional work and signings (Dark Horse and DC). I did pick up some bargain manga from CPM (thanks!) and 3 of the 4 volumes of Clover(TP).


Panels seemed to have seating room available.

I will say that after what it cost me to get to NYC and stay overnight with the spouse, if I had been turned away with a preregistered and prepaid ticket, I would have gone nuclear. In a middle aged woman like myself, it ain't pretty. As it is, I feel a bit ripped off missing the last day of the con.

Why did the fire marshalls have to tell them to stop letting people in? I got there at 11:00 am and the line for new registrations was snaked inside the building and outside and around the block. It was already a big, big mess. Couldn't they have stopped new registations until they had a better handle on it? You can't tell me they didn't know how many they had sold. Sure, it was inexperience and incompetence, but greed plays a part also.

Worst con I've ever been to.

[tstidm1]

Programming wise it was a very good event. The Dealer's Room was a mixed bag, but I found some interesting things. There were no Anime Merchandise (not books or DVD's) dealer's there and that was dissappointment. Nobody went to the Anime panels. I was in a Armored Trooper Votoms panel with 4 people besides Peter, Tim Eldred and I. It is cool for me to go to the industry panels because at Otakon I usually gofer (never seeing a panel to save my life).

Peter Tartara is insane or runs on adrenaline. There were some interesting costumes. Did anybody get pictures of the cosplayers? I got to hear from all of the major players.

I had a blast and would come in on Friday next year as early as possible. I think they need more of the hall or a cap. They may have both next year. I hope they get Geneon and Bandai there next year. Logistically it could have been much better. They need to have two seperate areas for Pre-Registration and Registration or a massive area for both. Allow public people to pick up badges before 4 PM.

[AmusedObserver]

[ QUOTE ]
sir_integra said:

There wasn't anything there that you couldn't have got online for cheaper. I did buy some TP that I wanted but I already had everything I wanted from Viz. Viz was really promoting subscriptions to SB and SJ. ADV was there. Dark Horse was there. Some booths were selling, others doing promotional work and signings (Dark Horse and DC). I did pick up some bargain manga from CPM (thanks!) and 3 of the 4 volumes of Clover(TP).


Panels seemed to have seating room available.

I will say that after what it cost me to get to NYC and stay overnight with the spouse, if I had been turned away with a preregistered and prepaid ticket, I would have gone nuclear. In a middle aged woman like myself, it ain't pretty. As it is, I feel a bit ripped off missing the last day of the con.

Why did the fire marshalls have to tell them to stop letting people in? I got there at 11:00 am and the line for new registrations was snaked inside the building and outside and around the block. It was already a big, big mess. Couldn't they have stopped new registations until they had a better handle on it? You can't tell me they didn't know how many they had sold. Sure, it was inexperience and incompetence, but greed plays a part also.

Worst con I've ever been to.

[/ QUOTE ]

I bought the Del Rey mangas (Negima, Gacha Gacha, School Rumble, and Othello final volume!) at 25% off from midtown comics. That's a great deal! Even better was the fact that it was sold before the street date (w/ Del Rey's approval; DR was a few desks away).

I admit to being surprised at hearing that 10,000 people showed up. It IS a fire hazard to have that many ppl in that building. There are plans to expand Jacob Javits center and this is the reason why; there is a need for a bigger site to accomodate big events.

I got to the convention center at 10 am, and it seemed pretty orderly to me. Didn't have problems w/ the lines. Lots of staffers on hand to direct "traffic". The panels I attended didn't have many ppl (aside from one on webcomics).

On the other hand, I'm sorry to find that there weren't as many marquee VIPs appearing on Sunday for signings. I think Saturday was jammed packed b/c of interest in the big names in the comic industry like Jim Lee and Todd McFarlane (both are big crowd drawers), plus Milla Jov? (sp?).