Another New York Comic Con has come and gone. This year’s event crammed more than 200,000 people into the Javits Center over four days, according to show organizer ReedPOP, with an estimated economic impact of $80 million.
And ComicsXF was there, taking pictures, attending panels, schmoozing with creators and getting handed free comics on the street by Marvel Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski.
From an attendee perspective, this felt like the biggest NYCC since COVID, with little room to maneuver during the busiest times and Friday crowds that seemed as big as Saturday crowds.
We asked members of our team to share their thoughts on the long weekend that was. We’ve also got plenty of photos, so check those out, too!
DC, crushing it again
Dan Grote: During San Diego Comic Con in July, DC unloaded a bevy of comics announcements, capped by things like the return of the classic “bullet” logo and Ram V and Evan Cagle’s New Gods, to say nothing of the Absolute line of comics that is just now rolling out.
New York’s big DC news was the return of the Vertigo line of creator-owned, mature-readers comics, starting with the already-in-progress Nice House by the Sea by James Tynion IV and Alvaro Martinez Bueno. The Black Label imprint will remain, but will limit its focus to prestige takes on DC heroes.
The company also announced the expansion of its Absolute line with Absolute Martian Manhunter by writer Deniz Camp (Marvel’s Ultimates) and artist Javier Rodriguez (Zatanna: Bring Down the House). Camp is a critical darling, known for not being afraid to work realpolitik into mainstream comics (Read 20th Century Men. Do it.), while Rodriguez is known for his bright colors and trippy layouts. Case in point, his take on J’onn J’onzz appears to be inspired in part by Gumby.
And I guess Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee’s “Batman: Hush 2” (or “H2SH”; more on that later) is big news, too. But in terms of hype, Absolute Martian Manhunter is the new New Gods.
On t’other hand …
Underwhelming Marvel news
Adam Reck: It was an awkward weekend for Marvel’s panels. The publisher started the weekend with a Jeb Bush-like “please clap” moment for Tom Brevoort’s X-Men at Marvel’s Next Big Thing showcase as the man in the hat requested applause because he “need[ed] the affirmation” and closed out on Sunday with Spidey editor Nick Lowe talking over a fan who accused the office of misogyny in the treatment of female characters, specifically over the death of Kamala Khan. It didn’t help that their announcements were largely bland: A new Ultimate Wolverine looked just like original flavor albeit wearing a mask, a new Phoenix design announced at the Women of Marvel panel wasn’t exactly groundbreaking, a Spider-Verse Versus Venom-Verse crossover sure sounded like a lot of verses and versus. Ryan North and a giant piece of RB Silva promo art of a Doom-costumed T Rex did the most to get people excited about the upcoming Rise of Emperor Doom, but even with such a trusted creative team, shadows of Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic’s Secret Wars loomed. Most telling might have been when multiple Marvel folks made awkward “All In” jokes in reference to the DC promos airing before panels, showing that at least between the Big Two, there are still nerves in who tops the sales charts.
That said, Marvel brought some star power to the con, with Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio attending to promote the new Daredevil: Born Again series, and a surprise Tom Hardy appearance thrilled Venom fans excited for the upcoming third movie. Nothing spoke to the lack of excitement over the comics like the Marvel booth itself, which had no merch store and consisted entirely of the aforementioned Dino Doom photo op, promos for its new Magic the Gathering cards, costumes from Born Again and Agatha All Along, and a promo for the Contest of Champions game. As a Marvel Unlimited subscriber, I was disappointed when, despite my annual fee, I couldn’t collect a Peach Momoko Daredevil variant or a lanyard unless I leveled up my subscription on the spot via QR code. When the highlight of the booth was the Lego X-Mansion set in a plexiglass case (a dream set that I can neither decide whether it’s worth its cost or figure out where I would even put once built) it was hard to shake the feeling that everything was just about licensing.
Graphic design is their passion
Adam: I don’t want to be cruel, because I know a bunch of people probably worked real hard on it, but I still can’t look at the new IDW logo without reading it as IUD. I’ve seen it compared to the more recent and similarly maligned KIA logo, whose combined IA had people thinking more about Trent Reznor than a new Sorento. The new IDW logo seems to have a similar problem, as folks are missing the W along the bottom entirely.
In other design news, the newly announced sequel to “Batman: Hush” appears to have a logo that reads H2SH, which, while 2 does rhyme with U, is not the vowel sound we’re looking for. I guess HUSH2 had too many characters? I would’ve gone with HU2H and reversed the 2 myself. But I’m not the artist of the bestselling comic book of all time or the fella who wrote Ultimatum, so I don’t make the decisions around here.
Not enough comics, too many variants
Adam: While past years had seen an increase in the presence of direct market comic book publishers, this year the amount was way down. This was likely due to the reported rising exhibition and freight shipping costs for the Javits show floor (not to mention price jacks on tables in Artist’s Alley), but notable absences included booths for DC (who rarely exhibit at NYCC), Image Comics, IDW, Rebellion/2000AD, Oni Press, BOOM Studios and Dynamite, among others. Following IDW’s lead from last year, DSTLRY and Tiny Onion set up shop downstairs in Artist’s Alley to take advantage of comics-friendly foot traffic, while newer imprints like Geoff Johns’ Ghost Machine joined Midtown Comics’s booth for signings and promotion. This is not to say there weren’t comics on the show floor. The longboxes were out, the wall books were displayed, and variant vendors were seemingly endless, but the emphasis was on selling or repackaging the old instead of promoting anything new.
Case in point, some of the most desirable objects from the con seemed more about reselling for a profit than anything else. Take the Peach Momoko Spawn variant, some signed by The Toddfather himself, which apparently inspired grown adults to run and in at least one case fight just so they could slab the book and slap it on eBay. Elsewhere, the variant party continued with Comics Corner hawking limited edition foil variants of Skybound’s reprint of Marvel’s Transformers #1 and Unknown Comics taking up a good chunk of real estate to showcase the X-Men ’97 voice cast (two Jubilees!) and a featured spot for David Nakayama, who appears to have ascended to J. Scott Campbell levels of popularity.
Disappointment in the lack of publishers aside, the gaps were filled with what the kids are probably reading anyway: manga/anime booths. Viz featured Bleach voice talent signings and intelligently rode the X-Men ‘97 hype train with a deluxe “remastered” reprint of the ’90s X-Men: The Manga. Kodansha pushed Blue Lock and Drops of God. And by now the Thanksgiving Day Parade-size balloons for One Piece and Dragonball Z feel fairly standard.
Dan: I give DC a pass because they’re based in California these days, but at the same time, Vault’s based in Montana and they make it out every year, so maybe there’s no excuse? If Zenescope can do it, why can’t you?
Hot cosplays
Adam: Deadpool & Wolverine cosplayers were all over the place. I recall saying to Dan that while we were eating lunch on Friday I saw three movie-accurate Wolverine cosplayers within my peripheral vision, to which Dan replied, “Yeah, but only one of them is actually short.” Far be it from me to judge why anyone would want to dress up as the overly textured Logan look from D&W, but it sure seemed popular. As did Deadpools, including one walking around with an “adamantium” Wolvie skeleton. Apparently there was a Deadpool city bus tour and a photo op with Blind Al actress Leslie Uggams, so presumably the “Deadpool Corps” had enough activities to be properly entertained.
As someone who long ago abandoned any faith in Tim Burton’s abilities, I was shocked to see the sheer amount of Beetlejuice Mania at this year’s con. Not only were there plenty of Beetlejuice and Lydia Deetz cosplayers, but multiple vendors, including Culturefly and NECA, had full lines of Beetlejuice action figures, playsets, photo ops and collectibles. I shouldn’t be surprised given Nightmare Before Christmas has become a full-on lifestyle at this point, but people sure like black and white stripes on stuff. Related to Tim Burton, if I noticed an additional cosplay trend, it was seeing more than a few Penguins waddling around. And not the Colin Farrell-thinks-he’s-in-The Sopranos kind. No, these cosplayers were going straight for the vastly preferable Danny DeVito Batman Returns look. I didn’t see any of them bite the head off a fish, but they had the nose, and they looked great.
Dan: Y’know what blew my mind? Seeing not one but two Condiment Kings. What was a one-off gag Paul Dini and Bruce Timm created for Batman: The Animated Series 30-or-so years ago has become a beloved zed-list villain. I didn’t bat an eye at the number of Jokers (more than three), Penguins, Riddlers, Harley Quinns and Poison Ivys roaming the floor (except for the one who was accompanied by the talking plant from the Max cartoon), but seeing a non-zero number of dudes dressed in sky-blue body stockings with red and yellow squirt bottles gave me pause.
Also, shoutout to the dude who dressed up as The Pedestrian and hung out by Joey Esposito and Sean Von Gorman’s table in Artist Alley (more on them below). Now that’s how you market an indie comic!
Artist Alley A++
Dan: As per yoozh, NYCC’s artist alley was chock full of talent, from industry legends like Chris Claremont and Al Milgrom to today’s stars like Ryan Ottley and Jorge Jimenez. And we were more than happy to give them the business. We bought Bible-character paper dolls from Six Sidekicks of Trigger Keaton artist Chris Schweizer, zines from Everyone Is Tulip co-creator Nicole Goux and commissions from Trve Kvlt co-creator Liana Kangas.
We also interviewed a butt-ton of people, so much so it will take two podcasts to contain them.
So tune in to next week’s Battle of the Atom for chats with Pepe Larraz, Kieron Gillen, Al Ewing, Declan Shalvey, Spencer Ackerman, Jackson Lanzing, David Marquez, Josh Cassara, Gerry Duggan, Chris Condon and Justin Mason.
And come back in two weeks for The ComicsXF Interview Podcast to hear me talk with Tim Seeley, Fred Van Lente, Juan Ferreyra, Andy Khouri, Joey Esposito, Sean Von Gorman, Zack Quaintance and Brad and Lisa Gullickson.
Now sit back and enjoy some more of our NYCC photos:
Dan Grote is the editor-in-chief of ComicsXF, having won the site by ritual combat. By day, he’s a newspaper editor, and by night, he’s … also an editor. He co-hosts The ComicsXF Interview Podcast with Matt Lazorwitz. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids and two miniature dachshunds, and his third, fictional son, Peter Winston Wisdom.
Adam Reck is the cartoonist behind Bish & Jubez as well as the co-host of Battle Of The Atom.
