If there was ever a bullcrap spin on a story, this NY Times pre-NYCC piece which attempted to cast it as the “smaller, quieter” cousin to SDCC is one.
“San Diego was the arena rock show; New York is the acoustic show,” said Jeremy Corray, creative director at World Events Productions, a television distribution company that is making its first visit to New York Comic Con to promote “Voltron: The Defender of the Universe,” an animated series from the 1980s. “San Diego has evolved into entertainment con. New York is a little more focused and manageable.”
There is nothing acoustic about New York Comic Con. It is loud, crowded and nutty. Just as happened last year, security is lax and people are getting in with badges in droves. It isn’t a dangerous feeling, but it sure is crowded, and trying to go anywhere is an exhausting task.
Plus there’s the matter of the felt carpet.
It’s thin and pills immediately, leading to a layer of little felt pills everywhere.
Even in a booth with nice thick carpet, the pills have been tracked in.
Of course in Artist Alley, there is no carpet at all.
NYCC is an ongoing nerdapalooza — mostly young, many costumed — seemingly focused on video games and anime.
Parties have been equally crowded and loud — but fun. Here’s the patron saint of the Marvel party.
Speaking of parties, Marvel and DC went different directions this year; DC decided to invite the entire office staff to thank them for the New 52; correspondingly, the freelance list was cut drastically, with fewer plus ones and some caught feelings from current DC creators who were disinvited because of their work for other companies.
As you can see from the above photo, they let anyone in to the Marvel party, with several DC staffers and creators seen wandering around. A very limited open bar, however.
Friday’s iFanboy party was the preferred alternate for those who didn’t go to DC, but the venue was way too small for the milling throngs. The craft beer was excellent, however.
We’re back to the floor for the last day of adventure. Come up and say hi!
Man, are you ever right about the badge situation. Anyone off the street could have gotten a press pass if they knew where to look. I saw some gamer basically annoy the staff into giving him one for his buddy, while all that was required from me was a business card I ordered for $10 on the Internet. “Do you need to see my credentials?” I asked. “Um, okay, if you have ’em,” was the reply.
I can see the spin side of it, but I also see the complimentary side of it — as indicated in the last line of the pull quote — which indicates that NYCC is “a little more focused and manageable.” That can be seen as a positive. And the rest of the article in the link is complimentary about NYCC, showing how it is go-to destination on the East Coast.
In short, I’m not taking the rock arena vs. acoustic as a literal denotation, but rather a connotation that the shows have different vibes (according to Jeremy Corray’s perceptions). Granted when you take only one perspective and print it in the NY Times that isn’t fair. On that note, I also agree.
But I see both positives and negatives in the *spin*.
I happened to be in town, so I went to the con and it was *awful*. It was overcrowded, the volunteers were frequently misinformed, and the paid staff was downright nasty. The only good experience I had was the *awesome* Dash Shaw panel attended by 5 people. Everything else was just a mess. The convention center was a mess, people were rude, and most of the panels were stuffed way past capacity with people outside in line left to rot with no notification the panel room was full.
SDCC is 5 days of fun because it’s run like a well oiled machine. This was just anarchy with cosplay. Thank God the people running the booths were nice.
“Smaller, quieter cousin to SDCC” sounds like a good thing to me. But then, I’d also be interested in a “smaller, quieter cousin to SPX”, so I may not be the target audience for any of these. :)
When were you in Artist Alley? We were there pretty much the entire con. I looked for you repeatedly. Sorry you never had a chance to come over!
If there was ever a bullcrap spin on a story…
Frankly, I myself prefer The BEAT’s (and Torsten) own NYCC “spin”!
Looking forward to read this site’s recap and wrap-up reportage of NYCC ’11. Too bad The BEAT
didn’t do her typical SDCC essay this year for me to compare-and-contrast them with— so I guess the NYCC concluding commentaries will have to stand up on their own…
Wonder what will the take-away narrative
be?