BICS 2026: not a traditional comics show, and that’s okay

As mentioned previously, I did a double this weekend – in ONE DAY I hit both BookCon, the slick fan gathering at the Javits Center for some of the world’s best known authors, and BICS, an indie comic showcase located in a former factory warehouse out in Brooklyn. Eight miles apart as the crow flies – an immense distance in NYC – this was not a long journey thanks to our wonderful mass transit system. I’ve written at length about BookCon, so what about BICS?

BICS (Brooklyn Independent Comics Showcase) launched during COVID as an outdoor one day affair, sponsored by St, Marks Comics and held in Industry City, a sprawling dinning/shopping/event space located in a series of former factory buildings right on the edge of Upper New York Bay. The goal was to provide a free showcase for indie comics artists, of which NYC has many. 

Being held outside, several editions were plagued by wind or rain. Last year, it moved to a full two days and more inside exhibit space. While seeing pals on a brisk April day is fun and a great way to catch up, last year there were some complaints from veteran exhibitors that sales were not robust. 

This year some adjustments were made: the entire event was moved inside to a spacious, towering exhibit hall. Tables were located in either  the main hall or two smaller shoulder halls – ables were cheaper in the shoulder halls. This meant enough space for moe than 400 exhibitors, which is a lot.  The quality varied. 

I didn’t have a full day to visit every table, but I tried to at least cruise down every aisle, and in all honesty, most of the tables were creators I’d never heard of. Many of them sold a lot of stickers, prints and other attractive tchatkes alongside comics, which is increasingly common at comic cons, and also an increasingly controversial product mix. 

Instead of getting into a long discussion of the show, I’m going to reprint (with permission) the thoughts of Fabrice Sapolsky of FairSquare Graphics. Fabrice goes to a LOT of shows, and writes very long and detailed reviews of most of them, and BICS is no different. I agree with what Fabrice wrote for the most part, and he says it as someone who set up at the show, not someone who breezed around the room. 

The main thing I agree with is that we should view BICS as a beginner show, a place to learn to exhibit for creators and a place to discover new things for attendees. As mentioned before, the show is free, so there are a lot of people who just wandered in without any intention of buying. So that’s the risk. But it also allows for more discoverability.

I made a point of talking to some exhibitors in the smaller, lower traffic rooms – people I’d never heard of but whose elaborate displays showed that they take this seriously. Their goals weren’t very different from other creators: getting seen, building an audience. Several of them do a LOT of shows, not just local comic cons, but zine fests as well, craft fairs and anime shows. There are a LOT of local shows in New Jersey, and I guess a lot of people set up at them, and a lot of people go as something to do. 

BICS now occupies a space between MOCCA and the forthcoming BEC, which is the sequel to Comic Arts Brooklyn. Both of these are more juried and professional shows and at MOCCA and the old CAB, publishers bring books to debut and sell stacks of them. BICS is not set up for that kind of thing. 

There was some programming at BICS, but just a smattering. Robyn Chapman of First Second and her own Paper Rocket Comics organized a two hour mixer with pro editors and aspiring creators and I would say that kind of event is the kind of thing BICS should focus on. All the neophytes I spoke with weren’t really neophytes – they all had projects and social media outreach and plans. But they got to level up their rolodexes at this event, and I saw lively discussions taking place as necessary wisdom was being passed on by the pros. Networking is one of the most valuable functions of an event such as BICS, and I’m sure Gambit would agree, 

So anyway, I think BICS is a lot of fun and a good addition to the NYC comics scene, as a sort of Venn diagram of a comic con, zine fest and craft fair, with, as Fabrice points out, a bit of a flea market vibe to it. All of those events are fun and valuable, but they all should be approached differently.  I don’t know the economics of renting out a hall at Industry City, but keeping it as a kind of “Comiket” for New York seems like a reasonable goal, even if it draws about 745,000 fewer people.

Anyway, take it away Fabrice:

BICS – by Fabrice Sapolsky

A series of misunderstandings. This is how I’d described our time at the Brooklyn Independent Comics Showcase of BICS that took place in Industry City, Brooklyn this past weekend. You knew it was coming: this is my review of BICS!

It all started last week when I realized that I did not receive my table number for the show after filling out my application in mid-January. I contacted Aynsley, the terrific one who not just works at St Marks Comics, the comic book store that puts the show together, but also makes sense of all the stuff for this convention. Aynsley told me that she couldn’t find my payment for the show. I was sure I cleared that, but it’s been so hectic these past few months, that I obviously forgot. I was angry at myself. But Aynsley saved the day! Thanks to a recent cancellation, she could welcome us to the show.

The Brooklyn Independent Comics Showcase or BICS has gone through a lot of variations in its three year existence. The first iteration, in 2024, was an outdoor show, right outside St Marks Comics. There were over 100 vendors and it was… special. It rained, it was windy, but also a huge success for a one-day show. I left content that year.

A year later, in 2025, the con expanded to two days, 200 vendors and to a multi-floor space in the same complex. I was busy repping FairSquare Graphics at FanExpo Calgary but Kristal tabled alone and she was extremely successful, while other vendors expressed disappointment.

After two fantastic editions, I was naturally very excited to come back this year.

Once again, the show changed location though still in Industry City.

This time, 260 vendors were spread across three color labeled rooms: Yellow, Red and Blue.

The Red room at the center of the show was the biggest one, this is where we tabled.

I have to say, I appreciated the industrial raw style of the place. It’s quite unique and beautiful. But, it came with some flaws: when packed it was very noisy and super-high ceilings mixed with wind (and rain on the Sunday) turned the place into a freezer. Not pleasant.

The show is also free for the public, which definitely brings a different audience as our usual one. More families and curious people, but an audience less prone to buy anything. It felt like an open/flea market at times.

Saturday, the show came alive between 2 and 5PM but outside of that, it was pretty dead. And Sunday, the window was even shorter, I’d say 2 to 4PM. In the end, we left prematurely at 5PM, two hours before the show officially ended Sunday afternoon. We did not feel well (mostly cold and tired) and there was no way we could foresee BICS picking up. Businesswise, there’s no doubt it was a disappointment: 50% down from last year. Question is: is this the actual potential of this show? Was last year an exception? I don’t know. But this is the other lesson BICS brought us: this is NOT a comic book show in the traditional sense of the term.

It’s not a secret, we attend a lot of shows every year. And Kristal and I have gone to flea markets multiple times. Most recently in Williamsburg. These shows can be expensive, but they’re very well put together and even when it snows outside, you can make some money as the public is curious and shows up. It is highly curated.

If you compare BICS to any comic book show, you’re wrong.

Sure, there are a couple of panels going on and signings happening for a handful of handpicked creators at the St Marks Comics store. But the “pièce de résistance” is the marketplace.

There’s some kind of curation, but mostly, there’s an eclectic selection of amateurs, arts and craft people, hobbyists and a few comic pros. BICS mainly communicates through Instagram. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but they don’t have a FB page or a LinkedIn or a TikTok (just a “Twitter” page that hasn’t been updated in a while), don’t put any talent on their website page besides the ones attending panels and though their maps are pretty neat online, signage on location was not super clear/visible when it was there. I don’t know if Industry City restricted BICS’ ability to display big signs, but you had to look really hard to find your way to the convention.

So, how could I be constructive?

I want this show to continue and thrive. I may have a philosophical disagreement with the fact that the show is free for all. On paper, this is beautiful and accessible. But the reality is that for all of us who are professionals, meaning 100% of our income comes from our comic book/graphic novel work and sales, this is not working. BICS is fully vendor funded. So with that philosophy, I understand that more vendors equals bigger budgets (and I’m sure these Industry City halls are not cheap). But this audience is not a qualified audience. If your objective is to make the table, make connections and have a good time, this show is for you.

If you’re here to make a profitable weekend, it may… or it may not, depending on the year.

FairSquare Graphics holds a very awkward position there. We’re very big for a small press and small in size as a full-fledged publisher. With over 45 titles published, we sit in this nexus of colliding universes. We navigate in both environments with constant flexibility. Sometimes it works to our advantage, sometimes not. At this edition of BICS, it did not.

That same weekend, ReedX was holding a show at the Javits Center called BookCon.

We couldn’t get a table in Artist Alley there, strangely. I hear it was a rather chaotic show. BICS was not chaotic, it was well organized. Volunteers were extremely efficient.

We were just met with a crowd that was not here to buy much. And clearly, the economy doesn’t help.

I think with a small fee of $5 or $10 for adults and free entrance for kids under 18, it would send a strong message: it’d be more of a comic book convention and less of a flea market.

I also think – but I’m saying this quite often– that conventions should be curated in a VERY different way. Not that I’m advocating for segregation, but I believe that grouping vendors by affinity would be better for everyone rather than creating an artificially engineered melting pot. There’s almost NO chance someone interested in keychains and stickers are going to fall in love with $500 original art from established comic book creators.

Especially when you have so much real estate in Industry City, grouping all arts and crafts and fanzine vendors together and having comic book artists and publishers together would be a huge plus. In many areas of the world, retail works that way (yes, Tokyo, I’m looking at you). And it works! As much as I like the fact that there’s no (theoretical) royalty in the con business and my table can be the same size as a big name author from the Big Five, grouping vendors by affinity would help the public navigate better through the sea of content creators. But what do I know…  Just vending at over 30 shows every year, you get a sense of what’s working and what’s not.

Conclusion: We will be back. We’re just going to moderate our expectations.

Unless BICS is taking steps forward to become a full-on comic book convention, we will look at it as a comic-esque flea market with the appropriate set up and investment. Not that it’s a bad thing. It’s just not what we thought Brooklyn Independent Comics Showcase would ultimately be, spinning off a classic comic book store. Just a different strategy for us.

If I had one additional request, it would be to grow table size from 4ft to 6ft. Or to give vendors the option to get what they need. I know there’s already a possibility to get 2 tables of 4ft, but that ends up being expensive; thus hard to make work in the current climate.

Some photos:

The Beat’s own Zack Quaintance was heroically tabling!

I got to catch up with Jay Justice, so that was cool! 

Networking in progress! 

Matt Loux, Mike Zagari and Robyn Chapman

Goats Flying Press is one of the few publishers who set up, seen here with Alejandro Arbona and Jimmy Li, whose Nighthawks will be Kickstarting soon. I flipped through it and it looks amazing! See, if you discover one new exciting cartoonist, that’s what BICS is all about! 

Finally, Industry City is full of out of the way shops, and the chocolate sculptures of this venerable institution had an aura of timeless mystery about them.