New York Comic Con will make its way back to the Javits Center October 9–12 with more than 200,000 fans expected to attend. And this year, the largest pop culture event in North America will see a star player return to the show floor after a 13-year absence: DC Comics, anchoring a newly designed area exclusive to comics publishers.
DC plans to debut a huge two-level booth spotlighting the first decade of its 100-year publishing history. Also from the comics giant is an array of panels including one detailing the return of Vertigo, the influential mature comics line that shuttered in 2020, moderated by line editor Chris Conroy.
“We’re excited to be back with DC fans in New York, and back on the main floor of NYCC,” said Anne DePies, DC’s SVP and general manager. “As we charge ahead toward DC’s 100th anniversary, our booth brings the entire DC Universe to life with a nod to the golden age of comics.”
The revamped area for comics publishers arrives alongside new business and networking opportunities. This year, the 45,000-sq.-ft. River Pavilion space will be entirely dedicated to professionals, including a Press and Pro Lounge equipped with Wi-Fi and stocked with coffee and (possibly) even snacks—all hot commodities amid the winding refreshments lines and characteristically spotty conference center internet offerings. A separate Content Creators Lounge and two professional programming stages will offer even more to do—and more places to schmooze—and the cosplay area has been moved to a hall on the Javits’s first level.
The changes should prove welcome. In previous years, the front part of the River Pavilion was given over to cosplay services, repair shops, and meetups, forcing professionals racing to last-minute meetings to navigate crowds of posing Deadpools and Monkey D. Luffys. In other words, this year’s con won’t cater as aggressively to the needs of fans.
Showrunner Kristina Rogers, VP of the ReedPop comics portfolio, says the con is giving pros more space to mingle following continued requests. NYCC parent company ReedPop conducts a number of surveys after each year’s show, and whenever professionals answer questions about what they want, “it’s always amenities and more space,” she says. “I think it’ll be a nice little vibe—a good break from the show floor.”
The con will also offer five days of professional programming. Retailers Day, which debuted last year on the Wednesday before the show, will be held again this year, on Wednesday, October 8. The program will include presentations from ComicsPro, Lunar Distribution, Tiny Onion, and Topps. DC president, publisher, and CCO Jim Lee and Image Comics president Todd McFarlane, both comics legends, will also be on site to chat with retailers.
Attendees will have plenty of questions as the bankruptcy proceedings at Diamond Comic Distributors continue to messily unfold, and many of the players that stepped up to fill the vacuum in direct market distribution—including both the upstart Lunar and Universal Publishing, now a Diamond co-owner—will be on hand on Wednesday to answer them. And intellectual property and media lawyer Thomas A. Crowell and the National Academy of Continuing Legal Education will present panels that day on law in the comics industry and the hottest topic of all, artificial intelligence.
The ICv2 Conference, including ICv2 founder Milton Griepp’s presentation of his annual white paper on the health of the comics business, and a comics industry mixer sponsored by Comics Sketch Art are slated as usual for Thursday. The New York Public Library will once again offer programming on Thursday as well, and the New York City Department of Education will host a panel marking five years of its Civics for All Comics Group, which has printed five million educational comics for free distribution around the city. And Friday will see the debut of a new event, the PopCultr Marketing Summit, held in partnership with marketing and events agency Experience12, featuring sessions on live events, tabletop games, and the rise of anime.
Rogers says ReedPop hopes to grow NYCC’s role in facilitating comics industry connections. “We want to make it valuable as a professional destination,” says Rogers. “It’s an expensive show to do, and we need to offer value—not just for connecting with new and existing customers but for finding new licenses, getting new product, and finding a new vendor for producing that product. A lot of things are changing, and this is at least carving out a space to help and support that.”
Left unsaid is the con’s need to entice more comics publishers to participate in the show after several years of dwindling booth numbers. Rogers says that so far, the new plan is working, pointing to the return of DC to the show floor. “Almost every single publisher is participating in industry programming this year,” she notes. “And the ones that are doing programming but not exhibiting will have a chance to come see the show and figure out if there’s something we’re missing.”
Publishers seem enthused about the opportunities. “I think this is a good move,” says Allison Marie Pond, VP of marketing at Mad Cave Studios. “Just understanding the climate and the way that the con is evolving.” While San Diego Comic-Con is better known for its myriad meeting opportunities, “if NYCC is creating a space for it, people will show up and a lot of great opportunities will come from it,” Pond adds. “It’s always about connecting creators, readers, and fandoms, and there’s no way to create those really magical moments, except by coming together in person.”
Mark de Vera, sales and marketing director at Yen Press, a manga imprint distributed by Hachette Book Group, says the press is getting involved in Retailer Day for the first time via a swag bag sponsorship. “It’s great that a show like New York Comic Con has a platform for a publisher like us to connect with retailers,” he adds.
The expanded pro area is just part of an overhaul of the space at this year’s show. Along with the cosplay area, the first floor hall now includes more food trucks and places to sit—all added, says Rogers, after many requests. The reconfiguration is also intended to fit 200,000 eager fans into a conference center barely big enough for them: just as San Diego Comic-Con has with the San Diego Convention Center, NYCC has maxed out every square inch of the Javits. Still, Rogers hopes to make the experience a little more comfortable. “Fans want more places to sit down and eat, so we’re doing our best,” she says.
Another ongoing problem for NYCC is squeezing in more programming. With space so tight, Rogers explains, there is no room to add more panels. After panel acceptance emails went out earlier this year, social media was filled with complaints from publishers whose proposals were rejected—even from some that are exhibitors.
Rogers says the programming crunch won’t be solved until NYCC expands offsite with more venues, as it has in the past. “Our approach is ultimately going to be offsite, whether for programming or elements of the show, to make room for more in the building. We’re waiting on some venues to get finished close to Javits. It’s a big point of conversation every year.”
Parts of the business likely to take up a lot of space at NYCC regardless are the anime and manga sectors, which have dominated the show for years. (Another convention, Anime NYC, drew 148,000 fans to the Javits just six weeks before NYCC.) Yen’s de Vera says the press’s NYCC booth has quadrupled in size over the years, as the show has become one of the biggest events for anime and manga in North America. “It’s the only Western pop culture convention that we attend in terms of consumer shows,” he adds.
“We’ve been hearing for five years that some fans feel like there’s too much anime at the show,” Rogers says. “I think there’s a lot of everything else too, but anime definitely dominates. But that’s where all the fan attention is. It’s the team’s task to make sure that we’re balancing everything else.”
With an increased presence from movie studios, the return of DC, and a full slate of gamers, influencers, and collectibles, finding a way to stand out amid the show’s joyful chaos is still the biggest challenge for exhibiting publishers. Mad Cave, for instance, will launch several ambitious programs this year, including its own manga line, Nakama, and relaunches of series including Dick Tracy, the Phantom, and Speed Racer.
“So many people come,” Pond says. “Is it a comic show? Is it a media show? It’s really pop culture and media. It’s not completely comics. We’re coming into this era where it’s all cross-pollinated.”
The show’s expansion has some in the industry pondering a big question: how close is NYCC to debuting an SDCC-style Wednesday preview night? Rogers offers only, “We’ll see.” Wednesday is a big setup day for the more elaborate booths, and racing to ready for fans earlier in the day won’t be easy on exhibitors. It’s a major undertaking, she says, but it’s coming: “We’re closer than not.”
Read more from our New York Comics Con feature.
