Last Friday October 8th through Sunday October 10th the annual 2010 New York Comic Con was held. It was much bigger than it had been in previous years. It has finally found a home in the fall moving to October from February when it was held in 2009. It also has combined with the New York Anime Festival this year to draw even more of a crowd. This year’s show also had a much bigger emphasis on gaming. That is no big surprise with the way gaming has been growing uncontrollably recently.
Taking over the entire Jacob K. Javits Center in Manhattan, “The Con” as the attendees were calling it, was packed with people all weekend. Whatever your nerd fantasy was, you were sure to find it somewhere in the building. From old comics to new comics, domestic anime to extreme imports, vintage old toys perfect in their packaging to huge bins of loose old action figures, TV shows to movies, cartoons to coloring, and the biggest new addition video games. Anything could be bought or bartered and then signed by your favorite artist or creator as most were on hand at some time during the show. There was a whole artist alley and signing area for fans to get autographs from veterans or just discover new artists unique twists on old favorites. You could sit and play a number of cards games if you saw fit or get your picture taken with countless people dressed up in cosplay. Cosplay is where attendees dress in full costume as their favorite Comic Con character to represent and act out at the show.
Over a quarter of the show floor was just video games, showing just how dominant interactive entertainment has become since last year. With game demos at every booth, fans got to try it all. There were more world premieres for video games then anything else at the show. A major highlight was the new Capitan America game Capitan America: Super Soldier, which will be out next year the same day as the movie. Cap along with new character debuts for Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds video game due out next year was the most popular of the show.
Most of premieres were debuted at the panels which were in giant conference rooms and lecture halls where as many fans as possible crammed in to hear the latest news straight from the horse’s mouth, the key players involved in their favorite series and projects. Panels ran all weekend as well as the exhibit hall, which open with the custom show booths. Each booth was big and brighter then next. Booths like Nintendo and Marvel spared no expensive and they looked great. The production value put into putting on Comic Con was quite impressive this year.
“The Con” was one the best it has been in years with a bigger turn out then ever before. The new additions of New York Anime Festival and growing number of videos games helped this. But the biggest help was with the recession still looming around us people are turning to fantasy worlds for a distraction. It looks like interactive fantasy worlds in video games are the newest craze. With motion controllers like the Sony Move and Xbox Kinect to finally coming out compete along side the Nintendo Wii it will be exciting to see what is coming down the pipe. With the latest and greatest hopefully being premiered at next year’s New York Comic Con, October 14-16, 2011. I expect to see more of the same only bigger and better. For more information check out their website at New York Comic Con.
