New York Comic Con 2009: The Sequel

Hey, I’m back again with my second Comic Con post.  I just thought I would mention some tips and tactics for next year’s Con even though I’m no expert.  At the very least, it will serve as a reminder for me before attending next year’s convention.

First off, while there definitely will be a New York Comic Con next year, it is going to be quite a bit later in the year, October 8 -10.  The same post that announced that date change also announced that Chicago will be getting it’s own Comic Con next year on April 16-18.  I don’t really mind that the NY Con is going to be later in the year…hopefully the extra time will allow the organizers to do a really kick-ass job.  I’m sure it’s tough finding dates that work with holidays and other conventions at the Javits.  Even this year, a friend of mine who works in the toy industry told me that since the Toy Fair (also in NY) was the week right after Comic Con, a lot of toy companies held off on debuting new stuff or even coming to NY until the Toy Fair.  

Well, since we have until October of 2010 that’s plenty of time to get our tickets early.  I strongly advise doing so unless you like waiting on line. This year, the people who ordered their tickets before January 16 got their actual tickets in the mail and did not have to wait on line to register at the Con.  Those who ordered afterwards had to come with the printed-out barcode and wait on the registration line.  Now, at first I noticed that the line to actually buy tickets on-site was a lot shorter than the registration line (at least the few times I checked).  So I was going to advise that if you miss the cut-off date for ticket mailing, you just buy them on site instead.  However, I double checked and that plan is apparently a terrible one because the Con actually sold out of Weekend and Saturday tickets this year.  

If you do have your ticket, you just need to grab a little badge holder and lanyard that they had buckets of near the entrance (I found it was also really helpful to grab a map).  However, early in the day, even with a ticket, there was sort of line to get in.  You were kind of herded into this line that wrapped around before you could get on the show floor.  It was fairly fast moving but I did devise a plan to skip it entirely.  

The Panels and Screening section of the Con had a totally separate entrance with no line.  This was a little confusing at first because everyone was herding you towards the main floor even though there was no way to directly get to the Panels area from there.  But it was just all the way down the hall past the entrance to the floor.  There were a lot of helpful and pleasant volunteers about.  Anyway, if you go to a panel early in the day when there is a line to get on the main floor, by the time that panel is over the line to the main floor is usually gone and you can just walk right in.  That’s my scheme anyway…but obviously if you want to get a sketch from a certain artist before anyone else you just have to wait in the main line.

I guess another option is getting a VIP ticket.  I’m not sure how much they cost because they were sold out by the time I checked.  If you have one of those you get your own entrance and early access and a few other perks.  There’s also a VIP lounge but it just looked to me like a curtained off area with folding chairs and tables…not exactly the type of VIP lounge I’m used to from my clubbing days.  Maybe there was a nicer one somewhere else.  You should be aware that there is a separate class of VIP tickets (IGN VIP or something) that gets you reserved seating for screenings.  Regular VIP’s have to wait in line for screenings like the rest of us…I heard a couple of ‘em complaining about this.

It’s helpful to plan your visit in advance somewhat or at least pick out the panels you want to attend.  The official website is helpful in this, since you can download a program.  The site was a little slow the day or two before the Con but it always worked eventually.  Oh, no official forums - what’s up with that?  Well, they did have this kind of interactive planner app that helped you plan your visit.  It seemed pretty cool but I ended up just making my own list off of the program.  If you want autographs (this is not something I’m into) you better do some research in advance on how to get tickets and so on since the whole autograph area was always packed and people seemed stressed out about the right times to come and so on.

So let’s see…some stuff that might be helpful to bring:

A bag or knapsack if you are planning on buying stuff would be good because not every booth had bags and you will soon have your hands full if you shop a lot.

You might want to bring some food or at least a beverage because the Diet Coke I bought in the Panels area was a ridiculous 4 bucks.  There is a Starbucks in the Javits that seemed to be charging basically normal Starbucks prices.  It is right across from one of the coat checks.  Speaking of which, I saw two coat checks (there may be more) so if the line is long at one you may want to look for the other one.

Plenty of cash is always good to have but especially so at Comic Con if you don’t want to wait on line at one of the ATM’s (which also charges like a $3.50 service fee).

It is really fun to get sketches from artists in the Artist Alley area.  I found an artist whose work I really liked and asked him to draw me a “freaking sick wizard.”  He was happy to do so and only charged me $20 for an awesome color sketch.  If you are more knowledgeable than me about who is who in the comics world, you may want to seek out your favorite artists.  If so, you may want to bring a sketchbook (I saw a bunch of people with them) so you can keep all the sketches you get together and you don’t have to carry individual pieces of paper around.

A lot of these artists also sell prints of various sizes.  It’s really cool because usually the original artist is there and you can chat with him or her about their influences, favorite fantasy novels, whatever.  They will be happy to autograph the prints for you and they mostly seem to cost about $10 though there were some more expensive ones.  The only issue is that many of these artists just hand you the print and do not have a case or covering for it.  Now, there was some guy with a table selling plastic cover cases in various sizes which worked great for the two prints I picked up.  It seemed like he had a goldmine going over there and was raking in the dough.  But I’m sure you are paying more than you need to so you might want to bring a portfolio or carrying case of some kind or at least a bunch of plastic holders (I don’t know what their official name is).

I can’t say it enough: I had a really fantastic time at Comic Con.  I just wish I had more time to experience everything.  One of my goals in going to Comic Con was to stop by the Wizards of the Coast area and get into (or at least watch) a Dungeons & Dragons game.  Well, that mission kind of slipped away due to time issues, but I wanted to point out a great write-up on D&D at Comic Con over at Critical-Hits.  

I will be doing some specific posts on stuff I did manage to attend very soon.