Tidesiren Takes On New York Comic Con!
Hey you guys! Tidesiren here and after visiting the long-awaited New York Comic Con this year, I am here to tell you what’s up!
I’d been wanting to attend New York for so long and when I finally had the opportunity, I pulled in every favor I could to make it happen. I can honestly say it was worth it! Because of only being there Saturday and Sunday, I didn’t get to check out all of the booths, but getting to wander the con floors gave me the opportunity to get some pictures and see what all was out there, and I definitely got to see what the East coast had to offer when it came to cosplay!
With it being a bit of time after the con, NYCC is already preparing for 2019! Looking at the site for the costs per day to attend. I can not recall what the full weekend badges costed, however Thursday was $50, both Friday and Sunday cost the same at $52.50, Saturday stands as the most expensive at $55, and children badges cost $12.50 to attend on Sunday only.
New York Comic Con is annually held in the Javits Center, a rather large convention center right on the water. When you walk in, you are on an entry level floor where you can either take the escalators up a floor and a half to enter the vendor hall, which occupies the entirety of the level spanning the whole building. You can go up a half a level where the food court is continued from your entry level. From here you can go down another level where DC Universe had its own section in the Convention Center where it displayed Aquaman merch, costumes, and had a signing booth where Zachary Levi spent most of his time at NYCC!
You can also go down a level to a split entry where one door enters a large hall for celebrities and signings as well as the room where guests have their panels, which is very much the size of hall H at San Diego Comic Con. The other entry leads to the artist alley, which is the same size as the Celebrity Corner. With multiple floors and a sky bridge to another building, it offered plenty of space for attendees to make their way easily through the convention halls, artist alley, food court, celebrity space, and via the sky bridge, to make it to panel rooms in the next building over.
Outside sat multiple booths where, much like SDCC, people could wander, eat, and explore different experiences offered by television set ups. Under the sky bridge is what they called “the gauntlet” where cosplayers spent a lot of their time getting photos taken of them, photographers waited for costumes they wanted to photograph, and where families would find their favorite characters to snag shots with. I definitely found myself stuck there a time or two.
Staff were both thorough in entry ways and helpful with their ipads in answering any questions any one of us may have had. Booths lining the Celebrity Hall hosted talents like Aisha Tyler, Alan Ritchson, Amy Acker, Anjali Bhimani, Arielle Kebbel, Arryn Zech, Bill Nye, Jason Mamoa, Jamie Chung, and Teri Hatcher.
With an over-all accepting dress code for cosplay, I didn’t encounter any distasteful costumes nor did I witness security disapproving of any. The cosplay community in New York Comic Con had fellow costumers traveling from all corners of the country, and in some cases, the globe, to all mingle and branch out in a place where new friends from all over could be made. I showed up knowing one person and went home having made a ton of new friends to connect with at future events!
As an event located in such a huge city, the location set is able to accommodate audiences with little to no problem. With so many incredible names, such a large venue, and tons of vendors and artists, no wonder an attendee would need four days to explore it all! And no matter if you are a photographer, cosplayer, fan, vendor, artist… there truly is a little something for all who attend the growing convention that is New York Comic Con. Those tickets are well-sought-after for good reason and I suggest that, have you the opportunity to purchase them, do all you can to attend… because this is definitely the largest comic con I have attended since I started back in 2013, and it was 100% worth my attendance this year and hopefully future years to come!
Tidesiren is a fantastic cosplayer based in Colorado. She has an absolute love for all things geeky, gaming, and food! When she isn’t being a super dope cosplayer, she can usually be found running off on adventures that would give others heart attacks! In the year of 2017 she covered nine conventions both national and international for us! We’re so grateful to have her on our team to cover conventions!