NYCC 2024 Was...Underwhelming
For years, New York Comic Con was the biggest and most valuable event I could go to in my career until 2024. And like usual, the lesson to take away is adapt or die.
I really wanted to somehow weave a deep-cut of Robin being whelmed in the introduction somehow, but it was impossible simply because I was not whelmed at all, but rather completely underwhelmed and disappointed.
In the past, New York Comic Con has been a career Mecca of sorts, always providing more opportunities than I can count as far as networking, connections, education, or revealing something on the horizon or was not on my radar. Honestly, it was a bounty that I could always say did in more than a few days than sometimes a few years.
In the past, my opportunities ranged from interviewing Carl Weathers (R.I.P):
To Greg Pak:
Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV:
The creative team behind the Dark Knight graphic novel, minus Frank Miller:
At my first ever NYCC, I was thrown right into the fire with Mike Tyson as my first big kid interview:
Throw in the creators and team of Regular Show to the truly suave, mesmerizing, and legendary duo of Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer the creators of Venture Brothers.
At NYCC, I got to meet a lot of people.
Sam Raimi, Sean Bean, Kevin Smith, the cast of Teen Wolf and Black Sails…no more name-dropping, but working press at NYCC brought me face-to-face with so many different people in entertainment, it can get hard to remember all of it.
But the real meat and starch of the event, the thing I cared about the most, was the comics.
The professional connections to editors, to publishers, to people within the comic book industry because that’s what I wanted. That’s the industry I was and am vying for, shooting my shots, learning the processes, the politics, the ins and the outs.
I would spend hours going from booth to booth, talking, connecting, learning, and, as cliche and slightly cringy as the word has become, hustling.
NYCC was, by far, the most objectively powerful event in my career and my life, year after year, and it wasn’t even something I got paid to do. But the connections and education alone paid dividends to this day starting from a decade ago.
Yet, after 6 six years and life finally giving me a pass to attend once again, it turned out to be a massive letdown and nothing like I remembered.
Now, before I go full-throttle Negative Nancy and Debbie Downer, I’m not trying to be hyperbolic or negative for the sake of being negative.
NYCC, before 2024, was always a non-stop bounty of opportunity to the point I’d have more business cards than I could keep track of and more names and contacts that I could realistically follow up on. Some were dead ends, some were gold mines, some were just new professional relationships.
So, when I arrived this year, I expected what had always been up until this point, but…NYCC 2024 lacked the publishers, the creators, and in honesty, the ‘Comic-Con’ portion of New York Comic Con.
And I’m not the only one who felt this way,
of shared similar sentiments and experience as myself, although in less colorful terms than I will.
So, I unleash my inner old man...
There was no Marvel, no DC, no Dark Horse, no IDW, no Archie, no A Wave Blue World, no Oni, no Boom, no Valiant, I could go on.
There was some, a small, small handful of comics publishers, and for those that were there, they either said there were no editors at the show, or they were mostly uninterested in talking to anyone and just said there were no editors.
It was hard to tell whether it was me or they were being genuine no one was there.
The exact opposite of NYCC of ye ole I had been to in the past. Where this was a big part of the event, giving creators, artists, writers, letterers, and whoever had the opportunity to speak directly with publishers and editors.
NYCC was really just an overpriced entertainment expo, where Luffy and Goku, as much as I love the two, took up more of the showroom than needed.
Not that I was there to buy comics, but usually, as it’s implied by the name of a ‘comic con,’ you’d think it is to sell comics or show them off a lot, at least in some large part.
At NYCC 2024, if you weren’t in Artist Alley, there were maybe a handful of stands selling any comics, whether single issues or graphic novels.
Honestly, where were the comics at a comic con?
Now, enough of my whining…
Because it wasn’t completely a wash, and even if it wasn’t what I remember and the majority of it was less than optimal, there were a few wins.
Lets start with the first and foremost, the people!
It’s been years since I last saw the individual I largely credit with any amount of knowledge, navigation, and general understanding of the comic industry I have. I consider him hands down the biggest mentor I’ve had in the industry, a true coach, sensei, whatever title you want to use.
The dastardly horror king,
.Putting a pin on Dirk, who we’ll circle back to, regarding the state of comics. I want to highlight he currently has a Kickstarter that’s live right now.
The official graphic novel adaptation of the long-lost horror classic, London After Midnight, with the original film lost to a tragic fire and the current graphic novel, based on the original screenplay remastered and restored by Ron Chaney of the Chaney estate.
If you’re a fan of film history, horror, or just like comics, go send him love and support for his Kickstarter, which is right live now.
Next were two individuals I met nearly a decade ago when we were all on the now-defunct website, Comicsverse, covering NYCC and other conventions.
These two, Sean and Marco, are part of a larger podcast, The Comics Pals, with other members formerly of Comicsverse, and they are all absolutely killing it. I am more than excited about the success that they are deservingly experiencing right now with their show.
I mean, they have Tom King hitting them up for interviews:
These guys have been grinding in comics journalism, opinion, podcast, content, and news for nearly ten years, and the success they’ve cultivated through their own hard work, persistence, and just being good at what they do, is amazing to see and to watch after all this time.
It was definitely great seeing them after so long and getting a chance to catch up in person.
Last but definitely not least, I got to catch up with my boss and editor extraordinaire, Drena, who has been at the helm of every creative project I’ve been building since 2020. With the catalog of projects we have been working on steadily, building more and more and just waiting to launch into the world.
She has been an amazing and invaluable resource and guide in putting together these projects in this next stage of my career, which, I guess, to categorize it, would be equivalent to a sophomore year.
Drena has a wealth of knowledge, experience, and resources; who I’m so lucky to have met, also at NYCC years ago, and who has decided to stick with me and work on my stuff, for which I’m very grateful.
She has said this was her last convention, and she’s trying to slowly back out of the industry, so my goal is to reel her right back in for another convention once I can get my own work published and on shelves.
And while the publishers were relatively limited, and editors were even less in supply, I was able to have a great conversation with one.
Unfortunately, the details and conversations we’ve had after are [Redacted], and who it was is //TOP SECRET// at the moment, but…
I’m very lucky to be working with the very talented Fred Stresing, and I will leave it at that. Fingers crossed, this moves from vague to something solid over the next couple of months.
All that said, and circling back to Dirk, we had some conversations that I won’t regurgitate verbatim, but I’ll highlight because they wrap the entire day I was there up into a bow.
Summarized, it went as follows:
It might have been only one editor, but one is better than none.
I have been out of the ‘game’ for six years. I see how it’s changed and what it looks like now. Do I adapt and evolve, or do I die?
I understand what the state of the comic industry looks like firsthand once again, good or bad.
I see the things that I need to move my career forward or a path forward.
Point one, at worst, I got my first professional badge to NYCC, I can officially say I’m a ‘pro.’ I basically paid a train ticket and gas money to go to NYC and meet an editor face to face and make a new network connection with someone who is interested in my work and two of the stories I’m creating, which will open doors in the future.
Two, in the words of my grandfather Mario, I’m too gabadost or gabbadose, too stubborn and hardheaded to go, “Oh, this all sucks and is nothing as I remember, might as well give up. The games changed.”
My grandfather was completely right, I am gabadost. I don’t know how to die. I will bang my head against the wall until it breaks and make my own door if I have to.
I’ve talked about it several times over the years, but most in depth last December in Winning By Default. There are plenty of people who are better than me. The issue is, I don’t know how to quit and they do.
A great example of this, ‘weaving’ back once again, is my friend, The Comics Pals.
Ten years later, and only 4 of us (Cal, who wasn’t pictured and who made it later in the weekend when I wasn't there) are all still showing up to NYCCs in some capacity or another, doing the ‘comic book’ thing in our own ways. We worked with a lot of people over the years who wanted to be writers, artists, creators, journalists, lots of things, and plenty who were extremely talented.
Yet, only slightly less than a handful of what was probably at its peak or over the course of years, 60+ employees, are still doing anything. If you math it out, we’ll say 5 of 50, for simplicity's sake, that’s 10%.
10% of one organization is still around ten years later. The question becomes, in another 10 years, of that 10%, who is still going to stick around?
I know at least one of them, and his name is Chris.
I’ll adapt, I’ll survive, I’ll crawl my way forward. I’ll Win by Default, think Good for every failure, or say Maybe for every setback, whatever mantra I’ve thrown out over the years; I don’t know how to quit when it comes to things I want.
I’m too obsessed to let anything stop me from climbing my mountain or slaying my dragon. I am obsessed, and I will die to see my goals achieved. I will prove you wrong, I will suffer, I will persist.
I will survive for my beautiful obsession.
Point three, I got a good firsthand look at how much comics have shrunk but at the same time expanded.
Comics are making more than they ever have:
And yet, at the same time, there are fewer mid-tier and small-time publishers, and the big-name publishers, from Marvel and DC to Dark Horse, IDW, and others, are making less in sales than they ever have.
Thus, creators have fewer options to publish their work, minus crowdfunding, than in the past.
Kickstarter is king.
Fourth, I have to start hitting conventions again, building my Substack and email list, and overall, being more active on social media as a ‘creator’ than I have been. I need to build my brand because what will help me make it in this industry in 2024 is a following as a creator and as an individual.
You are the brand. You are the cult of personality.
So, taking the good and the bad, NYCC wasn’t a complete wash and had some positive points. I will still probably try to go back next year, without question for no more than a day, and maybe I’ll connect with just one more editor, which will be better than none.
The less positive comment: unless I’m boothing and able to throw nearly 5k down on reserving a table, my time is better used at other conventions as far as my career in comics goes and four days of NYCC would be pointless.
At this point, it’s gone from 4-days of amazing to a single day of the. But that’s life. Things change.
