Whatever you’re into, there are a group of people who are just like you. If you find enough of the like-minded you can have yourself a chat-room or a web presence…get more than a small grouping and you might find yourself at a convention down at the Javits Center.
I attended 2011’s Comicon this weekend and the gamers, comic book fans and anime fans were out having their interests tickled…and more. More or less commandeering the massive Javits space, all the major players in the field of games/comics/and toys were here (the big comic/game/movie companies are one and the same in many instances) but Comicon this year is certainly more gaming than anything else (with another whole floor just for Anime). Each new publisher was present as well as anybody pushing out graphic novels and trying to catch the Harry Potter/Twilight craze by starting their own line of drawn-out series. The massive Javits IGN theater hosts the various special event film showings and by the list of what went down over the weekend there were plenty of special events there and around the building: a Green Lantern: The Animated Series World Premier Screening, a SkyBound Panel and a Be Your Own Publisher: Making Comics with Kickstarter symposium to name just a few of the many.
This year there was an ‘artist’s alley’-basically just another whole section of the center’s massive main exhibition floor-where the infamous and not so well known were signing their comics, a pretty nice group of guys and gals, not so much signed to major publishers but pushing their books/comics themselves or hawking for small independent comic book makers. And of course round the parameter of the floor was the requisite comic book stores with their long white boxes stuffed full of comics and make-shift shelves harboring toys.
It’s a jam packed weekend to be sure, with the Javits cafe area selling ridiculously priced food, people running to and fro and a sound level in that upstairs main floor area not to be believed. But these are minor negatives for the super geek in us all.
