The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of New York Comic Con 2022
New York Comic Con 2022 is in the books and it took this con-vet a week to recover. What’s better than NYC in the fall, New York Comic 2022, duh? With Covid protocols in place, the con went on and I did end up with con crud, but that didn’t dampen my love or excitement of this fan-fave event, but a few things did.
The good of New York Comic Con 2022…
The fact that even happened and it was in full con regalia was a major plus. They pulled out all the stops with guests for everyone, from Marvel’s Sebastian Stan and Oscar Isaac, and fan faves like Brendan Fraser and Ice-T, to the Grishaverse with Freddy Carter, Amita Suman, Kit Young, and Ben Barnes. This con had it all. The Marvel booth was back at full fan capacity and it was great to see so many familiar faces of friends and colleagues again.
The floor was filled with vendors both new and old alike. The Funko booth was jam-packed with those that had reservations to the booth to shop, but that still didn’t stop people from trying. Many of the artists in artist alley had even sold out of a lot of their merch on Friday!
And panels, there were panels of all kinds. They had an amazing Smallville reunion panel, that featured Tom Welling, Kristin Kreuk, Erica Durance, and legend John Glover. It seemed that no time had passed with this cast as they cut jokes and talked about their time on set. With Michael Rosenbaum sadly absent, the cast told of many stories where they seem to have punked Michael and we all ate it up.
I have on good authority that Brendan Fraser spoke to the powers that be before the event to make sure no one rushed his fans through his autograph line. He took his time with each and every fan, and even made this fan’s dreams come true just by meeting this amazingly talented man.
Where is good there has to be bad?
The bad of New York Comic Con 2022
I’ve had press at NYCC before and this year things were handled very differently. While the NYCC website states no guaranteed access to panels, how can one cover them if you cannot get in? Some panels in some of the halls allowed the press in on the floor to take photos, etc, but others didn’t. While fans can reserve access to panels, the press does not have that ability, which means no coverage of some panels. How does this make sense? Some that worked for ReedPOP, said “Oh, press come on in” while others didn’t. There seemed to be a lack of communication with all on the floor. Some of the security said the press had to be invited to panels, which was news to us. This has to change forward for anyone to continue to cover the events. We cannot cover panels if we have no access.
Also on the bad end of the event was the fact that the photo-ops and autographs were crammed, yes I do mean crammed like sardines, into ONE room. Let that sink in for a second. The lower level next to artist’s alley was crammed from Thursday till 6 pm Sunday, the time the floor closed, with thousands of people trying to get through crowds to take their photos or even get in lines to get autographs.
It didn’t help that they had some huge, huge names down there at the same time, like Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Brendan Fraser, John Leguizamo, and the queen of the dark herself, Elvira, Cassandra Peterson. Combined with a special Outlander event featuring Sam Heughan, it was chaos and most people had little to no patience.
This brings us to the ugly part of New York Comic Con 2022…
With Covid restrictions behind us, people are ready to be free and back to old times. However, old times are long gone and replaced by people with attitudes. New Yorkers for decades have gotten a bad reputation for being rude, and NYCC let them shine. When exhibitors are on line to get their own photo-ops and scream, badger, and yell at people sitting on an ADA line something is very wrong. It was like every man-for-yourself mentality down in ops.
There isn’t a place for ADA people to sit and get out of the way. Yes, they had quiet rooms but one – they weren’t quiet, and two – they were impossible to get through the crowds to access. They need more quiet rooms and places for the disabled to get out of the way and rest. I am sure that has to be some violation there.
The lines for the special Outlander (Sam Heughan, Duncan Lacroix, and David Berry) event didn’t acknowledge ADA badges. You heard me, they made the people stand in line for hours. When I say hours I mean hours. The Outlander fans didn’t seem as bothered by waiting as they were there for one reason only. But to make those people stand in lines for hours, well no one is worth that. They needed to have more compassion for people. This event, just this time, seemed more about the money than the fans. dare I say it even seemed oversold on days?
For example:
On Sunday, Oscar Isaac started his first autograph session at 10:30 am. His first session was to start at 10 when the doors opened.
At 11 his 3-hour photo-op session was to start.
By 5 pm, when I was leaving the floor, he still was in photo-ops AND his 10 am autograph people, were STILL IN LINE waiting. Let this sink in…
We left shortly after that, so I am not even sure when he left or if everyone got what they paid for.
If this was my first time attending NYCC, either as a fan or as I was press, I am not sure this con veteran would go back. It was chaos and from what I am told this is how it is and will be. Covid took people’s senses away but not their love of the comic con.
