A PREVIEW OF THE NEW YORK COMIC CON 2019
by Jace Bench
ReedPOP’s New York Comic Con (NYCC) started out as a modest gathering for 10,000 media fans – who couldn’t even get into its small venue due to the sheer number of attendees – back in 2006. Now more than a decade later, NYCC is the largest pop culture event on the east coast – rivaling the west coast’s San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) – with over 250,000 attendees every year. It’s an event where people from all over the world come to get the latest updates on their favorite comics, movies, TV shows, and games.
Here are some of the things to look out for at this year’s NYCC.
Initial Wave of Guests
After last year’s introduction to the actors involved in DC’s Titans, Star Trek: Discovery, and the Hellboy reboot, fans are expecting a lot. While the final list of guests hasn’t been revealed yet, ReedPOP has announced its first set of in invitees including Christopher Eccleston from Doctor Who, Benedict Wong from Doctor Strange, Billy Boyd from The Lord of the Rings, Christopher Sabat who was responsible for some of the voices in Dragon Ball Z, Marguerite Bennett from DC Comics, Nichelle Nichols from Star Trek, and Jeremy Shada the voice actor behind the main characters from Adventure Time and DreamWorks’ Voltron.
Return of the Four-day Badge
There are still no three-day passes, but NYCC is finally getting its four-day badges back. In previous years, ReedPOP sold individual daily passes separately, and at full price much to the dismay of its attendees. Luckily, they made a few positive changes this year. Besides the four-day passes, in an attempt to control ticket reselling and scams, the company is also (finally) allowing refunds and exchanges. So now is the perfect time to get your own!
More Games
At last year’s event, Business Insider reported that people lined up for hours to play demos of the latest games. The games available last year included Kingdom Hearts III, Resident Evil 2, and Devil May Cry 5. This year’s lineup is expected to be equally as good. The NYCC may even follow in the SDCC’s footsteps with its Future Tech Live feature. This was a series of panels and presentations focusing on the latest technology in the industry. It showcased the latest virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, gaming, and, eSports innovations. eSports has been gaining a lot of traction lately, especially in the States. An ‘eSports Guide’ by Coral explains that the U.S. has over 9,500 registered professional players, putting it way ahead of China, South Korea, and Germany. So far there have been no confirmed game panels for the NYCC, but with the announcement of the 2019 Fortnite World Cup (a game that garnered a lot of attention in late 2018), and the return of the League of Legends World Championship, perhaps we’ll see eSports featured exclusively at this year’s comic con.
NYCC 2019 will be held in the Jacob Javits Convention Center from October 3 to 6. The deadlines for pre-sale tickets just ended, but general tickets are still available. Make sure to grab them before they run out!
Article prepared by Jace Bench for the exclusive use of onlocationtours.com