【Michael Maien】

NEW YORK -- It’s a bit of a hike to the Javits Center.

The Michael Maienhome of New York Comic Con has grown increasingly accessible since the 2015 extension of the MTA’s 7 line, as well as the existence of ride sharing apps in addition to New York taxis, but still -- if you’re going to drag your butt to the edge of the island, you must be, as Loki said in The Avengers, “burdened with glorious purpose.”

At the 11th annual New York Comic Con, thousands of Lokis and every other sci-fi/fantasy/comic book character in god’s cinematic universe share that burden for four days of IRL content about comics, books, television and movies.

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"The thing I like about our show is that it’s a big show that still feels like a local show, especially in New York," ReedPOP event director Mike Armstrong told Mashable. "There’s something about our crowd that they’re just filled with wonder when they’re at one of these shows."

When it began in 2006, New York Comic Con took up the basement of the Javits Center, and was famously shut down by a fire marshall. Fans weren't allowed in or out of the building. Four years ago, NYCC occupied the whole convention center, and has now spread supplemental venues at Madison Square Garden, the Hammerstein Ballroom, and West 36th Street -- the home for BookCon at NYCC.

The reason for all that space? Comic Con has become the top destination for fans around the world. That doesn't just mean comic book fans, but those who have flocked to sci-fi and fantasy thanks to television, film and books.

"It’s not nerdy anymore to know what’s going on in The Flashor whatever," Armstrong said. "Now you can go to a convention like New York Comic Con and express that fandom with other people who feel the same way. It’s those kind of interactions that we love ... they can go somewhere and feel good about what they like."

Comic books are still here

Branching beyond its namesake medium hasn’t muddled Comic Con’s message to its core audience. On the contrary, Armstrong says that organizers are careful to always add content, never to remove or replace it.

“We still have all the major publishers, we still have great panels and programming … I think that the quality of the content has increased over the last few years,” Armstrong explained. “We’ve got great talent and we’ve got great publishing relationships, and I think that that’s going to continue to hold true despite the show growing in other ways. I don’t think that comics are ever going to be overshadowed in New York.”

The marketplace floor at New York Comic Con 2016. Credit: laura cavanaugh/Getty Images

Mixing content is a tricky business, and one familiar to another major convention creator: Hank Green. The video blogger and entrepreneur started VidCon in 2010, a convention which began with just over a thousand people in a hotel and this past year brought 25,000 to the Anaheim Convention Center. VidCon’s growth has been meteoric, and could easily eclipse another venture started by Green in 2015 -- NerdCon: Stories.

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Where NerdCon: Stories is floundering, Green says, is in what should have been its greatest strength: The convention brings together all kinds of mixed media, from traditional panels to zines, puppetry, podcasts and gaming.

“I totally get that Nerdcon: Stories is a really weird event and that probably doesn’t work in its favor,” Green said in 20-minute video called “Why NerdCon: Stories is failing.” “This is among the mistakes that were made, but it’s also kind of the reason we’re not going to pull the plug on this thing.”

Pay to play

Another hulking obstacle for fan conventions is guest appearances, which have reached staggering heights since fan culture exploded into the mainstream. A recent piece in from The Hollywood Reporter estimated that the biggest stars receive up to half a million dollars for a weekend at a fan convention.

"If somebody wanted to do a convention every weekend, they could make more on the convention circuit than their episodic fee," Arrowstar Stephen Amell told THR.

More bluntly, Salt Lake City Comic-Con founder Dan Farr said: "Talent makes more in a weekend than I make annually."

It’s not true of all talent, but a single big name can torpedo a convention budget -- while launching a veritable rocket of ticket sales. That’s a tall order for something as niche as NerdCon or for non-profit conventions. Armstrong’s employer ReedPOP dominates the convention circuit, and its success is comes from an almost alchemical combination of timing, resources and audience interest.

Credit: laura cavanaugh/Getty Images

“It’s all tied together,” Armstrong said. “Fans come and the studios take notice. When fans come, exhibitors take notice and sponsors take notice. I think that fans have done a really good job of making sure that this stands out as one of the premiere shows in the country and the content is following.”

And even with a certain level of success, the work is by no means done.

“With New York Comic Con and with some other events that we’ve tried to launch in New York City ... [sometimes] we just haven’t been able to get the fan reaction that we’d hoped for,” Armstrong explained. “So we’re not taking that for granted. We’re all superfans, we’re always continuously thinking about new processes, new ways to help fans."

They also have books-books, the kind with words

"We’re very happy with what we’ve been able to accomplish but we’re by no means getting complacent with the event.”

One major move this year is a partnership with BookCon, which began in 2014 at NYCC’s home, the Javits Center, and took place this past spring in Chicago. The relationship between BookCon and Javits, as well as New York’s place as one of the world’s publishing capitals, set the stage for a welcome inclusion of books at NYCC.

"You’ve gotta listen," Armstrong insists. "We do pretty extensive post-show research researching what fans liked, what content they liked, what different experiences they liked and didn’t like. We’re also very active on social media obviously so we’re continuously running polls trying to figure out what talent they want to see at the show. And then we go out and we make a concerted effort to bring in that talent."

An example of that is Doctor Who's NYCC debut in 2016 after fans clamoring for its inclusion year after year. The fan response so far is exactly what Armstrong hoped for.

"That’s really what we’re in this for," he said. "We want to make sure that everything that we’re doing is going to make a segment of our fans happy. My advice to smaller shows -- and we need to heed that advice as well -- is that we need to continue to listen and make sure that this is an event that fans want."

Topics Books Comics