It was the final day of New York Comic Con. I was wearing Azusa Miura from the 12 Seasons cd single cover.  It was unusual to wear something representing the month of July on an autumn day, but I managed. I reported into Funimation doing my last round of giving attendees some con swag – Wolf Children and Akira posters. Sunday was also Kids Day; many families had brought their little ones to New York Comic Con.

Dealers Hall

Perhaps the biggest draw for anyone to check out NYCC for just a day is the dealers hall. It’s a no brainer that Sunday provides the best deals. Many booths want to get rid of their weekend stock so they don’t have to take everything back home. Dealers come from all over the world to showcase at New York Comic Con. I discovered a Lolita dealer from Canada and of course, many comic book shops across the country come out to sell rare and hard to find golden and silver age comics.

Industry booths such as Marvel, Nintendo, Viz, Capcom, Mattel, etc got the most traffic. Towering the huge hall, these booths had products to gaze at. My favorite one is still Mattel because they had a whole display of Monster High dolls – some that were coming out in early 2014. The best Sunday deals I found were through Kodansha and Archie Comics. Kodansha had their “buy three, get one free” deal. They also had Attack on Titan Volume 8 on sale before it would be released to the public. Archie Comics had everything at half price; I collected a good chunk of Betty and Veronica themed comics.  I stopped by the Aspen booth to pick up the first issue of Trish Out of Water. The joy of buying comics at NYCC is that you can have the author and / or artist sign your copy.

Other than comics, the dealers hall also had a ton of anime plushies. Pokemon was all around. You even had your stash of the cute alpaca dolls. There were some fashion type booths that specialized in steampunk, renaissance, and Lolita type styles. It was fairly easy to find a corset dealer. However, it’s also wise to carry some cash with you at the NYCC dealers hall. Like last year, it was really hard for some dealers to do credit card payment on a smart phone. However, the dealers hall at NYCC never fails to disappoint.

Artist Alley

Artist Alley was on the far end of the Javits Convention Center. What I love about this Artist Alley is that people from all over the country come out to sell custom drawings and one of a kind art. What I really loved was spending some time just to look at all the art that has been done for comics and other media. While Artist Alley did get crowded at times, it was nice to look at artwork done by creators. Like the dealers hall, it’s wise to carry some cash with you since most of the artists take cash only. In one overheard conversation, someone complained about a lack of women and minorities in the artist alley. In contrast, I found a lot of diverse creators and artists here. I was happy to see a Filipino American do some Batman’s rogues gallery crossed over with the Disneyland Haunted Mansion. Of course, there were a ton of female artists and I actually found them to be easier and less intimidating than some of the more popular (male) artists that were present.

At this point, I ran out of cash on hand. However, if you find yourself in a similar predicament, most of the artists will sell their print work online. Just be sure to take a business card with you before you leave the con.

Leaving NYCC

It’s always bittersweet leaving a con. Walking from Javits to Tick Tock, where the Bolt bus to Boston was departing, seemed both a relief and sad at the same time. I did enjoy my weekend at New York Comic Con. After collecting my belongings from the New Yorker bell desk, I quickly boarded the bus to endure the four and a half hour trip back to South Station. As I dozed off, I started plotting some comic themed cosplay to do for next year.

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