Michael Davis: The Great New York Con

Michael Davis

Master Of The Universe, Lord Of All Media, Most Interesting Black Man In the World, Sexiest Man on Earth, Mentor, Writer, Artist, Producer & Uppity.

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3 Responses

  1. Without doing any research at all, I’ll wager that SDCC is the single largest tourist attraction San Diego has, and I’m including the zoo, and the fact that somehow the sun never stops shining there. I’ll warrant that money brought in by SDCC gets its own line in the city budget. You’re exactly right when you say that San Diego would do absolutely anything to keep them happy.

    I recall (Hell, I wrote about) the time that the Mayor of San Diego went on some morning radio show after the con, and they get to talking about the American Idol auditions were the next thing in the convention center.

    He said “We’ve put up with the superheroes and now we’re on to the people with actual talent.”

    After I spoke with the mayor’s press secretary, the mayor released an official apology to the con, the fans, and anyone else. And that was back when an apology MEANT something, when they were only made to people who could actually do some damage.

    http://40yearoldfanboy.blogspot.com/2007/08/on-mayors-who-speak-without-thinking.html

    But here in NYC, it’s just another event. A big one, yes, but a blip in a very busy graph. It might get four or five pages in Time Out New York, but, well, I don’t recall there being a special issue of TV Guide about it.

    NYCC has another very serious weakness – it cannot grow. San Diego will indeed build more buildings for SDCC, buildings that may lay fallow for the rest of the year, and yet still be profitable. But there’s literally nowhere else for NYCC to go, save for leaving Manhattan, which would be, I think, a death knell. It’s why New York will never get an Olympics, a World Cup, or any other major event of that size – there’s simply no place to put it. So SDCC will continue to grow, and NYCC will try to find ways to convince the fire department to let them cram in a couple hundred more people.

    It will certainly keep the crown of the East Coast’s biggest show. Wizard can’t hold a candle to it. I came close, 21 years ago in Philly, but that’s another story.

    • The moment the Video Software Dealers Association’s (VSDA) decides to come to NYC. NYCC will be reduced to distant second.

      Fun Fact: Combined all movie studio’s, television networks, publishers. and any other media outlet and category that produces video (DVD, Blue Ray, etc) takes up half of the convention space.

      The other half only category is porn.

      So, bye bye NYCC. Hello Mr.Davis!

  2. SAMURAI36 says:

    To be honest, I wasn’t even aware that SDCC & NYCC were in any sort of competition with each other. But then again, people seem shocked at the notion that Marvel & DC are in competition.

    As a NY’er myself, I’ve been to NYCC a couple of times. As a recent Chicago resident, I’ve been to C2E2 & Wizard World. Now that I live in Cali (Bay Area), I’ve also been to Wonder-Con.

    SDCC is the last of the major cons, that I have yet to make it to, but I’m definitely planning on going in 2015.

    I said all of this to say, each con offers something different. NYCC is reflective of NYC, so it doesn’t surprise me that “complaints” have been leveled at the Javitz staff. Where comic-con season is a spectacle to behold in most other places, NY is notorious for dealing aggressively with the “costumed weirdos” 24/7/365.

    If you’re a NY’er, or know anything about NY, you’ll know not to have thin skin when it comes to that sort of stuff.

    It also doesn’t surprise me, that SDCC is headed up by the geek squad, either. Having lived in Cali for a short time now, I’ve realized that this is where nerds & geeks come to live & play. You’ve got nearly a dozen tech companies out here… Geeks take their geek-dom very seriously out here.

    Add to that, the fact that Cali is also the home to Hollywood (with comic book related multimedia on the rise, & the Big 2 having relocated some/all of their wares out here), then it’s no shock at all that SDCC has become the pinnacle of its ilk.