Comic-Con-Trast

This will be the first article I have written of this type and I am doing so because I realized I had an interesting opportunity. As some of you may know we recently had the opportunity to go and check out New York comicon (NYCC2017) for the first time. This year NYCC broke its previous record and held its title as the largest comicon in the US with over 200,000 attendees.

TCC 2017

This Friday we have the opportunity to attend Tucson comicon for the very first time as well. Tucson comicon has a great reputation for being an amazing Con in the southwest and last year reported about 12,000 attendees.

Now I recognize this amazing chance to write a comparative piece on just what it’s like at both NYCC and TCC 2017. What the difference between a 200,000 plus and a 12,000 attendee event and how do the events compare?

New York comicon is of course a must for any comicon lover because the enormity of the event. Now if New York is your stopping ground then this sort of things won’t seem as impressive to you but if your normal con experience is, well pretty much any other con in America aside from San Diego then you will have your mind blown.

PCC2017

My wife and I have a grid pattern we normally use to make sure we get to all the various booths and attractions in the vendor hall. Using our pattern has served us well and it gives us the ability to take off and go to panels and then know right were we left off. This tried and true method was a total bust when set against the vender hall of NYCC. It was overwhelming to be honest.

Tucson comicon, which celebrated its 10^th anniversary this year was an amazing con. I know we generally think of larger cons as being best because the larger crowds and the bigger budget brings the big name guests and attractions. This can be true but in our experience it’s not always the case. As a shining example, we had the amazing experience of seeing 3 principal members of the Rocky Horror picture show cast a couple years ago in at PCC. It was one of the coolest things we’d ever seen or so we thought. We sat in a room with about 3,000 people at PCC and saw Barry Bostwick, Nell Campbel and Patricia Quinn from a far. At TCC however We got the chance to see the same 3 amazing people up close and personal.

Tucson Comicon was, in my opinion just as good as Phoenix Comicon but with a 10^th the amount of people.

As a constant Con-goer I find the most fun cons are the ones who have the most apparent passion for the subject, the people, the whole concept. It’s not just something that you can see in large cons and it’s not something that smaller cons have a monopoly on either.

NYCC 2017

An interesting observation I’ve made when comparing NYCC to PCC is that while NYCC has twice the amount of attendees, New York is just used to that many people and the result is actually a much smoother experience when it comes to panels and security. You actually, believe it or not, don’t really notice all the extra people until you stop and look around lol.

Another odd difference between cons is beer. you might not have been to a con that allows alcohol before but its actually a not uncommon thing. in Phoenix there is no alcohol at all whil Tucson haws a special beer area. New York ciomicon serves beer you can walk freely around the venue with and some cons even have cocktails and shots you can partake of as well.

The fact is ever con is fun and as many as I have gone to I can’t say I have ever really had a bad time. From tiny one room cons with a couple hundred people to a con so big it actually took over parts of Madison square garden and various theaters in Manhattan to contain all the events and in both places we had a blast. The connecting points of cons all over the country is love. So keep on loving, con-goers, keep on loving and cons will always be awesome,