New York Comic-Con, an annual comic convention that has been ongoing since 2006, will be entirely virtual this year. The convention serves as a source for interviews, panels, and celebrity fan meetings. It covers a wide range of topics, including television, film, comics, and toys. It actually surpassed San Diego as the largest comic book convention in 2014, although that is largely due to that fact that the venue for SDCC can't handle any more guests. NYCC 2019 was particularly eventful, with the largest celebrity-guest list that convention has seen in its entire history.
Fans were disappointed to learn that 2020's San Diego Comic-Con would be canceled, and all panels would be done virtually. Given the situation with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, gathering hundreds of thousands of people into a packed indoor space probably wouldn't have been a good idea. The convention went on into the digital world - conducting panels over zoom and doing live Q&A's. SDCC was far from the only convention canceled in 2020, with nearly every major convention from March to August canceling their plans.
Now, it has been officially announced that the in-person New York Comic-Con 2020 has been canceled as well. ReedPop, the company behind the con, revealed that they will be setting up an exclusive partnership with YouTube. Each NYCC panel will air live, along with Q&As and a live watch party feature, which will allow fans to discuss the panel in real-time. Among the panels this year are American Gods, Star Trek's expanded universe, Dreamworks Animation, along with various shows from Hulu and FX. Lance Fensterman, President of Reedpop, gave the following statement on the decision:
“We are thoroughly disappointed that we can’t gather together, in-person for the New York Comic Con we love to build and our fans love to revel in. We look forward to this weekend all year long, just like you, and with this being our 15th edition, we were particularly excited. I will miss walking up and down artist alley and seeing friends that I’ve made since we were in the basement at the Javits Center. While this year will definitely be a different experience, we are going to look to bring the best and most engaging event to our fans, exhibitors, and studios through our partnership with YouTube.”
ReedPop is also making an attempt to have NYCC feel as close to the real thing as possible. Along with the live-streamed panels, there will be various ancillary events designed to get the full NYCC experience via the virtual world. There will be a "virtual marketplace" for fans to interact with vendors, where they can view the newest creations from both exhibitors and creators. There will also be "up close" meet and greets with celebrities, along with the chance to receive personalized autographs.
This news, while disappointing, shouldn't come as a shock, considering how many cons have canceled this year. New York City still hasn't allowed indoor dining or movie theaters to open. It's doubtful that the city would allow NYCC, which has regularly drawn 200,000+ people in the past few years, to operate given the circumstances. Having the entire con be done online does pose some concern - as the reception to San Diego's "Comic-Con@Home" was met with a less-than-stellar response. However, ReedPop's announcement shows that they're trying to adapt the con format into an online medium in a more in-depth and thoughtful way than other cons have this year. Hopefully, they'll look toward the mistakes of SDCC and put on a New York Comic-Con that lives up to its live-action counterpart.
Source: ReedPop
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August 12, 2020 at 05:03AM
