NY Comic-Con 2009

Wow, what in Hades happened?

Last year, my crew and I were praising Comic Con’s show runners for having learned the lessons of a rocky first year and pulling their stuff together. We looked forward to this year’s show, assuming even more improvements would be in place.

Wrong.

The place was still packed to the rafters, which is a good thing considering the economic times. The downside is that walking the floor Saturday was akin to traveling the Japanese subway system at the height of rush hour — claustrophobic, somewhat violent, and not at all fun. There was no way to stop and look at anything without risking life and limb. I definitely felt for any wee ones who’d been shlepped along; they must have feared being stomped into wine by the throngs of fans. I didn’t attend on Sunday, but from what I hear, it wasn’t any better.

NYCC also took a big step into “huh?”- ville when they eliminated special seating for the press. As in, the press had to stand in the same, insane lines as everyone else to get into movie previews, panels, and other special events, with no guarantee of decent seating or placement. I asked one of the show runners why they made this change, and received some rambling explanation of, “this is a show for fans and we felt it was more egalitarian to give everyone equal access.”

Ummmm, no.

If you invite the press, the going theory is that you want positive coverage, both for your show and for your partners from Hollywood, publishing, and other venues who have come to peddle their wares and garner publicity. By treating the press like everyone else, they lost the ability to even get into some panels, their photographers couldn’t get into position to take decent pictures, and reporters were so disgruntled they just slammed the whole thing (like this). If the show is concerned about ‘egalitarianism,’ then limit the number of press passes and make sure the press section is moderate in size. Here’s a thought: maybe not everyone who claims to have a blog should be awarded a press pass equal to that of MTV News. That would make a heckuva lot more sense, don’t'cha think?

Also a disappointment - the special guests and events. In previous years, NYCC boasted appearances by Stephen King, Kevin Smith, nearly the entire cast of Battlestar Galactica, and many other luminaries from Hollywood and big publishing. World premiere trailers and clips from major movies and new television shows were de rigeur. This year, Comic Con lost their Guest of Honor about two weeks before the show (J. Michael Straczynski, who had to bail for an unexpected British Emmy award. Yeah, that makes no sense to me, either). They did manage to pull in Joss Whedon to promote Dollhouse, but only for an appearance on Sunday. As for other guests? Few to none, and nowhere near the status of a King or Stan Lee. When even the comic book luminaries can’t be bothered to show up at your comic convention, there might be a big problem.

The coolest thing I saw was Dave Gibbons introducing a full 18 minutes of Watchmen, plus a bonus scene, and yes, it does look amazing. Other than that? We got clips from the new Friday the 13th (why?) and incomplete footage from Terminator 4 (why????). Oh, and they showed the premiere of the Wonder Woman animated movie which, while really enjoyable, included none of its stars. Instead, we got a quick pre-taped intro from Nathan Fillion. Yay?

Where was the Friday night airing of BSG in the big theater? Where was the latest Christmas episode of Dr. Who, not yet shown in the US? And, while I’m at it, where were the clear signs, directions, maps, or listings for the panels hidden in the bowels of the Javitz Center??!! I probably missed some of the cool stuff going on down in the pits there because I couldn’t find it, and I doubt I’m alone in that. I only made it into one panel successfully - the one, not surprisingly, that they did grab the press out of line and plunk us into front-row seats. It was the Torchwood panel, which was listed incorrectly as a Dr. Who panel in the horribly unclear  and inaccurate guide provided in the official Comic Con guidebook. It was very enjoyable, mostly because Torchwood star Eve Myles (Gwen) is the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen. She was simply delighted that everyone liked her, her show, and her genuine Welch accent.

Overall, I have to give NY Comic Con 2009 a grade of C. Hopefully, when the show returns in October of 2010 - their new, apparently permanent month — they’ll have learned from the many mistakes of this year and provide their vast number of attendees with good reasons to brave the crowds. Already promising is that they will have the entire Javitz Center to themselves, thus spreading the wealth and reducing the terrifying congestion of the show floor.