The ‘Other’ NYC Comic Con- Still a Cool One

If you have been to any major “comic” con within the last five years, you’ll notice how they are overrun with gargantuan booths promoting games, movies and TV series—it is hard to not feel like Nathan Drake seeking out treasure when you are looking for actual comics and actual creators at these conventions.

Tales of the days when lines didn’t exist and comic-cons were about comics are echoed throughout convention centers across the country by older con-goers; however, there are a select few events that mirror the memories of comic-cons past and Special Edition NYC is one of them.

Put together by ReedPop, the masterminds behind two of the biggest cons on the planet C2E2 and New York Comic Con—SENYC, still in its infancy stage, is a true comic book fan’s wildest dreams. And by true comic book fan, I do not mean a collector or a human comic encyclopedia, I mean the fans that come to cons to not only interact with the creators who spark their imagination, but to interact with those like them. The fans that look for a place where the outside world is an afterthought.

As soon as you walk into Pier 94 (where this year’s Special Edition is hosted), you are taken aback by the aesthetic—it feels like you just became an extra in the opening scene of “Chasing Amy.” It is a little weird at first, but you cannot help but appreciate what ReedPop crafted with Special Edition… a reverse comic-con.

No moans about the old days, fans conversing with artists, and most importantly nothing but comics. It is tough to wrap one’s ahead around the concept, a comic-con in 2015 that ditches the pop culture mediums that ballooned cons to the go-to events of the year, but it is the kind of counter-programming conventions need.

As someone who has attending conventions as both a fan and as a professional, SENYC was the first time where I felt I was actually at a comic-con and not a trade show for entertainment, the first time where I felt I was at an event that is an actual celebration of the art and talent, not IPs.

Rather than extravagant booths and larger-than-life panels being the focal point, Artist Alley is the main attraction. If you turn your head right, you’ve got David Mack signing eager fans’ copy of “Fight Club 2,” if you turn your head left, Chris Claremont is killing one of the few lines you’ll see at a convention of this size—friends run back to their groups telling them about some newly discovered artist they just bought prints from, Spider-Gwen cosplayers impatiently wait on-line to meet Robbi Rodriguez and Jason Latour, it just feels like home for a comic book fan.

Aisles do not look like cattle lines, if the dude in the Street Fighter Blanka cosplay wants to do a lightning cannonball, guess what? He can. If Kid-Flash wants to run laps around Pier 94, wooing fellow Teen Titan cosplayers with one-liners, he can do that. There are no fans spending their day waiting in line for a 40-dollar signature. The frustration and tension that plagues congoers is nonexistent—everyone is smiling like its “Pleasantville,” except the guys who waiting on-line to buy tickets to the NYCC, those guys were not too jolly.

Now, this con is not for everyone. If you are one of those people willing to shank someone to get into “The Walking Dead” panel at NYCC, SENYC is more than likely not for you. If you are one those people who almost punched a hole through their monitor when they couldn’t score NYCC tickets, and then immediately ran to the message board complaining about the old days, SENYC is the con you’ve been looking for—also if you just want some awesome original art.

All jokes aside, SENYC maybe only two-years-young, but it is mature in its approach. Providing fans with an experience they’ve been yearning for. SENYC is the con fans deserve, and the one they deserve.