New York Comic Con Preview
Rogers says. “We were seeing four figures for one-day tickets,
and that’s just ludicrous. We’ve seen a dramatic rise in the
amount of fake badges that have been sold.”
Other changes are also in the air. This year’s NYCC will have
extended hours, offering panels until 10 p.m. on Thursday,
Friday, and Saturday. Last year, NYCC programming ended at
8 p.m. According to Rogers, this extension is based on studio
content and Anime Fest @ NYCC (organized in partnership
with Anime Expo). Rogers says that this year’s NYCC will host
more content from TV and film studios. “This year we’re going
to have even more TV and film content than we ever have, and
the rate that we continue to grow that area is in double-digit
percentage points,” Rogers says.
As noted, Anime Fest @ NYCC has been relocated to the
Hudson Mercantile, a multifloor building where other NYCC-
related events have been held in the past that is a block away
from the Javits Center. NYCC ticket holders can access the first
floor, which will be committed to interactive content and pub-
lishers, Rogers says. Events on upper floors require separate
tickets (which are likely to sell out before October, she notes).
Last year’s Anime Fest @ NYCC took place at Pier 94, located
uptown from Javits at West 52nd Street, which offered more
than 175,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space. Fans weren’t happy about
the distance between the pier and Javits, Rogers says. “That’s
the first group of people that we listen to,” she says. “The big-
gest takeaway that we had was that it was just so far from
everything.”
Hudson Mercantile is smaller than Pier 94 (the largest floor
is 6,000 sq. ft.). ReedPop’s M.K. Goodwin is organizing Anime
Fest and says that the new space, while smaller, will create more
intimate and interactive experiences for this area of fandom.
Featured guests include voice actors Charlet Chung, who voiced
D.Va in the video game Overwatch, and Veronica Taylor, who
voiced Ash Ketchum in the Pokémon animated series and films.
“It will be largely guest-focused,” Goodwin says. “We know
what the fans want and what they told us. They want to meet
and greet their favorite celebs.”
Literary content also factored into NYCC’s extended hours.
At last year’s NYCC, book publishers’ panels and author sign-
ings were primarily hosted at the Hudson Mercantile space.
This year, ReedPop has moved literary presentations and pro-
gramming into the Javits Center proper. NYCC’s extended
hours were necessary, Rogers says, so as not to slight the literary
community. “Our literary program continues to grow every
year,” she adds.
Penguin Random House, a major figure at NYCC, will host
its first ever Penguin Random House Book Club, a book give-
away and promotion in which some lucky fans will receive a
bundle of books worth more than $100; the prizes will be
grouped into four genres: science fiction adventure, literary
science fiction, occult and supernatural, and horror.
The program will offer four book club sessions to NYCCcontinued from p. 30continued on p. 34
RWBY © 2019 Rooster Teeth Productions, LLC
Based on the Rooster Teeth series created by Monty Oum
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