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Big Apple comic con
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Special Thanks to Peter for taking time for the interview! Notice Big Apple Comic Con on social media. Checked out website, gained serious interest. This is a major Comic Con without the "I CAN fit everything into one day or a few hours" mentality. Even at VIP rate, Big Apple Comic Con leaves room in budge for food / autographs / vendors. Between website / interview, Big Apple Comic Con is easily in top 10 even list for 2023 (Philadelphia / NYC).
Interview
1) Covering other Comic Cons, how important are indie artists / creators to Big Apple Comic Con?
We have been a NYC fixture for 26 years, everyone indie and mainstream has been at our show over the years. Too many to list. Many come precisely because of the intimate nature of the show. We love indie and up and coming artists, we are showcasing Bill Plympton and will have an Ahoy Comics event with Jamal Igle and Russ Braun (two artists in the breakout between big publishers and indies). We can say the same for Eisner award winner Alitha Martinez. Billing the BACC as NYC's community comic con, we have always championed up and coming local artists. Across the past 25 years our artist alley let's right out onto today's mainstreet.
2) Viewing the website, it appears Big Apple Comic Con is almost a perfect size. Big enough to attract a variety of fans / potential fans. Small enough you don't get lost or try to fit everything into a short time period. Is this intentional / taken into consideration when planning the Con?
Our roots go all the way back to Phil Seuling comic conventions when we were kids. NYC is a very difficult place to survive as a comic convention if you are not a deep-pocketed corporate entity like ReedPop. There are hundreds of comic cons around the country that are set up in vacant shopping malls and other venues that cost pennies on a dollar per square foot as a midtown NYC location. They come and go and some survive and flourish. We have held fast to being a very real comic convention, a hub for traders and artists from around the country, in the center of NYC.
We began almost by accident after a show was cancelled for snow in 1997, we were able to secure the basement auditorium in St Paul's Church on 9th Ave. Some years later we moved to the Metropolitan Pavilion in Chelsea and then to the Pennsylvania Hotel across from Madison Square Garden. For the past 5 years our home has been the amazing, art deco masterpiece New Yorker Hotel (1929). To directly answer your question, we have from necessity created a unique boutique comic con, that has never lost touch with a comic book and artist showcase event. It is big enough to spend the day, for traders to trade millions of dollars worth of books, to enjoy the events, and for cosplayers to shine. No one gets lost in the mediatic miasma.
3) Growing up in the 70's / 80's notice the History of Video Games section. Where did this idea come from?
Our partner Sherman of Origin of Play has amassed a video game library, he sets up 8 or 9 screens and you can choose the game you want to play. Parents park their kids, but then end up playing Space Invaders or whatever.
4) Variety is always important to any event. Attracting largest possible crowd. Guest list included member of the Go-Go's / DC / Marvel / Cosplay. How is the aspect evolving?
It is what we have always done. We are eclectic and our show reflects the people we know, the people we meet. It, like our audience, is organic, there never was a plan other than the broadest outlines, only our own intimacy with pop culture, and a growing root matrix of
connections, ideas, fans. We cultivate what grows. We are bigger today than ever but will forever remain small, quirky, and, hopefully, fun.
5) My favorite is always Artist Alley. How important is it to include indie artists / creators in Big Apple Comic Con?
As noted above it is a central theme and goal of the show to give space to younger artists, aspiring creators, and independent publishers. We usually reserve
20% of the entire floor space for them.
6) A main feature is screening of the film Lost Cos, are film screenings a new feature of the Con?
Lost Cos is special, very much a film of a comic convention. We have always screened shorts or some interesting things by our partner Denny Daniel at "The Museum of Interesting Things" and clips from
upcoming films (we have some really interesting stuff from Mandalorian 3 from Disney this time), and other things we deem worthy of oxygen.
Again this is developing organically, someone we know liked the film, I found the contact, director Robin DeLavita liked the idea, so we decided this was the moment to add an extra event room and
do a 2 day animation, horror, and film clip/trailer fest, with Lost Cos as the centerpiece. It is exciting because we are developing a cosplay cabaret for Sunday evening after the film, that might become
a very special event, or even a unique BACC show, in the future.
7) How is Big Apple Comic Con attracting new fans / maybe people who might not think this is a major event?
Good question, in a sea of possibility the easiest thing to do is drown. We have been able to stake out a small space and earn a very good reputation for our show. Getting attention from NY media is expensive and requires a constant process that we simply cannot afford. To put it in perspective, think of a fine Comic Con like Steve Perry's show in Providence RI or Sheldon Drum's Hero Con in Charlotte. The local space costs a fraction of NYC, sponsors are eager for a fun event to back, and the local media have time and space to spare. Now take that to NYC across from MSG in midtown, you need scuba gear.
A second aspect of your question requires taking a step back. What is a major event? Reed Pop spends millions to produce the NYCC, it is a mass media event, where comic book culture, art, history, though the seed of the entire show, constitute a very small part of the overall commercial agora.
Conversely the BACC is about comic books, seeing, reading, writing, drawing, inking, grading, publishing, trading, meeting the artists (my partner Mike, like many others, likes to smell them). In 2021 we
created a gallery event, "A showcase of great comics" with over 100 original copies of some of the greatest comics ever created; all high grade with a market value of well over $15 million. These included Bob Kane's own copy of Detective #27, Jerry Siegal and Joe Schuster's original high school notebook story of Superman, along with Amazing Fantasy #15, X-Men #1 and dozens more. In NYC this is a small ripple in the sea, in Providence, RI it would have been a tsunami.
We have been a NYC fixture for 26 years, everyone indie and mainstream has been at our show over the years. Too many to list. Many come precisely because of the intimate nature of the show. We love indie and up and coming artists, we are showcasing Bill Plympton and will have an Ahoy Comics event with Jamal Igle and Russ Braun (two artists in the breakout between big publishers and indies). We can say the same for Eisner award winner Alitha Martinez. Billing the BACC as NYC's community comic con, we have always championed up and coming local artists. Across the past 25 years our artist alley let's right out onto today's mainstreet.
2) Viewing the website, it appears Big Apple Comic Con is almost a perfect size. Big enough to attract a variety of fans / potential fans. Small enough you don't get lost or try to fit everything into a short time period. Is this intentional / taken into consideration when planning the Con?
Our roots go all the way back to Phil Seuling comic conventions when we were kids. NYC is a very difficult place to survive as a comic convention if you are not a deep-pocketed corporate entity like ReedPop. There are hundreds of comic cons around the country that are set up in vacant shopping malls and other venues that cost pennies on a dollar per square foot as a midtown NYC location. They come and go and some survive and flourish. We have held fast to being a very real comic convention, a hub for traders and artists from around the country, in the center of NYC.
We began almost by accident after a show was cancelled for snow in 1997, we were able to secure the basement auditorium in St Paul's Church on 9th Ave. Some years later we moved to the Metropolitan Pavilion in Chelsea and then to the Pennsylvania Hotel across from Madison Square Garden. For the past 5 years our home has been the amazing, art deco masterpiece New Yorker Hotel (1929). To directly answer your question, we have from necessity created a unique boutique comic con, that has never lost touch with a comic book and artist showcase event. It is big enough to spend the day, for traders to trade millions of dollars worth of books, to enjoy the events, and for cosplayers to shine. No one gets lost in the mediatic miasma.
3) Growing up in the 70's / 80's notice the History of Video Games section. Where did this idea come from?
Our partner Sherman of Origin of Play has amassed a video game library, he sets up 8 or 9 screens and you can choose the game you want to play. Parents park their kids, but then end up playing Space Invaders or whatever.
4) Variety is always important to any event. Attracting largest possible crowd. Guest list included member of the Go-Go's / DC / Marvel / Cosplay. How is the aspect evolving?
It is what we have always done. We are eclectic and our show reflects the people we know, the people we meet. It, like our audience, is organic, there never was a plan other than the broadest outlines, only our own intimacy with pop culture, and a growing root matrix of
connections, ideas, fans. We cultivate what grows. We are bigger today than ever but will forever remain small, quirky, and, hopefully, fun.
5) My favorite is always Artist Alley. How important is it to include indie artists / creators in Big Apple Comic Con?
As noted above it is a central theme and goal of the show to give space to younger artists, aspiring creators, and independent publishers. We usually reserve
20% of the entire floor space for them.
6) A main feature is screening of the film Lost Cos, are film screenings a new feature of the Con?
Lost Cos is special, very much a film of a comic convention. We have always screened shorts or some interesting things by our partner Denny Daniel at "The Museum of Interesting Things" and clips from
upcoming films (we have some really interesting stuff from Mandalorian 3 from Disney this time), and other things we deem worthy of oxygen.
Again this is developing organically, someone we know liked the film, I found the contact, director Robin DeLavita liked the idea, so we decided this was the moment to add an extra event room and
do a 2 day animation, horror, and film clip/trailer fest, with Lost Cos as the centerpiece. It is exciting because we are developing a cosplay cabaret for Sunday evening after the film, that might become
a very special event, or even a unique BACC show, in the future.
7) How is Big Apple Comic Con attracting new fans / maybe people who might not think this is a major event?
Good question, in a sea of possibility the easiest thing to do is drown. We have been able to stake out a small space and earn a very good reputation for our show. Getting attention from NY media is expensive and requires a constant process that we simply cannot afford. To put it in perspective, think of a fine Comic Con like Steve Perry's show in Providence RI or Sheldon Drum's Hero Con in Charlotte. The local space costs a fraction of NYC, sponsors are eager for a fun event to back, and the local media have time and space to spare. Now take that to NYC across from MSG in midtown, you need scuba gear.
A second aspect of your question requires taking a step back. What is a major event? Reed Pop spends millions to produce the NYCC, it is a mass media event, where comic book culture, art, history, though the seed of the entire show, constitute a very small part of the overall commercial agora.
Conversely the BACC is about comic books, seeing, reading, writing, drawing, inking, grading, publishing, trading, meeting the artists (my partner Mike, like many others, likes to smell them). In 2021 we
created a gallery event, "A showcase of great comics" with over 100 original copies of some of the greatest comics ever created; all high grade with a market value of well over $15 million. These included Bob Kane's own copy of Detective #27, Jerry Siegal and Joe Schuster's original high school notebook story of Superman, along with Amazing Fantasy #15, X-Men #1 and dozens more. In NYC this is a small ripple in the sea, in Providence, RI it would have been a tsunami.
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