I think everyone who saw the schedule has about the same though, “Why would I want to go to a panel about and Amerimanga He-Man?” OK. I might be the only person who had that thought but I think most people who saw these panels assumed they were about some mediocre OEL manga titles with some talented American comic artists forced to ULTRA-ANIMIZE their artwork to try to capitalize on the long over manga boom. The only people who would be interested in the panel would be someone who was interested in one of the artists involved outside of the Masters of Animanga project. But that was not the case.

In actuality Kazuo Koike, Takashi Okazaki, Sin’Ichi Hiromoto, and Masao Maruyama were all on the panel. A panel of two well-known manga artists, one legendary manga artist, and one anime producer whose career is almost as old as modern anime itself. This was a surprisingly high-profile line-up. I think most major cons would love a row of anime and manga guests like that. And here they were not getting anywhere near the attention they deserved. There was some signage about it around the con so it was not totally unadvertised but I think the name alone turned away 80% of the people who would have normally flocked to such a panel.

 These panels put on by Wikia win the award for worst names ever. I honestly think they were preventing people from coming; I know I skipped over them in the schedule at first. A name like Kazuo Koike shouldn’t be buried in the fine print and yet there he was.

Mr. Koike is one of the few manga-ka known by comic fans and could have easily filled a room to just chat about Lone Wolf and Cub. Instead, the Wikia panels were focusing on their latest venture which one might describe as hyper fan-fiction.

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If panels are the brain of New York Comic Con, than the Show Room is the heart of the event, and Artist Alley is soul. The Show Room is the glitzy center of the convention that pumps life into the rest of the convention. It tends to be one of the biggest draws and where the casual attendees tend to spend most of their time. A New York Comic Con dealers room is filled with exclusive demos, sneak peaks, free swag, samples big and small, hidden signings, and tons of things to buy in every stripe of geekery. It is the clearly the most impressive part of the convention.

On the other hand a little off to the side is the equally impressive if a bit quieter (and only quieter in comparison) Artist Alley. If the roots of New York Comic Con are comics of all sorts than here is where they shine the most. A walk down the lanes lets you meet a wide variety of different artists whose mediums include traditional superheros, odd indy projects, popular webcomics, and even some manga artists. There you can converse about their work, trade tips on the trade, and buy exclusive pieces of art as well as more mass-produced pieces of merchandise. Artist Alley is probably the most intimate part of the convention and I’m including Sci-Fi Speed Dating in that assessment.

 This year saw the Show Floor back to its full capacity as the last remnants of construction finished after 2012’s con. And while the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle alley way was a pretty awesome way of connecting one side of the floor to the other last year, “The Block” got much more traffic now that you could see it unobstructed.

On the reverse, Artist Alley saw no visible changes from last time around, but that was actually a good thing since the North Pavilion is easily the most inviting section in the entire Javits Center. And finally finally, people don’t seem to be missing the existence of the alley.

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 This year’s New York Comic Con felt a little more manageable. Last year felt like it was a convention cosplaying as scene from Soylent Green. This year was decidedly busy but not as overwhelming. You could conceivably go on to the show floor on Saturday afternoon and go from one end to the other in less than an hour without the offensive line of an NFL team escorting you. At the same time the content still seemed strong, the business in the showroom and artist alley seemed brisk, and major panels were still hard to go into. So the real question is why was this. How did the convention grow but everything seem less crowded?

New York Comic Con is something I’m always anticipating; it probably helps that NYCC staff hype the show and make announcements for months before it is really on the convention radar. This year I had a bit of anxiety mixed-in since the 2012 convention was huge and packed, I was wondering what this year would hold. Would it be more crowded? Would I be able to get to the panels I wanted? What are the limits of the Javits space?

And the ultimate question for me: would NYCC be so big that I no longer enjoyed it? That was weighing on me like never before. And maybe because I was thinking about that so much, this year’s NYCC was able to pleasantly surprise me.

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