Fans Return In Droves For The Annual Festivities

One look at the Jacob Javits Center for the annual New York Comic Con (aka NYCC and from Thursday, October 6 to Sunday, October 9) and you would have thought there was never a pandemic. Unlike the strict health protocols for the return of the gathering live last year, you were only required to wear a mask at the panels. You did not have to show a vaccination card to get in. And, given the penchant for dressing up like a superhero or villain (or anything that came into your mind), wearing a mask seemed like part of the costume!

Like any Comic Con festivity, fans from far and wide gathered to celebrate our love for comic books, specifically superheroes and villains, and graphic novels, anime, cosplay, toys, movies, television and nostalgia. If you looked hard enough among the endless array of DC Comics and Marvel items this past weekend, for example, you might have even found an obscure TV-themed item for sale such as this “Tootie” doll from the 1980s sitcom The Facts of Life. Seriously, does this really look like a young Kim Fields? “There’s gonna be trouble!”

More current was the 51 new Funko Pop figurines being sold at NYCC, not to mention the endless action dolls, games, clothing, art work, handmade items and so much more. It was not possible to walk down one of the endless aisles of merchandising without being tempted to buy something.

Comic Con, of course, is a haven for celebrity appearances. Foremost was Back to the Future stars Michael J. Fox and and Christopher Lloyd reuniting as they reminisced about their partnership in the trilogy as time-traveling high school student Marty McFly and eccentric “Doc” Emmett Brown.

“The chemistry was there from the first scene we had,” said Christopher Lloyd. “It remained that way for three movies and it hasn’t gone away.”

That same day was a sit-down with Halloween franchise star Jamie Lee Curtis and daytime talk show host Drew Barrymore.

“No matter what I do — whatever I do forever — Laurie Strode is because of you and I thank you,” said a tearful Jamie Lee Curtis, who is featured in upcoming Halloween Ends in theaters and on streaming service Peacock. “At this point, Jamie and Laurie have become woven together. There is no separation. I don’t have anything in my life without Laurie Strode. Nothing. I wouldn’t have a career, I wouldn’t have a family.”

There were no shortage of panels focused on TV shows and at a Sunday afternoon conversation for upcoming Supernatural prequel The Winchesters, we learned of the additional casting of Smallville star Tom Welling opposite Drake Rodger and Meg Donnelly in the Supernatural prequel The Winchesters.

Amongst the endless premiere date announcements were Netflix series Wednesday featuring Christina Ricci opposite her Wednesday Addams successor, Jenna Ortega on Wednesday, November 23; and the third – and final – season of Star Trek Picard on February 16, 2023 on Paramount+),

Additionally, during a Walking Dead panel, cast members Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan teased their upcoming spinoff series, The Walking Dead: Dead City, which follows Maggie and Negan as they venture into New York City, which has been cut off since the zombie apocalypse began. That show will premiere in April 2023.

With over an estimated 200,000 attendees for NYCC 2022, fans like myself have already marked their calendars for October 12 to 15, 2023 for next year. And, since no Comic Con for this writer is complete with a souvenir, here is mine. BAM! POW! KABOOM! And I will see you next year at Comic Con!