NYCC 2018 Gallery By Adam Etheridge, Friday Part 1

For my write-up to accompany this photo gallery, my first of two from Friday, I’d like to briefly discuss some pre-convention things that every attendee will need to do before they ever step foot on the show floor at New York Comic Con. Specifically, I’ll go over getting tickets to NYCC, and getting into the building.

In 2016, organizers made it mandatory for everyone attending the event to complete a “Fan Verification” profile. The organizers explained that this new requirement was an attempt to reduce the amount of scalpers that would purchase tickets for the sole purpose of reselling at a profit. Although there did seem to be a decline in the number of scalpers that year, getting through the queue in a timely manner was still hit or miss. ShowClix’s website just seemed unable to properly handle the amount of traffic it received at the on-sale time.

However, beginning last year, tickets started being sold in two waves. The first wave was a pre-sale for those people that had already completed a Fan Verification profile the year prior, followed by the general on-sale date several weeks later. Since this process has been put in place, the queue for purchasing tickets on ShowClix has run quickly and smoothly, and just about everyone that gets in the queue when it opens seems to have no trouble getting whatever ticket type and quantity they want, including the vaunted Saturday tickets.

I should mention that I have seen some complaints about the additional steps that fan need to take to purchase and activate tickets. Personally, I find the amount of time it takes to complete these things is minimal, and those that complain about the process are a vocal, and sometimes insufferable, minority.

The process of getting into the Javits Center has changed over the years as the convention continues to grow. In recent years, organizers have begun to admit attendees through multiple entrances in order to get people in the building in a more timely manner. I asked how things went for attendees this year in one of the NYCC Facebook fan groups, and just about everyone said that their wait time to get into the building was shorter than in previous years.

Over the course of my eight years attending New York Comic Con, I have seen many improvements, with some setbacks in other areas; sort of one step forward and one step back at times. However, I feel like this year there were improvements all around, and I hope this is a trend that continues at NYCC for years to come.

Cosplayers in this gallery include Badger BLU Cosplay, Jennifer Van Damsel, ohnoyouknit_it, zoevolf, bella_malattia, weary_warrior, and many more.

Photo gallery tips: Once the page loads the images, you will see the Forward and Back navigation arrows above the image, in case you want to scroll faster than the preset. And to see the entire gallery as thumbnails, click on the gray four-box square next to the navigation arrows.

If you are pictured in any of our galleries, feel free to download the images and use them non-commercially on social media, with appropriate credit.

[divider]