NYCC’s Topalian Plans for Big Crowds

This story originally appeared in PW Comics Week on Jan. 2, 2007 Sign up now!

By Calvin Reid -- Publishers Weekly, 1/2/2007

Greg Topalian (l.) and ADV's Chris Oarr at NYCC '06

After a wildly successful debut last year, the 2007 New York Comic-con is only two months away. Scheduled to run from February 23 to 25 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, the show has been moved to a larger space, and the show organizer, Reed Exhibitions, a sister company to PW Comics Week, has announced changes to prevent the overcrowding that plagued the show last year. Guests of honor will include superstars like Stan Lee and Stephen King and in an interview with PW Comics Week, show organizer Greg Topalian discussed a new date for the 2008 show, his excitement about having a bigger exhibition hall, new exhibitors and other questions about the 2007 New York Comic-Con

PW Comics Week: We’re here to talk about the 2007 convention but you’ve also announced that the 2008 New York Comic-con will be moved from late February to April. What does that mean for the convention, and is this now a permanent date for the New York show?

Greg Topalian: The 2008 New York Comic-con will be held in April, and it means we’ll have even more exhibition space. We’re still working out the details with the Javits Center and we’ll need to be flexible. Javits management has recognized the success of our first year, and they came to us and said, ‘What about this date?” The move will allow us to continue to grow, and it doesn’t conflict with other conventions. But you also have to understand how difficult it is to get space in that building. We were lucky to get the time and space that we had last year, and this doesn’t mean we’ll get the same April date every year. The good news is that Javits management sees that our show, and trade shows in general, are growing, and they’re trying to accommodate us.

PWCW: What does this change in date mean to other comicsconventions? Is there a potential for conflicts with other shows?

GT: We’re very aware of other conventions and we’re aware that our exhibitors have concerns about the timing of the show. It would be unfair to put one show right on top of another one. Our exhibitors say they like the April date better than February. The date should work, and it doesn’t put us right on top of anyone else.

PWCW: The first year of the NYCC was so successful that the crowds were overwhelming, and you had to close down the exhibition floor. You have been adamant that you’ll do a better job anticipating and controlling crowds this year, even while expecting even bigger attendance. Can you go over the changes in the configuration of the convention and changes in how fans can buy tickets and crowd control?

GT: The exhibition floor will be upstairs. We’ll have a bigger lobby, and the exhibition hall will be bigger, double the size of last year. We can handle many more people, but there’s still a limit on how many people can enter the hall. This year we are urging fans to get their tickets in advance, and we’ll be keeping a close eye on the hall’s capacity. We’re telling people that it’s like a Yankees playoff game. You can’t just walk up to the stadium on game day. You’ve got to get a ticket in advance if you want to get in.

We will handle tickets very differently. If you buy a ticket online at the New York Comic-con Web site before the January 31 deadline, we’ll send you your ticket-badge in the mail—and this is the ticket that will get you in the show. You don’t need to stand in line. If you buy a ticket through comics retailers like Forbidden Planet or Midtown Comics—that will also be the actual ticket that will get you in the show. It’s not going to be like last year, where people bought a ticket and had to get in another line at the show to have a badge printed out for them. Printing out each badge took several minutes and slowed the process down. That was a really dumb mistake. What we’re doing this year will take a huge number of people out of the ticket lines.

We’ll also have more space in the lobby and better-organized ticket lines with separate lines for professionals and for people buying or picking up tickets. This year if you buy a ticket after the January 31 deadline, or if you are picking up tickets, we will be able to scan people in. We’re not printing out badges, and the process will be much quicker.

PWCW: Last year, the New York Comic-con drew just over 30,000 fans and professionals to the Javits Center in its first year. What is the size of the exhibition floor and what are your projections for attendance this year?

GT: The size of the exhibition floor is approximately 60,000 net square feet—that’s a measurement of just the space taken up by booths. It’s not the entire hall. Net square feet for last year’s show was about 30,000. Last year, we attracted 33,000 people, and we expect this year we’ll get more than that. But we have a cap on how many people we’ll let in the hall. We expect about 40,000 people and the hall’s full capacity is 50,000.

Although we have double the space of last year, demand for tickets may still outpace supply. We have more space, but it’s not unlimited, and we don’t want a repeat of last year when we had to shut down the floor and people got caught outside the hall and couldn’t get back in. That’s why we are encouraging people to buy tickets in advance. If you have a ticket, you will get in the hall. We will be able to monitor ticket sales, and if we see that the hall is filling up, we will notify fans through our Web site that we have hit capacity and don’t try to come down.

It’s not going to be like last year. I want this to be controlled. If 55,000 people show up at the Javits Center, 5,000 people will be disappointed. The majority of ticket sales still occur closer to the event, so we will post information about ticket availability on the New York Comic-con Web site. The message may end up saying “no tickets available.”

PWCW: I understand the exhibition floor is sold out. How many exhibitors do you expect this year, and what can fans and professionals expect to see in the exhibition hall?

GT: Space in the exhibition floor has been sold out now for a couple of months. That represents about 300 exhibitors. I think this year people will be blown away by bigger booths and much more excitement on the floor. We’ve had a lot of growth over last year. Fans will see a much bigger video-gaming presence. Video-game companies were waiting to see what kind of attendance we would attract. This year you’ll see companies like Konami and Playstation, and they’ll have big booths. There will be more anime. Funimation is coming; Bandai will be there and they don’t do a lot of shows. Random House, Marvel and DC Comics were at the show last year, but now they’ll have bigger booths and a more robust presence.

PWCW: When can we expect to see the schedule of trade and fan programming?

GT: The programming schedule will be released by mid-January. We’ll have programming aimed at the trade, libraries, licensing and to retailers. We’re expanding fan programming.

PWCW: Can you address questions about how professionals will be admitted to the convention? I’ve heard some complaints that professionals must pay a $45 admission fee? Aren’t professionals generally admitted free to comics conventions?

GT: There is free admission for librarians, comics retailers and booksellers. That’s easy for us to monitor. Creators will also be admitted for free, but they must get their badges through their publishers. The publishers and exhibitors want it organized like this so they can control who is attending, and we can understand who is legitimate. But it is absolutely still free admission for creators.

PWCW: We’ve heard some complaints about a lack of women creators being invited officially to be a part of the show. When I checked the guest list at the Web site, there was one woman out of about 31 invited guest artists. While I understand there are more women involved in some of the as-yet-unannounced programming, this still seems like an unfortunate message to send out. Particularly since the mainstream New York comics industry has a long history of excluding women.

GT: I hadn’t heard complaints about that, but we can certainly correct it. Some of this is up to the publishers: who has books coming out and who they want to promote.

PWCW: Besides its importance to the comics industry, the San Diego Comic-con is known for being increasingly important to the film industry. This is only its second year, but is the New York Comic-con beginning to project any sort of special industry flavor?

GT: What I’m told is that we’re the literary show. This is New York City, and it’s about comics and book publishing. Editorial staff or the licensing departments can all stop by the convention for the price of cab fare. The Friday trade day also helps. We’re a more bookish show than others and getting Stephen King to attend as a guest of honor is the perfect illustration of that.

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