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Big Apple Comic Con
The Big Apple Comic Con is the longest-running comic book/speculative fiction/pop culture convention in New York City. It was started by retailer Michael "Mike Carbo" Carbonaro in March 1996 in the basement of the St. Paul the Apostle Church. Having grown out of the church, between 1999 and 2008, the Big Apple Comic Con often featured multiple shows per year, with a large three-day "national" convention held in November, at the Metropolitan Pavilion and later at the Penn Plaza Pavilion. The show was sold to Wizard Entertainment in 2009 but was reacquired 2014 by Big Apple CC Corp (owned in part by Mr.Carbonaro) in 2014. Mr. Carbonaro says Wizard could not produce a successful show in NYC.
Over the course of its history, the convention has been known as the Big Apple Convention, the Big Apple Comic Book Art, and Toy Show, and the Big Apple Comic Book, Art, Toy & Sci-Fi Expo; with the larger three-day November shows known as the National Comic Book, Art, Toy, and Sci-Fi Expo, the National Comic Book, Art, and Sci-Fi Expo, and the National Comic Book, Comic Art, and Fantasy Convention. In 2014, the name "Big Apple Comic Con" was revived by Mr. Carbonaro for its March 2015 show.
In 2018 the Big Apple Comic Con moved from the decaying Penn Plaza (last show 2018) to the recently renewed 1929 Art Deco masterpiece New Yorker Hotel (now the Wyndham hotel).
Though it primarily focuses on comic books, the convention features a large range of pop culture elements, such as graphic novels, cinema, science fiction/fantasy, television, animation, anime, manga, toys, horror, collectible card games, video games, webcomics, and fantasy novels. Along with panels, seminars, and workshops with comic book professionals, the Big Apple Comic Con often features previews of upcoming films, and such evening events as the costume contest hosted b y "Captain Zorikh" Lequidre.
The convention regularly hosts hundreds of artists, exhibitors, and film and television personalities in a huge floorspace for exhibitors. The show includes autograph and photo op opportunities with all of the guests, as well as the Artists' Alley where comics artists can sign autographs and sell their work.
Major comic book conventions in New York City prior to the Big Apple Comic Con included Dave Kaler's Academy Con, which ran annually from 1965 to 1967; Phil Seuling's Comic Art Convention, which ran annually from 1968 to 1983 (Seuling died in 1984); and the large annual Creation conventions, usually taking place over the weekend following Thanksgiving from 1971 to 1987. (Creation sometimes put on as many as a half-dozen smaller New York City shows per year). From 1993 to 1995, promoter Frederic Greenberg began hosting Great Eastern Conventions shows annually at venues including the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. (Great Eastern also ran shows in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts.) Other companies, including Dynamic Forces, held New York City conventions, but all were on a smaller scale than the Seuling shows. Changes in the industry, popular culture, and the resurgent city itself since the troubled 1960s and '70s made large-scale comic-book conventions difficult to hold profitably.
On February 29, 1996, just two days before it was to start, Fred Greenberg cancelled what had been advertised as a larger-than-usual Great Eastern show, scheduled for March 2–3 at the New York Coliseum, which the fan press had suggested might herald a successor to the 1968–1983 Comic Art Convention.
On the spur of the moment, comic book retailers Michael Carbonaro, Vince Gulla, and Vincent Zurzuolo, all of whom had planned to sell their wares at the Great Eastern show, mounted a substitute convention in the basement of the Church of St. Paul the Apostle. The gathering — dubbed "ChurchCon," "Hallelujah Con," or "The Show Must Go On" Con — attracted over 4,000 attendees, most of whom had been planning to attend the scheduled Great Eastern Show. Thus was born the Big Apple Comic Con, thereafter produced by Mr. Carbonaro.
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Big Apple Comic Con
The Big Apple Comic Con is the longest-running comic book/speculative fiction/pop culture convention in New York City. It was started by retailer Michael "Mike Carbo" Carbonaro in March 1996 in the basement of the St. Paul the Apostle Church. Having grown out of the church, between 1999 and 2008, the Big Apple Comic Con often featured multiple shows per year, with a large three-day "national" convention held in November, at the Metropolitan Pavilion and later at the Penn Plaza Pavilion. The show was sold to Wizard Entertainment in 2009 but was reacquired 2014 by Big Apple CC Corp (owned in part by Mr.Carbonaro) in 2014. Mr. Carbonaro says Wizard could not produce a successful show in NYC.
Over the course of its history, the convention has been known as the Big Apple Convention, the Big Apple Comic Book Art, and Toy Show, and the Big Apple Comic Book, Art, Toy & Sci-Fi Expo; with the larger three-day November shows known as the National Comic Book, Art, Toy, and Sci-Fi Expo, the National Comic Book, Art, and Sci-Fi Expo, and the National Comic Book, Comic Art, and Fantasy Convention. In 2014, the name "Big Apple Comic Con" was revived by Mr. Carbonaro for its March 2015 show.
In 2018 the Big Apple Comic Con moved from the decaying Penn Plaza (last show 2018) to the recently renewed 1929 Art Deco masterpiece New Yorker Hotel (now the Wyndham hotel).
Though it primarily focuses on comic books, the convention features a large range of pop culture elements, such as graphic novels, cinema, science fiction/fantasy, television, animation, anime, manga, toys, horror, collectible card games, video games, webcomics, and fantasy novels. Along with panels, seminars, and workshops with comic book professionals, the Big Apple Comic Con often features previews of upcoming films, and such evening events as the costume contest hosted b y "Captain Zorikh" Lequidre.
The convention regularly hosts hundreds of artists, exhibitors, and film and television personalities in a huge floorspace for exhibitors. The show includes autograph and photo op opportunities with all of the guests, as well as the Artists' Alley where comics artists can sign autographs and sell their work.
Major comic book conventions in New York City prior to the Big Apple Comic Con included Dave Kaler's Academy Con, which ran annually from 1965 to 1967; Phil Seuling's Comic Art Convention, which ran annually from 1968 to 1983 (Seuling died in 1984); and the large annual Creation conventions, usually taking place over the weekend following Thanksgiving from 1971 to 1987. (Creation sometimes put on as many as a half-dozen smaller New York City shows per year). From 1993 to 1995, promoter Frederic Greenberg began hosting Great Eastern Conventions shows annually at venues including the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. (Great Eastern also ran shows in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts.) Other companies, including Dynamic Forces, held New York City conventions, but all were on a smaller scale than the Seuling shows. Changes in the industry, popular culture, and the resurgent city itself since the troubled 1960s and '70s made large-scale comic-book conventions difficult to hold profitably.
On February 29, 1996, just two days before it was to start, Fred Greenberg cancelled what had been advertised as a larger-than-usual Great Eastern show, scheduled for March 2–3 at the New York Coliseum, which the fan press had suggested might herald a successor to the 1968–1983 Comic Art Convention.
On the spur of the moment, comic book retailers Michael Carbonaro, Vince Gulla, and Vincent Zurzuolo, all of whom had planned to sell their wares at the Great Eastern show, mounted a substitute convention in the basement of the Church of St. Paul the Apostle. The gathering — dubbed "ChurchCon," "Hallelujah Con," or "The Show Must Go On" Con — attracted over 4,000 attendees, most of whom had been planning to attend the scheduled Great Eastern Show. Thus was born the Big Apple Comic Con, thereafter produced by Mr. Carbonaro.