NYCC 2023 Cosplay Gallery Part 2 By Adam Etheridge

Here in my second article on New York Comic Con 2023, I’ll be discussing some of the opportunities for improvement at the convention.

Soon after entering the convention, I took a look at the area outside the building where the tunnel is located (always a popular spot for photography), and I was disappointed with what I saw. The security checkpoint in this area, which is referred to as the “green entrance south,” was moved in closer to the building than it was in previous years. Long story short, this made a sizeable chunk of the area outside inaccessible during the convention. This area was a popular spot for cosplayers and photographers to get away from the crowds on the show floor and take photos.

Finding a good spot to take photos at NYCC can be quite an ordeal, and as someone that spent a lot of time taking photos outside in that area, that task has been made even more difficult. The area accessible outside has shrunk a few times over the course of the convention’s history, forcing more people to stay inside, which I would consider to be a negative thing.

Just about anywhere you try to take photos inside the building, you’ll be in someone’s way. Obviously taking photos in the middle of an aisle creates a bottleneck. Moving off to the side of an aisle on the show floor may sound preferable, but then you’re likely standing in front of a vendor’s booth, in the way of potential customers. Having more space to take photos outdoors can alleviate this to some extent, and at the very least I’d like to see the south entrance security checkpoint moved back to where it previously was in previous years.

The Cosplay Central area in the River Pavilion was an area that was created with cosplayers and photographers in mind, and while I like the concept of what they’re going for, its execution needs some improvement.

For those unfamiliar with the River Pavilion, that area is essentially shaped like a capital T. Almost all of the features of Cosplay Central (which I discussed in my previous article) have been shoehorned into the vertical section of the T. This has led to the area becoming overcrowded, especially when meetups are being held in the area.

At least half of the horizontal section of the T was unused, and the parts of it that were used are probably unnecessary. There was a press area on one side, which I would consider to be unneeded due to the fact that there is another press room in the expansion area of the Javits. On the other side there was an area for cosplay related panels. While it does sort of make sense to have cosplay panels in the Cosplay Central area, there are plenty of panel rooms in the Javits, including many that were added when the expansion was made. Why have a makeshift panel area when there are so many proper panel rooms in the venue that can be utilized?

Removing those things from the area and better utilizing it for Cosplay Central features would greatly help with the congestion in the area. First and foremost, all cosplay meetups in the area should be held in that horizontal part of the T. The themed sets for cosplay photos (a feature I really liked) would likely be better off in that area as well. I would also like to see room be made for another, better changing area. From what I was told, the changing area they had this year was relatively small and had no dividers, which made for an uncomfortable situation for some attendees. Cosplay Central could become an absolutely fantastic area just by shuffling things around a bit and better utilizing the space available.

NYCC made fan meetups a bigger part of the event this year, and while I consider that to be a great thing, how exactly these events were ran, and how attendees could host one of them, were things that weren’t really explained anywhere on NYCC’s website.

I asked about this on an unofficial NYCC Facebook page after the convention, and one of the hosts shed some light on the situation. Apparently, to host one of these meetups, someone would need to email NYCC to make a request. The potential host would then be given a location and day/time slot for the meetup. The host that I spoke to was able to hold the meetup at the time NYCC responded with, so I’m unsure if they would offer alternate times if requested.

Many conventions have a sign-up form for official convention meetups up on the convention website. On such forms, a time, date and location could be requested, which would be reviewed by convention management and be approved or denied. I think NYCC would be better off using a process like that. As it stands now, most people have no idea what the deal with these meetups is. A sign-up form and explanation on NYCC’s official website would be very beneficial.

Coming up in my final article on NYCC 2023, I’ll go over the things I think the convention does well and wrap things up for this year.

Among the cosplayers in this gallery are sammyxtorres18, abigaiil.morris, enayce, thenext.jeneration, intergalactic_cosplay, iamnightmarefuel, iziebuilds, suavenerd, starlightgoddess_cosplay, jamal_johns, ka0riir0, Sakuraharunogirl, seaminglywicked, wardencyran_cosplay, cessalad, lauraplaysdressup, dmeenagh, _oleander_, funkedoescos, nj_harley_q, flowerboyrat, tashigeekgirl, nerdtruth, cin_von_quinzel, and many more.

We now use Smugmug to present cosplay photo galleries and will post all photos there, with a link to each gallery in its own gallery article. This will allow us to give you higher resolution images to download — still for free.

To view the entire gallery, just click on the image below. 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.

If you like our work and want to show your appreciation, feel free to tip us at Ko-fi or become a patron on Patreon.

Also, High-res images for sale is back!

If you are pictured in any of our galleries and want the high-resolution (3200 pixels at its widest by 300dpi) download for yourself, we can make it available via a private Smugmug link, for $10 per image. Just send an email to editor AT nerdcaliber.com. Currently limited to only photos taken by FirstPerson Shooter (aka Rodney Brown).

This was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, many of the characters being cosplayed here wouldn’t exist. Please consider donating to the Entertainment Community Fund here.