Albany Comic Con 2014 is one of the most underrated events I have ever discovered. Before attending, I had heard (and said) jokes about tickets never selling out. Just a couple days before the event, one of my friends came up to me and said, “Oh no! I haven’t bought my tickets for Albany Comic Con yet! Man! I hope they haven’t sold out!” We proceeded to burst into laughter and then move on to discuss cosplaying options. However, I was astounded by what I saw when I stepped into the venue. A teeming mass of fans of all ages filled every inch of of the Exhibition Floor and the game room was active with a wide variety of games such as Magic, Dungeons and Dragons, Pokemon and Munchkin. The rooms were filled with the happy babble of customers, vendors and cosplayers. Smiles were on every face. Well, almost every face. There was one kid mid-tantrum. He wanted to stay longer at the Zombie Planet station. (So did I. They had Firefly Monopoly. 我的媽和她的瘋狂的外甥都!)
Albany Comic Con seemed far more family oriented. There were several families cosplaying as a group and there was a wider range of ages among the fans. My favorite cosplayer was dressed as V from V for Vendetta and is a member of one of the cosplaying families. She recited the V’s introduction monologue flawlessly for my family and I and I had to resist the urge to call for an encore.
I personally found that if comics are one’s main interest at Comic Cons, that Albany is far more favorable. The wide array of comic books, current and collectible, were reasonably priced and the selections were even larger than what I saw at New York Comic Con last month! (But then, New York Comic Con is so large, one could wander there for a month and still find something they missed.) There were no entertainment celebrities, but several guest comic artists, including Bill Anderson (Green Lantern, Spiderman), Joe Sinnott (Captain America, Fantastic Four), Paul Harding (DC Comics, Star Wars Collectibles), and John Hebert (Punisher, X-men).
So if you’re a comic book fan, next year drive up north to Albany’s Comic Con. You’ll find a better bargain for your buck as well as a better selection.
