New York Comic Con 2020 has been canceled. It was planned to be the last major comic convention of the year.
Reedpop has informed Newsarama that this year the physical New York Comic Con (NYCC) convention would be replaced by an online experience on the convention’s YouTube page.
This online version of the convention is called Metaverse of New York Comic Con. Reedpop is hosting its inaugural Metaverse event this weekend, August 14-16, ahead of the NYCC Metaverse in October.
“From October 8-11, the New York Comic Con YouTube channel will feature live streaming panels from leading entertainment brands,” according to a Reedpop spokesman.
Reedpop has confirmed the involvement of Starz (for American Gods), CBS All Access (for Star Trek), DreamWorks Animation, Hulu, and FX for their online NYCC event.
Reedpop’s plans for the YouTube-centric 2020 New York Comic Con will include pre-recorded and live panels, live Q&A, professional workshops, and gaming on tabletops. There are plans for a virtual marketplace where exhibitors and makers can sell merchandise, as well as personalized autographs.
They also plan to use YouTube’s Community feature, such as Reedpop’s own Discord community.
“Our mantra is to continue to make the next right decision with the information we have for our fans, our customers and our teams,” Reedpop’s Global Head Lance Festerman told Newsarama back in March. “This is an incredibly humbling situation in everything you think you know, in a few days or hours you might not.
Following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, Reedpop (and other major organizers of the conventions) were forced to cancel / postpone / reschedule their public events – and in cases like these, to follow suit online component.
“Insurance does not cover what is happening right now. Nearly any insurance policy that could be obtained (and most are very narrow in scope) would trigger an event like what we are experiencing,” Festerman told Newsarama earlier. “That we bear the sunk costs ourselves, where appropriate, give back to fans in all cases and keep our eyes on the long term.”
Over the past two years, Reedpop’s New York Comic Con events have attracted attendance figures of more than 250,000.
The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center – which has been the NYCC since its launch in 2006 – was repurchased in March 2020 by the U.S. government as a field hospital for those with COVID-19.
