[NYCC 2017] Amazon’s Takeover of New York Comic Con

The 12th New York Comic Con has come and gone and along with it tons of stuff went on throughout the four day convention. By all accounts this was the largest attended NYCC surpassing the 200,000 attendee mark. The show held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan is a celebration of all things pop culture. The east coasts biggest con continues to grow leaps and bounds with a completely packed Jacob K. Javits center to all their offsite venues which included the likes of the Hudson Mercantile, The Hammerstein Ballroom, and the Theater at Madison Square Garden. More than any other year the amount of offsite events also grew with plenty of parties (E-Coin, American Gods to name a few) and activations (Artemis, Westworld, Cloak and Dagger).

This year Amazon seemed to have gone full in with multiple activations, panels, offsites, and booths throughout the floor. In almost every aspect of the show Amazon’s footprint was felt showcasing books such as Artemis through Audible, products (Echo), or series content including Jack Ryan, The Tick, Lore, and Electric Dreams and The Man in the High Castle based on books from Philip K.. Dick.

Below based on series is a rundown of all of Amazon’s content throughout the four day weekend.

Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan
Probably the highlight of the show was the Amazon Echo Escape room.  Based on Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan the upcoming series from Amazon is the first escape experience powered by voice. Players are given thirty minutes to get through three rooms in the escape room by solving puzzles, breaking codes, and through cunningness using Alexa (the voice that powers Amazon Echo).

I was able to experience this on Saturday and while my team didn’t solve it in the fastest time we were still able to complete it with ample time to spare. They even had a live stream event on Twitch with top gamers taking on the challenge. Unfortunately they took your phone while going through the event so no photos of the interior.

Also for the series there was both a signing and a panel to promote the show including panelists Show Runner and Executive Producer Carlton Cuse, Star and Executive Producer John Krasinski, Executive Producer Graham Roland and cast members Wendell Pierce and Abbie Cornish.

A highly anticipated show for 2018 the show follows an up-and-coming CIA analyst given his first field assignment. The series centers around Ryan as he uncovers a pattern in terrorist communication that threatens destruction on a global scale.

The Tick
Right next to the Escape room was another huge set-up promoting Amazon’s The Tick. While I did not get to experience it the Dangerboat was a completely explorable vessel. Dangerboat is the opinionated sidekick and headquarters of The Tick’s Overkill and becomes a prominent meeting destination and character throughout the series The experience included customized promotional items that could be unlocked using RFID wristbands, lighting effects, emergency alarms, the ability to interact with people and more.

A panel and autograph session including Creator Ben Edlund and cast members  Peter Serafinowicz, Griffin Newman, Jackie Earle Haley, Valorie Curry, Brendan Hines, Yara Martinez, Scott Speiser and Michael Cerveris was also held at the show.

The Tick follows Arthur, an accountant with no superpowers in a world where superheroes exist. When Arthur realizes that his city is owned by a global supervillain who was long thought to be dead, he struggles to uncover the conspiracy. As he becomes obsessed with the conspiracy he is joined by a mysterious new ally, The Tick. Given a moth outfit with retractable wings Arthur soon suits up as the Tick’s sidekick.

Lore
On the other side of the convention floor Amazon had their Museum of Lore activation. The Lore activation featured three rooms – “Gene’s Bedroom,” “The Unveiled,” and “The Beast Inside,” each of which tells a different, blood curdling tale based on the main story lines from the show. The experience included photo ops and RFID scan activations.

“Gene’s Bedroom”

“The Unveiled”

“The Beast Inside”

The Lore panel and signing included panelists: Executive Producers Gale Anne Hurd, Brett-Patrick Jenkins, Creator Aaron Mahnke, cast members Robert Patrick, Kristin Bauer van Straten and Holland Roden.

Lore is based on the global, award-winning podcast sensation. The podcast tells the real life origin stories that have led to our modern day myths and legends, including vampires, changelings, werewolves, séances and possessed dolls. The show combines documentary footage and cinematic scenes to tell horror stories and their origins. Each episode explores a new origin theme in each of its six, hour-long, episodes. Lore premieres on Friday the 13th of October.

 “The World of Philip K. Dick” – The Man in the High Castle and Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams
While there was no activation this year for The Man in the High Castle like in 2016 the World of Philip K. Dick is continuing to expand. The Man in the High Castle showed off a trailer for the third season and a panel including cast members Rufus Sewell, Rupert Evans, Jason O’Mara, Executive Producer Eric Overmyer and Executive Producer Dan Percival were on hand to discuss the show.

The Man in the High Castle follows an alternate reality where the Allied Powers lost World War II. With Germany in control of the East Coast and Japan the West Coast, the Rocky Mountains have become a “neutral zone.” Based on the novel by Philip K. Dick the series centers around a group of characters mounting a rebellion led by the mysterious Man in the High Castle.

Season three of the Emmy award-winning The Man in the High Castle finds Juliana Crain grappling with her destiny after seeking safety in the Neutral Zoneand working with Trade Minister Tagomi to interpret the mystery of the last remaining films. Meanwhile, as tensions between the Reich and the Empire continue to rise, Joe Blake returns from Berlin and is sent on a diplomatic mission to San Francisco.  Also in the new season, Obergruppenfuhrer John Smith finds himself celebrated by Nazi high society, but political forces are closing in as North American Reischsmarschall Lincoln Rockwell, and J. Edgar Hoover plot against him.

Jason O’Mara joins the cast as a series regular this season. O’Mara plays Wyatt Price who fled the war in Europe and whose family immigrated to New York from Ireland as refugees, then fled west again ahead of the Nazi invasion.

The new anthology series, Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams, brought out panelists Liam Cunningham, and Executive Producers Michael Dinner, Ronald D. Moore, and Isa Dick Hackett.

Based on various writings from author Philip K. Dick, Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams will consist of ten standalone episodes, each set in a different and unique world–some which lay in the far reaches of the universe and time, and others which are much, much closer to home. While the stories may be worlds apart, central to each is the poignant and warm exploration of the importance and significance of humanity. From five to 5000 years in the future, each compelling tale will both illustrate Philip K. Dick’s prophetic vision and celebrate the enduring appeal of the prized sci-fi novelist’s work.

The series features an all-star cast including Steve Buscemi, Bryan Cranston, Greg Kinnear, Maura Tierney, Janelle Monae, Mireille Enos, Anna Paquin, Terrence Howard, Timothy Spall, Liam Cunningham, Richard Madden, Holiday Grainger, Mel Rodriguez, Vera Farmiga, Jack Reynor, Essie Davis, Benedict Wong, Geraldine Chaplin to name a few.

Audible
Finally Audible returned to New York Comic Con with a booth showing off products and features. Audible content includes more than 350,000 audio programs in every genre.

Audible Presents: Artemis – A Conversation with Andy Weir and Rosario Dawson
Not to be outdone by all of the Amazon series being showcased Audible brought out Rosario Dawson and Andy Weir (The Martian) via Skype to talk about his new book. Weir and Dawson gave us an advanced peak at the novel while touching on Artemis’ origins, its protagonist Jazz, and the high-stakes lunar heist she must pull off to save the greatest little city in the worlds. This was Rosario’s first audible book and she found it fun creating different voices for the various characters while also having to navigate some of Andy’s more technical content in the book.

Unlike the Martian, where one person is marooned on a space exploration on Mars Artemis follows the first city on the moon aptly named Artemis. Artemis a feat of stunning technological advancement may be the moons first city but it may still fall victim to the most sinister of earthly vices: greed, power, murder.

Audible also brought its The Museum of Artemis: Life on the Moon for the first time to the United States. The exhibit is set-up to promote the new book and features props such as space suits, food eaten in the colony, a replica of Jazz’s living quarters, and a 1:500,000 scale replica of the moon by artist Luke Jerram.

About the author

Media Journalist | Michael loves all things pop culture and has an opinion about everything whether you ask for it or not. Michael collects steelbooks, posters, convention exclusives, LEGO, Transformers, and everything in between.