New York Comic Con 2026 is a wrap… well, it was a wrap earlier this week, but time and life wait for no man or woman to post. Or something like that. 2026 happened to be the 20th Anniversary of the Con and, as it so happens, I’ve attended about half of them (many years I was fortunate enough to get a Press Pass, including this year!), which is kind of crazy in its own right.
This year was a very good year, at least in terms of what I was able to experience. As usual, I leaned into the books and horror portions of the show, in particular, the three recaps I’ve provided over the last week
Ghostface Forever: The 30th Anniversary of Scream
That same day, was the Matt Dinniman Spotlight featuring Jim Zub in conversation with Matt.
Matt seems like a really cool fellow and damn can the guy write. The thing that stood out for the entire convention, at least the 3 days I attended, is just how popular he and his books are. He was all over the place at NYCC. He was a featured guest during a spotlight/panel on adaptations, since Peacock is adapting the books. He had several reserved signings, he was signing at two of his publisher’s booths (prose and graphic novels) and a lot crafty vendors were selling Princess Donut and other Carl merchandise, a gaming company had a ton of officially licensed Dungeon Crawler Carl games and puzzles, several of the t-shirt vendors were selling what I can only guess are unlicensed shirts, because a Threadless booth dedicated to officially licensed Dungeon Crawler Carl shirts and stuff was exhibiting. Quite a few people were dressed up as Carl, too. What pleases me the most about all of this is that this fervor, fandom, and awareness is because of books. Over the last 30 years that I’ve been active in fandom like this, the last thing I can recall generating this much fandom, love, joy, and celebration on its own based solely on books was Harry Potter.
Also, on the last day, I wore my Dungeon Crawler Carl shirt I bought from the Threadless store a few months back. As my wife and I were leaving on Sunday, I hear a voice, “Hey, nice shirt!” I turned around quickly (not quickly enough to talk to him) and saw that it was Mr. Dinniman himself! A stealthy, drive by from Matt was very cool.
The third panel I attend and reported on was Embracing the Horror: Modern Masters (Stephen Graham Jones, Eric LaRocca, Nick Martell, Alex T. Singer, Kristopher Triana, and moderated by Becky Spratford), which was one of the best writer panels I attended. Of course when the editor of these books chats with you and recognizes you, that helps to enhance the experience. The post-panel signing was awesome, too since I got to chat with Stephen Graham Jones and tell him how much I loved I Was a Teenage Slasher which he said he was his favorite, too… which led to Stephen and I realizing we were roughly the same age meaning we grew up on the same horror stories.
The great thing about panels like this is it gives you some new writers to read, as such, I picked up a book by Kristopher Triana and my review copy of Alex T. Singer’s Angel Country climbed higher on Mount ToBeRead. I’m really excited for Martell’s horror novel next year, too.
Then I had the opportunity to speak with Becky (whose book Why I Love Horror our very own Randy M. reviewed last year!) and what a great conversation we had. It was great learning about some things we have in common with each other like a NJ connection. I was particularly overjoyed to learn she was aware of our humble little site here at SFFWorld and has pointed some folks this way!
A fun convention, to say the least!
