From Marvel to Prime Video: Scenes From New York Comic-Con 2022

This year’s New York Comic-Con returned to pre-pandemic levels, and fans and brands came out in droves. Here’s a rundown of some of the highlights.

Is it a Comic-Con without Marvel? A cube and a massive line led me to an experience for Snap, Marvel’s digital card game, launching later this month. Players use both Marvel heroes and villains to compete for control of three Marvel locations. Controlling two out of three equals a win. The big prize in the game is Cosmic Cubes, which leads us back to the Comic-Con floor. The cube was mirrored from floor to ceiling, and once inside, the lights go out and you’re surrounded by stars, the cosmos and digital Marvel cards that sail by from every direction, giving the illusion that the floor is deeper than you think.

Garbage Pail Kids solidified that a favorite childhood pastime had, in fact, come back to life.

Garbage Pail Kids had a wall where visitors could take a card or leave a card. I had no idea the brand had a bookworms edition and was happy to snag a card paying homage to the great Shel Silverstein and a different spin on The Giving Tree. In Sharing Shel, this giving tree takes instead … the head of a nearby kid.

The real draw was Garbage Pail Kids’ take on Zoltar, the fortune telling machine from Big. The Misfortune Teller starred Adam Bomb at the one holding the key to the future. For $2, Adam Bomb would nod and shake until his head actually exploded and a fortune dropped down in the form of a trading card. I got Fryin’ Brian with the accompanying fortune: “Live Wire! Take charge with your electrifying personality. It will generate a lot of buzz. Stay connected to current events and your future will be bright.”

Next came an installation for Prime Video’s upcoming series The Peripheral. Visitors enter a printing store that can “Fabricate the Future.” “See the future before your eyes,” it promises, along with same-day turnaround. Once inside, we see it’s a 3-D print shop and orders in see-thru boxes are awaiting pickup. Everyone gets a fanny pack and is ushered to a room where 3-D jobs are in progress. There’s a strange headset, and once a person dons it, weird things happen. Lastly, visitors are brought to a dark room that lights up with a skyline view of London, but it’s not present-day London—it’s 70 years into the future. And it’s bleak. Based on the William Gibson novel, The Peripheral stars Chloë Grace Moretz as a gamer who stumbles across an intriguing sim game … or is it reality? It gave me Westworld vibes.

The day concluded with a panel with a long queue. Svengoolie! Dan DiDio, former DC publisher and now publisher of Frank Miller’s comic book company Frank Miller Presents, hosted a Q+A with Svengoolie along with folks from the comic book industry. The beloved MeTV host brings viewers a quirky, sometimes campy horror film each week, while standing inside an upright coffin. What’s not to love? Sven and DiDio began the panel by announcing that Frank Miller Presents will release two Svengoolie comic books in 2023. Sven also gave attendees some insight on how the show filmed during Covid. There were multiple iPad Pros and a green screen in Sven’s master bedroom. He also shared viewers’ most requested movie runs—Creature from the Black Lagoon and The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. If you haven’t seen the latter, it’s a must watch and a personal Sven fave. Don Knotts will make you cry laugh.