At NYCC 2026, the Only Constant Is Change

Officially, the mood was festive in the Jacob K. Javits Center, where New York Comic Con celebrated its 20th annual convention on October 8–11. But inside the convention hall, the faint scent was undeniable: Change was in the air.

Just two days before the convention opened, Paramount Skydance completed its acquisition of Warner Bros., passing DC Comics into the hands of its third corporate owner in the last 10 years. Closer to home—but, for this crowd, no less seismically—DC’s rival Marvel Comics was undergoing a transition of its own: On the heels of tapping new publishing executives Brad Winderbaum and David Abdo, and a new editor-in-chief, Stephen Wacker, the publisher announced in July its plan to leave its longtime New York City headquarters for Los Angeles next year.

So when retailers gathered for NYCC’s pre-show Retailer Day on October 7, they were equal parts buoyant and cautious. In his keynote speech that evening, Image cofounder Todd McFarlane took on his typically bombastic style, bounding from the stage, standing on chairs, and quizzing the audience to laughter and applause.

But the message he gave the room was one of warning, as McFarlane compared the booming comic sales of recent years to publishers getting tipsy at party. “When things get a little bit too good, you can get drunk,” McFarlane said. “But if we’re getting drunk…who are the sober people in the room at that point?”

But there was little uncertainty about the future on the show floor when NYCC opened its doors to guests on Thursday morning. Thursday has historically been a lighter day for major panels or big announcements, so the focus of most early-arriving fans centered on Artist Alley.

There, as in ages past, artists and writers still vied for the attention (and dollars) of autograph-seeking fans. One of the newer stars was writer Tom King, who’s lately found Hollywood success cocreating HBO’s Lanterns. His fans weren’t about to let it go to his head. Daniel Levine, just arrived from Nashville and handing over books to sign, suggested King should write a Star Wars comic about Jar-Jar Binks.

“That’s too racist,” King laughed. “I don’t know if I could do it, just because of the racism.”

Levine suggested writing Watto, a thickly accented alien slavedriver, instead.

“That’s even worse!” King replied.

Such interactions are in some ways a scene out of comics conventions past. Upstairs on the main floor, it was a glimpse of pop culture’s future. The presence of anime and manga franchises has been growing steadily at NYCC for the past two decades, and on this year’s show floor the dominance appeared complete, with interactive booths and displays for Viz, Webtoon, Konami, Crunchyroll, Dragonball, Yen Press, and Bandai spanning the front of the hall. It’s not hard to see why: As Milton Griepp revealed when he presented IcV2’s annual white paper over the weekend, manga was once again the fastest growth category in comic stores in 2026, with sales rising 34.9% over last year.

On the other hand, Hollywood had a comparatively inconspicuous presence this year. Though Paramount and Nickelodeon had floor displays, along with a smattering of show and movie panels, it was a far cry from the heyday of the MCU just a few years ago. These days, it’s trade book publishers that are carving out new territory. Scholastic, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Tor, and Penguin Random House all had large displays this year.

As Lindsey Elias, director of brand events for Penguin Random House told PW, “I think Comic Con has evolved into just a celebration of popular culture more than anything else.”

Still, when publisher panels kicked off in earnest on Friday and Sunday, it was once again old-school American comics that took center stage. DC, riding the success of its Absolute line and its affordable Compact Comics collections, now finds itself as the industry’s top dog, with competitors snapping at its heels. DC’s big announcement this year was an expanded slate for its Next Level initiative, which is being overseen by Absolute Batman’s Scott Snyder, who won the Harvey Award for Book of the Year on Friday night.

Al Ewing, who writes Absolute Green Lantern, says that line’s success comes down to its two-fisted approach to the real world. “The biggest problem in the Absolute universe is billionaires,” he told PW. “The biggest problem in our universe is billionaires…readers are hungry for something that lives where they live.” (Ewing confesses to the irony of DC now falling under the corporate auspices of Skydance and David Ellison. “The words ‘interesting times’ come to mind,” Ewing says. “The further up the rungs you go, the less happy I am… I’m being super diplomatic, and I hope my new overlords recognize that with their antennae.”)

Other publishers, each in their own way, seemed determined to capture some of DC’s Absolute magic. Skybound announced a new sub-line of its own, dubbed Skybound Visions, featuring standalone takes on franchises like G.I. Joe and Transformers from new creative teams. Marvel, too, is making a big push for its Midnight Universe line, a horror-themed reinterpretation of the Marvel Universe.

But the biggest news for Marvel was the new regime of Stephen Wacker, whose theme throughout the convention was—to crib a phrase from Marvel’s own past—a fresh start. Wacker was coming straight from overseeing his first creative summit, where, as he told retailers on Wednesday, “To say that hard truths were spoken understates how the days went.”

Wacker promised a combination of new strategies and fence-mending reforms: reducing the total number of books Marvel puts out each month, giving new series more leeway to find an ongoing audience beyond four or five issues, and ensuring that creators are paid promptly. As he told PW after his speech, a smaller number of titles does mean more pressure on each to become a hit.

“We shouldfeel pressured,” Wacker said. “No one owes us their time and no one owes us their money. We have to make sure that every story we’re telling feels like it’s at maximum potential.”

Of course, this New York Comic Con also marks Marvel’s farewell to New York City, both for the publisher as an institution and for those of its editors now planning to decamp for the West Coast. Wacker, however, won’t call it a goodbye.

“The Baxter Building’s not moving,” Wacker told PW,referencing the fictional headquarters of the Fantastic Four. “New York is in the heart and soul of our universe…I don’t think it has to be a fight. I love New York. I lived here for over 20 years. It’s still going to be part of the lifeblood.”