Contributed by collector and Overstreet Advisor Art Cloos
Photos by Alice Cloos

On Saturday, November 22, 2025, the Big Apple Comic Con (BACC) held their annual Holiday Con. The show was run by Mike Carbonaro, who has spent over 29 years hosting comic conventions in New York City. The Holiday Con was held at the New Yorker Hotel on 8th Avenue in Manhattan.

The dealer line up was strong. They came from all over the east coast as far away as Florida, and many of the Big Apple’s traditional sellers were there, along with some first timers. They included Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find, Harley Yee’s Rare Comics, Kryptonite Comics, Colonial Stamp & Coin Shoppe, Absolute Comics, Back Pocket Comics, Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find, Red’s Comics, Brad Savage, Calamity Collectibles, Retro Recollectibles, and more.

Original comic art was supplied by comic art dealers Nostalgic Investments with a beautiful selection of comic book art, and dealer Anthony’s Snyder Comic Book Art put on his usual gigantic display of both comic book art and vintage comics. The comic pressing service Spineworks offered comic pressing, grading, buying, and selling consignment services. The auction house Landry Pop Auctions was in attendance as well.

There was a good turnout of big name creators scattered across the venue, including Brian Kong, Keith Williams, Peter Cooper, Sean Chen, Ron Marz, Jim Steranko, Al Milgrom, James Sherman, Adriana Melo, Ryan Dunlavey, Alitha Martinez, Amy Chu, Al Kahn, and others. In Artist Alley A.T. Pratt, Dani Jenkins, David Crownson, Ian Ally-Seals, Mitchell Rivera, Rebecca Huang, Tony Kent, Dwayne Velasquez, Gerardo Casas, and others were signing and doing sketches for their fans.

Media guests included Aaron Reynolds, Anthony Bill Plympton, Danny Fingeroth, Amanda Madison, Peter Kuper, and others.

Cosplayers were welcomed to Big Apple and they were back in force. Some of the costumes were just outstanding and the people in them were very happy to have their pictures taken. As always at Big Apple Shows, Captain Zorikh was there and once again he ran the BACC Cosplay Contest, which was open to adults and kids.

From an Animation Workshop to a Jim Steranko Award Presentation to one on Wonder Women in Comics and a special one with Larry Lieber and Jesse Simon attendees had a lot of panels to choose from.

The special event at this show was the BACC Gaming tournaments: the Over Power and the Pokémon. First and second prizes were given, and everyone who participated received others prizes.

The best way to describe Big Apple is to say it is a big time show in a small setting, located in one of the biggest cities in the world. As such you never know what you are going to encounter for sale there. From clothing to jewelry and much more, there was something for everyone. Allie and I did not come home empty handed.

As I entered the show I came across a touching scene for Ron Pager, a former New York City high school history teacher (who taught at the same school I did before I worked there) and classic comics collector. After he retired he became a full time dealer and at Big Apple he always had his own table near the entrance to the main dealer’s room. He was a friend of ours and would always teased us (and me in particular) at various shows. He died in September 2025, and I was very sad to hear of his passing. As I came to what would have been his table at the show, I found it was empty except for memorial cards with his drawn image and name on them. A touching tribute from Mike Carbonaro and Big Apple.

As I made my way around the dealer’s room I saw a lot of variety in the comics for sale. As has been the norm over the last few years Silver and Bronze Age Marvel titles were in the majority and on some dealer’s walls virtually the only titles on display. However, there was a very nice selection of Golden and Silver Age DC, including Flash, Batman, Superman, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olson. The last two are titles that have been showing up in greater numbers over the last few years. Fawcett titles such as Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr. have been appearing at more and more shows too. Beyond the superhero titles, there was a lesser amount of horror books compared to past shows, but other genres were available too. In talking to dealers about DC Silver Age books it was a mixed bag with some telling me they are not selling at all and some just the opposite. Marvel prices are still coming down. Overall, though, comics are selling fairly well but at a lower price point.

We met up with friends at the Big Apple Holiday Con, like comic art and comic book collector Ankur Jetley and we talked about what we were currently collecting; Nurul Kjuka, one of my favorite students, joined us for dinner after the show; Frank Giella shared a page of art he got from Anthony Snyder; and we saw noted collector Dale Cendalia and my longtime friend Billy Kwack.

At the end of the day some of us met for dinner at one of three places to eat in the hotel, Trattoria Bianca. It’s an excellent Italian trattoria located on the hotel’s lobby level of the New Yorker. If you don’t want Italian, then the Tick Tock Diner also on the lobby level is a good choice. If you are looking for upscale, there is the Butcher & Banker which is a world class steak house in the basement. The convenience of eating in the hotel during the show simply cannot be overstated. However these are only three of many such eateries to explore near the hotel.

As we left the show Allie and I were already thinking of 2026 and the next Big Apple show. The date for the next edition of the Big Apple Show is November 21, 2026, but they are not ruling out another con earlier in 2026. Details will be presented on the Big Apple Comic Con website.