The final place you may anticipate to see representations of sports activities fandom — at least outdoors of Quidditch — is New York Comic Con, the epicenter of comedian ebook tradition and all its many offshoots on the east coast. At an occasion the place it’s extra jarring to see an individual not elaborately dressed up as a fictional character, absolutely there can be little signal of real-world athletic pursuits… proper?
Well, after attending the 2025 version of NYCC, The Athletic’s collectibles editors can verify how mistaken that’s.
We tirelessly scoured the expansive present ground at the Javits Center to see what indicators of sports activities we may discover. They have been each plentiful and infrequently occasions surprising. Here’s what we got here throughout.
On Thursday, the primary day of the four-day conference, a transparent theme rapidly emerged: Philadelphia sports activities followers have been in every single place. Amidst the various Batmen, Spider-Men and Okay-Pop Demon Hunters, there was a wide range of Phillies and Eagles garb on show. The first instance we noticed was a person sporting a 2024 NFC champions hoodie (clearly somebody who dedicated to a purchase order too quickly and is decided to nonetheless get his put on out of it. Then got here the jerseys — a black Eagles Saquon Barkley, a house Jordan Mailata draped over a ladder as a vendor confirmed off the “Go Birds!” T-shirt he had on beneath it. Another vendor wore a Nick Foles jersey as he sorted by means of knockoff Lego character figures. There have been additionally an assortment of Phillies hats and tops.
In Philadelphia, Nick Foles is taken into account a superhero. (Photo: Brooks Peck)
This all made a point of sense. Philadelphia is close by, the Eagles have been taking part in the New York Giants at Metlife Stadium that evening and the Phillies have been dealing with the Dodgers out west in what would show to be a convergence of Philly sports activities distress. But why rep these groups at Comic Con? Because that’s how Philly followers roll. They’d put on Eagles jerseys to a funeral (one thing certainly one of us has personally witnessed on a number of events).
So on Thursday, Philly sports activities followers made their presence identified, and over the next days they continued to take action in lesser however nonetheless vital numbers as escaping to fictional universes grew to become extra interesting following their catastrophic losses.
Beyond the Philly followers, there have been loads of different actual groups and gamers being represented.
Hats:
- New York Yankees
- New York Mets
- New York Rangers
- New York Knicks
- Chicago White Sox
- Arizona Diamondbacks
- LA Dodgers (together with a blacked out model worn by legendary artist and DC Comics CCO Jim Lee as he gave a tutorial on how to attract Wonder Woman on eBay Live)
Jim Lee checks out the work from a participant in his drawing tutorial. (Photo: eBay)
Jerseys:
- Francisco Lindor, Mets City Connect
- Kaka, Brazil dwelling yellow
- Kylian Mbappe, Real Madrid blue
- Andres Iniesta, Barcelona dwelling
- New Jersey Devils
- And essentially the most spectacular: Mike Zuke, University of Michigan hockey
(That’s to not point out the various jerseys of fictional characters like Charlie Conway and Goldberg from “The Mighty Ducks,” Al Bundy’s Polk High jersey from “Married with Children,” AFC Richmond jerseys from “Ted Lasso,” Bobby Boucher’s South Central Louisiana State jersey from “The Waterboy,” and the Hanson brothers’ Charlestown Chiefs jersey from “Slapshot” —full with taped glasses.)
Aside from the apparel of a subset of attendees, sports activities have been additionally represented in fascinating methods through the merchandise on supply across the conference. The most on-the-nose have been the one two athletes who had comedian books about them prominently displayed: Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. East Side Comics created variant covers of biographical comics about Judge and Ohtani in collaboration with Topps primarily based on every participant’s baseball playing cards. The Ohtani comedian even covers the Ippei Mizuhara playing scandal.
Tidalwave Productions’ Shohei Ohtani comedian ebook. (Photo: Brooks Peck)
Another distinguished mixture of sports activities and extra conventional Comic Con fare was within the sales space of artist S. Preston, who combines licenses with MLB, the NHL, NCAA, Disney, Looney Tunes and Sesame Street to create distinctive works of basic characters repping a wide range of groups.
The work of artist S. Preston. (Photo: Brooks Peck)
Artist Brian Kong’s sales space featured his sketch playing cards for Topps and the 2016 Chicago Cubs replicating an iconic Justice League comedian cowl.
The work of artist Brian Kong. (Photos: Brooks Peck/David Betancourt)
There have been NFL mini helmet Transformers (popping out this fall) at the Hasbro sales space.
Hasbro’s Kansas City Chiefs helmet Transformer. (Photo: David Betancourt)
There was a Luka Doncic Slam Magazine (limited gold variant) on show at the CGC Grading sales space.
Graded Slam Magazine that includes Luka Doncic. (Photo: David Betancourt)
The Goldin Auctions sales space featured a wide range of sports activities playing cards and memorabilia, plus a cast-autographed copy of the Grays Sports Almanac from “Back to the Future II”
Items at the Goldin Auctions sales space. (Photos: Brooks Peck)
Action figures have been accessible all around the conference ground, however one sales space had a supremely random assortment of sports activities figures, together with a Jim Jackson Starting Lineup and a Mike Lowell determine.
(Photo: David Betancourt)
Another sales space had an array of retro sports activities patches on the market.
Retro sports activities patches accessible at NYCC. (Photo: Brooks Peck)
The Penguin Books sales space promoted a Kareem Abdul-Jabbar graphic novel with a life-size picture of the hall-of-famer.
A life-size Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at Comic Con? Yep. (Photo: Brooks Peck)
Fanhome confirmed off its fashions of a few iconic Formula 1 vehicles and the Ducati Desmosedici GP23 subsequent to fashions of Darth Vader and the DeLorean from “Back to the Future.”
Motosports illustration at NYCC. (Photo: Brooks Peck)
Michael Jordan was additionally effectively represented. From the considerably anticipated “Space Jam” objects…
An expensive framed “Space Jam” picture at NYCC. (Photo: Brooks Peck)
To a creative rendering of Jordan dunking on Patrick Ewing (an fascinating selection for a New York occasion).
Michael Jordan subsequent to Pinhead from “Hellraiser” in fact. (Photo: Brooks Peck)
Artist Tony Santiago displayed works that includes one other Chicago Bulls legend in Derrick Rose, plus Walter Payton, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Kobe Bryant and Caitlin Clark, in addition to the celebs of “Major League.”
The works of Tony Santiago. (Photos: Brooks Peck/David Betancourt)
There have been even a variety of skilled athletes signing autographs on the conference ground, all representing Comic Con’s favourite athletic endeavor: professional wrestling. At varied cubicles promoting wrestling motion figures, former WWE stars like Sgt. Slaughter, Jake “The Snake” Robert, Papa Shango, Matt Cardona, Karrion Kross and Scarlett Bordeaux met with followers.
Sgt. Slaughter indicators autographs at NYCC. (Photo: David Betancourt)
So sports activities have been effectively represented at New York Comic Con, albeit in some exceedingly random methods.
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