Superheroes, popular cartoon characters, badass villains, and countless characters straight from comic books are brought to life by cosplayers at the 2024 New York Comic Con.

The yearly convention dedicated to comic book fans, young and old includes Filipino-American cosplayers Conner Klein and Raphael Magalong, who have never missed a year of cosplaying at Comic Con since the convention reopened after the pandemic.

"This costume probably took me a total of about six months or so," said Klein. "A lot of it was just the crest on the suit and the back of it. I had to hand embroider down to it—just a lot of sewing work in the patterning and everything. I started it back in January."

What started as a hobby has become a lucrative business for Magalong. He has been commissioned to create movie costumes, such as the armor suit for Sienna Shaw, a character in the movie "Terrifier 2."

"I’ve done work on movies, for other people I know who work in movies," he said. "For 'Terrifier 2,' I did the main character Sienna's armor. So I made it, fabricated it, and got it ready for the movie."

Pinoy comic books are also making a mark at the annual gathering of all things comic book-related, thanks to Kwento Comics, the first all-Asian, all-women comic book company highlighting Asian and Filipino mythology through graphic novels.

"This is made out of a labor of love for all of them," said Kwento Comics' Waverly Lim of Filipino women. "I think it’s really special that the artists get to work on content that looks like them."

Organizer ReedPop said comics still rule at Comic Con, especially with more than 200,000 attendees this year. Dealers sell their books from $1 to $5, while some rare ones could be sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars, even up to millions for the rare, old comic books.

"These comic cons are incredible for us to be able to connect with the fans," Lim added. "When we tell them the story of why we’ve created Kwento Comics and how the team came together, they get inspired to dive deep into their own culture and their  mythology and find new ways to be inspired by it."

The nerd culture continues to be big business for the Big Apple. The New York City Tourism + Conventions Bureau projects an estimated economic impact of $80 million for New York City.