'The Walking Dead' Spoilers, 'Archer' Hints & More At Day One Of New York Comic Con

Since the first event in 2006, New York Comic Con has always been the smaller brother of the San Diego event, being well known that every grade A company would distribute and preview their key releases on the West Coast and leave the smaller booth appearances for the East. That has all now completely turned on its head however with SDCC pulling in its lowest numbers in years, with major backers stepping away from the expensive event to favour the fresher design of New York.

Sprawled out over the 78,000 square meters of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in the Hell's Kitchen district of Lower Manhattan (as well as three external areas and theatres), the Con has been reaching record attendance figures with today's opening day completely selling out and cramming over 35,000 people into the show floor to give the convention its largest opening day ever.

Representatives from Marvel, DC, Twentieth Century Fox, BBC, AMC, Starz, Image, Boom! Studios, Dark Horse, Warner Brothers, Netflix, Dreamworks, Hulu, Hasbro, Funko, Lego, Capcom, Twitch, Oculus, Chevrolet, Rooster Teeth, Adult Swim, Square Enix and many more are all present and pushing their latest and greatest to attendees.

Most invited guests arrived still slightly heavy in the head after the raucous Wednesday night from the Kraken NYCC Heroes After Dark and Godzilla Resurgence premiere hit the downtown area. The buzz clearly sat amongst Stranger Things wonderkids Caleb McLaughlin and Finn Wolfhard attending, though seeing Lucy Lawless busting daggy dance moves whilst double handing Tiki glasses is something else to behold.

Current Lawless project, Starz' Ash Vs Evil Dead, was heavily in demand with punters. Having set up a mock cabin from the show's mythology, complete with walls of streaming blood, bursting basement latches and a cockroach-infested floor, guests were handed free merch with a favourite being the Ash Williams Foam Chainsaw hand. The show's talent were rather taken back by the fan response to the show as mentioned during their Q&A and all questions immediately turned to Season 3. Show creator Ted Raimi and star Bruce ‘The Chin’ Campbell both agreed that fans should be petitioning for the third season, whilst also mentioning the unlikelihood to a sequel of the recent Evil Dead remake.

Hype further increased with the debut of teaser trailers for Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, War For The Planet Of The Apes and new artwork for Netflix new series Marvel: Iron Fist, all of which will have further explanation during their panels over the next two days.

Over at the Hammerstein Ballroom, attendees were treated to a special sneak peek at the upcoming season eight of Archer, along with show creator Adam Reed giving fans some hope of even further seasons after the recent announcement that the hit animated comedy would end after season ten. The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman also entertained the Hammerstein by teasing audiences that it’s likely to see the books' current crazed skin walkers The Whisperers make their way to the small screen adaption, as well as a spoiler that current big bad guy Negan will be giving his precious Lucille her own send-off in an upcoming issue. The Walking Dead is the major draw for the convention with a Madison Square Garden Theatre panel on Day 3, expecting to have people camping the night before in attempts to get in and see a preview of the upcoming season premiere, though former star Chad Coleman is betting on Glenn and another survivor taking a bat to the brain when the show airs.

Back at the Javits Center, TruTV had their Impractical Jokers panel to announce a cross-over with Travis Pastrana's Nitro Circus Live this November, while Kevin Smith hosted his Comic Book Men panel to an uncertain future as the show has yet to be picked up beyond its current season.

With Artist Alley, Cosplay Competitions and Show Exclusive booths all set to fire up properly on Day 2, not to mention talks from the talent of Stranger Things, Marvel: Agents Of Shield, Doctor Who and Adult Swim, the crazy is only getting crazier as an expected 40,000+ people will be shuffling through the glass doors.