I went to the NY Comic Con this year at Jacob Javits. I hadn't been to a convention since the early '80s. It's very striking how large the community has become. 

Below is the convention hall from the 80s. This was at a hotel, either the Pennsylvania by Madison Square Garden, or at a hotel out by Kennedy Airport. (More evidence I should have kept better notes.)

Now here's the convention floor from one of the three large rooms at Jacob Javits - and this shows only one third the floor space of this room.

In the '80s there was one costume contest. Here's the contestants:

Below is the 2011 Anime Costume contest, just one of several costume shows. I missed one on the main floor because it took more than half an hour to get from one end of the convention floor to the other on Saturday when it was wall to wall people.

Here's a few more of the photos I took.

There's many more photos on Facebook

Can't wait till next year!