New York Comic Con Goes to Pot

For fans of pop culture, the place to be this past weekend was New York Comic Con. Almost every genre, medium, and interest was catered to/ from comics, to movies, TV shows and collectible figures. There were also plenty of cosplayers — and, naturally, some pot-related happenings!

The biggest marijuana-related talk of the Con was Harley Quinn’s forthcoming “Rub and Smell” issue. A controversy recently erupted when news leaked that one of said smells would be cannabis, but the best-selling DC title is going forward with their plan to release the issue – along with a first-ever warning label on a comic book featuring a marijuana leaf – AND “420” as part of its UPC code. Not surprisingly, the issue has already broken advance sales records, and the scent, well, let’s just say it’s skunky.

For those into toys, there were the Nugglife mini figures by Ian Ziobrowski and Best Buds by Tony Devito, the latter of which were packaged in blind packs with a nod to Bambu papers. Similar to dunnies, the collectibles were both adorable and featured a cool, jug-like texture that made them both adorable and easy to incorporate into bigger collections.

Elsewhere, Rashawn Prince, a NYC fixture who famously sells his How to Roll Blunts for Dummies books on Broadway in Soho, was displaying his wares at NYCC. Excited about this forthcoming sequel, How to Roll a Blunt for Rocket Scientists, Prince explained that the reach and notoriety he experiences at the convention has him coming back annually.

And though smoking before experiencing such massive stimulation overload in a room full of elaborately costumed people jamming busy aisles was a bit overwhelming, it was still fun to start the day off in such fashion. What better way to take in all the characters, stare at 3D printer demos and wonder why anyone would want to dress like a Ronald McDonald x Thor mashup?