Wizard has announced their 2007 and 2008 convention plans via a press release we can’t find on their website but which has been widely posted.

The 2007 Wizard World schedule will mirror that of 2006, which is on pace to become Wizard’s most successful convention year yet, with record attendance in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Chicago.

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To better serve the needs of exhibitors and fans, Wizard is altering the 2008 Wizard World tour to reflect a more condensed focus on Spring and Summer months. This new condensed schedule will allow Wizard World fans, exhibitors and retailers to visit all of the year’s important pop culture events, and will position Wizard World to deliver more exclusives, special guests and surprises to its fans.

“The Wizard World 2008 schedule will create a rapid-fire succession of the industry’s best events from coast to coast, right in the middle of the year,â€? said Rob Felton, Vice President and Associate Publisher. “Our exhibitors told us that they want to give Wizard World their full and undivided attention to create the best experience for our fans, and this schedule will allow for just that.â€?

The full 2007 and 2008 schedules are as follows:

2007

Wizard World Los Angeles: March 16-18, 2007

Wizard World Philadelphia: June 15-17, 2007

Wizard World Chicago: August 9-12, 2007

Wizard World Texas: Nov 2-4, 2007

2008

Wizard World Los Angeles: April 12-14, 2008

Wizard World Philadelphia: May 29-June 1, 2008

Wizard World Chicago: June 26-29, 2008

Wizard World Texas: November 7-9, 2008

Wizard Conventions recently attracted 58,000 attendees to its tenth-annual Wizard World Chicago event at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center. Wizard World Texas is the next show on the 2006 tour, slated for November 10-12 in Arlington.

So no expansion to Atlanta then, or to anywhere else. Johanna has her own take on the announcement here, but we noticed that with late June dates for Chicago, Wizard finally seems to have given up on its energy-sapping quest to compete with San Diego, which will wrap up the major convention season in all its exhausting glory. With the three Wizard shows set a month apart in the summer, it does present a more compact schedule that doesn’t go up against New York Comic-con and Wonder Con.

Wizard has been pretty quiet on the convention front since firing two of the people responsible for the shows back in August — one, Gabriel Fieramosco has since been doing some work for New York’s Big Apple cons. Are their shows on the way to becoming even more like Creation Cons, with a set list of guests and activities? Still evolving.