San Diego to hotels: Don’t jack up those prices for Comic-Con
The ongoing contest for the hand of Comic-Con International took another turn last week when San Diego Convention Center Corp. sent out an email to local hotels asking them to put in writing what they will charge for hotel rooms for Con. With Los Angeles and Anaheim's bids for the show getting more and more serious -- and Comic-Con organizers taking their time to make a decision -- it's yet another way to sweeten the pot and keep the Con in San Diego.
Continue ReadingCon wars: Shamus retreats, moves Big Apple
Are the Con Wars East over, or at least moving into a new, less militarized phase? The Beatand his Wizard army has announced a MAJOR pullback from hostilities, moving the 2010 Big Apple Con, which has been scheduled directly opposite and 20 blocks north of the New York Comic-con on October 7-10, to October 1-3, a week earlier.
Continue ReadingToday’s con news roundup: LA comes on strong, exhibitor badges prohibitive
Wow, Ultimate Con-Wars is heating up with this interview with LA Inc SVP Senior Vice President Michael Krouse and avp of Media Relations & Communications Carol Martinez. Krouse is the driving force behind LA's bid for the San Diego Comic-Con -- an ongoing wooing that Krouse has been pressing for years. And in this interview he lays it all on the line, baby, he''ll work.
Continue ReadingSan Diego sweetens the pot for Con by a cool half mil $$$
Oh, San Diego, how you have changed your tune. Increasingly serious about keeping what they now admit is tens of millions of dollars in revenue to local businesses, and the glamor and publicity that hosting the world’s biggest entertainment marketing event brings, local businesses are throwing in $500,000 to help pay for hotel shuttles to help [...]
Continue ReadingKibbles ‘n’ Bits, 4/20/10 — convention edition
So many shows, so little time…. § Tim O’Shea hit FLUKE, the indie comics show in Athens, GA which sounds like it went well. § The Wizard World Anaheim Comic-Con was this weekend; here are photos which we suggest you scrutinize carefully as this could conceivably be the new San Diego. The Anaheim show [...]
Continue ReadingC2E2 I: The wrap-up
[Photo via Mekanicat's flickr set.] Incredibly, The Beat is on the move AGAIN. While we’re in transit back to base, a few quick thoughts on C2E2, based on dozens of conversations with publisher, creators, and attendees. • It was a good first-time show. This was repeated over and over by just about everyone we spoke with. • [...]
Continue ReadingThe week in conventions
In our debilitated state we can only link to Rich Johnston’s comprehensive write-up: of the local Chicago press take on C2E2 and the it’s Rosemont rival, Wizard World Chicago. The Chicago Reader quotes Wizard’s Gareb Shamus: “They’re a local comic-book show,” he says. “We’re a North American tour for pop culture. It doesn’t affect our business.” [...]
Continue ReadingCon Report Part 3: San Diego convention center gets more land
As covered extensively in the local San Diego press, a complex real estate deal has been okayed which would allow the San Diego Convention Center to expand. Control over a seven-acre tract out in back of the existing Convention Center has been given to the SDCC by the SD Port commission, a huge step towards the [...]
Continue ReadingCon Report Part 2: Chicago is Hotel-mas!
For several years the ordeal known as Hoteloween has been one of the the signature terrors of attending the San Diego Comic-Con — namely, the frustration of trying to get a decent room while competing against 50,000 other people trying to get online at the exact same time as you. Good hotel rooms are secreted [...]
Continue ReadingCon Report Part 1: Wizard to double number of shows?
The Wizard Toronto Comic-Con must have been a blazing success, because as this widely circulated pull quote indicates, Wizard con organizer Gareb Shamus is planning to ramp up his show schedule even more: …Gareb Shamus, the CEO of Wizard, said Monday that the reach and duration of the 12-city schedule is alluring to publishers, studios and [...]
Continue ReadingWizard Toronto Comic-Con: differing views
As the first stop on Wizard's ambitious convention slate, the Toronto Comic-Con was watched with some interest from afar. Aside from a verrrrrryyyyy slow Friday and a fire alarm on Saturday it seems to have been pretty typical of the way Wizard shows have been unfolding over the last few years -- there was certainly some fun to be had, but those looking for a comics intensive event came away disappointed.
Continue ReadingBattle for the Immortal Soil of Comic-Con International expands
On the San Diego Comic-Con front, things just keep getting hotter and hotter. Not only is today the day that hotel reservations have to be paid for or surrendered, but dueling Facebook pages have been launched to showcase potential future home of the one the call "Con!" You'll recall that several cities are vying for the San Diego Comic-Con-- or as it's more accurately known, Comic-Con International: San Diego. See if they move it, they even have a name for it. A lack of space in the convention center and surrounding hotels has the folks who run CCI seriously looking at other venues for when their contract runs out in 2012.
Continue ReadingWizard World Tour launches in Toronto
Controversial as it may be, the Wizard World Tour kicks off tomorrow and you can finally see what all the fuss is about. The Toronto Comic Con runs March 26-28 at the Direct Energy Center. The main website is here, with guests and programming. The comics lineup includes many locals -- Toronto being a comics hot-bed and all -- and Dale Keown, Phil Jimenez, Max Brooks, Adi Granov and Gail Simone. Media guests include Costas Mandylor (SAW), Betsy Russell (SAW), Magda Apanowicz (Caprica), David Richmond Peck (V), Doug Jones (Silver Surfer, Abe Sapien), Luciana Carro (BSG).
Continue ReadingAnaheim woos Comic-Con with rooms, room
While San Diego city officials have made their deep, long lasting love for the Comic-Con International known recently, Team Jacob, aka Anaheim, also has much to offer, including a big, roomy convention center and lots of places for tourists to eat food, and its bid for the Nerd Prom is getting mucho ink today “We’re attracted [...]
Continue ReadingWizard adds Nashville to tour
Another day, another press release — brings the Wizard/Shamus/Comic-Con slate to 12 shows. This time it’s a show in Nashville, TN, the new Nashville Comic Con Wizard World Convention, acquired from Marc Ballard’s Comic & Horror Festival . Ballard is also the owner of the Cincinnati show which recently joined the Wizard World [...]
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