Wizard World without Gareb Shamus. The entire idea would have seemed ridiculous until just a few days ago when an SEC filing revealed that Shamus, the owner and founder of the company, had been removed as CEO. It was startling news which left everyone wondering what would become of the Wizard brand—once mighty in both media coverage and entertainment shows.

Answers are beginning to emerge. In an interview with The Beat, Wizard’s executive chairman Mike Mathews revealed that a new era has already begun at Wizard World, which will include outreach to the entire industry in a move to repair damaged relationships with both other industry players and fans.

In one of the most notorious examples of the bad blood which the old Wizard had given rise to, subscribers to the print magazine had not been given any make-up subscriptions for issues paid for but never mailed. However, according to Mathews, a letter is being sent out to old subscribers offering them a $100 credit towards Wizard shows.

“Where are we headed is to be an entertainment company,” Mathews told The Beat. “First and foremost it’s all about treating our fans in a supportive manner and providing them with the best entertainment we can, putting on great conference and having great VIPS.”

Mathews described the convention side of the business—currently planned as New Orleans, Toronto, Philadelphia, Chicago and Mid-Ohio, with Big Apple and Austin TBA—as robust. “With the last couple of shows business is excellent. And we couldn’t be happier. We have a couple of shows that are spectacular—Philadelphia and Chicago—but the reality is we’d like to have a number of cities that are spectacular as well.” While plans are in place to grow the business over the next year, he said that the number of shows is not yet set. There is room for more, but at the same time, if a show isn’t making money there is no reason to put it on.

A planning meeting is being held next week to decide the number of shows for 2012. Much of the future plan depends on the new CEO, who will be announced early in January—the company is already in talks with a candidate who already worked with Wizard. Jerry Milani, Peter Katz, and Kevin Kelly will all be staying on with the company.

As for the other part of the Wizard business – news and entertainment – Mathews said that part will be developed as well, under the new CEO’s guidance. Mathews own background is in web network and monetizing websites – he founded Interclick, the internet ad agency that was recently sold to Yahoo for $270 million. “We’ve rebuilt wizardworld.com and are in the process of becoming a vertical ad network similar to Complex and Break.com. We are also running Toywiz.com and we are just finalizing deals with a number of music sites. When you think of us as an entertainment brand we don’t want to be just in a narrow category, but a broader category of entertainment.”

Although discreet about the process that led to Shamus’s ouster, Mathews did note that the stockholders had looked at recent company performance and decided that a change was needed. He also noted that “Gareb is one of these types of personalities who has taken strong positions over the years with various people in the industry and brands. And that kind of hurt us because of where we are trying to go—we’re trying to be a Switzerland of entertainment and we want to try to try to reach out to brands.” Accordingly, Mathews and other Wizard personnel are in the process of reaching out to industry players, dealers, and vendors and attempting to mend fences -– the fact that PR guy Jerry Milani actually was able to take steps to set up this interview is proof that things have changed.

Of course, one of the tactics Wizard had gained the most notoriety for in recent years was aggressively scheduling shows against other cons put on by entities perceived as competitors—most famously scheduling the Big Apple con the same week as New York Comic-Con and then moving it to the week before. More recently, the Toronto show moved its date to go up against C2E2 in Chicago, put on by Reed, which also throws NYCC. But Con Wars look to have ended.

While Mathews didn’t see moving the current shows that are already scheduled, “This ‘comic-con’ brand is an amazing business,” he said. “There is no reason why there needs to be tension. Let’s work together to make sure we have dates that work for all of us. We’re looking at things.”

“We really feel the way to be the Switzerland of the entertainment category is to have good relationships with all constituencies,” he concluded. “What we had wasn’t a long term success model and that’s what we recognized.”

The Mid-Ohio Con was held this weekend — the first one to be run by Wizard since taking over the show last year — and based on reports, it was very well attended. But, in an echo of long ago scars from Con Wars, it was not quite as well attended as its organizers seem to imagine in their own worldview.

To start with, there’s this quote from owner Gareb Shamus in a local Columbus, OH paper:

“It is the third-oldest comic convention,” said Gareb Shamus, CEO of Wizard World, which is taking over the event. “It is near and dear to my heart.” In fact, Shamus said he considers only the San Diego Comic Con and the Chicago Comic Con to be more influential than Columbus’s.

You might notice a show missing from that influencers list — the recent New York Comic-Con which drew some 105,000 people. You’ll also recall that Wizard and ReedPOP have often been at loggerheads ver the years. Although out-and-out hostilities have ceased — scheduling shows for the same day etc — the little zingers still fly through the air.

However, at least one Wizard staffer is aware of NYCC — in fact he claimed that Mid-Oho’s attendance would be greater than NYCC’s, according to Jared Whitaker and Tony Barry of Superfly Comics, a local shop that declined to attend the show this year. In an interview with Panels on Pages, the two explained that this decision — based on the general economics of the show and a rise in booth prices — led to what Barry considered a harassing level of calls and emails from Wizard staffers trying to get them to reconsider, without ever actually offering them a good price. Whitaker recounted the claim made by a staffer:

Jared: The first contact for me was October 5th. We were getting ready to open the store when I got the call. The gentleman did say that he was with Wizard and did notice that we were not going to Mid-Ohio this year. I laid out the reasons that we weren’t going to the show. He then went into the “points”: That Mid-Ohio was under new management and that the show would be run differently this year. He then said the most amazing lie he could have told. He floated the idea that Mid-Ohio this year would “have as many people in attendance as New York Comic Con.” He backed this up by saying that “people in the mid-west area want to go to NYCC, but won’t be about to make it there, so they will end up going to Mid-Ohio.” I was offended because it’s mathematically impossible for Mid-Ohio’s attendance to have those kinds of numbers in one year. Mid-Ohio is a mid-level comic con. It’s bigger than most local and regional shows, but it’s in no way, as big as a NYCC and it’s going to be anytime in the near future, let alone in ONE YEAR of Wizard, or anyone else for that matter, taking control and organizing any show.

After that, it seemed like he was looking for a chink in my armor: “It’s a local show, so you should make it out. He talked up an alternate area for us to set up at, (in which he misinformed me about the price of said area. I didn’t find out about this until after Tony talked to the rep later) everything. He even informed me that they were allowing “booth babes” this year as a selling point. I assumed that he was trying to play on the stereotype that people involved in the comic industry doesn’t get the opportunity to see breasts often. I assured him that I, in fact, have been involved with breasts before and after my involvement in the comics industry.

The interview is quite long–the bottom line is that Barry and Whitaker were annoyed by a series of phone calls despite their explanation of why it didn’t make sense for them to attend. Barry was so incensed he even filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and Whitaker posted a dramatic reading of a letter of complaint on YouTube — surely even a more punitive measure in this day and age.

We don’t know if we’d consider it a complaint-worthy offense, but clearly the Wizard folks weren’t very good at negotiating and should have noticed that no means no.

More than any individual incident, the Superfly folks note that while the Wizard shows are clearly successful and draw good crowds, there is still a lack of enthusiasm in some quarters:

I don’t mean to suggest that I think Wizard shows are completely awful; but I had developed a feeling that they’re a touch overly proud in some unquantifiable way. In my conversations with other vendors who’ve been in the game for much longer than I, I’ve noted a general lack of enthusiasm for the Wizard branding as well as the direction of Wizard shows. When pressed, the most description any of these folks have been able to give me regarding this is the feeling of a ‘general trend downward.’

ON THE OTHER HAND, some people do very very well at Wizard shows. An artist posted in the comments to the above thread:

I’m sorry, guys, but I was in artist’s alley and I had my best show yet. They really did a good job bringing people through the door. The old owners did basically zero marketing. 2x the price is way too high, but it sounds like they were figuring that out. And I really can’t get upset that someone tried to sell you something. You’re in sales. It happens.

An official Wizard rep also passed along this gallery of photos from the show which show many people having a good time.

So…your mileage may vary.

By Bruce Lidl
The ongoing saga of the city of San Diego’s attempts to keep Comic Con happy in its home town, despite the explosive growth of attendees, the lack of convention center space, and the traditional bad relations between Con-goers and local hotels, seemed to have been settled amicably in 2010. San Diego pledged to expand its convention center and the Con organizers responded by committing to remain in San Diego for the time being, despite the active, almost desperate, wooing by both Anaheim and Los Angeles.

Now, barely two months after a blissfully relocation anxiety-free Comic-Con 2011, the city’s financial plan necessary for the expansion to take place may be in seriousjeopardy. In a move reminiscent of all too many teen movies and afternoon specials, the local jocks, in this case the San Diego Chargers professional football team, are dead set on grabbing the lunch money away from the nerds of Comic-Con. In a move that has surprised even the most jaded of local political observers, the Chargers organization has declared their ambition to force the money allocated for Convention Center expansion to be used instead for a new football stadium. The current city plan calls for an increase in the hotel tax for visitors staying in downtown San Diego to be used for building out the Convention Center where it presently stands, but the Chargers are proposing instead that a convention center/stadium be built on the far side of the Petco baseball stadium in the East Village area of San Diego.

The issue of where and how to pay for a Convention Center expansion had seemed settled, but a new law, passed by the voters of California in November 2010 as Proposition 26, changed how taxes in the state can be enacted, and doubtabout the legality of the San Diego hotel tax hike plan began to bubble under the surface. The Chargers, owned by the Spanos family, have been trying to get a publicly funded new arena for at least a decade, as they are unhappy in their current Qualcomm stadium, which they consider too old, too small, too lacking in luxury boxes, not hip enough to host Super Bowls, etc. With the Convention Center plan up in the air, the Chargers pounced, announcing that they would back a petition to put the entire idea before the San Diego voters in a local proposition in an upcoming election.

There are, of course, many layers to the story, including the rumored desire of the Chargers to move to Los Angeles when a new football stadium gets built there (next to the LA Convention Center, of all places). All the posturing around the Convention Center expansion funds may just be a way for the Chargers to exit San Diego while still making the claim that they did all they could to find a local solution. Nonetheless, by increasing the scrutiny on San Diego’s admittedly shaky financial plans, the football guys may have thrown an enormous monkey wrench into the nerds’ hopes of securing Comic-Con’s local future. San Diego voters are notoriously anti-tax increase, and any new proposition would require a two-thirds supermajority, which no one thinks is realistic, despite that fact that it would be non-San Diegans who primarily paid the tax. Needless to say, this story is far, far from over, and we should see quite a bit of maneuvering in the next weeks and months. Expect to be having the San Diego versus LA versus Anaheim versus Las Vegas debate all over again at Comic-Con 2012.

Imaginary view of downtown with a new football stadium added to the fun.

[Bruce Lidl is a life-long comic fan and has worked for many years in the technology, consumer electronics and digital distribution industries. He is an occasional blogger and pod-caster, and lives in San Diego.]

Yesterday’s revelation that the Wizard World LA convention has been postponed — only five weeks away from its original Sept. 24-25 dates — was just the latest strange twist in the last real outpost of Con Wars: the SoCal market of LA, Anaheim and Los Angeles. As detailed in this CBR piece from May, three cons in a three-month period — WWLA in September, the Long Beach Comic-Con in October and the new Comikaze event in November — left an already tough market swamped.

The LA show was originally announced in April , following on the heels of Wizard’s Anaheim Comic-Con. As recently as the end of July, guests were being announced. So the postponement caught everyone by surprise. Con-promoter Shawn Marshall tweeted:

I’ve heard several of the exhibitors signed-up for LA @WizardWorld have still not been informed about the show’s cancellation #frustrating
@JimmySJay Yeah, hate to see cancellations.Also, if @WizardWorld needs to cancel they should do better than just changing show date to TBD
My money’s on @ComikazeExpo & @LongBeach_CC RT @MikeRoe: Wizard World L.A.’s been canceled? Sad. Any big L.A. area cons coming up?
@MikeRoe I have very high hopes for it. Their approach reminds me of @PhoenixComicon & I love what they’ve become #fingerscrossed
@GeekyRockChick Haven’t seen anything more than them changing status to TBD. They’re not answering questions #poorcustomerservice

Artist Ande Parks was also caught by surprise:

So, Wizard pulls the plug on the LA show, just five weeks out, after inviting me and inducing my purchase of a non-refundable room?

An official date for the show hasn’t been announced or alluded to — so perhaps it is all a misunderstanding and the show will go on. However, LA is just a problematic place to throw a comics convention — Wizard itself already pulled out in 2009, while announcing a few attempts at trying again and then calling them off. And you’ll all recall the devastating travesty that was the Reality Rock Expo, a barely attended pseudo-nerdlebrity fest at the LA Convention Center in April. This is a tough facility in a tough market.

The piece by Josie Campbell from CBR we mentioned earlier, has more background on the SoCal gang rumble:

Of course, the elephant in the room is Wizard World’s LA Comic Con. Announced directly on the heels of its April Anaheim Comic Con, the move took everyone by surprise — including Donato and Carpinelli.

“We had everything booked and as far as our knowledge, the only conventions in Los Angeles was us and then the show in Long Beach. It was a shock,” said Carpinelli.

Judging by the April announcement, Wizard has given itself just five months to pull their LA convention together, an ambitious task in light of Wizard’s prior failure hosting a Los Angeles convention. Originating their show in Long Beach, Wizard moved to the LA Convention Center in 2005, only to cancel the event altogether in 2009 (though it was officially listed as “postponed,” not cancelled). Wizard has also been known in the past to schedule their events weeks before or at the same time as their competitors, the most recent example taking place in 2009 when Wizard announced its Big Apple Con as running week prior to New York Comic Con while scheduling their 2010 Big Apple Con on the same weekend as NYCC (eventually Wizard rescheduled and the two avoided further conflict). There have also been persistent rumors that before the LA Comic Con announcement, Wizard tried to book rooms at the Long Beach Convention Center in a move that would have brought them in direct competition with LBCC, though representatives from Long Beach Convention Center stated that they have no bookings for Wizard at this time. But while the timing and place is a surprise, Wizard’s goal to expand into new cities is not groundbreaking news — at least not to Donato.

Donato is a former Wizard employee, and some think that helps account for the fierce competition over the territory.

Despite any grumbling about potential LA shows, the just-concluded Chicago Comic-Con, also thrown by Wizard, was a success as far as crowds and sales go. Retailer/convention promoter Jimmy Jay has a detailed, knowledgable account:

Make no bones about it, what Wizard does best is that they get bodies in the door. It might be argued that this is their driving force above and beyond, at the sacrifice of not satisfying long term clients/exhibitors, or chasing talent in hopes to get them to headline their events. My point is that Chicago was PACKED with fans: a dense Thursday Preview Night to Big Full day Friday, to a MONSTROUS Saturday, and a Motivated Sunday. Their event in Chicago has a high rate of returning attendees as this summer convention has become a tradition, tracing its roots even BEFORE Wizard purchased the Chicago Con in the late 90s. Wizard has also mastered selling the COMIC CON moniker to the masses, a point that i have explored before.

It is definitely becoming more of an autograph show, though:

The vendor area was SLIGHTLY smaller in years past.  Not the number of retailers per se, but the amount of booths each took.  Example, local power house chain Graham Crackers would take 12 or more booths in previous years, but were down to 4.  Another unnamed modern retailer who took 3 booths in previous years, was down to a single corner.  Another reason for the shrinking number of booths might be the increased prices Wizard charges to display.  On the face value, prices are far more than most regional shows, and its debatable whether the increase in attendance balances this out .  Perhaps another contributing factor to the decrease in dealer booths is the close scheduling of Fan Expo in Toronto, and Baltimore Comic Con too, in successive weeks.  While fans are not affected by a busy August, vendors are forced to pick and choose where they put their time and resources.

TimeOut Chicago wrapped up the show — it seems that nerdlebrities really go to have a good time and meet their heroes:

One of the day’s most anticipated events was a panel that reunited the five original child stars of 1971’s Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. Peter Ostrum (Charlie Bucket), Paris Themmen (Mike Tee Vee), Julie Dawn Cole (Veruca Salt), Denise Nickerson (Violet Beauregard) and Michael Boellner (Augustus Gloop) recounted their experiences filming the now 40-year-old classic while answering questions from the crowd. The group seemed genuinely taken aback by the interest the film continues to generate even forty years after it’s release. Cole revealed that Billy Corgan (appearing at the convention to promote Resistance Pro Wrestling) had requested a photo with the group, and that in the past the group had rubbed shoulders with the likes of Marilyn Manson and *NSYNC. Other topics touched upon included the edibility of the candy in the movie (just about everything except the snozberry wallpaper) and the actors who portrayed the Oompa Loompas (big partiers). It was also made abundantly clear that none of the original cast seemed to be big fans of Tim Burton’s take on the Wonka tale.

Wizard World New Jersey…you were just not to be.

Cincinnati Comic-Con — I’ll see you in my dreams.

On its website, Wizard has removed many never-to-be-scheduled conventions — and even its upcoming Los Angeles convention, in favor of a more modest, feasible list including proven shows. The current schedule calls for:

October 22-23 – Mid-Ohio Comic Con
November 11-13 – Austin Comic Con
January 28-29, 2012 – New Orleans Comic Con
March 23-25, 2012 – Toronto Comic Con
May 19-20, 2012 – Big Apple Comic Con
June 1-3, 2012 – Philadelphia Comic Con
August 9-12, 2012 – Chicago Comic Con
TBD – Los Angeles Comic Con

That means the following shows have been canceled:

December 8-9, 2012 – Miami Comic Con
December 3-4 – Atlanta Comic Con
October 28-30 – Central Canada Comic Con (C4)

AND these never scheduled shows will never be:

TBA – New Jersey Comic Con
TBA – Cincinnati Comic Con
TBA – Cleveland Comic Con
TBA – Nashville Comic Con

However, also removed from the schedule is the LA con, which has been planned for September 24-25. Although it had a full guest list . In addition, the Anaheim show is off the calendar.

We’re told all of this may have something to do with the possibility of WonderCon moving to Anaheim next spring, but that must, for now be filed under “rumor.”

As for the just-passed Chicago show in Rosemont, it seems to have been a success, based on tweets we saw over the weekend. It was certainly a success for this young couple: a man proposed and has his offer of marriage accepted during a BRUCE CAMPBELL Q&A.

That’s fan dedication.

Howabout it, Beat operatives? Anybody go to Chicago? Report all in the comments!

In a rather surprising turn of events, New York’s MoCCA Festival has announced their 2012 dates — and not only are they a change from previously announced dates, but it’s the same weekend — April 27-28 — as Stumptown Festival, the alt-comix festival held each year in Portland.

The Stumptown dates were announced months ago, so the change comes as a surprise. As one exhibitor who forwarded the letter told us, in previous years MoCCA and Stumptown were a week apart, which was hard enough, but now the already small pool of indie comics publishers and creators are going to have to skip one or the other.

The convention circuit has become increasingly crowded, with many festivals squeezing into the tight March/April/May season to avoid competing with big summer cons. An unspoken agreement usually prevails where similar shows in close territories avoid picking the same or proximate dates.

Stumptown and MoCCA are both part of a loose confederation of indie shows — others include APE in San Francisco, TCAF in Toronto and SPX in Bethesda, MD. While Stumptown and MoCCA previously were separated by a few months, MoCCA had to leave its traditional June date when they moved into the Lexington Armory, a huge building with no air conditioning. The first MoCCA held there happened to coincide with a heat wave which left exhibitors and attendees alike standing in pools of sweat.

MoCCA’s letter to pre-registered exhibitors is reproduced below:

“The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art – MoCCA – is pleased to announce to you, our advance-registered exhibitors, that we have finalized our dates for MoCCA Fest 2012! We thank you for ordering your tables in advance, and helping to make MoCCA Fest the continuing success that it is!

Please note that the next Festival will take place over April Saturday 28 and Sunday April 29, 2012, with exhibitor registration taking place on the afternoon of Friday April 27. This is slightly different than our tentative dates of April 14-15. If this date is not convenient or you find you have a conflict, let us know immediately and we will he happy to issue you a full and complete refund; this offer will continue to stand until December 31, 2011.

In addition, we would like to take this opportunity to show our gratitude for your continuing support by presenting you with SIX attendee weekend passes to MoCCA Fest 2012, courtesy of us. Please note that these are attendee tickets, and are non-transferable as exhibitor passes for your table. Bring family and friends to enjoy the festival the whole weekend through! This offer is only extended to our advance registered exhibitors.

Last year we celebrated the Tenth Anniversary of MoCCA, and in 2012 we will celebrate the 10th year of the Festival. This will prove to be a special MoCCA Fest for everyone following our most successful year, where as many of you know, we sold completely to capacity. The annual two-day Festival continues to attract thousands of comic art lovers and creators from around the globe to celebrate one of the worldʼs most popular art forms in the heart of New York City.

Since 2002 the MoCCA Festival has offered a unique venue to experience comics, minicomics, web-comics, graphic novels, animation, posters, prints, original artwork, and more. Each year, the Festival invites dozens of established and emerging creators, scholars, and other experts to participate in two days of lectures and discussion panels on a variety of comics and cartoon topics. Past exhibitors have included Abrams ComicArts, ACT-I-VATE, Ad House, Candle Light Press, Center for Cartoon Studies, Comics Bakery, Drawn & Quarterly, Evil Twin Comics, Fantagraphics, First Second Books, Joe Kubert School, NBM Press, New York University, the Norwegian Consulate, Paperkutz, Parsons School of Design, Pantheon, School for Visual Arts, TopatoCo, Top Shelf, Tug Boat Press, and many, many more.

Again, you have our thanks from everyone here at MoCCA, and we look forward to seeing everyone next April.
Should you have any additional questions, please direct them to Emma Rivera at exhibitors@moccany.org, or call the office at xxx-xxx-xxxx.

We’ll see you soon, and thanks again for supporting MoCCA!
Sincerely,

Jack Walsh
Museum Manager

Since Tokyopop all but got wiped from the map, an informal “cadaver derby” for comics publishers has sprung up in chat rooms and bars of the comics biz. One name frequently heard: Wizard. So let’s see what’s going on in the Shamus Empire, shall we?

Today, the Anaheim Comic-Con kicks off in Anaheim, CA — preview video above. It’s one of the busier stops on the Wizard World Tour, and to mark the event they also announced a new Los Angeles Comic Con to be held Sept. 24-25, 2011 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The show replaces the Big Apple Con planned for New York in September — the Big Apple is moving permanently to the Spring. (The next edition will be held May 21-22 at the Penn Plaza Pavilion.)

At Atlanta Comic Con planned for December 3-4 is also being rescheduled with no new date announced.

Of course, there were statements:

 “We are ecstatic to come to the rejuvenated downtown area of Los Angeles to celebrate the best of pop culture – graphic novels, TV, movies, toys, games, genre properties and of course, comic books,” said  Shamus. “You can always trust Wizard World to bring the most diverse and robust collection of artists, writers, creators and celebrities anywhere.”

Clare Kramer, of Buffy: The Vampire fame, will also be in attendance. A popular guest at several of the Wizard World Tour stops, Kramer will be on hand to meet fans, sign autographs and take photos. “When I found out that Wizard World was coming to Los Angeles, I was so excited. They are one of the most professionally run organizations out there, and I just love every minute of it,” said Clare Kramer. “The fans, Wizard World, guests and vendors always have a blast at these shows, which is why I keep coming back for more!”

This event brings more of what the fans love about the Wizard World Tour. “There is a real need for a Fall event that encompasses all the best that pop culture has to offer,” said Mike Mathews, Chairman of Wizard World Inc. “We’re listening to our customers and giving them the show they’re asking for located in the entertainment mecca..”

The announcement provided a definitive end to the great New York Con Wars of 2009, when Wizard took on New York Comic-Con by holding a Big Apple event one week prior — and announcing the 2010 show for the very same weekend as NYCC. Of course, this showdown never took place, but by planning his biggest 2011 NYC show a few weeks before the Reed show, Wizard head honcho Gareb Shamus was still largely seen as going into NYCC’s territory.

But although the eastern front war is now settled is there trouble brewing on the western front?

The new LA show is four weeks before the Long Beach Comiccon, to be held Oct. 29-20, and five weeks before Comikaze Expo, ANOTHER new LA show to be held at the LA Convention Center. We had not previously heard of this event, but it’s being run by siblings Regina and Mario Carpinelli and branding features the popular “squid destroying a city” imagery that everyone so loves these days (us included.) In addition, a one-day Long Beach show ran just one week ago, just before the Anaheim show.

Although all this sounds like just close scheduling in a busy market, there is some prior beef between Wizard shows and Long Beach, which is run by Martha Donato, a former Wizard employee. According to some exhibitors and guests, Wizard has previously employed a zero tolerance for those who exhibit at the competing shows, with an “us or them” edict. In addition, we’re told that Wizard World has an event at the Long Beach Convention Center tentatively booked for December under the name “Wizard World Long Beach Convention Center.”

All of this leaves the question: who is running Wizard World now, anyway? The Wizard World Digital magazine has been coming out, somewhat irregularly, and after the departure of Justin Aclin to work for Hasbro and art director James Walker, the editorial staff has been stripped down to just Mike Cotton and Carlos Meija, and somem freelancers

The convention arm continues to operate under VP of business affairs Peter Katz. While everyone gives the show high marks for professionalism and organization, whether the crowds are in a buying mood depends on who you ask. Attendees say the Miami event was under-attended and the Toronto Con, held the same weekend as Reed Pop’s C2E2, was not a big buying and selling show:

My final thought on this con is that it was very well organized. I was able to do the things that I wanted to, without worrying about big crowds and not getting into the panels that I wanted. But, there still are some things Wizard can do better for next year. They should offer guests more to eat then just pizza ( at one point they ran out), and try to get more vendors to show up. I had a lot of cash I was willing to spend for some nice silver age comics but it was slim pickings, since there were only 3 to 4 comic vendors. Also, there wasn’t much to choose from if you are into action figures and statues, but there was an amazing selection of tee shirts. After this con all I can do is sit and count down the days until Fan Expo in August.

In other Wizard partnership news, the Wizard/Shamus brand is less involved in Geek Chic Daily, the daily newsletter that wants to be the Daily Candy of geeks; or as co-owner Peter Levin put it Wizard is now a “nonoperational partner(s).”

iFanboy: Can you expand a bit on the relationship between Geek Chic Daily and Wizard. We’ve seen in the past year or so of Wizard issues published, there was always a Geek Chic Daily tag on the cover. I spoke to Gareb a couple weeks ago and he mentioned clearly that you guys were separate companies. How do you see those companies working together to help promote one another and to help promote their content?

Peter: Wizard and Gareb are non operational partners in Geek Chic Daily. You know, in particular, it was Gareb and Wizard and the comic cons that they own and operate that were a very interesting petri dish, if you will, for us to be able to find out what this consuming audience was looking for, and also to stay current on trends and going ons in the industry. You know, we’re at a point where we’re probably doing more with all of the events that exist out there and all of the conferences domestically and then we’ve started to look at the international stuff as well. But, Gareb was a great launch partner for us. We’ll continue to source new readership and potentially float ideas and concepts by that audience when if applicable.

Wizard, you may recall, recently went public, under the ticker symbol WIZD, and as a public company, SEC filings reveal…much. But you need to know how to read them. The latest one — involving issuance of $575,000 in preferred stock — made our eyes glaze over, but a recent one regarding the dismissal of an accounting firm seems pretty straightforward:

On February 3, 2011, we dismissed Seale & Beers, CPAs, Las Vegas, NV (“S&B”), as our independent registered public accounting firm. Our Board of Directors (the “Board”) participated in and approved the decision to change our independent registered public accounting firm on February 1, 2011.

S&B’s reports on our financial statements for the years ended July 31, 2010 and 2009 did not contain an adverse opinion or a disclaimer of opinion, but were qualified or modified as to uncertainty, audit scope or accounting principles. Specifically, because the Company had a loss from operations, accumulated deficit and working capital deficit during the subject period, and has earned no revenues since inception, S&B expressed substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. In connection with the audit and review of our financial statements through February 3, 2011, there were no disagreements on any matter of accounting principles or practices, financial statement disclosures or auditing scope or procedures, which disagreements if not resolved to S&B’s satisfaction would have caused them to make reference in connection with its opinion to the subject matter of the disagreement. In connection with our audited financial statements for the years ended July 31, 2010 and 2009, there have been no reportable events with our Company as set forth in Item 304(a)(1)(v) of Regulation S-K.

In other words, WIZD’s own accounting firm felt that that their lack of income might be a bit troublesome moving forward and they decided to part ways. Wizard World has since hired Li & Company as their accounting firm.

In looking at the big picture, it seems that Wizard World Digital is kind of puddling along, but Wizard World’s eggs are more clearly than ever in the convention business. And given that the business of “comic-cons” is thriving right now, that is definitely the right decision.

Just when things looked all lovey dovey on the convention front, Kiel Phegley reports that Canadian convention organizer Hobby Star has filed a lawsuit against Reed Pop and Zuffa LLC, owner of the UFC, over the use of the term “Fan Expo,” which Hobby Star claims to have trademarked. Reed and the UFC, the hugely popular mixed martial arts organization, have been putting on a series of “UFC Fan Expo” events in conjunction with their fight shows. However, Hobby Star puts on the Fan Expo Canada every year, generally considered the third biggest comic-con-type show in North America. The suit probably only covers the Canadian use of the term “Fan Expo,” however:

In the federal court statement obtained by CBR News, Hobby Star has filed for trade-mark infringement on the name “Fan Expo” as well as the slogan “The Ultimate Fan Experience” and the web domain www.ufcfanexpo.com. The papers were filed in a Toronto federal court and make no mention of previous UFC events labeled as “Fan Expos” such as a London, England event last summer, nor do they mention anything about the company’s potential plans for a Fan Expo in Las Vegas this summer. This is likely because Hobby Star only have the “Fan Expo” trademark registered within Canada.

As Phegley writes, this is the latest in a somewhat feisty history for all concerned:

This case marks the latest wrinkle in the overriding back-and-forth actions between convention organizers that have popped up over the last several years. While Reed has publicly jostled with the Wizard World series of shows over dates, locations and treatment of staff over the past two years, Hobby Star is also known as a shrewd player when it comes to defending its brand. From 2004 to around 2007, the Toronto Fan Expo made the local comics press thanks to a hard-lined booking feud with the smaller local show known as the Paradise Comicon. Those grudges seem to have receded in recent years as Wizard World bought up Paradise and rebranded it the Toronto Comicon (also held in the Direct Energy Centre).

He also notes that the term “comic-con” itself has been trademarked by Comic-Con International (the non-profit organization that puts on you know what.) However, since CCI has not protected the trademark for years and years — anyone can use it — they have likely lost the rights to any trademark damages.

Just as a reminder, US courts only enforce trademark infringement when the trademark owner DEFENDS their trademark. Thus over the years, such brands as Kitty Litter and Kleenex have sent out many a C&D letter claiming to defend their trademarks when they are casually used in writing everywhere. With the proliferation of the internet, such casual usage has only snowballed, making trademark defense ever more of an ongoing activity.

Trademark usage is also why you continually see big entertainment conglomerates roll out one-shots or miniseries for obscure characters — they need to reassert the trademark so no one else can call a comic-book WOODGOD.

As for the current con wars — well, see next item, but also if this one comes to a street fight, we’re totally putting our money on the UFC.

This year’s Wizard World Tour kicks off in a couple of weeks with the Wizard World New Orleans Comic-Con, January 29-30th, but this year’s edition has significantly freshened up the guest list. For instance, a recent press release regarding the New Orleans show touted 12 Eisner award winners or nominees among the guests:

Superstar artists and writers who have won the prestigious Eisner Award who will be on site include Rob Guillory (“Chew”), John Layman (“Chew,” “Puffed”), Kevin Maguire (“Justice League,” “Batman Confidential,” Cameron Stewart (“Batman & Robin,” “Catwoman”), Tony Harris (“Starman,” “Ex Machina”) and Bill Sienkiewicz (“Elektra”).

Eisner nominees scheduled to appear include Kaare Andrews (“Astonishing X-Men,” “Iron Man,” John Dell (“JLA,” “Adventure Comics”), David Mack (“Kabuki”), Ethan Van Sciver (“Green Lantern,” “Superman/Batman”) and Dexter Vines (“Ultimate Thor,” “Superman/Batman”).

These announcements are interspersed among what would be considering more characteristic Wizard announcements such as the participation of TV stars like Bruce Campbell, Chandler Riggs, David Prowse, Walter Koenig, and so on. But this kind of nod to comics of quality is a newish thing for the Wizard brand.

In recent months, Wizard has also been reaching out to pretty much every cartoonist on earth to invite them to be guests at their shows. The basic invite includes a table but no travel or hotel room. Our email has been filled with puzzled veteran ‘tooners wondering whether it’s worth it to accept the invite for a free table. Yesterday there was evidence of Wizard taking it to a whole new level, as indie cartoonists were tweeting about their own Wizard invites:
Dustin Harbin:

Weirdly, bizarrely, I just got an email offering me a comp table at any of the Wizard World shows?? Not even sure how to respond.

Sarah Glidden among them

@dustinharbin Me too. Are those shows any good?

Other indie stars getting the Wizard letter include Gabby Schultz, Lisa Hanawalt and Nathan Schrieber. Not exactly the kind of folks you’d expect to see at a Wizard show. Harbin further tweeted that his invite was particular surprising given past history:

Back when I ran HeroesCon, there was a ton of bad blood between us. They’re dicks. So I was like ??? at the invite. …Well, I don’t bear them super ill will or anything. I’m tempted to email back and ask for a plane ticket/hotel room.

It’s not exactly clear what’s behind this open invitation to the whole world of comics — for years we’ve been saying that Wizard needed to freshen up the guest list beyond artists who were hot when PITT was a best selling title, so it’s a smart move. It could also be that with a big slate of shows to fill, there just aren’t enough of the previous guest list to go around. In addition, we hear, several former guests just don’t want to go to Wizard shows any more.

Another recent press release suggests the convention is still looking to expand:

Coming off its most successful year, featuring eight events across North America, Wizard World, the world’s largest pop culture convention series, today announced an expansion to at least 13 events in the coming year. The 2011 tour gets underway at Wizard World New Orleans Comic Con, January 29-30, at the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.

“This past year was a landmark one for our brand, with successful expansion into new markets and the addition of a large slate of activation programs, celebrities and special events,” said Gareb Shamus, CEO of Wizard Entertainment. “With our added shows now announced for 2011 we can continue to grow and offer top flight entertainment to pop culture fans and the brands who want to engage them in even more markets cities across North America.”

And indeed, our email is also filled with talk of renewed offers from Wizard to pact with even more local shows in various parts of the country.

The current schedule calls for a show a month, except July:

January 29-30 – New Orleans Comic Con
February 26-27 – Miami Comic Con
March 18-20 – Toronto Comic Con
April 29 – May 1 – Anaheim Comic Con
May 21-22 – Big Apple Comic Con ‘Spring Edition’
June 17-19 – Philadelphia Comic Con
August 11-14 – Chicago Comic Con
September 17-18 – New England Comic Con
September 24-25 – Big Apple Comic Con
October 22-23 – Mid-Ohio Comic Con
October 28-30 – Central Canada Comic Con (C4)
November 11-13 – Austin Comic Con
December 3-4 – Atlanta Comic Con

Still unscheduled: the New Jersey Comic Con, Cincinnati Comic Con, Cleveland Comic Con and the Nashville Comic Con. These shows haven’t been held since it was announced Wizard was taking them over. Holding more than a show a month is hard work.

The flames of Con Wars have mostly died down, and Wizard cons are becoming the kind of celebrity heavy shows with some cartoonists that the Creation Cons of old eventually turned into. as Creation expanded into more and more shows, and even more specialized shows — Trek cons, Xena cons — the comics part of their formula has died out completely. It remains to be seen which way Wizard evolves.

Well, the test seems to have worked in that Comic-Con International was able to actually sell 1000 tickets. But it all happened so fast.

People logging into the TicketLeap site were able, after some hanging, to get in and register for tickets. But according to Jonah Weiland, who joined with others to attempt to buy tickets, within moments, a “Checkout failed: Not enough tickets remain for the event to fulfill your purchase” result came up. So about 1000 tickets were sold in 60 seconds. Given the 250-requests-a-second that David Glanzer referred to yesterday, that’s not hard to believe.

After the initial wave, soon a server fail came up:

Of course, this didn’t stop people from hitting refresh and hanging on, Hotel-sale-day-stylee. Comments from the TicketLeap page:

I’m starting to lose hope. Even if I mash F5 till the drop down box shows up by the time I click it there aren’t any left.

Are they really gone? 1000 tickets on 5 minutes?!

What is going on?! Is is sold out already? The button on the site still works! AHH!


This goes on for some 64 pages.

On Twitter, people were not happy either:

What was the point of the Comic-Con Registration Test? To see how many geeks they could piss off for a 3rd time? ARRGH!!!

The Comic-Con twitter stated:

Thank you, the member registration test is complete. We will be analyzing the data.
It’s possible a few tickets may come back online as data is confirmed.

As of right now people are shaking their fists and cursing and moaning that Comic-Con sucks and they aren’t going…much the same as every Hotel-o-ween.

And you know what? Whenever tickets go on sale again, these people will be right back online, hitting refresh.

The local Channel 8 station saw fit to file a news report:

UPDATE: We contacted David Glanzer on whether the test worked and he says:

The test went as planned. I think one of the important things is that we made 1,000 badges available and we were able to sell 1,000.  Last two attempts we could only process a handful so in that respect yes, it was a success.

We will now spend the next two weeks or so going over the data and seeing exactly what worked, and what needs adjusting. Hopefully we’ll have an announcement in January as to how we’re going to move forward.

While the annual internet meltdown for getting a hotel room at the Comic-Con International in San Diego is now an annual tradition, it still came as a surprise to many this year that just selling passes to the mega-entertainment/comics event got too big for a server to manage. On November 1, tickets went on sale for the first time, and the con’s website couldn’t handle the number of requests. On November 22, a second attempt with a new, professional event seller was made, but the demand melted their servers to slag, too.

The Beat: So, David…what’s happening tomorrow?

Glanzer: We’ve looked at a whole different bunch of options, and it seems as if this might be the best one. Ticketleap uses Amazon servers and in theory they have access to servers that are typically used for high volume hits. Our hope is that this test will prove successful and alleviate the problems that have happened the last two times.

The Beat: Do you have any idea of the magnitude of demand for tickets the last two times?

Glanzer: Last year we had 85 requests per second. This year it was in excess of 250 requests per second. It was at least three times as much. I think that the first problem was an issue with just load, not being able to get all those people in. The second issue ended up being a server issue — it just became overwhelmed. Ticketleap should, if everything goes well, be able to accommodate any number. So we’re hoping that this test will result in a lot of requests so it will put it to the test.

The Beat: I was reading how to do it and I was kind of confused…

Glanzer: The plan is to log on to our website on Wednesday, click the link to Ticketleap, there you pay $3 to register to get a ticket. You’ll get a confirmation from Ticketleap, you’ll also get an email from Epic saying great, we have this information for you, you have 24 hours to buy your ticket. We’re going to be defraying the cost of that $3. There’s a lot of information on the site for people. We get a lot of questions and we hope to be able to answer those questions before they we actually have them. It’s a matter of going to our website to tomorrow morning at 8, clicking a link to Ticketleap, and registering for one or two badges. You’ll get a confirmation from Ticketleap and an email from Epic.

The Beat: What is Ticketleap’s day job? What else do they do?

Glanzer: We do know but I haven’t asked that internally. My understanding is they do different kinds of events and also product so they use, not a server farm, a data center which is a mega…

The Beat: Right, it’s a massive set up of grid array “magic.”

Glanzer: The theory is that they can handle any number of requests that come in so they will be the conduit by which people will be able to actually reserve tickets.

The Beat: So Ticketleap handles the giant slam of traffic and Epic sells the tickets. Now I get it.

Glanzer: The truth of the matter is we did overkill in the explanation [on the website]. Out attempt was to be able to say you have experienced this horrible situation twice before, now we’re going to tell you what’s happening and why it’s happening, hopefully you won’t be confused when it comes time to register. And we have our fingers crossed.

The Beat: People have asked why didn’t you just go to Ticketmaster because they handle pretty huge things. Did you consider that?

Glanzer: We considered a lot of different options. We’re hoping Ticketleap will be able to handle the volume but with a lot less costs involved. There are other sites out there that may be able to do this but costs are pretty amazing. [Ticketmaster typically charges $11+ “convenience charges”.] Now if somehow this doesn’t go well if we crash Ticketleap’s site, then we’re going to have to go back to the drawing board. And who knows we may end up using a site that costs a lot more. We don’t know. That’s why we wanted to set up a test. We hope they can handle the volume and we’ll have a workable solution.

The Beat: Did you ever in your wildest dreams think this would happen?

Glanzer: No, I really didn’t. I’ll tell you why. We all really tried, we’re hideously meticulous in our planning and we utilize a lot of outside people we have long meetings and face to face and over the phone, and plan for all variety of other contingencies. While we anticipated an increase in interest I don’t know that we or the people who work with us, expected in excess of three times the traffic. It ended up being a situation that, to be honest with you, in our explorations in the last couple of weeks, few companies could handle the volume that we have.

The funny thing about it is that it’s not a continuous volume, there are companies that deal with 100,000 hits, but those can be over the days or weeks. Ours seem to be targeted at a specific minute or second. [General laughter] That’s the real challenge,

The Beat: Do you have any idea how this compares to hotel demand on the server?

Glanzer: I don’t. I would imagine they are considerably less. In order to get a hotel you will most people will have had their tickets so you already narrowing down that group. Of that group how many of the 126,000 people are local, or stay with friends or share rooms. I’d imagine the volume is a fraction of what it is for general admissions to the show.

The Beat: It is sort of insane…every year we say it’s gotten so big but we’re really on the level now of something so huge that you’ve melted two servers. With scarcity and unavailability creating more demand, where will this go? At first you couldn’t get into a hotel. Then it was a panel, now you can’t even get into the show – although that will be solved. The rate of demand is insane — do you see this creating more of a problem?

Glanzer: I think it’s awful that people can’t get into certain panels and people want to get into certain hotels and people who want to come to the show who can’t. But there are still 125,000 people who want to and do, there are still over 35,000, almost 40,000, people who do get into panels. Making the decisions to stay in San Diego, we really listened to our fans and pros and exhibitors who encouraged us to stay here. And we’re glad we did because we’re born here and want to stay here. I think everybody realizes, I hope, that the situation is a real one. It’s one we’ve tried to mitigate adding additional hotel rooms, and adding additional space for programs at the Hilton and so on. Last year we had a lot more programs there. We haven’t set our programs yet, but you’ll see even more of that. At area hotels if we can increase our footprint a bit we may be able to increase the number of rooms.

Once our earmarks for hotels are met, we will effectively double the number of hotel rooms. It’s supposed to take place in our new contract which takes effect in 2013. But I think the hotels are trying to work with us. If there are additional hotel rooms they will make them available to us. They are aware of our situation. They are really trying to work with us.

The Beat: As long as I have you, a few more questions. Is the pedestrian bridge up? [A long planned bridge over Harbor Drive and the train tracks would alleviate waiting for trains to pass.]

Glanzer: No! But I have to tell you it’s looking nice! Hopefully it will be finished for next year’s show.

The Beat: Also, of course I read SignonSanDiego but I can’t always follow the local politics, so what is the status of the expansion for the convention center?

Glanzer: Everybody has their fingers crossed. They have secured space for it. They have an amazing plan, the thing now is the funding. We’re encouraged that the city and community leaders have recognized that it is of benefit to the city to expand. I think it’s just securing the financing. A lot of people talking about expansion mentioned Comic-con. But I think it was made evident that it really benefits the city. I don’t know if you’ve been to Orlando, and other convention cities, but they are massive and hold concurrent shows. We would have no trouble to fit into whatever additional space they give us, but it allows the city to keep the convention center busy throughout the year, and keep restaurateurs and hoteliers happy throughout the year having several concurrent conventions.

The Beat: This battle for where the con would go put it into sharp relief, but this whole year the entire Comic-con experience has become a worldwide thing to do.

Glanzer: It really is. It’s something you and I and people who have been going to these events for years know. Comics are as just as much a form of entrainment as anything else. And if you like comics, it doesn’t mean you can’t like anything else. One of the things we try to let people know is if you like movies or video games or whatever you should check out the comics you might find you like that. We’ve seen a nice cross section of people come to the show, who do different things. It isn’t as if comics fans don’t go to the movies. It’s not that video game fans don’t buy comics. They do.

The Beat: It’s the place to be. Let’s face it.

Glanzer: It s very different show than when I started going in 1977 and it’s great to be able to be a geek and be proud about it.

The Beat: Hopefully tomorrow, you’ll get people actually coming to this year’s show. Good luck.

Glanzer: I have my fingers crossed.

After some mysterious seeming confirmations, Wizard has made official its purchase of the Mid-Ohio Con, which will be held October 22-23, 2011 in Columbus, OH. Official PR below.

Gareb Shamus, CEO of Wizard Entertainment, today announced the acquisition of Mid-Ohio-Con.  The show will make its inaugural appearance on the Wizard World Tour circuit on the weekend of October 22-23, 2011 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, OH.

“The acquisition of Mid-Ohio-Con gives us an even stronger presence in the key Midwest market,” said Shamus.  “We are excited to have the opportunity to build from the great foundation of Mid-Ohio-Con, which has consistently delivered the best in comics, celebrity and pop culture entertainment for 30 years running.”

“We are thrilled to join the Wizard World Tour,” said James Henry, Managing Director of Mid-Ohio-Con. “We are excited to work with Gareb and the Wizard World team to produce Mid-Ohio Comic Con and we are confident that this partnership will result in a show that will delight fans, creators and exhibitors alike in 2011 and beyond.”

Wizard World Mid-Ohio Comic Con announced its first slate of guests for 2011, which includes “Batman” stars Adam West and Burt Ward as well as fan-favorite Image Comics creator Rob Liefeld.  “I’m in,” said Liefeld.  “I’ve never been to Mid-Ohio before….make it a big deal!”  Stay tuned for additional headline guest announcements in the coming months.

Mid-Ohio-Con is one of America’s longest-running and most successful comic book and pop-culture conventions, carrying on a fun and family-oriented tradition of bringing fans of all ages together with leading comic book writers and artists, film and television stars and creators, and publishers and retailers from across the nation.

2010 marked Mid-Ohio-Con’s 30th anniversary show which included guests of honor David Finch and Adam Hughes along with featured media guests Michael Berryman and Lou Ferrigno and more than 100 creators from the worlds of comics, film, gaming and television.  The show had record attendance and has received acclaim from exhibitors, fans and guests as the best in its long history.

According to numerous reports, the “acquisition” of the Mid-Ohio Con by the Wizard convention group was a hot gossip topic at this weekend’s Mid-Ohio Con, and several message boards as well. The page we linked to has been taken down but, oddly, this ticket price list has been left up — Johanna has more and reactions, as does the comment thread at our original story (which for some reason we can’t edit.)

We asked Wizard spokesman Jerry Milani for comment and replied “We don’t have any formal announcement yet.”

So…developing on that front.

In other Mid-Ohio news, the Columbus MetroMix has a photo gallery up that includes the now-standard mix of images of hot girls dressed in skimpy genre costumes and heavy set gentlemen drawing in sketchbooks that has come to symbolize “Comic-Con” in the public mind. A fellow named Lee Bradford has a good time and got lots of advice on breaking in:

Everyone was SUPER nice. I didn’t get a publisher, but I really didn’t expect to on the first try anyhow. So instead of asking if people wanted to see my portfolio, I started asking people for advice on getting my name out there and a lot of the guests were really generous about helping someone just starting out in the business. (Okay, so two years may not seem like ‘just starting out’ but keep in mind that it takes someone anywhere from 5 to 10 years to even get noticed by a publisher, and that’s pretty much all dependent on how popular you are already. So in a large sense of the business, I’m still starting out.)

Looks like Wizard is adding another show to its tour, with this listing for the Mid-Ohio Con on the Wizard site:

Mid-Ohio Comic Con 2011

Wizard World Convention

OCTOBER 22-23, 2011

SAT-SUN
Join tens of thousands of fellow fans as they converge at the Greater Columbus Convention Center at Mid-Ohio Comic Con to celebrate the best in pop culture. Columbus’ Comic Con brings it all – Movies, Comics, Toys, Video Gaming, Games, TV, Horror, Wrestling, MMA, Original Art, Collectibles, Anime, Manga, & More! This is Ohio’s longest running and most widely attended Comic Con! Brought to you by the group who produces the most widely attended Comic Con tour! **All show tickets will be e-mailed AND available as a pdf file after purchase.**

Mid-Ohio Con is one of the longest running comics shows in the US, celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Founder Roger Price sold it a few years back and the new owners moved it from its traditional Thanksgiving dates to the current floating fall dates.

This year’s show, going on as we speak, is a pretty comics-centric show, featuring Kurt Busiek, Adam Hughes and so on. But the presence of nerdlebrity vets like Lou Ferrigno and Michael Berryman should make the switch to the heavily pop culture-focused Wizard brand fairly easy.

Spotted via Johanna Draper Carlson, who suggests she and husband KC Carlson are much less likely to attend the show under the new management.

Along with the announcement of Wizard’s new Winnipeg show, the press release contained a list of all 16 Wizard shows, and although we had previously announced that the most violent conflict of Con Wars was over, based on this schedule, maybe it isn’t.

UPDATE: According to an email from Wizard’s Jerry Milani, these shows are on the schedule for September. So…Con Wars is over. Let there be peace, harmony, Rich Buckler, and Virgil for all times.

The last schedule we saw had the Big Apple and New England Shows — which previously bracketed the ReedPOP run New York Comic-Con — being moved to September 17-18 and Sept. 24-25, a month prior to the 2011 NYCC on October 14-16, 2011. You’ll recall that at one point the Big Apple Con was scheduled to be held the very same weekend as New York Comic Con, and there have been other aggressive scheduling moves on Wizard’s part as they expand.

Well guess what, according to the NEW schedule, Big Apple and New England are back to a vague “Fall 2011″ date! So many they are going to move closer to NYCC.

Wizard World Comic Con Tour:
November 12-14, 2010 – Austin Comic Con – Austin Convention Center
December 4-5, 2010 – Atlanta Comic Con – Cobb Galleria Centre
January 29-30, 2011 – New Orleans Comic Con – New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center
February 26-27, 2011 – Miami Comic Con – Doubletree Miami Mart Airport Hotel and Exhibition Center
March 18-20, 2011 – Toronto Comic Con – Direct Energy Centre
April 29-May 1, 2011 – Anaheim Comic Con – Anaheim Convention Center
May 21-22, 2011 – Big Apple Comic Con ‘Spring Edition’ – Penn Plaza Pavilion
June 17-19, 2011 – Philadelphia Comic Con – Pennsylvania Convention Center
August 11-14, 2011 – Chicago Comic Con – Stephens Convention Center
Fall 2011 – Big Apple Comic Con
Fall 2011 – New England Comic Con
October 28-30, 2011 – Central Canada Comic Con
November 2011 – Austin Comic Con
December 2011 – Atlanta Comic Con
TBA – Central Canada Comic Con
TBA – New Jersey Comic Con
TBA – Cincinnati Comic Con
TBA – Cleveland Comic Con
TBA – Nashville Comic Con

As we wrote last time, given Wizard’s increasing focus on nerd-lebrities of various levels of fame, and turning their shows into autograph focused events, there is lots of room for events the same weekend. As the comic-con becomes a bigger and bigger draw in and of itself, there are competing events each and every weekend. And as we wrote, the Big Apple is definitely no match for New York Comic Con for size and scope.

Although they were acquired earlier this year, the New Jersey, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Nashville Wizard shows are not on the schedule and will not have been held this year at all. However, Wizard is cruising along with a show-a-month schedule, so they are certainly very busy bees.

BONUS: Here’s a link to a story about a con organizer in Tucson who decided not to go with the Wizard deal. [Link via Tom Spurgeon]