ReedPop, the company that puts on New York Comic-Con, C2E2 and so on, has been hinting at international expansion for a while now and now it’s confirmed that they are partnering with Oz Comic Con, a company that puts on various Australian pop culture shows. Reed’s Lance Fensterman is apparently in Australia to kick things off, and OCC’s Rand Ratinac (shown above with Fensterman) is all smiles about the move. “We’ve had aspirations to build it into something that is a destination not only for guests but the show itself,” he told the Herald Sun. “ReedPop isn’t our short cut, but our booster to make it faster and better so that it reaches the potential sooner than what we would do ourselves.”
Upcoming Oz Comic Con events include a Perth show in March, Adelaide in April, Melbourne in July and Brisbane and Sydney in September. Nerdlebrity guests include William Shatner, Jason Momoa, Boo Stewart and the like.
The piece in the Herald Sun didn’t explain the nature of the partnership, but I’d guess that it would include ReedPop helping with logistics and planning and promotion and so on. ReedPop previously teamed with the Singapore Toy, Game and Comic Convention, although that show doesn’t have a date a present for 2014.
Closer to home for most Beat readers, rumors of a June Reed show in New York seem to have materialized in the shape of a letter going out to prospective exhibitors, and obtained by The Beat. The show—called Special Edition—would be held June 14-15 at the North Pavilion at Javits and would be comics only. Essentially, it would be the hugely successful and well-liked Artist Alley part of New York Comic-Con, without all the other icky stuff. Here’s the letter:
Dear [redacted]:How are you? I hope all is well! I wanted to be the first to share some very exciting news with you!
As you already know, ReedPop has always put on killer events like C2E2 and NYCC; well, this summer we are going to be launching our newest event called SPECIAL EDITION! Special Edition will be focused purely on comics… and the best and brightest the industry has to offer!
I wanted to offer you a complimentary table and to be featured at Special Edition in NYC, June 14-15, 2014 at the Jacob Javits Center; hosted in the North Pavilion, this intimate setting will give creators an incredible opportunity to showcase their work and a chance for fans to get up close and personal with their favorite creators.
We would really love for you to be a part of our inaugural installment of this new cutting edge event! In exchange for your participation at the show, we would be happy to provide you with a complimentary artist alley table.
Please let me know if you are interested and available to talk about this opportunity, we’d love to have you! We would like to lock you in as soon as possible, so we can announce your appearance along with our launch announcement. If you could please get back to me by 2/12 it would be greatly appreciated!
Looking forward to hearing back from you!
Thanks so much!
Mike
Although Fensterman wouldn’t confirm the show to Tom Spurgeon, comics pros I know are already planning to go to the show. This sounds like a great idea and a welcome addition to the New York mainstream comics calendar…except….
There are already two other localish show that weekend, Long Island’s Eternalcon and Westchester’s NY Comicfest, part of the Crucial Comics family of shows (they also put on the Asbury Park Comics show.)
Both of these smaller shows are run by area folks who know how to put on good events, and both serve the local community. I know the con calendar is crowded, but it would just suck to see them buried by Reed when both shows were long ago announced.
I made this suggestion to a few people, but maybe July is not the worst month for an East coast show. In my circle of friends, fewer and fewer people local East Coast artists go to San Diego, and although the industry is obsessed with the date, for artists and fans who don’t go, it would be just another weekend. I wouldn’t advise going up against Comic-Con, but July 4th used to be the date for several VERY successful shows, for instance.
Anyway, more comics in Australia and good old Con Wars heating up again, that’s today’s news line.
“There are already two other localish show that weekend, Long Island’s Eternalcon and Westchester’s NY Comicfest, part of the Crucial Comics family of shows (they also put on the Asbury Park Comics show.)”
How…Wizardly of them, to schedule a show against two others. It’s disappointing that Reed would want to play that game.
An NY July show, on the other hand, *would* make sense, but only if exhibitor prices came down somewhat. Those $900 small-press booths for NYCC are way too expensive.
“How…Wizardly of them, to schedule a show against two others. It’s disappointing that Reed would want to play that game. ”
Well, to be fair, Wizard tried to go up against large, well-known shows, like Heroes in N.C. I live in NYC, so these shows are ‘localish’ to me, and yet I’ve never heard of them before this post. I’m sure they’re fine events, but I bet the people at Reed simply didn’t know of their existence when planning their new show.
Ah fuckballs, I hope Reed’s show is not the same weekend as Westchester. I’m very close geographically to the Westchester one, but I fear the NY one would be able to draw off a lot of big names who might otherwise make the relatively short trip from NYC to Westchseter.
“I live in NYC, so these shows are ‘localish’ to me, and yet I’ve never heard of them before this post.”
I live in NYC, too, but I’ve heard of them because as a publisher I keep looking for upcoming shows at which to exhibit. In fact, I’ll be attending Eternal Con this year for two reasons: I heard good things about it from people who were there; and there were no other area shows competing with them. Until now, that is.
“How…Wizardly of them, to schedule a show against two others. It’s disappointing that Reed would want to play that game. ”
I hate it when I hear things like this. Its a shame that a show of their size feels the need to do something like this to 2 shows that just might be giving fans a different experience. How “Walmart” of them.
This is a first for us as well–we’ve been exhibiting at NYCC since it began but we always try to support local shows. We’re also doing Eternal Con because the staff has been amazing to us and we’ve made good money off it, as well as Castle Point Anime Convention in April.
I would like to do a smaller NYCC show to bolster the business, but to have it all on the same weekend doesn’t help me both as a vendor and a comic book fan–I wish I could go to NY ComicFest because Fred Hembeck is showing up, but I can’t be in two places at once, and now a third one? Reed needs to move this idea (a good one, seeing that SDCC is no longer about comics) into the same weekend at SDCC to counter them, but not all at June 14.
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