The first Miami Wizard World was held this weekend and here are some photos.
Nothing too notable…people went, wore costumes, made out with Elmo, and got autographs.
The Miami New Times’ Victor Gonzalez has a typical mainstream write-up focusing on the AARP celebs and costumes:
We missed the 9:30 a.m. red carpet arrival of comic con’s biggest names–Edward James Olmos’ son Bodie, professional wrestler Kevin Nash, Baywatch babe/sex tape starlet Gene Lee Nolin. In fact, we missed their triumphant entrances by a full hour, but so did a lot of other people; 9:30 is much too early for anything, especially if you were up all night playing Dungeons and Dragons, or polishing your Storm Trooper regalia.
Speaking of Storm Troopers, we nearly ran one over in the parking lot. The line to buy convention tickets stretched from the front of MACC to the first row of cars when we arrived at 10:30 a.m. Upon entering, you’re slapped in the face with Batman. Pow! To our left was a 1960’s Batmobile roped off to the general public. Across from it, Batman and Robin’s autograph booth–Adam West’s and Burt Ward’s weekend bat cave, so to speak.
Not one mention of comics. But maybe that’s for the best.
Did any faithful Beat readers attend?
This fell on the same weekend as Pet Weekend at the Ren Fair and I only have so much geek to spread around. :(
Hey,
As the writer of FEEDING GROUND and a South Florida native, I thought Miami Comic Con was excellent. Considering this was the first in the Miami area, I thought it was a success.
I had the opportunity to meet Miami creators including a team working on a Bigfoot book (bigfootology.blogspot.com), a Miami horror based comic collective (eatmylegent.com), and store owners such as Tate from Tate’s Comics and Games.
From a personal standpoint our bilingual book FEEDING GROUND was able to reach a large number of Spanish speakers, and I even had the opportunity to meet someone, who like the protagonists of our book, had crossed from Mexico himself.
It takes time to build something, and I was impressed with the enthusiasm present in the Miami market. San Diego had very humble beginnings, and there is something beautiful about being at a convention where a comic book creator is not competing with the hype machine of summer blockbusters.
Oh, gee, thanks for the AARP quip old friend!
The Wizard Miami convention was pretty cool. I got to reconnect with some “geriatric” friends — Jim Starlin, Mike Grell, and Bill Sienkiewicz. I worked with all of them when I was an editor at DC and Marvel in the ancient ’80s.
I had the pleasure of being one of the judges for the Kids Costume Contest. (I also donated copies of three of my DC Super Heroes novels published by Stone Arch Books as prizes.) All the contestants were brave enough to get up on stage in front of a crowd. But the Princess Lea in Pink was a real trouper — she was asleep in her stroller not 10 minutes before show time and pulled herself together to be positively adorable. Expect to see her on the Oscar stage later in her life.
Overall, the convention hall was not overwhelming. Thank goodness it was nothing like San Diego! It was a comfortable space. There was no shoulder-to-shoulder crowding, and yet the con seemed well-attended.
I’ll take a warm con in Miami over a cold con in New York any day!!!