Conventions

This may sound peripheral to the whole "expand the SD convention center" saga, but the problems with the Chargers aging Qualcomm Stadium (built in 1967) is very much in the mix as far as local politics go. The Chargers have been begging for a new stadium for ages—apparently the one they've got is so old it doesn't even serve artisanal hot dogs.

Comiket, the world's biggest comics event, shrank a bit at the just concluded winter fest Comiket 89. It only drew 520,000 people over its three day duration, down from 550,000 at Comiket 88 last summer. It's worth noting that this is daily attendance: about 150,000 actual humans actually showed up on day 1, 170,000 on day 2 and 200,000 on day 3. See, even Comiket does turnstile attendance!

We haven't had a crappy con tale in a while, but what happened at the Panama City Beach Comic Con in Florida seems to...

Lego Marvel's Avengers was the best game of PSX and here's why.

    There is apparently a grassroots petition campaign underway in San Diego, where concerned citizens hope to get a ballot initiative that will keep Comic-Con in...

Comics are the forefront of what we love here at the Beat, but when Marvel delays its latest event you need something more to...

The second annual Comics Arts LA festival was held yesterday, in its first year as a two-day show. It's the Los Angeles stop on the Premiere Indie Comics Circuit, and had a strong influence from the local animation community, as befits its founders, Jen Wang, Angie Wang. Iris Jong and Jake Mumm, several of whom have ties to that community. While I haven't found any detailed write-ups, it seems like everyone was up on their socials, with happy photos of comics and people all backlit with the warm, golden sun of early winter downtown LA.

Just a few days ago I was predicting some consolidation in the crowded convention business in 2016, and like clockwork I learned that there have been layoffs at the convention company Wizard World, following the most recent financial statements that revealed a slowdown in convention revenue. I reached out to a WW spokesman for confirmation and was told "We are working to run the shows as efficiently as possible."

Are there too many comic cons? Absolutely. Is there room for one more? Almost certainly. That's the paradox that I had on my mind...

As per Con tradition, we slept in on Sunday. Not because of wild parties on Saturday night, but because we were a bit tired,...

We arrived back at the convention center bright and early, and were pleasantly surprised to discover that the press room was serving breakfast! After...

ReedPOP is hosting their first Vienna Comic Con this weekend! Looking at the calendar, this coincided with my annual ten-day Thanksgiving vacation (which uses...