Conventions

The can-do spirit of Bay Area comics folks has come together for the San Francisco Comics Fest, which just launched a website and announced plans for a full week of comics-related activities kicking off on Sunday May 3 and ongoing all week with with will probably be a CAF-type event May 9-10.

Arrrgh, the most tension filled day of the year for Stately Beat Manor is tomorrow. San Diego Comic-Con hotel registration opens up at noon...

Ben Hatke, Jennifer Holm, Jeff Smith and Raina Telgemeier will be appearing on a panel at BookCon, entitled "Comics Are Awesome!"

UPDATE: I've learned that this show could have been the victim of Wizard World's own aggressive scheduling, as there is an existing SC Comicon, which will be held at the exact same venue next week. Possibly the locals wanted to support the local show. Although this sounds like a change in planning and not part of the Great Con Contraction, even Wizard has decided to postpone one of it's show by a year. Wizard World Greenville, SC was scheduled for May 29-30, 2015 but has been rescheduled for July 15-17, 2016. The reason for the move was given as a scheduling conflict. The TD Convention Center in Greenville was only available for two days, and "Wizard World feels that the fans of Greenville would be best served by a weekend, three-day show for the full Wizard World Comic Con experience."

  So, ReedPOP adds another show to their already crazy schedule, in China!  (Scroll down to the bottom to see the calendar!  Next up: Emerald...

Yesterday we learned that New Jersey is getting a comic-con...and so is China! ReedPOP is launching the Shanghai Comic Convention which will be held in just two months, May 16 and 17th at the Shanghai Convention & Exhibition Center of International Sourcing.

Remember back in the day two years ago when you could go on the Ace Parking site and buy advance parking for the San Diego Comic-Con? Well, this is no more. A new random lottery based system has been put in place, to go with all the other random lottery systems for Comic-Con:

A little while ago I wrote about a bunch of comic-connish events getting postponed or cancelled and now The El Paso Comic Con has bitten the dust.

I'm surprised we don't see more of these stories in the media, but perhaps this is just the start. It seems a 13-year-old lad...

Remember when we were urging you to consider going to WonderCon Anaheim if you got shut out of Comic-Con badges? Well, I guess a lot of people did, because Saturday is now sold out! You can still get single day badges for Friday and Sunday, and a FEW 3-day badges. WonderCon Anaheim is held April 3-5 in Monongahela Anaheim. If you want to go...well, maybe you''d better get a badge now.

Speaking of SDCC, did you know that WonderCon is thrown by the same folks and you can go to the website and buy tickets and book hotel rooms in a totally normal, non-anxious fashion RIGHT THIS MINUTE? It is true that you may not run into Travil Fimmel at the Hilton bar, but you are pretty much still going to have a good time. This years show is April 3-5 at the Anaheim Convention Center, and guests include Babs Tarr, Ed Brubaker, Neal Adams and other people you would probably like to see.

For those of you who are sensible and like to avoid stress, the "Early Bird" hotel rooms are now available for Comic-Con 2015. These...