Conventions

It was badge-o-ween this weekend—open registration for this year's San Diego Comic-Con. Rather than follow the travail and triumph on twitter, I went and sat in a sauna, but it was the usual. Everything sold out in about an hour — 30 minutes less than last year. There was a new snafu where people had to log in to the member ID to get their registration number...which then crashed the member ID site because people didn't have it all written out on a piece of paper like they probably should have. Planning, folks.

Tomorrow at 9 am pst, noon est the big one gets underway, the Super Bowl, the Kentucky Darby, the Masters -- registering for a 2015 San Diego Comic-Con badge. The day before the big event, the con has posted a The Ultimate Comic-Con 2015 Open Online Registration FAQ and let's be honest, it is made to weed out people who can't follow instructions:

Here it comes! Preliminary instructions for this year's San Diego Comic-Con open registration is coming next Saturday, 2/21 at 9 am pst. As usual links will be revealed later and you'll get into a waiting room before being able to get in and purchase tickets. Only THREE PER PERSON this year, which is tough. Here's some rough guidelines:

The Valentines State’s first comic con of the year wrapped up over the romantic weekend. Jimmy Jay, Amazing Arizona Comic Con organizer, didn’t let a hallmark holiday get in the way of putting on his three-day annual comic book convention on Friday, Feb. 13 through Sunday, Feb. 15. The event kicked off with an intimate panel with Spawn Creator Todd McFarlane and the New York Times best selling Batman artist, Greg Capullo. They signed someone's baby.

Well, this is a bit of a wounder. I alluded in an earlier post on the Angoulême comics festival that the attendance was being disputed, and in a must read wrap-up of the 2015 festival Matthias Wivel covers everything and has a much more knowledgable breakdown of the dispute. In the past it has been a tenet of faith that 200,000 people attend the festival, which fills an entire medieval style town on a hill. This number has been cited as a reminder of how the French love their comics, how robust the European comics scene is, and in general how Angoulême is heaven on earth for comics lovers. While all of that remains true, it now seems that festival organizers may have been inflating the attendance a tad and it's more like...15,000-20,000.

The Long Beach Comic Expo February 28-March 1st and just announced a great line-up of guests, which you can see below. They also released the cover of the program guide by Travis Hanson, creator of the Eisner nominated story The Bean. It's a nice mash-up of some creator owned icons.

The second Special Edition: NYC comics-only show from ReedPop runs June 6-7 at Pier 94, and ReedPOP has just announced the first guests: Amy Reeder, Chris Claremont,...

Last week, to little or no fanfare, a new convention, ComiqueCon, launched in Dearborn, Michigan with a primary focus on celebrating female comics creators and being a positive space for female fans.

Sean Gordon Murphy, a creator no stranger to speaking his mind, has offered a Creators Rights at Conventions , which includes lots of positive stories, but also some rules that suggest some not to great experiences.

It isn't primarily a comic-con, but Salt Lake City Comic Con's FanX starts today, a three day show with a focus on nerdlebrities: Glen and Beth will be there; Walter White Jr will be there; Jamie Lannister will be there, Judge Doom, Doctor Who and even Princess Leia! A few comics guests as well, including Neal Adams. And a LOT of SF authors—Utah is actually the nerdiest state, and there's a lot of support for this kind of material.

There's a CAF (comic arts festival) born every minute! Here's a new one, the New South Fest in Austin. They have a tumblr and a FB page, and some art...and exhibitor applications are now open. The plan is an outdoor books and comics event to be held June 6th, 2015 at the French Legation Museum in Austin, Texas. "Our goal is to celebrate independent literature, alternative comics, small presses, and print culture. New South will be highly curated, focused, fresh, and irreverent."

UPDATE: Oops should have dug a little more. This event seems to be run by Danithan Mejia of the Foxing Review, website under construction.

Whew the comics arts festival circuit news is flowing thick and fast; we're in the middle of application season and hearts and minds are turning to tabling. And the CAFs are answering back with news.