Conventions

by Angeline B. Adams and Remco van Straten 7th June 2014, King's Hall, Belfast, Northern Ireland Typical Belfast: it was raining, and the bus was late....

Is it too soon to start talking about this? No, not really. San Diego is coming right for us, and already you can get...

The issue of harassment at cons isn't going to go away, and seems to get highlighted more each day as women, men, organizers, cosplayers and interne bystanders deal with the growing injection of actual hormonal humans into abstract fan scenarios. When I went to shows as a youngster, I thought of cons as a "safe space" believe it or not. Compared to the rock scene I was involved with, the relatively few women in comics were in a mostly hands off zone, mostly because most congoers were afraid of them, and should anything amiss happen there was a huge crew of friends to back you up. Notice that I just said "COMPARED TO THE ROCK SCENE"; it was far from a paradise of equality, but I felt safer at a comic con than I did at most places.

A few days back I ran a rundown of one particularly crowded weekend for comic cons, among them one called SuperFan ComicCon in Toronto,...

Will every single comics creators be at a show this weekend? Since we know comics culture is booming I thought it might be interesting to check out just WHAT is happening around this nation of outs. I got most of these from Convention Scene but it didn't include the biggest show, Big Wow.

If you're going to one of these shows, feel free to report back to us here! We're keen to hear about comics culture around the world.

The parade of the CAFs continues with MeCAF in Portland, Maine, a one day event to be held this Sunday, May 18th. This year the show has moved to a new venue, The Portland Company Complex at 58 Fore Street. It's still near the ocean, and has bigger space, free wifi and food vendors. Guests include Sean Gordon Murphy, James Sturm, Kazu Kibuishi, Jimmy Gownley, Zack Gialongo and Maris Wicks. Programming is here. This is a comics focused event with a big emphasis on all-ages material that everyone likes going to. There is also an emphasis on lobster, Shipyard beer and other nautical fare. The local paper has a nice preview.

A couple of things floating around out there that quantify the rise in comic book convention profits. Rob Salkowitz quantifies some very interesting research by Eventbrite and guesses that comic book theme events could be as much as a $3 billion business, a number that dwarfs the $600-700 million usually given for the comic book industry itself. Attendance is up about 20% every year, while some profits are up by triple digits. While all pop culture events are up, comic book events are up the most, even more than video game and other industries:

This week it's TCAF -- the Toronto Comics Art Festival, which has rapidly become one of the greatest, most enjoyable, most informative comics events...

by David Fairbanks I have attended the Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo every year since its inception in 2010, when it killed Windy City Comic...

"What?  Is he nuts?  NYCC is bursting at the seams!  130,000 attendees.  Massive crowds!  Sold out weeks in advance!  Crazy media coverage!" Yes, but there's...

According to reports from ReedPOP's Lance Fensterman, this year's edition of C2E2 drew 63,000 people, up from the 53,000 reported last year. It's a...

Author and historian Danny Fingeroth sent along his panel programming for this weekend's Wizard World Minneapolis, and whatever the ongoing controversy, it is fair to say that WizWorld programming has improved quite a bit. While looking through the programs, we noticed that one participant is indie comics stalwart Zak Sally</a> of La Mano Press, Sammy the Mouse and more. Let's just say that if there is one person we never expected to see at a Wizard World show it's Zak Sally. Maybe he will hang out with "social media sensations" Nash and Hayes Grier and Nathan Fillion, and then the circle will be complete.