Conventions

The team at Long Beach Comic & Horror Con has spent much of the last week working on booking new dates for 2013. We discovered that Stan Lee's Comikaze had booked our traditional dates for 2013 and we needed to decide what the best course of action was for LBCHC. When it came down to it the answer was a lot easier than you'd expect. Do we stick with our dates and get ready for a battle or look into new dates for 2013? Our immediate thought was that staying put is not fair to ANYONE. Attendees are forced to choose. Our partners, our exhibitors, and creators, are then all put in the middle and forced to choose where they will be. It will cost LBCHC more money and will certainly result in less than desired results from not only our comicon but for Stan Lee's Comikaze as well. Everyone loses. And that's just not how we conduct business. We have our attendees and partners to consider as we do when making any major decision about LBCHC. And frankly, we just don't do 'Con Wars.'

By Todd Allen If you were planning on hitting the Las Vegas Comic Expo next weekend, you need to go to a different address.  Vegas...

An email from Wizard PR notes that Stan Lee's management has informed them that "Stan would be unable to attend any upcoming appearances for the near future, including the Ohio Comic Con, as well as the “Authors Authors” Toledo-Lucas County Public Library appearance set for this Thursday, September 27th. We will let fans know more as we know more details." Wizard is issuing refunds for all VIP, Photo Ops and Autograph Tickets that have been prepurchased.

By Brady Dale Purveying my wares This year, fellow Philadelphia comic maker Dre Time and I got tables at the Small Press Expo. It was my...

As long as we're rolling out all our Con Wars stories, here's one that's confirmed from multiple sources: part of the stipulation for WWE wrestlers to appear at Wizard World shows is for TNA wrestlers NOT to appear. Lisa Marie Varon talks about this in the above video, saying she was set to appear at Wizard World Chicago, but was called and told not to come at the last minute. Varon wrestled in the WWE as Victoria, and currently appears in TNA as Tara.

Not too long ago a brand new show on the busy convention circuit was announced: Wizard World Oregon, to be held February 22-24. While the dates didn't seem to conflict with an existing Portland, OR show, what we failed to notice at the time is that these dates are just a week before Seattle's Emerald City Comicon. And that has definitely created yet more scuttlebutt on the con circuit.

While the indie comics world was swooning over Chris Ware in Bethesda last weekend, yet another assault was being made on tapping the LA comic-con market with Stan Lee's Comikaze. It was by most accounts an enjoyable show in the nerdlebrity mold, with comics pressed up against Adam West and Elvira. Having Stan Lee running around didn't hurt, of course.

A very special comics "experience" -- the new xkcd: Click and Drag is an actually a vast, draggable world of in-jokes and wonder. There's even a guide to the comic strip. It's immersive and amazing.

The second mad scramble of the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con has begun, as registration for professional status has opened. (Pre-reg registration for returning attendees...

Holy crap! One of the greatest living manga-ka is coming to NYCC, Moyoco Anno, whose explorations of gender and romance have scandalized her native Japan. Color us excited! Getting out all our HAPPY MANIAs and SUGAR SUGAR RUNEs for autographs!

The programming schedule for this year's New York Comic Con has just been released...but in a hard to read format. As we have in past years, organizers have supplied a complete text document of all the programming. You'll note that there is a ton of great programming, but some of it is late at night -- 9 pm Friday for "The Truth about the Hobbit"? Some of us like our nerd stuff AND have a social life! Enjoy:

By Steve Morris, UK Correspondent This year London Super-Con surprised us all by netting Stan Lee as the guest of honour in only their first year...