Conventions

You know how you're always reading about how great the first Comic-Con in San Diego was with everyone sitting around the pool at the El Cortez while throwing rubber duckies at Jack Kirby and Ray Bradbury? Well some of the surviving founders of SDCC have gotten together to put on an old-timey show called The San Diego Comic Fest, to be held October 19-21 at the San Diego Town & Country Resort and Convention Center. The guest list consists of some people who were actually at the first cons in the '70s, including George Clayton Johnson, Jackie Estrada, Mark Evanier, Murphy Anderson, Ron Turner, and Tim Powers.

If you've been reading Mike Scigliano's Comic-Conversations columns you get some really good insights on what's involved in producing a major comic con. Thanks to an invite from Heidi, I get to share the experience of a different kind of con. When it comes to making the decision to produce a con, this is not something for the weak at heart more like it's a challenge for the mildly insane...and worth every ounce of effort.

With only a few weeks until this year's Comic-Con extravaganza, the big studios are rolling out their panel plans, and as we suspected, film studios are not going in pedal to the metal this year. Variety reports that Paramount, Fox and Relativity are definitely sitting things out, while Universal is iffy. Disney/Marvel sat out last year—they went to their own purpose built D23 show instead—but will be back. (Perhaps to announce the mystery 2014 movie?) WB is also expected to attend with Superman and (we pray) THE HOBBIT. Elsewhere, it's all a little sketchy:

Speak of the devil! Only hours ago we were making jokes about Chris Ware joining the Cirque du Soleil and now there is nows of an actual Cirque du Soleil comic! Sadly it is not from Ware—we can just imagine his version of Limber 12-year-old Chinese Acrobats Stories—instead, it's from Marvel, in a custom comic that ties in with the Vegas spectacle Kà which you will be able to get at this year's Comic-Con.

Angoulême. San Diego. Tokyo. Barcelona. New York. Erlangen? A comics show... in Germany? In a small city most people haven't heard of? Held every other year since 1984? It can't be worthy of a post, can it? Ah... read on and discover!

Over the last two months I've discussed a good deal of things you need to think about when putting together a comicon. From venues and dates to decorators and floor plans, we've covered much of the big stuff. So let's take a look at some of the fine details that can easily be overlooked.

Book Expo America 2012 just concluded here in New York, and once again it's been an interesting trade show. Some stuff was normal, some was new, and overall, I felt it was a good show. My thoughts and discoveries follow.

Looks like we'll be slogging over to the Javits Center for a while yet, as NY state Governor Andrew Cuomo's plan for a giant convention center in Queens has fallen apart for now. The reason? Negotiations didn't go so well with Genting, the Malaysian casino company that would have funded the plan in return for building a giant casino adjoining the facility:

Although Box Brown had a middling time at the past weekend's Wizard World Philadelphia, by all accounts the media events—like appearances by Chris Hemsworth and Stan Lee and various Starfleet captains, went very well. This first time ever meeting of the five Star Trek captains—William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, Avery Brooks, Kate Mulgrew and Scott Bakula— was commemorated with a photo.

Our friends at Idle Hands have posted Diamond Select's SDCC exclusives. Yes, we're on a rolling avalanche that will end in about six weeks. All of these are available from Diamond Comic Distributors (Booth #2401) and Diamond Select Toys (#2607).

Retrofit Comics' Box Brown went to Wizard World Philadelphia for a day and here is what he saw and did.

This Memorial Day weekend, downtown Phoenix was invaded by the nerdy, as the 10th Phoenix ComiCon was held. This con, which saw more than 30,000 people over four days, has grown exponentially over the last several years. It, like most “comic book” conventions, has become a celebration of all things geeky, and featured programming tracks for comics and superheroes, anime and manga, science fiction. It is the highlight of the year for many in the geek community in Arizona. I had not attended Phoenix Comic Con for several years, and for the first time I attended with my daughter. Mari, age 10, is a veteran of San Diego Comic Con, but had never experienced a smaller, local convention. Although she’s been reading comics since she was old enough to know what a book is, she is just starting to explore the comics landscape on her own, getting a feel for the different types of comic art and stories. What follows is a conversation we had about our Phoenix Comicon experience.