Conventions

Will LA ever get a good comics show? It seems as elusive as a football team. This weekend saw first time show Comikaze unfold at the LA Convention Center, scene of much heartache over the years. Held just one week after the Long Beach Comic Con, Comikaze still was a sell-out, according to IGN, but first hand reports were very mixed.

The final Minneapolis Indie Xpo wrapped up this weekend, and it sounds like it was fun. The CBLDF's Charles Brownstein tweeted:

Imagine a cartoonist-centric comic convention, held in a city that is equal parts Kiki’s Delivery Service and the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and you get a small taste of what it’s like to attend Quai des Bulles. You would have to consume many delicious butter-filled pastries to get the full taste!

This article on the "Speed Dating" sessions at the recent New York Comic Con paint an interesting picture of the social dynamics of Nerd World, especially with the growing participation of women due to the anime and Vampire influences.

Long Beach Comic and Horror Con is kicking off in Long Beach, CA today. This is a full service con with a great comics guest list including Darwyn Cooke, Amanda Conner and David Finch on the comics side, and Thomas Jane and John Carpenter on the media/horror side. Spotlights include Robot Chicken, Iron Man 3 director Shane Black, and the debut of Cooke's Parker: Martini Edition. A masquerade, lots of films and a full programming slate add to the festivities. Follow along at #lbcc on Twitter or watch live streaming here!

While many are still recovering from the Con Crud they picked up at the marathon New York Comic Con, the New York convention season is far from over. Two more shows were planned the the remainder of the year: King Con and the Brooklyn Comics and Graphic Festival. However, King Con, which was planned for November 3-6,has been postponed, according to a statement on their website.

The Mid-Ohio Con was held this weekend — the first one to be run by Wizard since taking over the show last year — and based on reports, it was very well attended. But, in an echo of long ago scars from Con Wars, it was not quite as well attended as its organizers seem to imagine in their own worldview.

One week past, and most have recovered from the media spectacle that is New York Comic Con. A slight breather is in order as the convention season glides into hibernation, with just King Con III and the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival remaining here in New York City. As soon as the Con ended and attendance was announced, comixologists began to ruminate upon what they had witnessed, what went right and wrong, and what to anticipate if the Con keeps growing at an annual rate of 14,400 people a year. What might next year's show look like?

While 105,000 people converged upon the New York Comic Con last week, some 150,000 booksellers, publishers, and bibiophiles packed the halls at the Frankfurt Book Fair, held October 12-16.

Word out of San Diego is that the previously rumored “a nationally-televised parade that would kick off or end Comic-Con” will not happen after all.  San Diego City Council President Tony Young tweeted yesterday that the Con organizers were dead-set against it, likely fearing the logistical and bureaucratic challenges it would face.  Parades at comic book conventions are hardly unknown, though, with Atlanta’s DragonCon holding a justly famous parade each year on the Saturday morning of the show.

Was it worth braving the crowds? Are comics the center of attention at NYCC? How good was a $5 hot dog taste? And what does I.M. Pei have to do with it anyway? This is it -- the one you've been waiting for!

It's going to take a while to get the images and sounds — and smells — of New York Comic Con out of our head, and images such as the above — a bevy of gender-swapped Doctor Whos composed of cosplay superstars — will show you why. There were SO many costumed people at the the show this year. The ratio of costumes to lookieloos was incredibly high. So yeah, if it was spectacle you wanted, you got it, including the topless woman with the fake mustache who was hanging outside the Javits on Sunday. "Yeah, they were talking about her all the way back to Macy's," a photographer told me. Since Macy's is five blocks crosstown from the Javits, this is the equivalent of light speed communication in New York terms.