Tag: Conventions

It seems that everyone has discovered that the Baltimore Comic-Con is one of the friendliest and most star-studded comics shows on the circuit. We don't have figures of magnitude yet, but pre-sales and attendance this year are WAY up. While the crowds on Saturday were always brisk, when we arrived at noon today it was difficult to get into the show floor past giant lines for Jeff Smith, David Finch, and (of course) Stan Lee. Reportedly there was a giant line that wrapped around the block to get in this morning before the show opened. Or as one exhibitor told us, "At 9:30 when they let in the VIP badge holders I thought 'Good crowd.' At 10 when everyone got in, I was 'Oh my god.'"

The East Coast comics shindig known as the Balitimore Comic-Con takes places this weekend at the Baltimore Comvention Center; highlights include the Harvey awards tomorrow night emcee'd by Scott Kurtz, and an appearance by Stan Lee. The complete guest list is here; it includes people like Jeff Smith, Adam Hughes, Amanda Conner, Geof Darrow, Nick Spencer and so on. In other words, it's a fantastic place to hang out, maybe buy a sketch look at some comics. There's also a costume contest on Saturday, a complete slate of programming. If you've always wanted to attend a REAL comic book convention with the emphasis on comics and the people who make them...this is the joint. The Beat will be there for all the fun, just walking around and saying hi. Please feel free to say hi back!

While there have been occasional attempts at establishing a Chicago alt.comix show to equal those in Toronto, New York, Portland and so on, none of them have really gained significant purchase -- despite Chicago being one of the original stops** on the Spirits of Independence tour that launched the entire indie comics show experience. The Printers Row Lit Fair has served as a high-end event to spotlight some great cartoonists; and the recent Windy City Con was another attempt from a slightly more middle ground. CHicago has a great legacy of underground/alt/indie cartoonists, so it's a fertile territory to till. And now there's CAKE -- the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo, to be held next June 16-17 at Columbia College’s Ludington Building. The festival plans to feature over 100 exhibitors along with a two-day program of signings, panels, workshops and lectures.

by Brady Russell -- For the Philadelphia Alternative Comic-Con this past Sunday in The Rotunda, it rained. It rained like it wanted to wash the show away. Sometimes it was a hammering downpour. The kind of rain where, even if you got a lift there in a taxi, you'd still get soaked running from the curb to the door. Still, the rain wasn't all bad. Last year's PACC was scorching hot. I can't imagine what it must have been like to stay in that room for 7 hours in 2010. This year, it wasn't nearly so hot, but everyone came in the door saying they couldn't touch anything until they dried off.

Anyone in the LA area who is bummed over the postponed Wizard World LA show scheduled for September 24-25 should be aware that Power-Con is still on for those dates. This small two-day fan show is focused on Thundercats, He-Man and She-Ra. It's a small show but sounds like a swell afternoon if you're into 80 animation. More info:

“So, let’s say you are a comic (book/web/novel) creator, and you do small shows (Stump/Spx/Mocca/TCAF/local cons). Let’s say. Let’s say that tomorrow, the point of those shows went from whatever they currently are, to “let’s make comics creators a lot of money.” So instead of fundraising, enriching the artform, etc., it was just “exhibitors at our show need to make $$$”. What changes would need to happen? If you are a creator, what behaviours by shows do you feel are costing you money? Answer freely, it won’t affect exhibiting at my show.”

Yesterday's revelation that the Wizard World LA convention has been postponed -- only five weeks away from its original Sept. 24-25 dates -- was just the latest strange twist in the last real outpost of Con Wars: the SoCal market of LA, Anaheim and Los Angeles. As detailed in this CBR piece from May, three cons in a three month period -- WWLA in September, the Long Beach Comic-Con in October and the new Comikaze event in November -- left an already tough market swamped.

Wizard World New Jersey...you were just not to be. Cincinnati Comic-Con -- I'll see you in my dreams. On its website, Wizard has removed many never-to-be-scheduled conventions -- and even its upcoming Los Angeles convention, in favor of a more modest, feasible list including proven shows. The current schedule calls for:

Mr. Tony Lee, author of many Doctor Who and soon MacGyver stories, has posted some thoughts on guest behavior at cons, basically saying that if you are a paid-for guest, you should stay a guest after hours, and not just on the show floor.

Morgan Spurlock's documentary recapping the 2010 Comic-Con will premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, it's being reported. The film -- backed by a nerd pantheon of people like Stan Lee, Joss Whedon and Thomas Tull -- was show at last year's con and was expected to perhaps debut at this year's, but Spurlock is going for a bigger film venue in TIFF.

Otakon, the anime/manga show held each year in Baltimore, drew a record 31,000 fans. Brigid Alverson runs down the announcements from Viz, Bandai, Funimation and Aniplex .

There's been much chatter out there that WonderCon doesn't have dates yet -- and indeed construction on the Moscone Center in SF means that the con doesn't yet have dates. Now, retailer Chuck Rozanski suggests, the big spring convention might be moving to Anaheim!