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Just last week it was announced that Wizard was bringing its Wizard World tour of pop culture-themed autograph shows to New Orleans — at the exact same venue as the existing NOLA Comic-Con. Now it turns out that Wizard has acquired the NOLA con, and is moving it to their earlier, January date. Many of Wizard’s convention acquisitions have been more of an organizational shift than an actual purchase—the two entities share leads and resources and the original show runners get to broker exhibit space. New Orleans is a notoriously difficult locale for vendor conventions, so in this case, teaming up makes a lot of sense.

The new Wizard World New Orleans Comic Con will be held January 29-30, 2011.

Gareb Shamus, CEO of Wizard Entertainment, today announced the acquisition of NOLA Comic-Con, which had been held the past two years in suburban New Orleans.  The event will now become part of the Wizard World New Orleans Comic Con scheduled for January 29-30, 2011, at the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.

“NOLA Comic-Con has been a well-respected event that has really helped bring out the comics fans in Louisiana,” said Shamus.  “We are pleased to be working with Ronnie Prudhomme to help build New Orleans Comic Con in our first year.”

“This can only help increase the interest in the comics industry in New Orleans,” said Prudhomme, NOLA Comic-Con owner and promoter.  “The whole reason I started NOLA Comic-Con was to get people excited about comics here, and Wizard World’s involvement will take that interest even further.”

New Orleans Comic Con, part of the world’s largest pop culture convention series, will be the first on the 2011 Wizard World Comic Con schedule, and the first Wizard World convention in “The Big Easy.

The freshly renovated New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center is an essential component of what makes the city’s major business events so successful. With 1.1 million square feet of contiguous exhibit space, the Convention Center is the sixth largest convention facility in the nation, and it consistently ranks in the country’s top ten of facilities that hold the most conventions and tradeshows annually.