What I don’t see, however, is anyone but me bringing up the fact that Wizard is somehow allowed to set the industry standard for table fees. Wizard jacked up its fees for a full Artists’ Alley table to $300.00 this year, and now many conventions are raising their prices across the board (Pittsburgh, for one, went up 25 bucks) because they know if people will pay $300 for a table at Wizard World, they’ll pay more elsewhere.

I was in Artists’ Alley this year, but only because I found a friend to split the cost. The people in Artists’ Alley got nothing new for the increased price: a table, two chairs, and two badges. For many of us indie comics creators, three hundred dollars is a staggering amount of money that could be used to print a book, pay for art, or rent tables at other shows.

I won’t set up at any Wizard shows unless they drop their tables fees and show us that they’re making it worth our while to set up or attend the show.

There are, I believe, additional “ballrooms” available behind the extant ballroms they hold meetings in, but they never use those for panels. One year, I remember they used one for an Alex Ross Gallery. I know they use one as a staging area behind the main ballroom for the Fan Awards and bigger events where people like Kevin Smith need a handy back door to get out of.

And I think someone else hit on it above — the guest list is stale. It’s always the same big names over and over and over again. Time to shake it up somehow. We’ll see if they do that.

I suspect that’s WWC’s biggest problem. Judging from what I’ve observed at San Diego and Wondercon (much less so at Wondercon) the growth in attendence comes in the form of a bigger mix of fans, that the overall attendence has grown because the “minority” fandoms (indies, manga) have attended in larger numbers. If Wizard World is going to stick to its specific demographic it doesn’t have as many opportunities for growth as its competitors.

Well, WWC shook up the staff for some reason, and my guess is it was because of flat or decreased attendance at a time when the industry is rebounding. I could be wrong, of course, but if I’m not, then perhaps WWC has tapped out the superhero market and NEEDS to start to diversify — at least as far as the convention format goes.

Face it, Wizard can still use the con as a premier vehicle to push its superhero agenda even if it starts to cater to a wider audience. There’s no conflict there. Every business needs growth to survive, and if San Diego is not a model for convention growth, I don’t know what is.

As far as “limited room space” is concerned, there are supposed to be up to 28 individual rooms available in the convention hall’s conference center on two levels — including an unstairs and downstairs ballroom. I don’t know the sizes, but my guess is they are sorely underutilized. As I said before, I just don’t think panels are a priority at WWC — except for a few showcase ones. At San Diego, however, the panel rooms are never empty. As soon as one group is done, the next one moves into place.

There’s so little to do there, that what there is fills up almost immediately. I eventually quit trying to go to certain panels or meet certain people.

I didn’t go to WWChicago this year, but I’ve said in the past that they needed more panels just to redirect traffic off the floor a little bit. Diversification would be nice, but I don’t think it’s going quite so far as to talk about Steve Canyon or Dick Tracy or Dennis the Menace, no matter who’s presenting it. WW is about mainstream superheroes. And I doubt they’d want to dilute their brand.

Of course, if the show is starting to shrink down now, then maybe diverting traffic into panel room isn’t a big problem anymore.

And I’d also take issue with John Strangeland’s description of the local restaurants as being “cheap.” OK, there’s a McDonalds a mile down the road if you want to take a hike after a long day pacing the con floor, but the immediate area isn’t exactly diner material.

I never said a Steve Canyon panel would suddenly make WWC robust and invigorating again. But the fact is, if I’m going to volunteer to do all the considerable amount of work to put a panel together, I’m going to do it about something I’m interested in, such as Steve Canyon. There are plenty of other people who can do panels about whatever floats their boat. My point, which I stated in my original post on the Comics Journal Web site, is that San Diego has literally 10 times the number of panels as WWC. Plenty of those panels are “niche” stuff, and it is exactly that sheer variety of what’s available that makes the San Diego panel system great. There is something for everyone. Most of the panels I went to at San Diego were not standing room only — including stuff like the CBLDF auction, the Comics Journal 30th anniversary panel and the Jack Kirby panel. But so what? The folks who did attend those events didn’t care. I’m sure they, like me, were just glad the panels were on the schedule in the first place.

The bottom line? WWC needs to take a page from San Diego and add some teeth and diversity to its panel program.

Also, there is normally an article highlighting Chicago creators such as Alex Ross or Brian Azzarello. Despite the lack of coverage this year, I don’t think Wizard is going to name Chris Ware guest of honor for 2007 to get better local press.

A Steve Canyon panel would be a niche item, even at San Diego (although bolstered by the general amount of strip/Golden/Silver Age programming attracting an audience that’d be interested in a Steve Canyon panel). Unless you boost programming up close to SD levels (and it’s not known to me if the Rosemont building has additional rooms suitable for panels and other programming), niche items won’t revitalize the con.

Some company should scoop both these guys up– if the guys want to go on working in comics, that is.

If not, our loss as an industry, once again.

PAD