We alluded a few weeks ago to KingCon, yet another new convention on the schedule, this one spotlighting BROOKLYN. The announced dates are November 7-8 and the venue is the Brooklyn Lyceum. According to a new press release, organizers hope to spotlight comics, animation, and so on. Held barely a month after the Big Apple Con, KingCon arrives in the midst of an already busy convention schedule! Full PR below:

KingConBrooklyn.com
227 4th Ave in Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY 11215 R train at Union St.
718.857.4816 BrooklynLyceum.com

Brooklyn, New York has long been home to some of the Comic medium’s greatest talent, yet the borough has never had a comic convention to call its own. That is all about to change. On November 7th and 8th, 2009, the Brooklyn Lyceum will host KingCon: A Brooklyn Comic and Animation Convention. Featuring dozens of the borough’s most talented independent artists, writers, animators and publishers, KingCon will include exhibitors, vendors, panelists and signers. Some featured guests will be Act-I-Vate’s Dean Haspiel, Northlanders’ Brian Wood, celebrated illustrator Molly Crabapple, Matt Manning, Bob Greenberger and many others. KingCon will also boast a host of contests and activities, and offer attendees the opportunity to interact with celebrities from the world of comics, film, television and sports.

Brooklyn has long lacked a forum for this wealth of talent to convene. After birthing the Lyceum’s ongoing series of groundbreaking events (the popular Craft Market series and NYC Zine Fest ‘09), Lyceum festival organizer and programmer Deb Klein helped pave the way for future events like KingCon.

“It was the natural next step” says Lyceum owner Eric Richmond. “The Zine Fest brought in so many comic artists and writers, it was clear they needed a showcase of their own and that the Brooklyn Lyceum was an ideal location.” Local Talent. Subway access. History. Great food and drink. What more could you want?

Thus the idea for KingCon was born. Utilizing the building as a veritable museum of comic art and branching out into a number of adjacent Brooklyn businesses, the convention will encompass the pop culture element of its larger Manhattan cousins, while shining the spotlight on the dozens of independent artists who  often get lost among the costumed chaos of New York conventions.

“The lack of a Brooklyn based comic convention always surprised me,” says writer, artist, and convention co-organizer Mike Zagari. “Now with KING CON, Brooklyn’s flourishing and emerging writers and artists finally have an event to call their own!” With its close proximity to the subway, and its stunning, raw space, the building intends to do just that. Located in a century-old NYC Public Bath house turned event and performance space along a formerly rough and tumble industrial stretch of Fourth Avenue, the Lyceum has been, since 2000, a venue for emerging and well-established talent. Past showcases have included Jose Gonzalez, The Polyphonic Spree, The Dresden Dolls, Yo La Tengo, Fiona Apple and French folk singer Krystle Warren.

Says KingCon organizer and longtime comic lover Regan Jaye: “I had no idea when I presented the idea how overwhelming the response was going to be.” Indeed the response has been powerful, and the event promises to be a landmark event, not only in the history of the building but in Brooklyn as well.

You can find out more about the Con and the full schedule of events at http://kingconbrooklyn.com.

There is still Exhibitor space available! Please check http://www.kingconbrooklyn.com/exhibitor_info for more info and rates!

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After a rocky start, our SPX journey got into gear yesterday, as The Beat, Jah Furry, Brian Heater and Josh Neufeld set off, after a brief detour to drop FMB off at the airport. Despite such setbacks as a strange bug biting The Beat, faulty GPS leading us on an eerie tour of Elizabeth, NJ (the toxic effects will have the most harm on our future children,) and an equally scenic tour of nighttime Baltimore on the way to Atomic Books, the merry caravan did arrive at aforesaid Atomic Books party last night.

The SPX happy vibe was in full effect as greetings and beverages were flying everywhere. The Nerdlinger Awards–presided over by Liz Baillie, MK Reed and Robin Enrico– unfolded in all their glory, with a few winners even on hand to accept their handsome trophies. (We do have a list of the winners, but will have to transcribe it later.) Everyone was super impressed by the venue — Atomic Books is the kind of eclectic treasure trove of a store that thrives in quirky neighborhoods, tended by caring owners, and we could have spent hours just poring over the magazines(!), toys, books, comics, and minis on sale. Well worth the trip.

Following some grub at the equally quirky Golden West Cafe, we were back on the road, arriving safely at the NORTH Bethesda Conference Center. Then, sadly, the ailing The Beat passed out, overcome by the day’s parade of bug bites and toxic fumes, while Brian and Furry cavorted into the wee hours, as various Twitter photos during the night show.

We’ll update with photos and more later. Things we’re looking forward to — more great comics, the Ignatzes (hosted by It Girl Liz Baillie) and Brian using his night vision goggles!

We got this open letter from Patrick Brower of Challengers Comics + Conversation in Chicago, and it’s a little hypeish, but it sounds like this weekend’s Windy City Con was a fun, successful event, so let’s share in the good feeling, shall we? (Pictures here.)

Windy City ComiConQUERED

An open letter to Chris Neseman, Brion Salazar and, quite frankly, EVERYONE who attended the 2009 Windy City Comicon

I cannot count the number of comic book conventions I have been to as a fan and as an exhibitor/retailer, I mean its many, many shows over a 19+ year career in comics retail and 15 years as a fan before that. This past Saturday Around Comics hosted the 2nd annual Windy City Comicon in Chicago and I don’t think I’ve ever had a better con experience.  I mean it.  Windy City is a con the puts the focus on the creators and only has a handful of vendors on the floor.  Well, I guess 20 is more than a ‘handful.’ But with 80 creator tables, 20 vendor booths seems like a small number in comparison, but it works out just right for the space.  Doing the math, 80 Creators + 20 Vendors + 6 Panels = 1 huge day of fun for everyone involved.

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Peter Kuper, Kevin Huizenga, Kate Beaton and Al Columbia have joined the guest list at SPX. They join Gahan Wilson, Paul Karasik, Carol Tyler, Josh Neufeld, John Porcellino, Willy Linthout Jerry Moriarity, R. Sikoryak and Joshua Cotter, so, all in all, it’s gonna be pretty cool.

Peter Kuper is a contributor to Time, Newsweek, The New York Times and many other publications as an illustrator. He is the co-founder of the long running World War 3 Illustrated  as well as being the main artist on Mad’s long running series Spy vs. Spy. Peter’s latest creation is Diario de Oaxaca: A Sketchbook Journal of Two Years In Mexico published by PM Press. Diario is a combination of comics, sketches, photography and a journal of the time he and his family lived in Oaxaca, Mexico during a time of political turmoil there. This work comes on the heels of his critically acclaimed semi-autobiographical Stop Forgetting To Remember-The Autobiography of Walter Kurtz released in 2007 by Crown Publishers. Peter will only be at SPX on Saturday, September 26 in the afternoon.

Kevin Huizenga has just released the latest stories of the philosophical sage Glen Ganges, with #3 published recently by Fantagraphics. Kevin twice made Time Magazines Top Ten Comics and is a weekly contributor to the irreverent and always humorous Amazing Facts and Beyond with Leon Beyond. Visit Kevin at his blog The Balloonist at http://kevinh.blogspot.com/.

Kate Beaton  is the winner of the 2009 Doug Wright Award for Best Emerging Talent. Her History Comics  takes an irreverent and comical view of history and historical figures, this leading to coverage in Wired Magazine, Bitch and Macleans. Kate is responsible for the all of the banners on the SPX site, for which SPX has received rave reviews. Kate’s work can be viewed at her web site http://harkavagrant.com/.

Al Columbia is the creator behind the just released PIm & Francie: The Golden Bear Days from Fantagraphics, which is a collection of excavations, comic strips, animation stills, storybook covers, and other output over the years. Al started as an assistant to Bill Sienkiewicz, then moved on to create the Biologic Show.  

Tooners take note! Chris Butcher has posted a letter about TCAF at Comics212 which states that they are accepting applications for the 2010 show. Previous TCAF’s were invitation only; however, the steering committee is still going to “choose the cartoonists we think would be the best fit for the Festival. TCAF is still (and will likely remain) a show with a juried exhibition space, but we did want to give everyone a level playing-field on which to have a chance at participating.”

PS: In regard to everyone who wrote to us about Baltimore, this post is NOT a comprehensive list of all the fall cons, just a spotlight on the two NEW ones. The Sept-Oct period also includes New York Anime Fest, the British International Comics Expo, Baltimore Comic-Con, the Diamond Retailers Summit, and APE. Also…if we’re not mistaken, Mid-Ohio Con, and probably tons of others that we don’t know about.

We’ll be attending SPX, Baltimore and the Retailer Summit, as well as the Big Apple Con. Look for more coverage on ALL of these shows here at The Beat in the coming days, and if you have news, premieres, gossip, or anything else regarding these shows, please send it our way.

The new Long Beach Comic Con has announced their programming slate, with Berkeley Breathed, DC Nation, Thomas Jane, and lots more. It looks like a nicely balanced show.

Speaking of which, Kiel Phegley looks at the busy fall con season, which is turning into a crowded slate:

As the combined NYCC/NYAF behemoth slumbers through the upcoming winter, two new players to the convention circuit fire up next month in the form of the first ever Long Beach Comic Con at the Long Beach Convention Center from October 2 – 4, and Wizard Entertainment’s rechristened Big Apple Comic-Con at New York City’s Pier 94 on October 16 - 18. While the distance of the entire country makes direct competition for attendees between the cons unlikely, the two-week gap between events certainly means competition in terms of exhibitors, guests and the always vaguely-defined “buzz factor.” The tale of the two cons earns extra attention thanks to the players involved and the similar focus of the shows.

Speaking of Big Apple Comic-Con, we receive almost daily updates of their guest list, and it has definitely expanded on beyond comics:

Of course, we are always psyched to see Yogi Berra and Ric Flair in the same room!

The PR calls it “co-locate”, which is a fancy new corporate term for holding two events at the same time and place. Anyway, in a move that most people figured was coming, after this year, New York Anime Fest and New York Comic-Con will merge. If you read our interview with show runner Lance Fensterman earlier this week, you could see the handwriting on the wall, you could probably read between the lines that this was coming, as exhibitor support for NYAF (especially among the dwindling ranks of manga/anime publishers) was slipping. Together, the two shows will take up the entire Javits Center, and although there will be separate programming and scheduling for the two shows, one ticket gets you into both.

Next year, both shows will be held October 8-10. This year’s final stand-alone NYAF is Sept. 25-27. PR below:

Reed Exhibitions (RX), the organizers of the New York Comic Con (NYCC) and New York Anime Festival (NYAF) today announced that both shows will co-locate next year, with the 2010 installments of these events taking place at the same time and place, October 8-10, 2010 at the Jacob K. Javits Center in Midtown Manhattan.  New York Comic Con, which last took place February 6 – 8, 2009, is the second largest popular culture event in America as well as the second largest public event in NYC.  Since its inception in 2006 the show has played host to some of the greatest and most popular celebrities, creators and artists in the pop culture world including Neal Adams, Brian Michael Bendis, Stephen Colbert, Neil Gaiman, Stan Lee, Grant Morrison, Alex Ross, Kevin Smith, Art Spiegelman, and Joss Whedon, to name just a few.  The next New York Anime Festival is September 25-27, 2009 at the Jacob K. Javits Center and includes guests such as Yoshiyuki Tomino — the Director of Mobile Suit Gundam — and Yui Makino — the voice of Sakura in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle.
 
 “Our decision to co-locate NYAF with NYCC is the final installment of a strategic plan to place and sequence our pop culture events in a manner that best serves the needs of our fans and exhibitors,” notes Lance Fensterman, Vice President of the Reed Exhibitions Pop Culture Group.  “We are launching the Chicago Comic and Entetainment Expo (C2E2) in April 2010, and we have moved NYCC to a permanent October date, thus providing a spring and fall balance to these two key events which will remain in place as we move forward.  Rather than create a third date for NYAF, it was decided a co-location would be better for anime fans, professionals, exhibitors, and partners.  We spoke to attendees and exhibitors of both shows before making this decision, and everyone agrees that this will provide an opportunity for both shows to further grow and prosper.” 

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By Steve Bunche

As a dyed-in-the wool comics fan I have wanted to attend the senses-pummeling annual San Diego Comic-con. As a fan, think about it: shitloads of comic books everywhere, movie and TV celebs who’ll be signing autographs, comics creators from all over the globe, and a myriad of fun and geekish possibilities, all within arm’s reach in sunny California. Seriously, what’s not to like? But in recent years that pipe dream has slowly been deferred since I first imagined hitting the big show in San Diego way back in 1994, during my days as a member of the illustrious (yeah, right) Marvel Bullpen of the 1990’s boom-and-crash. Due to the multi-headed bitch and a half that includes the prohibitive costs of plane fare from coast to coast and accommodations in a decent hotel for the duration of nearly a week, as well as the con insidiously being co-opted by Hollywood interests as a source of R&D for television, movie, and video game properties to exploit, I’ve found its appeal eroding year after year, so much so that now I have no desire whatsoever to go. I may not be in the biz anymore but I’m still in close contact with many of my friends and former colleagues, and I can honestly say that each and every one of them dreads their yearly trek to the west, but it’s a necessary evil if they want to put themselves out there and further their careers by showing goodwill to the fans (to say nothing of shilling whatever latest project or any original art they may have up for grabs). And while it’s much easier for me to deal with the logistics of New York City’s Javits Center show, even that convention is morphing into an impossibly overcrowded nightmare on wheels that’s equal parts dry-humped-by-the-devil nightmare and the most spectacular thing going for geeks here in the east. No matter what, it seems like I, and my fellow geeks, can’t win for losing. So what the ever-lovin’ eff is a geek to do?

Two words, effendi: Dragon Con.

For the first time in about eight or nine years I hauled my high-yella ass from the naughty north to the sexy south — Atlanta, Gee-Ay, to be precise — to immerse myself in what has always in my experience been the most fun and unabashedly enthusiastic convention of its kind in these here United States, and I was amazed by what I witnessed. A hell of a lot can change in a mere decade (or less), and Dragon Con has now grown to the point of requiring four hotels and their convention centers to handle all the madness on display. And it’s a good thing they were all available; the Hyatt, the Marriott, the Sheraton, and the Hilton were all bursting at the seams with the faithful, many in wild and geekish costumery, all eager to see and be seen while checking out the dozens of panels, live shows, costume contests, and such, along with the specialized shopping one always finds at such events.

Eager though I was to see and cover as much as I could, it immediately became apparent that it would be physically impossible to see even half of what was going on, even if I could pull a Jamie Madrox and multiply myself into at least six people, so instead I’ll just give you a brief overview of the cornucopia of fun.

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Cheryl Lynn Eaton is blogging for Bleeding Cool .

And here’s the Flickr group, which is the must-see of the show.

Seriously.

Think about it a little while.
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If you guessed the upcoming line of comics conventions run by Gareb Shamus/Wizard, you were correct. Of course, nothing in the logo would indicate that this is not, say, the New York Comic-Con. And considering that the San Diego Comic-Con International technically owns the trademark on the term “Comic- con”….well, you might be confused. And that might just be the point.

We’ve linked to articles by San Diego local Don Bauder before — he’s a definite gadfly who doesn’t accept the status quo, and he has a lot of questions about the proposed expansion of the San Diego convention center and the task force report. Although we’re in FAVOR of the San Diego con staying in San Diego, were we locals we would be very cautious in a community that has already seen major fraud and instability from the local government. A convention center expansion is a project rife for kickbacks and questions should be asked.

Heywood Sanders, professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and the ranking national authority on convention centers, has read the draft report by the mayor’s task force purportedly studying convention center expansion, and concludes is it full of dubious statements based on distorted statistics. He says that the heralded growth of convention center business is based almost entirely on the growth of Comic-Con. In fact, the Rock and Roll Marathon and Comic-Con account for one-fourth of attendance, he says. San Diego may dump money into a convention center expansion just to keep Comic-Con. But the decision on where Comic-Con will go is up to Comic-Con, not San Diego, Sanders points out.

This is a healthy piece to read for its skepticism…BUT, it repeats the canard that San Diego has a lot of locals who don’t spend money. That may PARTIALLY be true…but then WHY ARE HOTEL ROOMS SOLD OUT ALL THE WAY TO CARLSBAD? Can’t there be some happy medium between fiscal responsibility AND admitting that Comic-Con is a huge event that spends tons of money in the local economy?

Okay I read this a bit more closely, and thanks to this link in the comments, I’ve found the transcript of Prof. Sanders’ — characterized as a “Whack job” by one Convention Center employee — remarks to the task force, and it does appear that he was misquoted. and he uncoveres–as have several before him–the mystery of San Diego’s hotel room situation, which I’ll quote with some context.

These are the figures for primary event attendance and total hotel room night generation by year provided to me by the SDCC. What is intriguing about these to me is after the expansion, how the primary attendance number rises very rapidly, but the hotel room night number does not show much of an increase from the peak years in the 1990s. This has for me, for a very long time presented an intriguing kind of analytical conundrum. Part of the reason, obviously, and this is taken from the PricewaterhouseCoopers report is that several large events, notably Comic-Con, the two ASR trade expos and the Rock N’ Roll marathon, generate large attendance volumes without necessarily generating very many hotel room nights. Indeed Comic-Con, for all its size, appears to generate the hotel room night demand, according to the convention center’s numbers, of about a 7,000 attendee medical event. If I pull those numbers out of the attendance numbers, that Steve Johnson of the Center was kind enough to give me, but the Center could only generate after 2000. You’ll see what the expansions impact actually looks like on that black line labeled adjusted attendance. Then we have some information on the attendance and room night generation for a number of large recent events. I didn’t highlight the Comic-Con numbers there but I think you can see these numbers are rounded. They are from the PricewaterhouseCoopers report. They are slightly different from the Center’s numbers because they rounded them. Comic-Con at 123,000 attendees with 20,300 hotel room nights. And then you’ll see right above it the American College of OBGYNs, 7,000 attendees at 21,000 room nights.

Well, that is indeed a “conundrum.”

Reading the comments, it seems thatthe entire CC expansion is caught up in a lot of local politicking (SHOCK!) and the kind of stadium mall and facility building that consultants always want to approve whether the people need them or not. And in the middle, one of the biggest events of the year, Comic-Con.

San Diego The Southland really needs to come to terms with its nerd needs–who needs who more, the city or the Con?

The fantasy economy was strong at last weekend’s Fan Expo Canada, which, according to this press release, saw attendance up 23 percent to 59,000 people over three days.

Tireless Jamie Coville has more coverage, with his big report up at http://www.CollectorTimes.com. More from Jamie:

The convention got a huge surge in attendance. It was up 23% to 59,000 people according to the official press release. Most comic dealers I talked to said it was an up year and did say there was more people than last year. Artists Alley was a little more diverse in terms of sales but most of the ones I talked to said it was better. The downside to the increased attendance was the amount of people on the one floor waiting to get tickets. The con has 3 floors, 1st floor to get tickets, a 2nd with panel rooms and a 3rd where the convention itself. On Friday and Saturday Fire Marshals delayed people from going down to the ticket floor until the crowd moved down into the other 2 floors.

Friday and Saturday was hot but by 1:30pm Saturday afternoon you could feel the air conditioner working. DC and Marvel officially had booths at the show (as did Boom!) DC’s booth was manned by Fan Expo volunteers/staff and they it was a U shaped table set up with a ton of free stuff, After Watchmen 1st issue books, This years FCBD book, plenty of buttons and posters. By the end of the convention they only had a small stack of CMX Preview books. Marvel’s booth had very little in terms of free swag and was pretty much a stripped down version of the San Diego booth. They did have a table set up where some of their artists would do scheduled autograph sessions. They also had a speaker system and fun rock/pop music playing.

Coville’s picture’s are here. (Kathryn and Stuart Immonen, above.) He also recorded five panels:

Spotlight on J. Michael Straczynski (73:39, 67.4mb)
JMS answers questions from the crowd about his work and tells some very funny stories about his path to becoming an established writer. Highlights include his encounters with his hero Rod Sterling and his faking his graduation from school to please his parents.

Stanley Cup of Joe (59:42, 54.6mb)
Joe Quesada along with Arune Singh (Manager of Sales Communications), CB Cebulski and Mike Pasciullo answer fan questions about everything Marvel.

Spotlight on Darwyn Cooke (56:21, 51.6mb)
Cartoonist Darwyn Cooke speaks about his Parker: The Hunter Graphic Novel adaptation. He also talks about behind the scenes stories about how a Spirit animated movie almost came to pass, the New Frontier animated movie, and future work. Darwyn is very open and candid in this spotlight. The Panel was moderated by Robert Haines. I should note I was a few minutes late for the beginning of the panel.

Writing Comics with Len Wein (51:08, 46.8mb)
Industry Veteran Len Wein does a panel about writing comics and writing in general. He starts off with a small talk about the subject then asks the audience for questions. Much of the audience was interested in becoming writers and asked pretty on topic questions.

Mondo Marvel (52:30, 48mb)
Joe Quesada, Arune Singh, Kathryn Immonen (writer), Tom Brennan (Spider-man Assistant Editor) and CB Cebulski. Off to the side was Mike Pasciullo. They start off promoting some of upcoming books then go into taking questions from the audience. A couple of audience members vent their frustration over One More Day storyline and the recent Marvel Diva’s book. The rest of them asked questions about everything Marvel. There was also some good natured ribbing regarding DC doing Wednesday Comics vs their online comics.

This last panel may be the one where Joe Quesada has to leave due to pressing matters.

Via PR:

The Small Press Expo (SPX), the preeminent showcase for the exhibition of independent comics, graphic novels and alternative political cartoons, is pleased to announce Paul Karasik and Jeff Lemire as guests for SPX 2009.

Paul Karasik is a contributor to both The New Yorker and Nickelodeon magazine. He is the former associate editor of the ground breaking RAW Magazine and a former teacher at the Rhode Island School of Design. As a graduate of the School of Visual Design, he studied with Art Spiegelman, Will Eisner and Harvey Kurtzman. He was the co-creator of the graphic novel “City of Glass”, in collaboration with David Mazzucchelli. Paul’s critically acclaimed “I Shall Destroy All The Civilized Planets” on the works of Fletcher Hanks won the 2008 Eisner Award for the category Best Archival Collection/Project-Comic Books. His latest book is another collection of the works of Fletcher Hanks “You Shall Die By Your Own Evil Creation!” published by Fantagraphics Books.

Jeff Lemire won a Xeric Award in 2005 for his book “Lost Dogs.” Between 2007 and 2009 Top Shelf Productions published his Ignatz, Harvey, and Eisner-nominated “Essex County Trilogy” of graphic novels “Tales From the Farm,” “Ghost Stories,” and “The Country Nurse”. They were collected into a single volume and issued earlier this year by Top Shelf as “The Complete Essex County”. Jeff has won the 2008 Joe Shuster Award for Outstanding Canadian Comic Book Cartoonist, the 2008 Doug Wright Award for Best Emerging Talent, and the 2008 American Library Association’s Alex Award (For Adult Books with Teen Appeal.) This year also saw the release of his original graphic novel “The Nobody” from DC/Vertigo. Jeff is currently writing and drawing the new monthly Vertigo series “Sweet Tooth,” which will begin in September.

Paul Karasik and Jeff Lemire are in addition to the previously announced guests Carol Tyler and Josh Neufeld.

SPX will be held Saturday, September 26 from 11AM to 7PM and Sunday, September 27, noon-6PM at The North Bethesda Marriott Convention Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Admission is $10 for a single day and $15 for both days.

KPBS.org reports that the task force assigned to determine the future of a planned expansion of the San Diego Convention Center, has approved the expansion. They decided that the $750 million project was feasible and would have a positive impact on the region. How to pay for the project?

The task force presents several options for paying for the expansion including an increase in city or county sales taxes, an increase in the taxes charged for hotel rooms and creating a special taxing district around the convention center. Critics of the project call it too expensive and say expansions rarely live up to expectations. The task force will meet on Monday to issue its official recommendation.

You can read more of the task force’s decision here. Kevin Melrose rounds up other germane links here.

The expansion is, of course, VITAL to the future of the San Diego Comic-Con, as other cities were vying for its business, and the show had maxed out on space, leaving revenues and attendance flat despite the ever-increasing demand for its marketing platform. While the bigger con center is good news, the idea of an even BIGGER San Diego is daunting, to say the least, and just thinking about it, we’ve run out to purchase a flare gun, orthopedic shoes, a backpack full of MREs and some Depends.

Developing.

UPDATE: We’ve begun going through the 78 page draft report and it’s the Dead Sea Scrolls for all convention center Kremlinology, with charts, graphs, and a strong repudiation of the idea that Comic-Con doesn’t sell out every hotel room within a few hours travel. (An anti-expansion consultant mentions this canard.) The entire report online mentions Comic-Con once, in that regard, painting the expansion as something that would benefit the community in adding opportunities for other shows across the board, not just the nerds. Probably a good idea as far as selling it to the locals goes.

But the problem remains…PAYING FOR IT. It’s up to the mayor to figure that one out, and SD taxpayers aren’t likely to be eager to foot the bill.

Accounted by some as the third biggest comics/pop culture show in North America and definitely the biggest one in Canada, Fan Expo Canada 2009 kicks off today in Toronto, with a full service slate of celebs, comics folk, and horror and SF peeps. Marvel and DC are exhibiting, along with several other companies, including BOOM!, Avatar, Aspen, Udon, and Mirage. There’s a huge guests list which you can see here, like JMS, Ivan Reis, Len Wein, Darwyn Cooke, Bill Sienkiewicz, and many many more.

The Toronto Sun previews the show here with an emphasis on media guests.

Creation is launching a 20-date series of TWILIGHT conventions, writes Geoff Boucher at the LA Times:

The three-day weekend fan conventions will tour around the country and internationally over the next three years, with 20 stops already announced and one scheduled in the Southland at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott Hotel on March 12-14, 2010.

“Twilight” fans will have the chance to meet and get up-close and personal with “Twilight” cast members, including Kellan Lutz (Emmet Cullen) and Ashley Green (Alice Cullen), with additional guests to be announced. No word on whether Robert Pattinson (who plays Edward Cullen), Kristen Stewart (Bella Swan) or Taylor Lautner (Jacob Black) will show up yet.

The conventions will feature exclusive footage sneak-peaks, panel discussions, photo opportunities, contests and parties. There will also be wine and cheese parties for the actors and nine fans lucky enough to win an auction for the private event.

It’s a clever move on Creation’s part. The idea is to lure the rabid fans of the Vampire Romance series into their own containment area so that their cooties will not spread to other, healthy fandoms. Once in lockdown, the Twilighters can be isolated and subjected to reprogramming so that they won’t bother us any more.

Back in the day, Disney never ever exhibited at SDCC in any big way. We used to argue that Disney had no need to attend the San Diego Comic-Con because they had their own convention that ran every day and in four different locations.

Well, times have changed. In the LA Times, Geoff Boucher and Dawn Chmielewski write that D23, Disney’s upcoming fan convention, is very much an outgrowth of the Comic-Con formula.

Will the success formula of Comic-Con International work for a Mickey Mouse operation?

The leadership at Walt Disney Co. hopes so as it moves forward with the D23 Expo, a four-day event next month in Anaheim that will celebrate — and sell — all things Disney with celebrity appearances and slick sneak previews of upcoming films, television shows and theme park attractions.

[snip]The event at the venerable Anaheim Convention Center will be a chance for Disney to promote feature films such as Burton’s “Alice,” “The Princess and the Frog” and “A Christmas Carol” but also will serve as a big tent for Disney’s varied empire. Attendees will not only be offered the chance to buy new teen-pop CDs and vintage animation cels, for example, they also will be pitched travel packages for the Disney Cruise Line.

The whole article is full of useful info. We’ve long wondered if movie companies would tire of the consumer-based spectacle of Comic-Con, but probably only Disney has the technical support and experience to launch their own big event right out of the box.

Are you going to D23? Send us your reports!

I own a comic gallery, an art gallery in New York that sells comic art and stuff; the guy that runs the art gallery also runs a comic store and we do a lot of business in France. They understand Alex Raymond, they understand that he was a great artist, they understand Hal Foster and they understand comic art as real art and as a sort of interesting, goofy thing. And I am very much into comic art, and its place in society as a real art, because it is something that expresses the culture as strongly as any other art. What Uncle Scrooge McDuck says about America, about me when I was a kid, is phenomenal. It is one of the greatest explorations of capitalism in the American mystique that has ever been written or done anywhere. Uncle Scrooge swimming around in that money bin is a key to our culture. [Laughs]

– Geoge Lucas

“Rock ’n’ roll, or the Beatles, started as just sort of hillbilly music, just a passing phase, but now it’s revered as an art form because so much has been done in it. Same with comics, and I think same with video games.”

–Sir Paul McCartney

During Wings’ Wings Over America tour in ’76 the band was slated for three nights at the Los Angeles Forum and Kirby associates Steve & Gary Sherman set up a meeting backstage between Sir Paul and ‘King’ Kirby. Kirby gave Sir Paul & Linda a 14” x 17” pencil drawing featuring Magneto and the band. (Visit THIS website to see drawing.) During the concert Kirby and his family and associates sat near the front row and during the band’s performance of Magneto & Titanium Man McCartney dedicated the song to Kirby.

–Doc Lehman (See also The Kirby Museum.)

I know the San Diego Experience has long since receded into either our dreams or our nightmares, but one element of the aftermath has been nagging at the back of my mind, as much as I try to suppress it.
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Well, lots of Chicago Comic-Con reports are trickling out…even with all the problems surrounding Wizard, Chicago has a huge and appreciative audience for comics, and they turned out — everyone says Saturday was as crowded as ever, even without Marvel and DC.

The great news is that the Comix4Sight auction for John Ostrander raised some $13,000.

At Robot 6 Michael May reports in an enjoyable hour by hour breakdown (and we stole the above pictures from him.)

I should say though that this is a normal Saturday afternoon phenomenon at this show. The place is packed and it’s a chore even to walk around. Two days of all these costumes and banners and salespeople take it out of you. There’s even more sensory overload in San Diego, but that show’s so huge that there’s always something new to distract yourself with. Here I’m walking past the same stuff over and over again. But like I say, that’s normal for Saturday afternoon at the Chicago show and it’s sort of nice to recognize something from previous years, even if it’s exhaustion.

What’s not normal or recognizable is how weird the tone of the show is. I’m hearing this all over the place, but my favorite comment is when someone compares it to an Irish wake. Everyone seems to be having a good time – including me, restless as I am – but there’s a palpable sense that something you loved has come to an end.

A fellow named Gordon Dymowski has what we would judge to be a fairly typical fan-in-the-street report. Again, a mix of the good and the bad.

I think at this point, like the Gore vs Bush debates, any results by a Wizard-run show that does not involve falling down on the floor drooling or fire snot raining down from the sky must by accorded a success, even if the future is clouded.

More media and reports, not vetted by us but it’s out there:
Videos at Pwndcast.

CBG’s Maggie Thompson Tweeted, and had an issue with the Hyatt.

Jill Thompson had fun again.

A brief report from Avatar Press.

And some news roundups:
Marvel Unleashes “S.W.O.R.D.” with Gillen & Sanders

Kingdom Comics update

Various DC news including Batman/Doc Savage (above)

There’s surely much more…send us your reports, links, and observations.

UPDATE: Todd Allen has the first part of his show report up with two more to follow but we’re hearing that this show really turned into a massive church basement con, with lots of creators doing quite well, and fans enjoying simpler, fannish activities like walking around in costume and getting autographs, without some of the trappings of more modern, turbo-charged comics shows. So…chalk it up to the fantasy economy winning again.

Via part two of Allen’s report:

Allen does have one tidbit:

…the show program announces next year’s show as August 12-15, 2010. That’s 3 weeks after SDCC, instead of 2 weeks. Could this be a partial admission that schedule 2 weeks after SDCC is just dumb?

Rich Johnston reports that the manageable-size crowds at Chicago Comic Con definitely have an upside:

People realised that with smaller numbers, they could actually get into the panels they wanted to see without queuing overnight. Hell, some people just walked into the Kick Ass footage - something you just couldn’t do at San Diego. People found they could get a sketch from George Perez or J Scott Campbell by lining up for five minutes. Without the Marvel and DC booths, people were free to discover other kinds of comics. And on Friday, they hit the bars to find Mark Millar buying drinks for all and sundry. And some people even got a shave.

Basically it was turning into a British convention. Where people go to talk about comics, actually meet the creators socially and, well, geek out a bit. Mark Millar has made a splash with Twitters like “Thanks you Mark Millar for showing me, personally, a great time!”, “Just shook mark millar’s hand as he made fun of Bendis. Awesome.” and “You know just hanging out with mark millar…”

The Chicago Comic-Con, formerly Wizard World Chicago, kicks off this weekend. There are tons of media guests and even a few comics folks, like Mark Millar, George Perez, and Dan Slott. And for a crossover, The Legion of Former Buffy Stars Who Write Comics is expanded by one as Emma Caulfield debuts a webcomic called…CONTROPUSSY.

The Chicago Daily Herald previews the show, and even confronts all the rumors swirling around the Chicago convention scene, though Wizard CEO Gareb Shamus expects “record attendance.”

Are the suburbs losing their biggest comics convention? Not a chance, Shamus says.

“We’re absolutely committed to the show and its location,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, we’ll be there forever.”

That’s good news for Rosemont and surrounding towns. The show, held at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, brings an estimated 75,000 people to the Northwest suburbs over the course of the weekend. Rosemont officials say the event provides a nice boost for local businesses.

However, an Elite Beat operative checked out the scene last night at Preview Night and filed the following report:

The entire show has of course been re-branded “Chicago Comic-Con” on the signage and con program. No mention of “Wizard World” anywhere!

Judging from Preview Night, I can’t believe this was once the second biggest convention after SDCC.  It was like a ghost town.   Just about every publisher of note has bailed on this convention.  I couldn’t even find Wizard’s own booth! No DC, no Marvel, no Image.  I think Avatar had the biggest setup.

The best action was in the Artists Alley, since Chicago is still a great “comics pro” hometown and there’s always a renewable source of indie artists looking to sell their art and promote their newest comic. 

Dealer wise, not much of interest.  Most dealers I notice have switched from lugging around longboxes of singles to longboxes of heavily discounted trades.  The old “vintage comics” standby dealers are still around, but they’re looking more and more obsolete as their buying audience ages.  Of course there’s still the “sword and medieval weaponry” booth and the bootleg DVD guy.

When I got my wristband (instead of a badge, probably to discourage “badge swapping”), I asked the Wizard volunteer if it mattered if I took both of the “Wizard” swag comics (you’re supposed to get only one).  She replied, “honey, I really couldn’t care less”  

That’s probably the best way to sum up the general atmosphere of this show…

Before I get into this, let me state unequivocally that San Diego Comic-Con is a fantastic experience, and despite any kvetching that follows, it’s an incredible, inspiring event and I remain amazed by the organization and efficiency with which it is run. For better or worse, Comic-Con wouldn’t be the mega media event that it has become if the infrastructure to make it so weren’t there. I think in all our suggestions and observations we forget that there is only a small crew of fulltime people who put this on, and as a non-profit, they have a lot of goals to juggle. So let’s give Faye Desmond, David Glanzer, Eddie Ibrahim, and everyone else involved a big hand. They did a phenomenal job and I know I’ll be back.

Another caveat, what I’m going to talk about isn’t about comics and the quality thereof. Comics are swell, and we all know that. I’m more interested in examining the social construct and how it has evolved at the place men call Con.

With that in mind…

There are two things that everyone in our line of work talks about after Comic-Con. “Is it too big?” and “Is there any room for comics at Comic-Con any more?” Let’s start with the crowd issue.

1: Take me out of this Hell Hall   

First, it must be admitted that getting around, getting into panels and, at times, even standing still were all problematic in the Convention Center this year. 2008 saw a big spike in moaning about security, and this year was even worse. Red shirts — Elite Security forces — and orange and green shirts — other security companies contracted by the show — were everywhere and necessary.

With so many people attending, safety is paramount and preventing small children from being trampled should be the main goal for everyone involved in the show. That’s understood. (One rumor going around was that a child had been injured on Thursday, leading to the increased security.) As long as 125,000+ people are trying to get a free bag, this is the way it’s going to be. Indeed, the present structure of the show has evolved around crowd control. The reason the programming is so incredible and jam-packed is to keep people off the floor and moving around. (Former 15 minute breaks between panels have also been eliminated to increase the number of panels and keep people in panel rooms.)

Likewise, security’s evolution means zero tolerance for straying outside the lines, both to keep people moving safely and to create the mood of obedience that keeps a crowd docile.

Bearing in mind that my expertise is in being part of a crowd, not crowd control, some of the new practices (or newly noticed by me practices) seem to be more for psychological than logistical reasons. There’s no winner in the war between freedom and safety. The plan to keep people in a subdued, law-abiding state certainly succeeded. My own personal reaction to this was a state of demoralization and surrender, which did not enhance my enjoyment of the show, and I’m sure others felt as I did.

To give a little context, on Saturday at the PopCult party, I was standing outside with a G&T in my hand for about 20 minutes before a bouncer told me to go inside. Standing outside with an open alcoholic drink is illegal and not allowed in a single club in the land. It was also 15 minutes longer than I went at the convention center without being told I was doing something I wasn’t supposed to be doing.
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With the blisters of San Diego barely healing, a few hardy folks are girding their loins for this coming weekend’s Chicago Comic-Con (formerly Wizard World Chicago). However, folks who booked their hotel through the con website may still have time to save a buck or two. A creator we’ll call “Thunderdome” writes:

I’m staying with an artist in Chicago for the Chicago Comic Con (formerly WW Chicago).  He booked a room at the Hyatt at the “con rate” of $145 per night (booked via Wizard).  I thought that sounded steep (I’ve stayed at said hotel before for about $99 per night).  I got online, hyatt.com, and sure enough, the room was $129 per night on Thurs, $104 per night (!!!) on Fri and Sat.  So I called the hotel directly, told them I was coming in for the con, and they quoted me the $145 per night rate.  I mentioned the online rate, and they said it was correct, and had no idea why the room would be higher for the con rate.  Needless to say, I booked at the online rate and saved $100 for the three days. 

Possibly more disturbing?  I booked a room at the Hyatt (the hotel attached to the frickin con!) 6 days before the con with NO PROBLEM.  Pretty much the opposite of SDCC. 

Lessons:
1. Screw the con rate, book on your own, you save money by NOT MENTIONING THE CON!
2. Look for a sparsely attended Chicago Comic Con. 
3. Bring on the Reed show.  

Do we have a bit of a con war heating up here? With his Big Apple Con already announced, and (if it continues in 2011) primed for a conflict with Reed’s New York Comic-Con, Wizard owner Gareb Shamus has just announced the Anaheim Comic-Con to he held the exact same weekend as C2E2, the Reed-run comics/media show being launched in Chicago next April. The Anaheim show would seem to replace the Wizard-owned Wizard World LA — long postponed — on the schedule.

With C2E2 going up against the renamed Chicago Comic-Con (a.k.a. Wizard World Chicago) and now Anaheim set for the exact same dates…can you say: It’s on.

Gareb Shamus, CEO of New York based Wizard Entertainment, announced today the launch of the first-ever Anaheim Comic-Con, to be held at the Anaheim Convention Center from April 16-18, 2010.

Richard McWilliam, Upper Deck Chairman/CEO said, “Gareb and I have been friends for many years now, and I’m happy to see him once again back in Southern California. On behalf of myself and Upper Deck, we congratulate Gareb for bringing the fans here another great Comic-Con.”

Upper Deck recently announced a licensing agreement with Marvel Entertainment to create products based on Marvel characters, including Trading Cards, TCGs and Miniatures Games.

Anaheim will be the fifth Comic-Con city for shows produced by Gareb, joining Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and the recently-purchased Toronto event. Attendees can anticipate the strong caliber lineup of stars and exhibitors that fans across the nation have come to expect.

“We had an outpouring of requests by fans and partners to return to Southern California, and felt that Anaheim was the best place to come back to,” said Shamus. “There is a real desire here for a comic based pop-culture experience, and I feel privileged to get back in touch with our west coast fans in this way. This will truly be an event for families and people of all ages.”

Ahmet Zappa, Publisher of Disney’s Kingdom Comics said, “All of us at Kingdom Comics are thrilled to be working with our friends from Wizard, as they get ready to add the Anaheim Comic-Con to their line-up of spectacular fan events. They have a reputation in the industry for putting on great shows in Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York, and the Anaheim Comic-Con will bring exciting entertainment to our own backyard.”

Kingdom Comics is developing entertaining new graphic novels, and re-imagining motion pictures from the Disney live-action vaults, and plans to use the Anaheim convention to showcase new projects to the fan community.

ANAHEIM COMIC-CON tickets are on sale now.

Here at Stately Beat Manor we’re involved in an ongoing process of transferring some of our valuable collection of memorabilia and artifacts, painstakingly gathered on our world travels, into our secure, temperature-controlled archives, otherwise known as Manhattan MIni Storage. By pure chance, while rummaging through our archived files, we found a manilla folder containing all sorts of little pieces of paper from conventions in the period 1988-1990. There’s a lot that either brought back memories or would be, perhaps, surprising to today’s crowd. For those of you who only know the frantic Media Con, it was a different, pre-internet world. For one thing, it was held at the old venue, The Convention and Performing Arts Center, which held maybe 5-10,000 people. Let’s a take a look at a few items, shall we? (Click on all for larger views.)

First off, here’s the cover of the first SDCC “Progress Report” for the 20th Anniversary show in 1989, sent out in February with dates, hotel info, and so on. It was a simple 16 page newsprint pamphlet, a bit different from the glossy full-color magazines that now go out; great Rick Geary cover though!

And now…hotels!
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