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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Via Steve Bunche, who is writing a Dragon*Con report for us which we should have up any minute now.

Cheryl Lynn Eaton is blogging for Bleeding Cool .

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

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.

A fan in a yellow hat went to Chicago Comic-Con, saw Rob Liefeld — who has certainly had his ups and downs in the comics industry but still goes out to shows and takes his lumps like a grown-up — and showed Liefeld who’s boss by slipping him a copy of How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way with a snotty note inside. And then took a surreptitious video of it. And wrote a triumphant blog post about it. We decline to link to the post in question because all this guy was after was attention and he’s certainly got it, as a 300+ post reply thread has emerged with various comics professionals — from Ethan van Sciver to Sarah Oleksyk — telling Yellow Hat how petty and immature he was being. Here’s a representative response from Tony Shasteen:

Seriously dude, whether you like him or not, Rob is know as an industry professional that made a truck load of money in the heyday of Image. You’re known, and soon to be forgotten, as the guy in the ridiculous yellow hat that acts like a twat. Bravo…

Seriously dude, if you behave like such a douche that you are getting the comics industry to rally behind Rob Liefeld you’ve really behaved like a douche.
Or, in the words of Cameron Stewart:

So you don’t like Rob Liefeld, big deal. His work isn’t to my tastes either but I would never dream of trying to publicly humiliate him in person. He’s taken the time and expense to come to that show to ply his trade – just as you work at your job – and interact with the people who DO appreciate his work and presence. He’s not there for you to be snide and condescending and to be the recipient of your asinine, half-witted pranks.

Actually, Dustin Harbin had the best suggestion:

Guys, let’s increase the peace. A SUGGESTION:

Those people who agree with Yellow Hat Guy should signify so by wearing yellow hats at comic book events. Also trenchcoats–those are always in style, year-round. People LOVE TRENCHCOATS.

Those who disagree with Yellow Hat Guy should walk up to people with yellow hats, hand them a bag with a surprise in it (a turd? you decide!) and a note which asks for an apology for the yellow-hat wearer’s douchery. Origin of the douchery not important–the recipient likely is inhuman and lacks feelings, so it doesn’t matter at all whether it makes sense or hurts them in any way. They almost certainly love being publicly insulted by people, like most of us do.

Then film (or have a friend film, that’s okay too, still ballsy) the whole thing from between some other con-goers’ shoulders. Like a stud.

UPDATE 2 pm EDT: Well, this has really taken on a life of its own — check out the Twitter hashtag #douchebaginayellowhat. The term “yellow hat,’ as yuo can read in The Beat’s comments, is now a code word for a kind of obnoxious fan.

Also every blog out there has lit up with comments on it. Our favorite, however is this from Jordyn Marcellus, who analyzes the incident in terms of the work of Prof. Henry Jenkins, who has made extensive study of the psychology of fandom:

In Poachers, Jenkins refers to a paper by John Tulloch about Dr. Who fans. In short, he argues these fans (and what I want to generalize to all “fans”) is that they are a “powerless elite” who find themselves with an inability to affect their decisions on the production of their fannish interest, despite their relative mastery over it. Jenkins says this kind of knowledge is comparable to, or better than, an academic’s knowledge of their particular academic area of interest.  (In short: a Harry Potter obsessive may know more relative knowledge and are better able to analyze the subject of Harry Potter than an academic who studies pornography or film. I’m not sure if I agree with that, but I want to continue with it because it’ll be important quickly).

It’s this sense of elitism that has led some (not many) fans to condone the Yellow Hat actions.

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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Steven Grant looks at the crazy goings on of the past week, specifically the “Dan DiDio is getting the Willie Randolph treatment!” rumor and how it becomes morphed into fanthink:

Fanthink is an interesting beast. It starts with the premise, which perhaps not coincidentally is what the DC comics universe has been based on for the last 20-some odd years, that reality is whatever you want it to be. Which is perfectly fine for a fictional world controlled from on high where any unpleasant complications can be explained away, rebooted or ignored as desired, as long as you’re aware that anything done will have fans unwilling to accept your explanations, reboots or willful ignorance. In the real world? Mmmmm… doesn’t work so well at all, like when you invade a country while figuring all you’ll have to do in the aftermath is dropping a malleable new government into place and sweeping up the flowers its grateful citizens strew in your armies’ path. Nonetheless, it has become a popular game among Internet comics fans especially to decide on the outcome they’d prefer to see, act as though it’s already reality, and extrapolate their arguments backwards.

Steven nails a very important part of today’s internet culture, and one that’s very difficult to deal with for a site like this. For instance, there are a couple of assumptions Steven makes in his column that I could refine based on well-sourced information that I have heard. But is it worth it? Every time bits of actual inside information are posted on the web, the fans go ape-shit spinning-off all sorts of totally bogus claims and reverberations about that information.

So is it even worth it? Usually not.

Fanthink is bad enough with popular movies and TV shows, But in the comics industry where everyone knows everyone else, it’s downright deadly.

Nerd on nerd alignment charts at Mighty God King. [Via Laura Hudson]

[While we STILL try to get our shit together to post the last of our MoCCA photos and our Licensing show photos, we keep you amused with this report on another event last week. Above, the author and Malcolm MacDowell]

By Steve Bunche

I don’t know about you, but even though I’m a dyed-in-the-wool geek there are times when I dread the siren call of the comics/toy/art/sci-fi convention. Nonetheless I always attend (when it’s affordable) and more often than not I find myself aggravated by the crowds, the poor layout of the floor that doesn’t allow said crowds to move, and the promoter’s naked desire to make a buck at all costs, not giving a rat’s ass about the experience that the fans are shelling out their hard-earned cash for. Sadly, that’s been more or less par for the course with New York City cons, and having been a regular NYC con-goer since 1975 I think I’m entitled to grouse.

The sole exception to this sorry state of affairs is the Big Apple Convention, a regularly scheduled event held at Manhattan’s Penn Plaza Pavilion during the end of spring and the end of the fall, respectively, and even bears the endorsement of Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The Big Apple Con is the epitome of how a homegrown convention should be handled, providing the eager fan with just about collector’s item back issue, toy, t-shirt, or DVD they could want within easy reach, to say nothing of the opportunity to meet and greet with celebrities ranging from iconic A-listers to obscure pop culture personalities, all to be had for a shockingly affordable entrance fee.

This season’s con fell on the 7th and 8th of June, unfortunately the first sweltering days of a brutal heat wave, but the fans showed up despite the heat and entered an engaging nexus between their fantasies and the mundane reality of the New York weekend. The show’s first floor housed the admissions area - tickets could also be obtained online at www.bigapplecon.com - and a few tables offering movie memorabilia and assorted books, as well as the signing table and photo-op section for some of the celebs, chief among whom were A-listers Richard Dreyfuss (Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind) and my favorite actor of all time, Malcom freakin’ McDowell (A Clockwork Orange, Caligula, Heroes). If I may gush like the unrepentant fanboy that I am, I never thought I’d get to meet McDowell, much less chat with the guy and get my picture taken with him - by the excellent Froggy, who can be reached at froggy@froggysphotos.com - so I found myself bursting with geekish delight for the whole weekend.

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A reader by the name of Laura Hale writes to tell us of Fan History, a new website given to a wiki of the histories of various fandoms. There’s a Comics history page and Laura would love it if readers could contribute. Now this could be interesting, especially since highly anal fandoms often have highly detailed feuds over what happened and when. Keep watching that site!

Studio chieftain Harvey Weinstein struck a devious blow to the dreams of fanboys everywhere when he decreed that cuts must be made to FANBOYS, a long awaited films about some, er, fans who sneak onto the Skywalker Ranch for a sneak peek at PHANTOM MENACE. One of them has cancer, making the beak-in a matter of great urgency. This film has been in the can for two years, and with the involvement of such now-well known players as Seth Rogen and Kristen Bell and delighted screenings at Comic-Con you’d think all would be well, right? Not so fast, says the Hollywood Reporter. The movie has lain frozen in carbonite while Weinstein demanded a recut:

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Two takes on mixed marriages:
This St. Louis Today columnist grows excited when he sees his wife reading a comic:

I’ve never known Colette to have any interest in comics. She rolls her eyes at the thought of her almost-40 husband repeatedly asking for video games and comic books for his birthday. But there she was, on the Marvel web site.

“Whatcha doin?” I asked.

“I read on Laurell K. Hamilton’s web site that she’s putting out a graphic novel,” she said. “It said this comic-book company was publishing it. I’m trying to see if it’s out yet.”

Meanwhile a comic book wife writes touchingly of her husband’s lifetime of collecting on the occasion of his donating his collection to a school.

Sometimes I’d watch him in our New Haven apartment, one leg thrown over a metal arm in the blue canvas butterfly chair, reading his comics. What was going on in that head when he read this stuff? Did he identify with Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Spider-Man? Or was it the adventure that held his rapt attention for hours? Good over evil? I still don’t know.