2. I made my feelings on the lack of comics publishers known in the last post. There’s no Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Image, Boom!, IDW…no one. The biggest publishers here are Zenescope and Avatar.

3. There are a LOT of heavy people here. Wow. A bariatric surgeon could make a killing here. (Note- I’m also fat.)

4. Booth babes are back! At least one “artist” in Artist Alley has scantily clad women in an effort to hawk wares (I have no idea what for). And the Suicide Girls are here.

5. Big front-and-center booth? It’s for a phone.

6. LOTS of costumes here. All varied, too. Everyone’s getting into the game.

7. Lots of women here, too. Most varied crowd I’ve seen, and a lot of families, too.

8. Much bigger crowd than yesterday. Long lines for the advance sales, near-empty lines for one-day sales. Lots of anger over the wait for those in the advance lines crowd.

9. Wizard’s business strategy is now readily apparent. “Here’s some B-level sci-fi celebs from TV from 20 years ago. Here’s some wrestlers. Over there is an artist’s alley. We put some tables in the back. Have fun. Walk around. Eat some overpriced pizza. That’s all you’re getting. Now pay up.” But it’s working for them, at least today. You’ll get to see Stormtroopers and Jedi and nubile babes and t-shirts and action figures and wrestlers.

Will you get to see the best of what’s in comics now? No. Not even close. But a big portion of this crowd doesn’t seem to care. They’re happy as is.

Maybe Wizard’s smarter than we thought. We’ll see.

I’d like to tell you I’m looking forward to it. But I’m not sure I’d be lying.

I remember the first Wizard World convention very well. It was a happening, a big comics convention in a region starved by years without big cons. Philly is a big comics town, but after the bust of the comics market in the mid-90s, there were hardly any comics conventions anywhere other than San Diego and Chicago. That first year, Marvel and DC showed up. Marvel didn’t have much of a booth presence, but all the big names from Marvel were there. I met Bill Jemas there, and he was explaining to his staff the intricacies of some Marvel collectible card game. He was so excited over this that I could see why there was so much buzz over what was then known as NuMarvel.

There was a ton of energy at that show. Lots of young, hungry creators going to the Wizard World classes and trying to break out. Artist Alley was packed. There were a lot of dealers and comic publishers. The show was a huge hit, and I believe the success of that show was one of the early indicators of the big comics boom of the last decade. Had that show flopped, maybe we never would have gotten the now-titanic New York Comic Con and all of the other cons that seem to run every week during the summer.

But Wizard World hasn’t continued to have the same type of success over the past decade. Its flagship publication, Wizard, has suffered a big dropoff in circulation (in fact, last month, it fell behind sister publication Toyfare in sales). The convention side of the business has made some dumb moves, trying to buy up as many other conventions as it can while not focusing on the core successes of the existing conventions. In particular, its handling of the Philly con has been nothing short of disastrous.

A few years ago, Wizard World tried to muscle out a competing convention, Charlotte’s Heroes Con, by running Philly on the same weekend. WW figured that most of the comics community would attend the Philly show, but the exact opposite happened. Heroes Con has long maintained an excellent reputation with comics creators and publishers, and most of them chose to stay loyal to Heroes Con while abandoning Philly. Last year, most of the big names chose to appear at Charlotte instead of Philadelphia. It seemed that only talent local to PA, NY, and NJ stayed at Philly, while the rest of the comics universe went to Charlotte.

Even though Philly now runs the weekend after Charlotte, the damage seems to have been done. For the first time in show history, there is no official Marvel or DC presence at Philly. In fact, the biggest comics company exhibiting at Philly might be the comics retailer Mile High Comics. The biggest publisher might be the relatively small Avatar Press (although they publish book by big-name writers Warren Ellis and Garth Ennis). The panel programming reflects this change; instead of big displays by comics publishers, the panels are now largely interviews with B-level sci-fi TV stars. I have nothing against actors like Bruce Campbell and Patrick Stewart, but when they are the biggest stars at a comics show, you have to wonder if the show has lost its aim. There are a few comics-focused panels, with well-known artists such as J. G. Jones and Ethan Van Sciver giving instructional talks, but these were always a smaller part of the comics programming. Now, they make up just about all of the comics programming.

Last year, there were many whispers on the con floor that attendance was down, and that Philly might not even have a show this year. Well, there will be a Philly show, but it really won’t be a comics show, not like it was in years past. It’s a shame, because Philly really is a great comics town. I’m hoping that this is a great show, and that we won’t see a repeat of the comic con drought of the 90s. But if this is the sort of show we’re going to get, I worry that the situation will only get worse.

Cue tasteless laugh track.

Today, the replacement set came. But while processing the mail, I tripped and fell. My head ended up in the aluminum can recycling error, I did something painful to my big toe, and I wrenched my neck.

Truly, you don’t tug on Superman’s cape. Christopher, I’m sorry! I apologize!

Also, I want to thank Heidi McDonald of The Beat for the linkage to my first day report. Nothing brightens your day more than having your favorite comics journalist take note of what you wrote. I had a smile on my face all day Sunday.

Our adventure started with a drive in our snazzy rental car down I-95 to Baltimore. Unfortunately, modern technology let us down, as our GPS (fuck you, Tom Tom) decided that we needed a tour of non-Inner Harbor Baltimore. Our GPS was sadistic; at one point, the directions just read “Turn left at HA HA HA YOU DUMB FUCKERS.” I’m not saying we were lost, but at one point, we saw Omar.

I’ve been to two conventions this year- this and Wizard World Philly. There’s no doubt that this was the better convention. WW Philly has gone from a great show to a terrible one over the years, a victim of the declining Wizard company. There’s only so many people you can lay off at a company before rot sets in, and WW Philly this year was a show that was hollow at its core. Most of the comics industry’s A-List decided to go to Charlotte’s Heroes con instead of Philly, so the only people left were those that lived in the Northeast that just couldn’t get to Charlotte for one reason or another. (Next year, Philly’s not the same weekend as Charlotte. Hopefully, this will result in a better Philly convention. If not, the show just can’t survive. And that’s a shame; Philly’s a great comics town.)

Baltimore is just a great comics show. There’s no “pop culture” aspect of the show; there’s no room. No video games. No “wrestler’s row” to fill the appearance schedule. (Jerry Lawler was scheduled to appear, but his Memphis mayoral campaign got in the way. But Lawler is a legit comics professional, so he doesn’t count.) There’s no gaming tables. It’s a packed show, just wall-to-wall comics. It’s a little overwhelming at times; Glenn and I nearly got lost more than once trying to navigate the showroom floor. But how can you complain about too much comics?

The dealers at the Baltimore show are a grade above Philly, to be sure. Glenn and I saw tons of dealers with Golden and Silver Age comics. One table, Tomorrow’s Treasures, had a table with unbagged Bronze Age books for $3. Imagine a dealer selling an unbagged Starlin Warlock, or Gold Key comic, for $3. Heck, that dealer had some amazing oddball comics on his table; I saw a Barry Goldwater comic next to a Gabby Hayes book! If there’s a drawback, it’s the lack of bargains at the show. At Philly, you could always find something at a rock-bottom price. But price is a function of demand, and there’s higher demand for comics at Baltimore.

There’s no DC and Marvel booths at the show, but there’s plenty of talent from the two companies at the show. Image had a huge booth to promote Image United, and Boom Studios also had a nice booth to promote their books (including The Muppet Show and Irredeemable, two books that I personally adore.) There were a ton of webcomic artists, including Scott Kurtz of PvP and Danielle Corsetto of Girls With Slingshots. There was also a lot of great comics talent that I got to talk to. JM DeMatteis, who has probably written at least 10% of my favorite comics of all time, was a wonderful gentleman to talk to. (Note to DC: please put Brooklyn Dreams back in print. It’s one of the most meaningful books I’ve ever read, and it breaks my heart that it’s out of print.)

Part of the fun of going to conventions is people-watching. There were lots of people in costumes, including a young lady in a slave Leia costume that may not have been legal in Baltimore County. (Are you really allowed to walk the convention floor bare-assed these days?) Also, if you have a great Madrox the Multiple Man costume, but there’s only one of you, is that a great costume or a terrible costume? The best costume I saw was the Thor at the Marvel panel, terrycloth cape aside. If you can carry around a 42-pound Mjolnir hammer, you win best costume.

The only real problem with the convention was the terrible acoustics and sound system at the panels. Due to a last minute scheduling snafu, the convention center rooms were unavailable, so at the last minute, two makeshift rooms were built on the convention floor. The lousy sound system and noise from the floor made it hard to hear the speakers at the panels. That’s truly a shame, because the speakers we saw really were a joy to listen to. George Perez regaled a packed house with tales of his lengthy career in comics. The 70s panel with Walt Simonson, Len Wein, Chris Claremont, Steve Englehart, and Bernie Wrightson reminded us of a time when comics artists built a community in New York City without Facebook or Twitter. And the Mondo Marvel panel…well, I called Chris Claremont bald to his face and lived to tell the tale. (It was all in jest. I love Claremont; without him and my college friend Jim, I never would have gotten back into comics.) I even got to chat with Jeff Parker, writer of Agents of Atlas and one of the true gentlemen of comics. He’s also a comics historian, and I could have spent hours talking with him about his Alex Toth book.

This has been a great show so far, and I can’t wait for round two tomorrow. The Baltimore Comic-Con organizers should be proud of what they’ve done, and I hope Sunday goes as well as today did. And I’m off to bed!

Spoiler-free thoughts:

1. Goddamn, that was good.

2. GodDAMN, that was good. A really fun movie, with a ton of cool stuff to make up for whatever slow points existed. My buddy Glenn will probably find something to pick on, because he’s a better movie critic than I’ll ever be, so go look to him for that sort of thing. But I was damn happy for my $10.

3. Seriously, when did movies in Central Jersey go to $10?

4. So that’s where Stephen Platt got to! (He’s a storyboard artist for the movie.) I remember those few weeks when Platt was the next superhot comics artist back in the mid-90s when all it took to get that designation was the backing of Wizard and the ability to spill ink on the page. Good times.

5. There was an “Adam Austin” listed in the credits. At one point in the sixties, legendary comics artist Gene Colan worked for Marvel under that name. And what did he draw?

Well yeah, Daredevil and Tomb of Dracula. But also, Iron Man! Neat.

6. Nice to see the Jack Kirby credit at the end. Wonder if that makes up for the fact that Marvel doesn’t pay the Kirby estate any royalties on the reprints of the comics that led up to all of that stuff, including the new $100 Iron Man Omnibus? (Yeah, I didn’t think so either.)

7. Stay past the credits. TRUST ME.

8. Wonder how much it bothered Joe Quesada, Marvel Editor-In-Chief, to see a primary villain in the movie smoking a cigarette in a prominent scene? Quesada has banned depictions of all Marvel characters smoking cigars or cigarettes in the comics because of the death of his dad and grandfather, among others, from smoking-related illnesses. I’m sure we’ll hear from him on that at some point.

Edit: Huh. I screwed up the image link. It’s now fixed.

Thanks to the good people at Collected Editions, I will be attending SPLAT!, a graphic novel symposium in NYC this Saturday. This event is sponsored by the New York Center for Independent Publishing, and panelists include Understanding Comics‘s Scott McCloud, DMZ‘s Brian Wood, I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets‘s Paul Karasik, and many more luminaries in comics.

I’ll be reporting on the event both here and at Collected Editions.

Congratulations to Joe Quesada, Marvel’s Editor-In-Chief. The mayor of Orange County declared March 8, 2008, as Joe Quesada Day, recognizing his accomplishments in comics.

We can argue about the individual stories that Marvel’s put out over the years, but Quesada has been the most open high-ranking comics exec over the last decade. And I’ve found out first-hand that he’s a genuinely nice guy. Last year, when I was suffering with my hip problem, I commented about it on a Newsarama thread. I received a personal message from Quesada wishing me well. It was a bright spot during a lousy day.

Congratulations to a classy guy!

While Marvel and DC were there and in force, very few other “name” publishers were there. The publisher with the next biggest presence was Aspen, Michael Turner’s company. Image was only represented by the Top Cow division. No Dark Horse, no major book publishers with graphic novel division, no major webcomic artists, and absolutely, positively, no manga whatsoever.  This was the Marvel/DC show; the panels were mostly presentations of what’s coming up with Marvel and DC, with only the Steranko/Infantino panel being a notable standout on Saturday.

This was disappointing, especially compared to my experience at last year’s New York City Comic-Con. New York’s about hip comics- manga, webcomics, graphic novels outside of the superhero genre. The show’s inclusive and sprawling, and while the show last year was legendarily overcrowded, it succeeded because of the wide range of events and exhibitors available. You could come out with art from Colleen Doran, an autograph from Gene Colan, a bumper sticker from the Goats crew, some Previews from the major publisher’s GN branches, and a few manga books. Philly, in contrast, was all about geek genres. If you’re not into superheroes or Star Wars,  you were not going to have a good time at Philly.

The retailers at Philly seemed to offer the same product- overstocked action figures, overstocked comic books, and lots of statues and busts of your favorite superheroes. No retailer offered any significant amount of manga. There were at least two tables of bootleg movies, surprising given the raids that happened at other cons last year. Glenn and I remarked that the whole setup felt like a weekend flea market or yard sale, where everyone gets together and hopes to get rid of their own junk while somehow finding a rare first edition manuscript in someone else’s pile of used romance novels.

Mind you, this wasn’t all bad.  Glenn and I both found cheap toys for our bookshelves, and I did find a vendor selling the Order of the Stick books at a nice price. And if I had more time, I would have taken Rodney Ramos up on his unique offer. He had a prepared art page with Transmetropolitan’s Spider Jerusalem holding a brain jar. Ramos would draw your head onto the page, and Spider would proclaim that your head was being used for cat food. (Rodney, if you’re out there, I tried to get back to your table, but just didn’t make it. If you’re out there, drop me a line- I’d be happy to take you up on your offer!)

There were some fantastic people at the con. I met Marv Wolfman, author of my favorite comic of all time, Fantastic Four #200. (Yes, Glenn, I owe you a column as to why this is my favorite book.) We talked about how terrible it was that Keith Pollard, the penciller on the book, isn’t working in comics anymore. And he shared a neat aspect of the story that I’ll divulge when I get to the FF 200 column, I promise.

More tomorrow.