Comic Con Talk (Renamed since LA Comic Con can't get it together) (1 Viewer)

[bonnjer]

Man, Dragon Con was absolutely insane. It's an organized mess. An event that should be in a huge convention center is spread out to several hotels and some conference rooms in the same vicinity. People line up in the street just to line up to get into a building. There really is no way to see everything unless you commit to stay all day, multiple days.

I was able to meet some classic creators (Marv Wolfman, JM DeMatteis, Peter David, and a few others). The good thing is that they were all in the same building on the same floor. I met Yannick Paquette (artist on Batman, Inc. and Wonder Woman, Earth 2). Asked him to signed my hardcover. I ended up getting a quick head sketch on the inside cover for free.

I am one and done with that event.

Wow, that sounds like a huge clusterfork. Why do they have it set up like that?

 

[Sun Wukong]

Man, Dragon Con was absolutely insane. It's an organized mess. An event that should be in a huge convention center is spread out to several hotels and some conference rooms in the same vicinity. People line up in the street just to line up to get into a building. There really is no way to see everything unless you commit to stay all day, multiple days.

I was able to meet some classic creators (Marv Wolfman, JM DeMatteis, Peter David, and a few others). The good thing is that they were all in the same building on the same floor. I met Yannick Paquette (artist on Batman, Inc. and Wonder Woman, Earth 2). Asked him to signed my hardcover. I ended up getting a quick head sketch on the inside cover for free.

I am one and done with that event.

That is an awesome group of creators to meet for sure. But what you're saying about Dragon Con echoes what friends and acquaintances have told me about it over the years. And I just find it inexcusable that arguably the largest non "coastal" con (meaning not San Diego or NYCC) that has run for over 30 years seems to operate as such a cluster fork. As much as I'd love to do it, it always sounds like barely controlled chaos and I just cant being myself to do it.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

Wow, that sounds like a huge clusterfork. Why do they have it set up like that?

Absolutely no clue. No reason they couldn't have put that thing in the GWCC since they boast about how large it is.

But what you're saying about Dragon Con echoes what friends and acquaintances have told me about it over the years. And I just find it inexcusable that arguably the largest non "coastal" con (meaning not San Diego or NYCC) that has run for over 30 years seems to operate as such a cluster fork. As much as I'd love to do it, it always sounds like barely controlled chaos and I just cant being myself to do it.

Totally agree. Several cops were too busy taking pictures of cosplay to assist in controlling foot traffic.

One con worker actually told a group:

"If you're on that side of the white line, you're waiting to get into building 2 for artist alley and vendor shopping. If you're on the other side of that line, you're looking for gaming, but only if you're not buying because you should be in that line for shopping. If you're on the side of this line, you're on the bus route. It will hit you and we're not liable. Now decide where you want to be."



Huge. Clusterfork.

 

[bonnjer]

Absolutely no clue. No reason they couldn't have put that thing in the GWCC since they boast about how large it is.



Totally agree. Several cops were too busy taking pictures of cosplay to assist in controlling foot traffic.

One con worker actually told a group:

"If you're on that side of the white line, you're waiting to get into building 2 for artist alley and vendor shopping. If you're on the other side of that line, you're looking for gaming, but only if you're not buying because you should be in that line for shopping. If you're on the side of this line, you're on the bus route. It will hit you and we're not liable. Now decide where you want to be."



Huge. Clusterfork.

Wow. That is bananas. How has this con survived?

 

[GrandAdmiral]

Wow. That is bananas. How has this con survived?

It's Atlanta...

 

[bonnjer]

It's Atlanta...

Oh, well.....you could have saved a lot of time by leading off with that. I would have instantly realized the nature of the ineptitude we're dealing with.

 

[Sun Wukong]

Wow. That is bananas. How has this con survived?

In some ways Dragon Con is the granddaddy of the generalist/multi-genre con as we know it today. Back when it started in the 80's, cons were still pretty specific to their niche. So a Comic Con was literally that, a convention about comic books. A sci-fi convention would just be sci-fi, etc. Dragon Con was different in that it had a bit of everything, and was able to kind of set itself apart in serving many different genres and flavors of fandom. So most cons you go to today are kind of following a model Dragon Con helped establish.

I will say though, Dragon Con's attendance has only really exploded in the last decade (before 2010, they were doing like 20-30k a year) and the crazy attendances of 70-80k have only really been in the last five years or so. So in their defense, they are still kind of new at running those huge crowds. As the con industry has exploded, so too have their crowds along with it.

 

[Sun Wukong]

New Day has been added back to Big Easy Con, this time with Kofi attending as well. They've done a good job of getting back their initial guest lineup as well as adding some great new ones.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

New Day has been added back to Big Easy Con, this time with Kofi attending as well. They've done a good job of getting back their initial guest lineup as well as adding some great new ones.

Yep. Was going to post this earlier but I've been busy in the office. I know in the interview I posted earlier, the promoter said that with the exception of Robert Englund, they were making good progress in the originally announced guests back for November. That's been quite true.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

New Day has been added back to Big Easy Con, this time with Kofi attending as well. They've done a good job of getting back their initial guest lineup as well as adding some great new ones.

I just went and looked at the full list again. This is a pretty awesome lineup, definitely more than what was offered for the June show. Plus, we still have at least a month for other announcements to be made. I'm going to be flying in from a conference that Friday and will liekly be heading straight to the convention center to take part of things.

GUESTS

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[GrandAdmiral]

So is anyone doing Mighty Con in Kenner this weekend?

 

[GrandAdmiral]

Jonathan Frakes is there first cancellation of BEC's November show.

 

[Doug B]

So is anyone doing Mighty Con in Kenner this weekend?

My wife wants to. Seems like it's mostly a merch room plus several booths with comics-shop wares?

 

[GrandAdmiral]

My wife wants to. Seems like it's mostly a merch room plus several booths with comics-shop wares?

Yeah. They have a few speakers, but they're almost exclusively comics-related. Vendors after typically comic book shops, although the have the usual artists, toy sellers, etc.

 

[bonnjer]

Jonathan Frakes is there first cancellation of BEC's November show.

That's a disappointing loss. I sure hope, for the sake of this con, that they can hold it together. After the debacle of the last minute con date, they wouldn't be able to survive.