Big Apple Comic Con Sunday Before The Doors Open

By rights I should be asleep right now. Left the Wizard World party at Pier 92 last night where Jim Lee was holding court to meet up with Heidi Macdonald, Ben Mcool, the Avatar Mcrew, and associated Mcne’erdowells in an Irish Sports Bar on 9th in a bit of a daze. Plans were hatched, experiences exchanged and I realised something just hadn’t put into words this weekend but had been circling me.

I love comic cons. The shows, the panels, the booths, the people, the costumes, everything. rom the largest of San Diego to the smallest of Caption. And Big Apple Comic Con is no exception. It’s just all great. Even the imperfections are fun and add to the rich tapestry of con experience. Some get tired, bored and drained by them, but twenty-two years after my first London con, I still think they’re tip top, whatever the comics/media mix, whatever the carpet/drinks/air conditioning situation, whatever the inevitable hotel key loss/passport loss/all my underwear loss event.

It also helps that I’m not the one carrying boxes.

And this morning I had breakfast with Buck Rogers. Not often you get to say that.

There’s been a lot of controversy around the clashing dates for the next Wizard World Big Apple Comic Con and the New York Comic Con with Wizard being labelled as the anti-christ by some for their decision to take the same date in October as the NYCC, a few blocks down the road. Well, as a paid shill for Wizard this weekend, I thought it might be worth presenting the case for the defence. Wizard World wanted an October date because they believe it’s the best month for such a show – which is why this year’s show is happening now. They initially went for the weekend before NYCC but were bumped due to a bicycle race. Wizard know the comic publishers and comic creators will go to NYCC over Big Apple, although hope some may do both. They know that people have already committed to the NYCC. But they regard “Comic Con” as no longer defined as being principally, or indeed at all, to do with comics, something that coverage of the shows seems to back up these days. They’ll be running a pop media show, so we’ll get wrestlers, sci-fi show actors, musicians, traders and a batch of star guests – and what they lose in comics, they’ll make up in prosthetic aliens. With the NYCC combining with the Anime show taking over the whole of the Javitz, you may get two very different shows on the same street with less crossover that you’d initially expect.

Me, I still think there will be enough crossover and disappointment for fans, but this probably isn’t the industry-destroying clash that some predict, and isn’t another Heroes World Fathers Day debacle, a con date clash with Wizard World Philadephia clash in 2007 that I know Wizard World regret and have apologised for. They’re banking on New York being a big place. They may have a point.

Here’s a quick look at the publisher/guest part of the show floor before the doors open and people actually set up. And watch me at the end out of breath as I try to speak and fail. I reckon it was down to Buck Roger’s laser gun or something. And not that I’m an unfit fuck.

It won’t be like this for long. And at least there won’t be too much wet carpet when the doors open.

And before I go, here’s a list of the guests for the Wizard Anaheim Show they’ve got going on next April, for which tickets have just been released. Breathe in…

Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev, Warren EllisEliza Dushku, Bernie Wrightson, Tim Bradstreet, Steve Niles, Charlie Huston, Phil Jimenez, Simon Bisley, Glenn Fabry, Tom Jane, Ted Raimi, Mick Foley, Adam West, Burt Ward, Julie Newmar, William Shatner, Walter Koenig, Kate Mulgrew, Michael Dorn, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Christian Serratos, Catherine Bach, John Schneider, Ernie Hudson, Taylor Dayne, Brande Roderick, Jake Busey, Lori Petty, Lucianna Carro, Mick Foley, Bruce Boxleitner, Kevin Sorbo, Levar Burton, Robert Picardo, John de Lancie, Scott Bakula, Genie Francis, Melissa Gilbert, John Noble, Lorenzo Lamas, Rob Van Dam, Lita, Lindsay Wagner, Heidi Klum, Garrett Wang, Daniell Logan, Traci Scoggins, Lofton, Christopher Knight, Adrianne Curry… (breathes out, panting) on April 16-18, 2010 at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Okay, the doors are about to open. Unleash the soggy footprints…

Photo by Peter Ha.

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