Posted in: Comics | Tagged: comic conventions, Comics

A Comic Store In Your Future: A Trip to Planet Comicon

After a long time, comic conventions are back. With Covid protections lowered, people are feeling the need to get back to a more normal life. Last month, I traveled to Kansas City to check out the Planet Comicon convention. It was a blast. The only headache was finding parking. Everything else went pretty smoothly. Checking in and getting the tickets was fast and easy.  It was crowded, though not enough to make checking out or buying things overly long.  What all did I buy while there? I did get a The Boys trade autographed by Garth Ennis. Cost me $30 for both the trade and autograph, not a bad deal, and it was quick. Bought some All-Star Squadron,80s Amazing Spider-Man, Astonishing Tales Featuring Deathlok, 70s Aquaman, 80s Avengers, silver-age Blackhawk, DC Comics Presents, and a silver-age Doom Patrol. Each comic only cost me $5 each other than the Doom Patrol #118 that I spent $15 on. All very good deals in my mind.

I bought a variant cover of Venom 200 for $10 from the Heroes Initiative booth. Figured it was the least I could do. T-Shirts were popular; I bought a Shazam T-shirt and a Transformers Prowl T-Shirt. Comics at comic conventions at times have been a rarity. I have been to a few in the past where hardly any comics were on hand,m but Planet Comicon had plenty of comic vendors.

I learned something on the trip. I stopped by a Kansas City comic store before going to the convention. I could not see prices on the behind-the-counter more-expensive comics.  I did ask the price on a few of them, and then I just gave up because there were so many, and I did not want to waste his time. At the convention, the same thing happens. I then realize at my store, I am doing the same thing to my customers. The comics on the wall we price with a regular prize gun. I need to figure out how to make the prices more easily readable—time for me to check out bigger stickers to print prices on.

Nowadays, there cannot be a comic convention without cosplay. The cosplay was quite impressive. I was lucky to get a few pictures with some willing people.

While I was there, which comic pro had the longest line? Skottie Young with ease. He was signing, and the first five items were free. I screwed up. I read about that before coming down for the convention and forgot to bring some of his variant covers with me. He appeared to be having a good time.

This went better than I expected; I had more fun than I thought I would.  It was a great experience; it had been so long for me that I had forgotten how much fun comic conventions can be.

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