Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, dan didio, morrisoncon

Dan DiDio Fades Into The Furniture At MorrisonCon

Shawn Demumbrum writes from Bleeding Cool;

Last night, I started to write "MorrisonCon is rock n' roll (not the pedestrian rock and roll).  It's as Ralphie from The Christmas Story says 'The soft light of electric sex'.

After spending half a day at the convention and being asked to describe what it was to my curious creator friends at Las Vegas Comic Expo, I've come to a different conclusion. MorrisonCon is like Jazz. It has structure, but it flows in and out of improvisation. They have a panel schedule, but if you walk into the hallway you can get sketches from Frank Quietly or talk to Robert Kirkman for more than a San Diego overstayed 30 seconds.

It's a convention where Dan Didio fades into the furniture instead of shining in the spotlight.

You can pop into the MorrisonCon Theater and watch the cinematic equivalent of Grant Morrison's visual Itunes playlist. In the art gallery, you can see artwork that isn't for sale because they need to scan it to send to DC for an upcoming issue.

All of this is happening at the same time..

At Las Vegas Comic Expo, I talked to a fan who said he was staying at the Hard Rock.  "Are you going to MorrisonCon?" a creator asked.  "No, I couldn't afford that.  I thought I would pop in to see what it was about."  Last night he had stopped by Body English to see what the buzz was about. He was told by staff that they were only allowing badged attendees in, but….if he stopped by after 9pm he could get in.  Off to the poker tables and back an hour later, there was no one at the door and with the cost of a $12 Long Island Ice Tea he got to view the Grant Morrison/Gerard Way spoken word performance that was part of the MorrisonCon program.  After reflecting on his revealation, a printed plastic ID card handing from a lanyard probably would pass for the con badges if they checked ids at all.  There are only about a dozen staff and once you are in you would probably blend into the panels.

Night Two, there were two security at the door to go down to the club and they were definitely checking for badges.

After the Writer's Panel at MorrisonCon, Robert Kirkman was hanging out in the hallway talking to fans. I took the opportunity to introduce him to Robert the Laptop. You see right before the Amazing Arizona Comicon in January last year, I dug up my copies of Walking Dead #1-10 that I had bought off the shelf at Samurai Comics back when they came out years ago. They had sat in my short boxes untouched. I had Robert sign them and had the CGC Signature Series Graded and decided to sell them while the Walking Dead bubble was inflated. The books netted enough to purchase a brand new Apple MacBook Pro 15" with the retina display. I told him that story in the hallway and Robert was gracious enough to take a picture with Robert the Laptop. He said that he is always happy when fans are able to do that. He also related that his stash of Walking Dead #1 is down to 15 copies from the 400 copies he got as comps back in 2003. Many of those Walking Dead #1 issues sold for cover at comic conventions.

When asked if he had anything to say to Bleeding Cool, he said "I love Bleeding Cool" and the secret to a successfully MorrisonCon is "staying away from the slots".

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