Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, philadelphia, wizard world

Philadephia – Wizard World Or Cheese Steak, Which Is Better?

Jesse James writes for Bleeding Cool all over the world…

This past weekend I attended Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Con.  It was a long con for me and I spent a big portion of the con enjoying the Philly life more than as Comic Fanboy.  I thought maybe after 4 days after the con ended that I would have a better story to write about the con.  However, being a true cultured comic book fan I found it a very rough con.  I can go back almost 30 years, (1982, 12 years old at San Diego Con) of attending cons and have always found the good in the con and tucked the bad parts under the long box. Now don't get me the wrong the con was GREAT if you were more of a media or movie star fanatic.

Now here is the deal.  I'm not a fan of wrist bands.  Just not.  I like the feel of the badge on my chest saying "This is who I'm".  I don't like having to wear it the whole day and night. So now to the actual convention hall.  When you walked in, you came in from the side of the con, not the front.  Doesn't sound that bad? Well I like the bang up, Oh my Lord what direction do I go, there's so much cool stuff in front of me attitude.  When you come in from the side you just don't get that feel at all. Publishers were very slim with only Avatar and Zenescope being the majors. Yes I pimp out those two company's everyday of the week at the store.  But come on two major publishers?  Did I miss a part of the building where the rest were?

Okay on the plus every major Golden and Silver Age seller was at this con.  So being a Golden age Fanboy I did enjoy that portion of the con.  However, there were so many I started to get confused on who had what and at what price.  Its very rare to see such a range of Vintage tables and next year if I go I will have to plan each vendor's stop accordingly.

Now, here's were I thought the con could do ten times better.  Don't divide the comic book world in half.  It breaks the flow and for a couple of minutes I felt lost.   The con put their Wrestlers right in the middle of the aisles. This also included media guest and their Star Trek Captains area.  As you fought through that area, which is a majority no photo's zone, you get to the other side. There you see the rest of the vendors and finally make it to artist alley.

Artist Alley wasn't your traditional well designed area.  It was almost as if they just placed anybody anywhere.  No theme or genre area.  They did have Greg Capullo,Greg Horn and Stuart Sayger.  I did get to talk to Dan Parent of Archie meets Kiss for about 10 minutes.  So that was a treat for me.  I took my traditional picture with The Capullo's and talked to Horn and Sayger for a while.  Now, another note to the con in your programming guide, you should try to put the artist in alphabetical order by their last name not their first name.  Just a thought.  In no way does this take away from all the cool artist that were there either starting out or slinging their new book.  Just not enough name creators to keep you in the area.

Now, it just seemed that I cant remember if they had a food area or not.  That however isn't the cons problem because of all the culture and cool food outside its doors.  I spent so much time just watching people in lines just to get a Philly Cheese steak.   I ended up eating a signature sandwich from Hard rock Cafe that was off the hook.  Oh, got off track back to the con.  That's how easy it was to just start doing something else instead on being focused at the convention.  It just didn't have the regular, if I leave I'm going to miss something, atmosphere.  Even when Stan Lee was signing it just wasn't what I was used to seeing.  Their wasn't that frenzy that surrounds the Big guy at any other con.

So I'll make the rest of this story shorter then my normal after con report.  Just because I didn't like the con doesn't mean anything to the people that enjoyed it.  It doesn't take away from the teams that did the hard work all year to make the con happen.  It might be that I'm just a expecting every con I attend to be better.  This is my 10th convention so far this year. Maybe I just got lucky that all of the other cons had what I liked.

Or just maybe Wizard World Philadephia Comicon has evolved into what it is now a media powerhouse con and I'm still that boy in 1982 at San Diego Con just not wanting to let go.

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