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Having heard all sorts of things regarding Chicago
Wizard, I was a little leery about attending this con,
but man, am I glad I did. It was a delightful con:
laid back, with most of the guests easily accessible.
It wasn't a large convention, in terms of Comic Con
International, but it's the largest comic con Texas
has seen for awhile.
The dealers room was quite spacious, but it wasn't so
large that you would get lost. I lost my friends and
family several times, and had trouble finding them,
but I had no difficulty finding various booths. My
husband was disappointed in the lack of real
booksellers at this con, but I was thrilled at the
sheer volume of comic booths/boxes/retailers. I saw
some retailers I never see except for at San Diego.
For anyone interested in silver age or golden age
comics, there were choices galore at this con.
My favorite retailer of the con was Atlas Comics from
Kansas. God, the guy had some of the most fabulous
obscure old comics in his boxes. I got to give Mat
Bredfeldt a whirlwind tour of the scope of comic
weirdness from those boxes.
There were also some darn fine trade paperback
collections reasonably priced. I bought my youngest
daughter some Simpsons trades and my oldest an Archie
trade she didn't own. This sparked the Archie/GI Joe
discussion which you will probably be seeing next
month in some form. I personally picked up a terrible
comic which you may be seeing gracing the cover of The
CT at some point.
My major find of the con was a deluxe DVD edition of
Flesh Gordon. Before there was Rocky Horror at the
midnight movie, there was Flesh Gordon at the midnight
showings at Houston Cons. Yeah, it's a porn movie, but
it's not all that terrible by today's standards, and
it's hilarious. It's a send up of the pulps, and it
features special effects by Jim Danforth, a protégé of
Ray Harryhausen. Oh, it's cheesy, but it's
entertaining. I am so happy that I have it in my
collection. I also bought a DVD of the DC Supervillian
roast thing from the 70's. I'm afraid my taste for
terrible movies is coming out here, but I don't
care . . . they were nice, unexpected finds at the con.
The retailers I talked to at the con said the business
was so-so. However, this was the first large comic con
that Texas has seen for awhile. I expect it will take
some time to get the word out that the convention is
here. The Con hotel was sold out, but I had no
difficulty finding a hotel room very close to the
convention center. The crowds were terrible on
Saturday, but on Friday and Sunday it was very
manageable for the folks who were there.
The panels I attended were good, but there weren't
enough of them, in my opinion. I suppose if you wanted
to break into comics, a whole 3 day track of
programming was there for you, but for the majority of
us, it seemed a waste of space and time. I would have
liked to have seen a panel featuring some of the indie
creators that were there, but Wizard focused on the
big two. Not that I'm complaining, really, I liked the
panels I attended. I just wish there had been more.
There was non stop Anime programming on another track,
and my dislike for anime is probably legendary by now.
I don't know that it brought in a lot of folks.
There's a major well established anime con in Dallas
in the summer, and ItzaCon a week after this Wizard
Con run by the same folks. I don't think Wizard is
going to compete with them very well for the anime
market.
The one thing I found rather disappointing, and it may
be true for all Wizard Conventions, was the lack of
night time activities. No costume contest, no dance,
no official Wizard get together. What's up with that?
The premiere event, which we missed, was on Saturday
night. It was not an official Wizard event. We missed
it because the entire Collector Times contingent at
the con went out to dinner with Zack Roman's
(Console-tations) parents. Zack was back at College
Station programming on a project that was suddenly due
the next week. Anyway, it was comic creator karaoke,
to benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.
By all accounts, it was hilarious . . . and profitable to
the cause. Joe Quesada got to sing, "Back in the USSR"
and we hear he butchered it admirably. Jim Lee
performed "Achy Breaky Heart" with a cold by being
outbid by the audience. It took $1300 to get him up
there, but folks pooled their money, and onto the
stage he went, cold and all. Darick Robertson got to
perform, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." A high point of
the evening was Jason Mewes (Jay of Jay and Silent
Bob) performing "Copacabana" in fine Jay style. Paul
Jenkins wowed the crowd by doing a really good
rendition of a Frank Sinatra song. All in all,
the event alone raised about $5000 for the fund. I
hope they do it next year, cause by all accounts this
was a fabulous event.
All in all, we all enjoyed the con, and plan on
attending next year.
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