Montreal Comic Con Report

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

Hi Gang,

 

Well the con has come and gone. I know there have been a lot of complaints from attendees in regards to being refused entry on the Saturday, so I'll focus more on the event itself and my experience as a vendor.

 

Let's start with a photo of a very eager comic fan.

 

 

My kitty Tattoo waited several hours to get in, but sadly she was one of those who couldn't get in on Saturday, and I didn't have an extra vendor's badge for her. Sorry Tattoo.... I did however get a photo of your idol for you!

 

 

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

Here's a pic of me (like anyone cares... ) outside the con building on the Saturday morning watching over our wall books as my friend went to park. It seemed nice and calm...

 

 

Unlike FANEXPO it was calm OUTSIDE....

 

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

... but it sure wasn't the case once you got onto the con floor!!! (does anyone know how to properly embed the video??? Thanks!)

 

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

Sadly, we were tucked away waaaaayyyy in the back of the vendor section in a corner hidden from sight by a t-shirt dealer. What can you do? Traffic was weak in our area. So much so I only saw a handful of our regulars, who I know were in the room...

 

Here are some pics of us setting up on the Saturday.

 

 

 

My buddy in blue, Nick (Nick's Comics), is a newcomer to the scene and I was helping him out (and selling some of my books). It's a shame we had relatively low traffic, because he had about 20+ longboxes of books that had been sitting around in storage since the early 80s dating back to the SILVER AGE. Most of his gross sales came from dealers like Harley and others stocking up both days at nearly full sticker price in bulk from him. It's a shame not more of the collectors stopped by and took advantage of some of the great books available.

 

Despite the the lack of traffic we still had plenty of folks stop by. I mean ,there were over 10,000 people in attendance Saturday!!! That's huge for Montreal. It's gone from about 2,000 attendees 2 years ago, to roughly 10,000 last year, and then now this explosion.

 

Kudos to Marc and Dom for helping us Saturday!

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

Here's the finished product after set-up on Saturday. I had the wall on the left and a couple of boxes behind the table.

 

 

 

I looked and felt ok at the time of the photo, but I quickly hit the wall Saturday. I spent the better part of the previous month grading and pricing books for Nick before and after work each day and during the week-ends, and I was really out of gas come noon or so on Saturday...

[Ringfinger]

Cool!

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

Like I said, traffic was slow in our neck of the woods. These photos give you an idea of the average flow. Now compare it to the video I posted earlier from the other areas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can you find "Waldo" in any of the above photos???

[Bosco685]

Can you find "Waldo" in any of the above photos???

 

Waldo grew some long hair. But at least he is accompanied by a responsible grownup.

 

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

The one great thing about our location was that is was situated immediately next the cosplay entrance. Sadly, I did not take full advantage of the opportunity. However, here are some pics of cosplay folks.

 

 

 

Sadly, someone bumped into the PREDATOR (Cap shield and Spidey head trophies on waist) later on and broke off a large piece of his costume. Bummer....

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

Can you find "Waldo" in any of the above photos???

 

Waldo grew some long hair. But at least he is accompanied by a responsible grownup.

 

 

We have a winner!!!

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

More cosplay.

 

 

GREAT Pinhead. I forgot to go see DOUG BRADLEY who was a guest... I've been wanting to attempt this costume for years, but I never did think of safe way to attach the nails SAFELY onto one's head. I now know how after talking with this chap!

 

 

My soul mates!

 

Why not? They were just standing there!

 

My personal favourite. Fun and cute costume! (thumbs u

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

And now a plug for a friend! Below are some pics of yours truly with a booth babe friend of mine and lead singer of local band CREATURE

 

COWBELLA (her stage name) is awesome! Go see them if you want a fun pop-infused dance party.

 

She was there promoting a WILLIAM SHATNER Event.

 

 

 

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

Sadly, that's all I have photo-wise (I'm hoping my friends send me their photos). I didn't really wander much on Saturday, because I was under the weather, but I felt better on Sunday and spent most of my "free-time" over with NEAL ADAMS, his son JOSH, and JOSH's wife/girlfriend. Very pleasant bunch. I paid for a NEAL ADAMS commission. I hope it makes it's way safely to me, and I pray I like it.

 

It's a SPIDEY strangling ROBIN with his web on one of those ASM blank covers. It's the first time I've ever done this. I HATE ROBIN, and I collect NEAL ADAMS death of ROBIN covers from the 1970s, so what's better than having a custom-made one done?

 

I WILL post it here, whether I like it or not.

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

I also got 3 books signed by STAN LEE.

 

DD #1,

TOS #39,

X-MEN #1.

 

Boy, do I hope they all come back from CGC YELLOW, without any purple.

 

Speaking of STAN LEE, 2 of my friends went to the meet and greet open bar supper with him Saturday night. One of them called me at home very late that night and left a nonsensical message. The wifey was none too pleased to be awakened for nothing... Oh well, he paid for his folly with a wicked hang-over the next day.

 

I also got to chat briefly with a handful of boardies. Good to see/meet you the first time.

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

Overall sales were brisk at our booth, but thanks mostly to a nice selection of $2 books (bulk rates were available), including a near full run of ASM from roughly the mid 200s to last month. Plenty of BRONZE/COPPER and good MODERNS with a a sprinkling of SA. I even tossed in a couple of low grade FFs in the 20s or 30s as a little gems for those who took the time to dig.

 

I think NICK emptied about 5-6 longboxes (out of 20 or so cheapies). I'm sure he would have emptied another 3-5 had we been located elsewhere. I haven't had a chance to look at his sales list, but some of the highlights I remember from his stuff include:

 

ALL of his ALBEDOs, USAGIs and several early GROOs (STAN SAKAI and SERGIO ARRAGONES were guests).

CONAN #1 2.0ish (2 chunks missing from FC) @ $30.00

MS #5 in 3.0ish,

near full run of AKIRA,

WBN #32 VF/NM or higher,

ASM #40 6.0ish,

X-MEN #101 2 copies in the 7.0 and higher range,

NXMEN #21,

WOLVERINE ORIGINS #8(?) CGC 9.8 hidden message variant @65.00

WOLVERINE #1 MILLER CGC 9.6

SPAWN #1 CGC 9.8 @65.00

Several OBAMA ASM issues (not the 1st print)

 

And a slew of other similar issues.

 

Here is what I sold of note to give you an idea of the local market:

 

20 or so HELLLBOY and GOON TPBs,

ALBEDO #2 4.5ish @ $200.00,

ASM #39 5.0 @ $90.00,

ASM #121 7.0 @ $125.00,

ASM #122 3.5 @ $50.00,

ASM #129 3.5 @ $130.00,

ASM #361 CGC 9.8 @ $150.00 (I was fortunate as I was testing the waters at that price considering CARANGE's recent return),

BATMAN #246 7.5 @ $30.00,

BATMAN #497 CGC 9.6 @ $30.00 to a dealer,

HULK #180 4.0 @ $40.00 to a dealer,

NEW MUTANTS #98 5.5 or so (wrinkling on FC) @ $20.00 (lasted 10 minutes on the wall ),

SATAN's S@#*&Y BABY @ $15.00,

STAR SPANGLED WAR STORIES 3.5 @ $30.00,

TOMB OF DRACULA #1 4.5 @ $40.00,

WOLVERINE #1 CGC 9.6 @ $80.00,

X-MEN #100 7.0 @ $70.00

 

All in all, many locals are still relatively new to comics as a hobby/investment. Sooo many folks inquired about CGC and were shocked to see the prices on vintage books. Interestingly enough lots of the young teens were aware of the classic covers/issues and asked for them, but were floored when shown the prices. They were expecting to get SA ASM for STAN LEE to sign for about $10.00... Lots of demand for SM #50 by the way.

 

Lots of interest in FLASH too, which surprised me. FLASH sales were always rather dead for me, like DD, when I had a large inventory and sold at shows. BUFFY sold well too, due to MARSTERS being a guest. From what I could tell, most sales in the room were from bargain bin hunters, and then there were you usual high end movers and shakers looking at the big ticket items. Oddly enough, few folks actually submitted NEAL ADAMS CGC SS books. Then again I got 4 or 5 books signed, but did not submit any myself. Go figure.

 

My week-end almost ended in disaster. One of the people behind us tripped during takedown and stumbled into the curtain separating us, crashing into my wall, and sent it toppling over. I caught it just in time and NO harm was done...

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

I guess my highlight was getting my BAMTAN #227 signed by NEAL ADAMS, and the yet to be seen art commission.

 

That's all I got folks. Thanks for looking.

 

See you in December or at next year's big con?

[smithdatura]

Cool report! Glad to hear you had a good time and your friend moved a decent amount of inventory. We actually met without knowing it - I had inquired about Sgt. Fury #13 and you had set it aside for me for 20 minutes as I ventured off to find a bank machine... the lone machine inside the hall was out of service/cash, so I left to get to one elsewhere in Place Bonaventure only to find the lineup to get back inside was impossible. So that was essentially that for my con experience... which was unfortunate, because I would have loved to come back and check out the rest of the books at your table - as you said, you had some great stuff!

 

Hopefully next time we can make a proper introduction. (thumbs u

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

Cool report! Glad to hear you had a good time and your friend moved a decent amount of inventory. We actually met without knowing it - I had inquired about Sgt. Fury #13 and you had set it aside for me for 20 minutes as I ventured off to find a bank machine... the lone machine inside the hall was out of service/cash, so I left to get to one elsewhere in Place Bonaventure only to find the lineup to get back inside was impossible. So that was essentially that for my con experience... which was unfortunate, because I would have loved to come back and check out the rest of the books at your table - as you said, you had some great stuff!

 

Hopefully next time we can make a proper introduction. (thumbs u

I wondered what happened to you. You didn't seem like the typical "I'll be back in 5 minutes" person. Sorry you got barred... I didn't realize that was the ONLY machine inside. THAT's a HUGE bummer. Talk about bad timing.... I hope no one blamed the organizers for that blunder.

 

I hope to chat with you next time. (thumbs u

[Kevin Boyd]

I'll be writing a full report for the joeshusterawards.com website within the next day or so, but it was quite impressive to see the Montreal ComicCon graduate from being a great regional show to becoming a larger national show in just one year. Everyone I spoke to was in great spirits, and if you got in you had a heck of a good time. There was definitely a big increase in the number of dealers at the event over 2010. The show looked organized (last year it seemed haphazzard) and moved away from resembling the Big Apple National in spirit towards a properly organized professional event complete with a gorgeous program guide and great decoration (although I thought the black drapery in the dealer area really made the hall seem dark, especially when coupled with the 70's lighting).

 

There were some growing pains and the problems stood out like a sore thumb --- floor plan design, facility issues, space issues, crowd issues, an over zealous fire marshall and inept ticket tellers (that people would be forced to wait hours in line only to be told that the show was no longer selling tickets is ridiculous). Gee... a lot of this is starting to sound familiar....

 

The problems in my opinion, were with Place Bonaventure itself. I did not like the way you had to go down stairs and up stairs with nary an elevator in sight and forcing people with carts and luggage to have to lift them up and down. Most places have elevators, but not Place Bonaventure... while there were some small elevators (small platform lifts) for strollers and people in wheelchairs, staff would only allow strollers and wheelchairs on them. This facility should be aware of how many people fit within it, and since PB was selling general admission tickets they should have been aware of when to cut off ticket sales and save people hours of frustration --- complaints that will be given not to PB but to the show organizers.

 

From an operating standpoint, Oscar, Alex and Elizabeth did a great job, and there is definitely demand for a great national con in Montreal. They will have to work doubly hard to ensure that they eliminate the other problems for 2012 and this will become one of the highlights of the Canadian comics scene.

 

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

I'll be writing a full report for the joeshusterawards.com website within the next day or so, but it was quite impressive to see the Montreal ComicCon graduate from being a great regional show to becoming a larger national show in just one year. Everyone I spoke to was in great spirits, and if you got in you had a heck of a good time. There was definitely a big increase in the number of dealers at the event over 2010. The show looked organized (last year it seemed haphazzard) and moved away from resembling the Big Apple National in spirit towards a properly organized professional event complete with a gorgeous program guide and great decoration (although I thought the black drapery in the dealer area really made the hall seem dark, especially when coupled with the 70's lighting).

 

There were some growing pains and the problems stood out like a sore thumb --- floor plan design, facility issues, space issues, crowd issues, an over zealous fire marshall and inept ticket tellers (that people would be forced to wait hours in line only to be told that the show was no longer selling tickets is ridiculous). Gee... a lot of this is starting to sound familiar....

 

The problems in my opinion, were with Place Bonaventure itself. I did not like the way you had to go down stairs and up stairs with nary an elevator in sight and forcing people with carts and luggage to have to lift them up and down. Most places have elevators, but not Place Bonaventure... while there were some small elevators (small platform lifts) for strollers and people in wheelchairs, staff would only allow strollers and wheelchairs on them. This facility should be aware of how many people fit within it, and since PB was selling general admission tickets they should have been aware of when to cut off ticket sales and save people hours of frustration --- complaints that will be given not to PB but to the show organizers.

 

From an operating standpoint, Oscar, Alex and Elizabeth did a great job, and there is definitely demand for a great national con in Montreal. They will have to work doubly hard to ensure that they eliminate the other problems for 2012 and this will become one of the highlights of the Canadian comics scene.

Exactly. Well put. There is a reason why the city built a NEW MODERN conference hall several years ago. The PLACE BONAVENTURE is extremely outdated. And yes those bloody stairs are a killer. We had to lug in our wall books Saturday and Sunday morning by foot and those stairs sure do equate to one heck of a workout!

 

I'm sorry I didn't get to chat with you KEVIN beyond a quick hello Saturday morning.

 

Next time!