Oz Comic Con -- Adelaide, Australia con report

[mysterio]

Oz Comic Con home page

 

Yes, I realize that this should probably be in the event sub-forum, but since that area generally features only North American shows (and London) I doubted that any Aussies actually ever go there with any regularity. So I put it here in hopes of catching some Australian eyes. It's also in only two days, and the only reason I learned about it was that I happened to ride past the Adelaide Showgrounds and saw a sign, otherwise I would have missed it completely. It was all quite random.

 

Anyone going? I'm in Adelaide and am going to check it out. I'll see about taking some photos and doing at least a mini-report too.

 

EDIT: report now added

[Duffman_Comics]

No, won't be attending .

 

However, before this thread gets shifted I'll mention that Stan Lee has confirmed that he'll be attending Supanova in Sydney in July.

 

He's 91. That's a helluva commitment.

[mysterio]

And now for the con report that nobody demanded!

 

I've never been to a con outside the US before, so I went to this show mostly to see what an Australian con would be like. My assumption was that it would be fairly small, have very few comics, and have a ton of cosplayers. I was right about the comics, wrong about the size, and to an extent wrong about the proportion of cosplayers I expected.

 

There were exactly two booths with comics, maybe 3-4 if you stretch and include booths that had maybe one long box of $2 books. Here the cheap boxes were $2 books, most bagged, some unboarded, some unbagged. One place had $2 singles and $10 multipacks. Only one of these booths had a legit wall and was catering to more of a vintage market. Pics to follow.

 

The show was larger than I expected, both in terms of the space and the attendance. It filled a pretty decent sized convention center room that I would estimate as being slightly larger than the main floor room of the Irving convention center (where the Dallas shows are typically held). And the room was PACKED (just saw on the news that they expect 20,000 through the door this weekend, and I believe it). It was difficult to walk down most aisles without bumping and being bumped into by others. I guess this was the second time this show has been held in Adelaide (it may be the third) and I heard more than a few folks say that this year's show is larger than last year's event. The male/female ratio looked really close to par, and at times I thought that there could have been a slight edge to the females. There were a lot of women of just about all ages enjoying the show, which was good to see.

 

The guest list was decent for celebrities, though the system for getting autographs was a bit unusual compared to the typical US show (more on that in a bit). The autograph area itself was easy to walk around as a result, though you couldn't take any photos (and they were quite serious about that). Benedict Cumberbatch was the HUGE draw all day. It seemed like half the room was his line for the photo op.

 

Based on the way US shows are going I expected to see a massive amount of cosplayers (it was Saturday afternoon, after all). There were a lot there, and many were pretty good, but I'd put the percentage no higher than maybe 35% being dressed up with any degree of seriousness about it. That was plenty.

 

Ok, now for some pics...

[mysterio]

 

Outside the Adelaide Showgrounds on a beautiful day for a con.

 

 

 

This was the line to get autograph tokens, basically the line so you could get into another line later. It was a bit of a strange system, in that you couldn't pay cash for autographs but had to buy the correct token to "pay" for the signature. This line was quite epic when I arrived about an hour after the doors opened. I did not partake.

 

 

 

This was the best booth for comics in the show. He had some decent stuff in the boxes and his wall wasn't bad either, with a few gems. The best books were the Captain America #100 and 117, a Fantastic Four #6, Daredevil #10, Strange Tales #101 (faded) and JIM #112. Just about everything was VG, maybe a few were closer to Fine. Many prices weren't bad either, especially once you took the exchange rate into account ($1 AUS = 91 cents US).

[mysterio]

Some cosplay highlights:

 

[mysterio]

A few more random pics:

 

 

 

I really wish cons in the US would have concession menus that looked like this. I'd love to be able to get tempura calamari for lunch at a show instead of the crappy pizza and other typical concession food.

 

 

 

That's it!

[timfinz]

Great review! Thanks for sharing!

[letsgrumble]

Great to see how it's done Down Under. Nice report!

[comicdonna]

Great to see how it's done Down Under. Nice report!

+1

[jsilverjanet]

Agree on the food. But the drink prices are extremely high!

 

Great report!

[HighRadArt]

What are Dim Sims?

[JorgeRR96]

I wish Cumberbatch could do a show in the US. He is a client from Gary so I hope someone scores him...probably Wizard or maybe Fan Expo.

[VintageComics]

 

That's it!

 

My mom grew up in Sydney and Melbourne and I've never been but I've always been fascinated by Aussies. Appreciate the report!

 

[mysterio]

Thanks everyone, it was a fun show to check out (even without comics walking around a show is a nice way to spend 3-4 hours).

 

Dim Sims (also spelled Dim Sums some places, not sure if there is a difference) are basically Chinese dumplings that are either steamed or more rarely fried, and are bite-sized or slightly larger (like a two bite dumpling). I can't claim to have sampled any, but intend to get around to it.

 

Yes, the drink prices are a bit high. Normally around Australia a bottle of tea or coke will run you about $3.50 on average. In general everything here is a bit more expensive (books are crazy high, for example, never under $20 for a paperback and most new books are $30-40). The beer prices are strange to me too. A six-pack of even fairly cheap beer will run you about $24, while a pint in a pub will generally cost maybe $6 and be larger than the bottle. So package beer is just about on par with buying a pint (especially when you factor in the experience). I could probably do a whole report on these types of idiosyncracies! It's an amazing place though, can't recommend it more highly.

[Waylander]

Thanks for sharing (thumbs u