Wizard World Madison -- February 6-8, 2015

[TheMasterTurtle-migration]

It was a decent crowd. Definitely not shoulder to shoulder. Far from actually. Also it was rough to say because other than Jason Mewes, Feregno, and Spike from Buffy none of the entertainment guests were there which typically draws more of a crowd. If you're going for comics though the selection was minimal.

 

LOTs of kids. It was a little big con but I have to say I would have felt robbed paying the 50+ admission for today and tomorrow. I feel a little robbed paying $22 for yesterday. I got 1 book I needed which isn't hard to find and I ran into Jason Mewes while going through the vendors and we took a pic. Other then that it was rather uneventful as much as it pains me to say that.

[mysterio]

Any other reports on this show?

[mschmidt]

I agree with TheMasterTurtle that if you paid full price for a 3 day ticket, you were robbed for this show.

 

The selection of comic book dealers was abysmal ... no bulk dealers, none of the big modern dealers and none of the big BA/SA/GA dealers either - if you looked at the show purely from a comic book perspective, it was akin to going to one of the afternoon hotel conference room shows that take place in the midwest.

 

It took me a couple of hours on Friday to go through all the comic dealer booths.

 

No Stylin' Online or any of the big apparel dealers either - most of the booths were selling toys or jewelry & trinkets. For some odd reason, there were multiple Army booths, a Navy booth, a booth for a local Mini dealership and a booth for Lasek surgery which is a pretty clear sign Wizard could not get exhibitors to sign up.

 

Tiny artist alley with the biggest draw being Rob Liefeld.

 

Decently-sized celebrity area with Shatner, Bruce Campbell and Ian Somerhalder drawing the biggest crowds - none of the Walking Dead people who were there had much of a line which was surprising. The show was hit pretty hard with celebrity cancellations, though.

 

I realize this was a 1st year show, but considering the crowds were fairly large (and Madison's a university town with a large built-in fan base), it seemed like a very shoddy effort by Wizard - the 1st year of WW Portland, for instance, was far better.

[Monster's Lair Comics]

From what we heard about WWAustin, there was multiple time-share booths. And at WWChicago, there has been an Army booth the last few years. I can't imagine these companies/entities spending the full $1000-1200+ to get booth space. If Wizard would just re-evaluate what they charge for a booth, I think alot more comic guys would come into these shows. I'd love to do a wizard show, but can't begin to afford the $$ to do Austin or San Antonio. Realistically if I'm spending $1200 to set up, I'm going to have to do about $6000 to cover expenses and inventory sold to make it worth it, and they aren't generating the type of crowd that will support a comic booth to that degree.

 

I just did the Fan Days in Dallas last weekend, and out of maybe 150 tables, only about 20% were comics. All the rest were shirts, toys, costuming, and other merchandise. Even at that ratio, I was still able to do very well with the comic crowd that showed up. The booth fees are less than $500, the ticket fee is reasonable, and the guest list is good. Things that can't be said for most Wizard shows lately......

[TheMasterTurtle-migration]

I'm originally from cleveland and I'll be going there in 2 weeks to visit family and check out what our first con looks like. After this weekend I'm not setting the bar high however I hope cleveland takes off more than Madison did.

[RCheli]

While certain Wizard shows sell out quickly (Chicago comes to mind), I'm sure in the case of smaller/less full shows like Madison, you could get a booth for significantly less than the advertised price.

 

I mean, $500 is better than nothing, right?

[vader2001]

I didn't go last year to WW Minneapolis, but I heard from a few friends that there was only a hand full of comic dealers that attended. Unless I get tickets for next to nothing, I probably will not be attending. Even with WW Madison being close I probably will not attend this one either.

[Criminal Bizzy-migration]

My friend told me it was fun but then again I don't know how often he goes to conventions ( I go to WW-Chicago and C2E2 every year). Sounds like the convention in Madison was not a huge success but these things do have to build with time. Wish I could have gone to show some support.

[Pirate]

I wonder what happened to stylin, they weren't at New Orleans either.

[revat]

Wizard might be over extending themselves, putting WW in Madison in February sounds insane, borderline disingenuous. THere's cancellations at every show but they had to know that a show like this would have tons of cancellations, yet still advertised a full complement and charged full prices. Additionally, the military booths are not paying full price. Often times booth is 'donated' for a tax write off or for good PR, or maybe just out of the goodness of the owner's heart.

 

Comic-cons are fun, but WW should be a LITTLE more selective in which cities they go to, and when.

[mysterio]

Wizard might be over extending themselves, putting WW in Madison in February sounds insane, borderline disingenuous. THere's cancellations at every show but they had to know that a show like this would have tons of cancellations, yet still advertised a full complement and charged full prices. Additionally, the military booths are not paying full price. Often times booth is 'donated' for a tax write off or for good PR, or maybe just out of the goodness of the owner's heart.

 

Comic-cons are fun, but WW should be a LITTLE more selective in which cities they go to, and when.

 

Madison would be good later in the Spring (like April), or a Summer or Fall site for a show, but they need to keep in mind when students are in session so they can capture that market. If they're going to a college town they wouldn't benefit from doing a July show when campus is on break. They also have Chicago in late August, so hitting the immediate market shortly before or after that show would be a bad idea, and it is highly unlikely they'd move Chicago to some completely different part of the calendar (though a week or two earlier in August would be really nice).

 

All that being said, February is a really bad idea. It will be interesting to see when they schedule the 2016 show.

[RCheli]

Are college students flocking to Wizard shows? Do they have that much disposable income?

[mysterio]

Are college students flocking to Wizard shows? Do they have that much disposable income?

 

At least some have to be, it is definitely in WW's target age range. At the very least the college kids should be a consideration in WW's program if they are going to put a show in Madison, which I think you said was the 86th largest metro area in the US. If they aren't targeting the university why put it there?

[revat]

Are college students flocking to Wizard shows? Do they have that much disposable income?

 

At least some have to be, it is definitely in WW's target age range. At the very least the college kids should be a consideration in WW's program if they are going to put a show in Madison, which I think you said was the 86th largest metro area in the US. If they aren't targeting the university why put it there?

 

Agree.

 

Wisconsin is 40,000+ students in a town of 250,000 people. Add in faculty and staff and that's 50,000 people who all are over 18 and under 65 (probably). If you're not targeting the college, who are more likely to cosplay and more likely to have seen all the Marvel Movies growing up... then what are you doing there? Although I still don't think its worth doing WW there either way. Midwest public school college kids don't have a ton of disposable income on average. That leaves you targeting local farmers, and business owners who have jobs that support the college students (small business owners and workers). The only ones with any money are professors and doctors, and lawyers. But they have money in any city in America. Of course I'm sure they got a good deal for a convention center in winter time, but I'm sure they didn't make a killing, and it may not have been worth the dilution of their brand and them burning out their local fanbase. I would guess at least 1/4 of the people who actually went to the show WOULD have gone to another show in another city if Madison didn't exist. From Madison kids go home in the summer (or winter) breaks, often to bigger cities that have cons from May - August.

 

I wouldn't be too optimistic that they'll have another show there. Although I wouldn't have guessed they would have had a show there to begin with.

[Monster's Lair Comics]

While certain Wizard shows sell out quickly (Chicago comes to mind), I'm sure in the case of smaller/less full shows like Madison, you could get a booth for significantly less than the advertised price.

 

I mean, $500 is better than nothing, right?

 

From everyone I've talked to, wizard doesn't offer last minute tables at a discount (this is coming from comic dealers). I do believe they "dump" the unsold tables to the "flea market" style dealers (sword, bathrobe, incense, individual Lego brick sellers).

[TupennyConan]

lol