Wizard World Philly

[BassGMan]

Dang, I'm envious of you guys who attended the Philly con and dinner, wish I could have gone but the East coast is far from the west coast. Question for you guys though: If I do someday make the trek East, is the Philly con the biggest or best East Coast comic con or is there another? Just wondering which one I should try to hit someday.

[ComicBookGuy]

 

That's right -- two thumbs up for the Wizard World Philly show and dinner. The location and parking are a breeze, and having a free pass from CGC made getting in even more of a breeze.

I drove up Saturday from DC and walked in around 2 pm, and the buzz then among the dealers was, sadly, another huge theft. As we are hitting convention season, I hope all dealers are going to be extremely cautious at future shows. It seems there are people coming to these shows now for the express purpose of stealing.

(I don't want to say the name of the dealer.)

My biggest purchases were from Harley and Bruno, but didn't have too much other luck throughout the day finding what I needed. It was great seeing David Reynolds, Bob Beerbohm, Stephen Ritter, Joe V, Koop, Al Stoltz, and others I hadn't seen for a while. Most said it was a good show for them.

Far and away the highlight was the people and the dinner. Meeting Tom Gordon of Gemstone was great, and it's always cool to talk to Steve, a true gentleman in this hobby.

At dinner, the food was perfect. Great choice of venue, Foolkiller, and THANKS for organizing everything!!!!

It was cool to meet the actual people from these forums I'd never met in person before and to learn something about them:

Doug of Pedigree (loves Zeppelin & the Dead); Demolition Comics (two stores in Tampa); Namisgr (big Thor collector); Solar (original art collector); Rob React (Fiction House collector); Foolkiller (a great party organizer); Ron of CGC (a Dennis the Menace fan); Mr Woogieman (another Dennis fan and an even bigger Valiant fan), Eric123 (big Green Lantern fan) and his dad (an investor).

I was surprised to see such a big turnout from our local Virginia show: Lantern and his wife, Chrisco, Flying Donut and his wife, Shield Agent and his daughter, and Mark Zaid. The convention center is exactly 150 miles from the front door of my house, so it says a lot about the show that so many of us are willing to travel so far to go there.

I had to cut out to drive home at 10:30 pm but really wish I'd had more time to stay longer. Next time I will make it a point to get a room.

Joe

[shadroch]

At the moment,Philly is the biggest.

tere seems to be a bit on confusion about next years Wizard World location. Will there be a Philly show,and a NYC show or only one,and in that case,in which city.

The Forum dinner was tremendous,Many kudos go out to Brian for organizing it.Attendence was up,and many,many more people attended the 'after' party across the street.

As for the show- it was well attended Sat and Sunday,a decent mix of the usual sellers with some new faces. for myself,I didn't really find too many bargins on the comics side.

slabbed books included Crisis on Infinte Earths 9.6,Warlock 15 9.6,and an Avengers 63 9.4.updated a few early Avengers to the VF range and grabbed a few TPBs.Got a few Ron Lim

OA pages,a set of Idenity Crisis that were signed for the ACTOR fundraising effort,as well as a set of Steve Rude signed Captain Americas for the same cause. The ACTOR tables at these shows serve double duty as the CGC Forum clubhouse.

More later......

[ShieldAgent]

Thanks to Steve, CGC, & fellow forumites who treated my daughter like a princess!

 

 

Thanks CGC for the 3 day pass even though I could only make it Saturday.

 

Thanks Brian, for setting up a wonderful dinner.

 

Thanks Shad for the great deal on the only book I bought all day!

 

I finally met BuenaVista! Jeremy will ALWAYS be my bud.

 

After a bunch of Emails, and forever reading his blog, I finally met Rob. Rob IS cool.

 

All my Tyson's buds were there except Carl... we'll get them at Balto!

[chrisco37]

Philly Show, as others have said, was fantastic!!!! I can't comment much on prices/books as I wasn't looking for anything at the show, but I'll give a rundown of my con experience.....

 

I had more fun at this Con than at any other. Brian (Foolkiller) and Dave (Dame60) hooked me up w/ ACTOR, so I hung out there for a good portion of the show. Big Props to Kevin (of ACTOR) for being so flexible and allowing us to run around during lags and check out some of th activities. One of the great things about working at the ACTOR booth was getting to chat with fans and artists. Dan Jergens signed both days and was an enormous hit with the fans. An absolutely great guy and fun to talk to. He talked with fans while sketching and didn't take any breaks either day during his 4 hour stretch. Tom Rayney was a great guy as well. Lots of forumites stopped by the booth to show support and say "Hi!". Anne (Flink) and Bill (Shadroch) were there quite a few times. Bill picked up a bunch of nice books and some really cool screen print 'paintings" of old Sinister House covers.

 

Walked the floor a few times and chatted w/ the Blazing One, who said he was having a really good show on Saturday. I think Ted had a pretty good show as well, but I didn't really get to talk w/ him at dinner (even though he was sitting at my table). I had Stuart Sayger do a "V for Vendetta" sketch for me that turned out great. Ran down to CGC room to say hi to Paul and Sean (who were busy the whole time! I think they said there was 900+ subs through the first day!!!). Borock finially arrived and I saw him doing his thing on the floor. Steve picked up a killer Ron Lim Cap Splash page during the show (it's in the mail today, Steve ).

 

One of the highlights came when word got out that Rags Morales was there and selling Identity Crisis pages!!!! For a Song!!!! I picked up two for ridiculously low prices, Tom Gordon picked up two, Dave Mattieni grabbed one, and Kevin (ACTOR) picked up a two page splash and a JLA cover. By Sunday morning, the pickings were pretty slim, and I'm sure everything would have been gone if he accepted payments other than cash (I know I would have bought more). One thing that didn't sell was the complete sequence of the battle with Deathstroke (14 pages total). Asking price was 8K, but who runs around with that much cash? Still, it will be gone in a "flash" if he puts it up on eBay or a website.

 

As always, my favorite part of the con was the dinner. Got to see a bunch of forumites I ahven't seen since last time, plus meet some new faces (Comic Book Guy, namisgr, dem1138, and Last Starfighter were a few of the guys I hadn't meet before - all really good guys). Saw a bunch of great books, sketches, and artwork that people had picked up. It was awesome to see Brett's (Solar) art collection, especially the Fables cover!!!! Big props to Brian and Steve for another great dinner.

 

After the dinner, we hit the Marriott bar for a bit and then Brian, Dave, Gene, and I headed back to Brian's for a nightcap and some much needed rest.

 

One last item, I cannot give bigger props to my man, Brian Ketterer (Foolkiller) who single-handedly made my show. He put me up, got me in w/ ACTOR, and revised a trade he and I had set up that freed up money so I could buy the IC pages. Thanks Brian, I owe you big time.

 

Not much of a "report" I know, but the show was outstanding as always. If you haven't been, it's worth it. And be sure to attend the dinners!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

-Chris

[rube11]

Hey Chrisco,

 

Don't forget about lunch, that was fun to, especially to us guys who couldn't make it to dinner!

 

Rube

[dem1138]

As someone who knew absolutely no one from boards and never met any of them in person, and as a person with few other 'comic book friends' I have to say that the Forum dinner was a tremendous experience!

I would unquestionably say that if you are a board member and are in town for a show - go to the dinner!

Entering a room full of strangers is not an easy experience, but upon getting a drink at the bar, I was approached by Chrisco37 who introduced himself and we struck up a conversation. Chris was incredibly friendly and he knew a lot of the people in the room and was gracious enough to introduce me around. Rob Larsen was the next to arrive and we discussed the days doings. The next thing I knew, I was talking to Mike Goldman of Motor City Comics and Doug Schmell of PedigreeComics.com. Mike told me some great stories including tales of the Northland Collection. Doug brought a few goodies including a 9.4 Amazing Spider-man #12 - Ohio and an unbelievable 9.4 Green Hornet #1.

I sat down at the same table as Chrisco37, Brett(great art collection you two shared!), Blazing Bob, Foolkiller, the guy who runs a show in Canada and does the Shooter Awards(I'm really bad with names), Namsigr, a former CGC QA guy, and several others. Blazing told a few fantastic stories that anyone on these boards would have enjoyed.

The food was plentiful and non-stop and I don't think anyone could have left hungry.

Afterwards, most of us trickled over to the Marriot across the street, which seemed to be the Saturday Con afterparty. Practically everyone was hanging out there including Joe Quesada, David Finch, Nick Barucci of Dynamic Forces, and many others of Marvel and DCs staff.

I had a really long talk with Steve Borock, who is perhaps the friendliest person I have met. I also spoke with Paul Leitch, another CGC grader. Both were very open about CGC practices and dispelled any negative impressions that I have gotten from these boards.

The thing was, that with the negativity that sometimes comes across on these boards, absolutely zero was present at the dinner. Everyone was really friendly and engaging. I had a great time talking to Mark Zaid, a very tall goateed man wearing black(again, bad with names), and everyone else I had a chance to meet. It was an amazing opportunity to hear stories and discuss the hobby with people who are integral in it's past and future. Anyone I met, feel free to PM me - I'm really glad I went and I would HIGHLY recommend anyone to do the same in the future.

Interesting ramlings included: there is a 9.6 Showcase 4 now, Jim Shooter may be back in comics soon, tales from the Mile High II collection, the increasing value of restored comics among others...

Thanks to Foolkiller for organizing the event!

[chrisco37]

Hey Chrisco,

 

Don't forget about lunch, that was fun to, especially to us guys who couldn't make it to dinner!

 

Rube

 

Indeed, Steve! Lunch was a blast (even though our group got split up).

 

Steve had his son with him (a collector in the making, for sure). Hopefully, Dave will be through soon to post some pics from the lunch!

[rube11]

 

My sons day was made when you guys asked him to get the picture taken! A memory we won't forget.

 

Thanks!

 

Steve

[Solar]

Whew! I had a great time in Philly, but I'm still friggin' exhausted

 

I'll post my mini con-report when I get home tonight. Right now I'm buried under a pile of 200 new e-mails at work ...

[dam60]

 

My sons day was made when you guys asked him to get the picture taken! A memory we won't forget.

 

Thanks!

 

Steve

 

Steve - I am hoping that our friend TomG puts that pic into this week's round up of Scoop!

 

Philly was great - I will also write something more in depth later but it was a great show and I look forward to the next one,

[rob_react]

So... I can barely speak, I'm tired as all get-out and as an added bonus I was roped into actually putting on "outside" clothes and going into an honest-to-goodness office to work today. Therefore, I'm not going to be able to put up my photos from the show until later on tonight...

 

[drbanner]

Sounds like a fun show...I'll have to get up to Baltimore or Philly one of these days!

[rube11]

Steve - I am hoping that our friend TomG puts that pic into this week's round up of Scoop!

 

Philly was great - I will also write something more in depth later but it was a great show and I look forward to the next one,

 

 

Dam,

 

That would be AWESOME!!! Hey Tom, if your reading this, that would be a GREAT idea showing how healthy the industry is with children enjoying it!!

 

Rube

[Foolkiller]

Another year, another Wizard World Philly has come and gone. I have also heard the rumors about the Javitz Center and the show being moved to New York next year. However, I also heard multiple times from several dealers and some of the people I know from ACTOR that it was not yet a done deal. Also, since the program itself printed up for next year (June 2-4) at the PA Convention Center (Philly) their plan, at least for now, seems to be to have the Philly show. Perhaps they will also add a New York show, just to see how it performs the first year.

 

Even though I live in Philly and this show is incredibly easy for me to get to, I would be thrilled if a huge New York show, on the level of San Diego and Chicago, could be started. That's never going to happen in Philly, but could happen in New York. While I am often critical of how the New York shows are run, that's mostly because since they were moved to the new venue they've been declining a bit and increasing sporadically in cost to attend. Nonetheless, it would be great to see Wizard put on a huge New York show and run it properly. Of course, if the National were expanded to a bigger venue, with different guests, then perhaps having a Wizard show in New York would be duplicative. Either way, I hope it brings about a New York show that will be spectacular for the fans, no matter who runs it.

 

Now to the con itself:

 

Thursday: On Thursday evening a small group of us were planning to go out to Monk's including Paul Litch, Kevin Boyd, Peter Dixon, Shawn Caffery and some of the other CGC guys who were new. It was a blast meeting meeting new guys from CGC and hanging out with everyone. Sadly, Monk's had an hour long wait. We ended up at McCormack and Schmick's for dinner which was pretty good. Had a few drinks, got a chance to catch up with Paul and Shawn (since I knew they would be busy the rest of the con) and headed home to look forward to the weekend con.

 

Friday: I hit the alarm going off at around 7:00 AM, roll out of bed and pack my bag of books that I was selling today at the con. After deciding to purge my collection and restart from scratch by buying only keys (and hopefully mid high grade (like 8.5-9.2)) from time to time. After wandering by my office to respond to a few emails, I finally make it to breakfast with my friend Mary Ann (a fellow comic collector and ACTOR volunteer) at around 8:30 AM and we pop into the Down Home Diner at the Reading Terminal Market. Sadly, after waiting what seemed like an eternity, my pancakes were undercooked and had to be sent back. Finally make it into the show to pick up my dealer's badge and my ACTOR badge and I hit the floor.

 

The floor was laid out differently this year as the dealers were to the right hand side of the room, all up front. There seemed to be more dealers this year, although many of the usual suspects were set up (Bob Storms, Dale Roberts, Ted VanLiew, Joe Verenault, Vinny Z and Metro, Bedrock City, Big B (out of Canada), Koop, Gary Platt, Al Stoltz, and many more) with their array of high grade books for sale. After weaving through the dealer's area and saying hello to a few people, I walked to the left hand side of the room where the DC booth, Marvel booth, video games and various other vendors were set up. In the back right hand side of the room was a large artist's alley, and some of the special guests were also set up in the back as well to accomodate lines.

 

At around 9:30 AM, I make it over to the ACTOR booth set up near the Sony Playstation display and meet up with Kevin Brogan and Jim McLaughlin to get ourselves set up. Dan Jurgens generously gave us four hours a day, each day of the con and was just a tremendous guest because he didn't sign or sketch anywhere else. I was blown away when I saw the people filing in and lining up to get a sketch... it was a huge line almost immediately. Dan did some unbelievably awesome sketches and took a lot of time with each one doing some amazing work. For the most part, I was at the ACTOR booth from 10-1 because I also wanted to stay in one place as I met up with Bronzebruce, Worldsbestcomics (all the way from the west coast!), Doug Schmell, William Insignaries and a number of other people from around.

 

Sold some books to Gary Platt early in the day who, as always, treated me fairly and honestly.

 

At around 1 PM went over to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch with Bruce and the guys I mentioned above. It was fun sitting there chatting with Doug Schmell especially, but I also enjoyed catching up with everyone. After scarfing down a Veggie Burger and admiring our very cute (but a little young) waitress (William Insignaries of Demolition Comics generously paid for our lunchs) I wandered back into the con hall to see Tom Raney sketching over at the ACTOR booth. Tom's also a very good artist and a great guy who always finds time for ACTOR to volunteer. I decide to wander the floor for a little bit, just to see everyone around. I stop by Bob Storms' booth and chat for awhile. Bob is very upbeat and seems to be having a good show. As usual, I pick around Bob's books looking for stuff, but see a whole lot of gorgeous books that I want, but are probably not in my current budget. Plus, I was only looking for a few books but I couldn't find anything, so I end up just chatting.

 

While we are chatting, I run into Josh Nathonson and Tomis (formerly Zen and a dealer) over at Bob's booth. Since I finally get a chance at a relatively slow time to talk to Josh, I decide that since Bob has told him I'm a forum member (who doesn't start the I hate Comiclink threads) I would discuss what my issues with Comiclink are. And of course, my number one issue is the 3% Credit Card fee. As others have suggested, Josh's rationale regarding the surcharge is simply that he is working on an extremely thin margin, and that 3% cuts right in. From a practical standpoint, he'd either have to stop taking credit cards (which he states would hurt the customer, but in truth, it'd hurt both the customer and him) or he'd have to build the cost into the auction site in some other fashion, essentially penalizing cash or check customers. Both are clearly legitimate points, but I tried to impress upon him that unlike in other instances where it's better disguised, when it's put out there in black and white, it's unquestionably illegal. Nonetheless, Josh held firm to his justification. Although he probably thinks I'm an a**hole and seemed miffed I brought it up, we simply agreed to disagree on this issue.

 

I will give Josh credit -- the guy was pretty polite during the whole discussion. At least I feel like now I've had the discussion and there's no point in beating a dead horse. He has his position, and I appreciate the fact he at least took the time to discuss it because he clearly could have ducked out on the conversation. Tom Brulato and Jason Ewert came by and of course Brulato loves to give you a glare and a growl without actually saying anything to you, and that was pretty much the end of the discourse (ever wonder why people love Doug and don't seem to love Tom? Probably something to do with that whole personality thing...).

 

Since it was rainy and generally gross out Friday, I was not looking forward to walking back to my office and then subsequently driving about half an hour to go on my date instead of hanging out with some forumites for dinner, but whatever... After getting lost on the way down to meet my date, it actually turned out not that bad.

 

Saturday: I hit the alarm again at 7 AM so I can return my rental car, and try and meet Mary Ann for breakfast again. After a couple of mishaps involving a forgotten wallet and losing my rental contract, I do make it over to the Marriott to have breakfast. Get a call from Chrisco and he joins us before we make our way into the con and head to the ACTOR booth. Again Dan Jurgens is there, and again he has a huge line almost instantly. After trying to manage the line, forumites begin showing up in force, Dave and Gene arrive, Steve Rubin (Rube11) comes by with his son, I run into Rob React and Shield Agent and his daughter (who was unbelievably well behaved for being at a con for the whole time), Lantern and his wife come by, Bill (shadroch) and Bill (Mr. Woogieman) come by, Annie (Flink) and Tom Gordon meet up so we can try to organize everyone to go to lunch at the Reading Terminal Market. Of course it's a zoo over there, and we run into Flying Donut and his wife, which was cool. After staking out a place to eat and grabbing some Thai food (but losing a few members of our party), we sit around chatting for a bit. We took a picture of Steve's son holding a comic he picked up that will hopefully be posted. Hopefully Dave or somebody will post that. I have to run over to my office for a few minutes after lunch, but hit the con floor wandering around talking to Ted VanLiew, Bob Storms and a few other dealers reminding them about dinner that evening. Sold some books to Ted as well in a really easy going transaction. As always, Ted's great to deal with on any side fo the table.

 

Finally, after stopping by ACTOR again, I wander the floor in search of scoping out books. While stopping by Al Stoltz's table, I am horrified to learn that he had a large theft that morning out of his booth that consisted of a ton of cash and some books. He also had a beautiful new collection in that was massive, and hopefully he'll recover what was stolen. I get a chance to stop by Crazy Ed's booth to look at a few slabs, and while nice, can't justify the huge prices attached to 8.5s and 9.0s. He had a nice 8.5 Detective 359, but it was just too aggressively priced for me in the end. Especially since I got offered another one from another dealer for $100 less. Ed's a nice guy who spent a lot of time explaining his rationale, and if he has success with it, then I wish him the best of luck.

 

While over at Gary Platt's booth, I did run into Steve Lauterbach for a bit. I talked to him at length, and the guy is genuinely nice. I'm not sure why people like to jump on him (the superman #1 thread) for absolutely no reason whatsoever, and I think it's why dealers and people with a lot of knowledge about the hobby don't come on a lot of the time. If there are disagreements, and I know Steve and I probably don't agree with a lot of things, that's not a problem for them. It's not having an opinion that's problematic, but the juvenile way that it's expressed many times that becomes the issue. I have a lot of respect for Steve and the guy has a ton of knowledge, unfortunately, it's not shared because people love to beat a lot of the dealers down. That doesn't mean you shouldn't be saying what you think, but I really question sometimes how people express viewpoints on certain issues.

 

At around 6 PM or the show comes to a close and a group of us meet to go over to the Independance Brew Pub and get a couple of drinks. Solar (Brett) caught up to us as did Rich Henn, and a large group of us got a chance to catch up and all have some drinks. I got to see Brett's cool McFarlane Spidey page he bought and generally talk some comics with everyone.

 

At 7:15 PM we got everyone to Maggiano's with a great turnout of about 45-50 people. Cocktail hour was great as I got to meet Ericc123 (nice meeting him finally, and great he made the trip!!! hope you had a good time), talk to Steve Borock, hang out a bit with Bob Storms and Ted, and generally circulate around the room talking to people. Dinner was good, though many people expressed curiousity as to why I screwed with success from last year and went away from having spaghetti and meatballs and at least one red sauce dish. *sigh*. live and learn... next year, if it's in Philly, we will definitely have meatballs.

 

Other dinner attendees were Gary Platt, the dealers he set up with (who were great guys), Oliver and Joe (who runs the Allentown show), Michael Goldman and some of the Motor City boys, Doug Schmell, my friend Mary Ann's brother Chuck stopped by (thanks for coming Chuck), talked to Brett for a little bit, William Insignaries was there and a whole host of forumites. I appreciate everyone's attendence and I'm so happy to hear that so many people had a good time. It was absolutely wonderful to see everyone and I'm glad that we were able to get together as a group. For me, the forum dinners and the social aspect of the cons are what make it a truly great experience. I hadn't spent a dime up through Saturday, yet I was having a blast seeing everyone.

 

As dinner finally wound down, we decided to all jump across to the Marriott hotel bar (a few guys went out in Old City, but I have that available to me all the time, so I didn't feel like going all that much) and hang out. Saw a bunch of people over there from the con, and finally got a chance to talk to Tom Gordon for a bit and chat with Mark Zaid. Had a drink or so, but it was edging towards midnight or so. Dave, Gene and Chris were all crashing with me, so we decided to stop by my house and then have a few more drinks at a bar literally in my backyard.

 

Naturally my roommate, who after being told that I was having people crash here, made the rather ignorant move of having a dinner party without telling me. After giving him an icy reception and acting like enough of an a**hole, they got the hint that leaving was probably a good idea, and had enough good sense to not have people staying over when I was already hosting people. After resolving that issue, we wandered out to the local bar, had a couple of drinks and then all crashed -- had to be back at the con early.

 

Sunday:

 

Dave and Gene took off early after we all scarfed down some bagels around 8:30 in the morning. Chrisco and I headed to the show so he could get lined up just to do me a favor and get Jurgens to some sketches for a friend of mine. Dan was there right at 10 AM again and was again lined up and busy even though he was clearly exhausted. As usual, Dan was first class.

 

After dragging around and getting a second cup of coffee in me, I finally started walking the floor looking for books and scoping out what I'd be buying later in the day.

 

I went for dim sum with my friend Mary Ann (who, as many of you know is a great girl for those of you who have met her. She loves coming to the forum dinners, even though she's not active on the boards -- but she's also a comics fan and has a huge collection and is extremely knowledgable... so if you guys see her popping up at these dinners, she has a wealth of information to share and she's a real fan of the medium)... which was greasy and good considering I was tired and partially hung over. When I got back from lunch I started searching for books. I talked briefly to Ted VanLiew about the show and some other cool books and stuff. Saw a nice raw JLA 21 he had that was probably 7.5, but I wanted to try and get a better copy of the book eventually.

 

While over at Steve Ritter's booth, saw a JIM 114 CGC 9.0 (cr to ow) and a JIM 100 CGC 8.5 (ow) and he offered to sell them at $535 for the pair, which was a very good deal but I ended up passing only because of what I eventually bought later. I decided I wanted to get yet another Cap 100 for my key this show and found a beautiful raw copy that was probably a 9.2 from Big B Comics. After very little haggling, the dealer bottom lined the book to me for $300 at the lowest. A very fair price that's $12 under the VF/NM price. Great deal and those guys were really nice to deal with.

 

I still thought about the two JIMs. I definitely wanted them, but wasn't crazy about the whole cr-ow deal. I also saw Bob Storms had an Avengers 3, but I knew what he paid, and didn't think I could pay real high on a VF for that book, even though it was a beautiful copy. Then, as I was walking by to figure out what book(s) to pick up, I saw an awesome print drawn by Bruce Timm of Justice League unlimited that was framed. Gorgeous. Stickered at $200, the guy agreed to $180 and it was mine. I love it. Best con purchase I've made in ages.

 

Finally, I had a huge credit from Gary Platt from a past deal and I wanted to spend it on some nice Justice Leagues he had, but he was swamped so I decided to hold off for another day. I picked up a Masterwork and some Archives I wanted cheap, but no other trades as by Sunday they had been really picked over. On the way out I picked up a cool Green Lantern t-shirt and decided that was enough spending with Big Apple around the corner and the opportunity to again spend was going to be presented.

 

I cabbed home, hung up my new print, and enjoyed the rest of the day.

 

 

As always, what made the con great are the fellow fans, and the dealers who work hard at each show. Looking forward to Baltimore, where it will again be fan central.

[Captain Tripps]

Killer,

 

It was great hanging out with you this weekend as well. Philly was my first ever forum dinner last year and this show is only geeting better, with the forum dinner being the highlight. We had a great group of guys (and some girls), a nice mix of dealers and collectors and CGC folk and it looked like everyone was having a fun time. I met a few new people (Mark Zaid, Joe, Mike Rivera) and saw a lot of old friends (Bronze Bruce, Alex Needleman, Gary Platt, Dan Cusimano and his beautiful wife, etc.). Btw, that apple tostada dessert was at least a 9.8.

 

All in all, just an awesome weekend in Philly. Old (olde?) city was great Saturday night after the dinner. I felt like I was back in college again. William Insignares is the man, folks. Just a super and extremely generous guy.

 

Thanks for the great synopsis of the weekend and show, Brian.

 

Doug

[OldGuy]

Thanks for taking the time to write your report!

[FFB]

Interesting ramlings included: there is a 9.6 Showcase 4 now, Jim Shooter may be back in comics soon, tales from the Mile High II collection, the increasing value of restored comics among others...

Thanks to Foolkiller for organizing the event!

 

Any more detail about these Shooter ramblings???

[dam60]

I had a great time at Wizard World Philly. Drove down with Gene in the AM and hit the show by 11ish. By the time I got there, there was a noticeable line of people waiting to get in. Thank you ACTOR for the pass!

 

As we go to get the exhibit passes who do we see but Darth Vader! (note: I have tons of great pics that I am working with Tom to get into Scoop this week, please check out scoop for some of the pictures mentioned herein). We get into the con and it was rocking! Tons of people and exhibits. Many different dealers with a great variety of books from the GA all the way through to the hot books of the day. I spent some time at Artist's alley but was surprised that the names weren't really there this year. Much more of a focus on independents and upstarts than with the mainstream guys except for some very big names like David Finch, Ethan Van Sciver, Rags Morales, the Kubert boys and I am sure a few others that I am forgetting. It was fun to walk the floor though and to see all the stuff - plenty of cool massive displays from DC, Marvel, Nintendo, Soulfire, Lion's Gate, etc.

 

I had a great lunch with a few of the guys and then it was off to ACTOR. ACTOR did great at this show - one of the few where we could get good volume around some of the signed stuff and has been mentioned previously Dan Jurgens was a great guy and a machine for the cause. Tom Raney also did some good stuff.

 

Drinks was at the Independence Brewery which was tons of fun and a nice way to relax a bit before the dinner. And then of course dinner was once again the highlight of the whole entire convention. Maggiano's is the best place ever and they even print up menus that read "CGC Forums". I had a great time at the dinner and wish I had a chance to meet everyone there who I didn't already know but nonetheless had some great conversations. Thank you Steve and Brian for the great dinner.

 

After dinner was the marriot - just about every creator from the con was there - and then we went to a bar behind Brian's house. Sunday back in NYC by noon.

 

Great weekend! Looking forward to next year,

[FFB]

Great report, Brian!

 

I love these detailed con reports. I know they're fun to write, but they are also fun to read -- especially for Cons that I am unable to attend. It's the next best thing to being there!