Baltimore Comic Con 2024 - Photo Heavy 2 2

[Chip Cataldo]

Thanks for all the pics! I went a couple years ago and had a blast. Caught up with old friends Todd DeZago and Ron Marz and bought quite a few nice pieces of artwork.

It was the first large convention I've ever been to. I hope to go back next year.

One comment about the people in your photos...most of them look so grumpy. You're surrounded by wonderful comic books! SMILE! Lol.

[1Cool]

On 9/24/2024 at 1:06 PM, Chip Cataldo said:

Thanks for all the pics! I went a couple years ago and had a blast. Caught up with old friends Todd DeZago and Ron Marz and bought quite a few nice pieces of artwork.

It was the first large convention I've ever been to. I hope to go back next year.

One comment about the people in your photos...most of them look so grumpy. You're surrounded by wonderful comic books! SMILE! Lol.

A lot of my pictures were taken pretty early on Saturday and there was some drinking and gambling being done Friday night from what I heard.  Resting biatch face was strong in some people but I bet they would have smiled if I wouldn't have taken their picture while walking by.  Finally got a great picture of Bob which highlights the fact that he does in fact smile!

Edited Tuesday at 05:25 PM by 1Cool

[Azkaban]

[1Cool]

I has a surreal moment on Saturday afternoon.  I had just bought a nice stack of books from Funny Book Heroes (great guys and they should always be checked out) and turned around and ran into Steve Borock.  

Steve has always been an OG to me and wherever he has gone has maintained a high level of respect and being the head grader at CGC when I started grading books put him on a bit of a pedestal to me.  

Steve gets a big smile on his face and gives me a handshake and starts talking to me about how I’ve have been and how I’m doing. I get this stunned look on my face and stammer something about being good and my name is Andrew since I couldn’t imagine he would know who I am.  We talk a bit about his new job at ComicLink and he gives me his number if I want to talk comics.  Just a sincerely nice guy and it left a smile on my face to have a nice discussion with him.  

Edited Tuesday at 06:30 PM by 1Cool

[EastEnd1]

On 9/24/2024 at 2:30 PM, 1Cool said:

I has a surreal moment on Saturday afternoon.  I had just bought a nice stack of books from Funny Book Heroes (great guys and they should always be checked out) and turned around and ran into Steve Borock.  

Steve has always been an OG to me and wherever he has gone has maintained a high level of respect and being the head grader at CGC when I started grading books put him on a bit of a pedestal to me.  

Steve gets a big smile on his face and gives me a handshake and starts talking to me about how I’ve have been and how I’m doing. I get this stunned look on my face and stammer something about being good and my name is Andrew since I couldn’t imagine he would know who I am.  We talk a bit about his new job at ComicLink and he gives me his number if I want to talk comics.  Just a sincerely nice guy and it left a smile on my face to have a nice discussion with him.  

I had a similar interaction with him at an old Big Apple convention in the basement of a church in NYC about 25 years ago.  I had gotten there early and it was fairly empty still, and I saw this table at the front for some new grading company called CGC that would be opening for business in the coming months.  I stopped at the table and Steve got up and started explaining the whole concept and introduced me to the "new holder" they would be sealing the certified comics in.  It seemed like such a foreign concept at the time and I think I said, "interesting idea" while I was holding the sample holder.  I put it down and then Steve and I just proceeded to talk comics, on and on.  Finally he said, "Wait a minute... I want to show you something" and from behind the table he pulled out a raw low grade Millie the Model #1.  He came around the table so I could see it closer with a giant smile on his face and said, "I picked this up from a dealer before the show opened.  You never see this book and I was so excited when the dealer showed it to me.  I couldn't let it get away."  He was literally glowing as he paged through it in front of me, just giddy about his new Millie the Model comic. And I, being exclusively a superhero guy at that point who thought Millie the Model was some girlie thing that no collector would ever want, stood there being polite and listening, but wondering why this guy was so worked up about this book?  Well there was something about his enthusiasm that day that really stuck with me.  And I can honestly say that the expansion of my collecting tastes to other genres, PCH, crime, sci-fi, GGA, and yes, even teen humor and romance, started with that chance meeting with Steve Borock and his newly acquired Millie the Model #1. 

A few years later, Heritage was auctioning off the Davis Crippen collection, which included a CGC 8.5 Millie the Model #1.  Nothing was going to keep me from winning it... which I did.  I still own it and probably always will.  I completely agree that Steve Borock is a great comic guy.  If he's reading this... I'm sure you don't remember our little encounter Steve, but I just wanted to say thank you...   

Edited Thursday at 12:45 PM by EastEnd1

[buttock]

On 9/24/2024 at 8:59 AM, 1Cool said:

Here are a few of my thoughts about the con:

1.  Downtown Baltimore sure has taken a turn for the worse with a lot more homeless people sleeping in the grass near major intersections and the urban blight just seems to be everywhere.  I live in Cleveland and we have our problems for sure but I just don't feel unsafe walking around downtown and I felt unsafe walking not that far from the convention center even though there was a baseball game going on.  My hotel is south of Baltimore now and it seems like a good choice with what is going on down there at night.

2.  With that being said - the venue is still top notch.  Cell phone service is great and the lighting is fantastic for a big space.  Security everywhere and the bathrooms are spotless.  You really can't find a better convention center to hold one of the biggest and best Cons in the nation.

3.  There did seem to be a few missing names this year but in general there was still an endless sea of booth to look at and the amount of quality books in the room will blow pretty much anyone away. 

4.  The deals for non-key books where everywhere and the deals were getting better each day and I can imagine some great bulk offers where getting thrown around on Sunday.  I didn't get a sense of panic with the dealers but there was a feeling like cash was even more key than I've seen in awhile with some dealers way overloaded in books.  30% discounts became 40/45% discounts on Saturday and $20 books that were knocked down to $10 on Friday were $5 on Saturday.  I blew through my budget early on Saturday morning but there were still bunches of deals to be had.

5.  I tended to try to stick with higher grade non-key Bronze and Silver-Age books that were in the bins so I didn't buy one wall book all weekend so I'm not sure how those books were priced.  I do know that books did seem to be disappearing from walls and some dealers seemed very happy with their sales and some dealers were selling books hand over fist at some booths.  The booths that where perceived as discounters where getting swamped and that is where I tended to be so I'm not sure how the other booths did.

6.  I will reiterate from my previous Baltimore Con reports that this is a great social Con where big dealers and customers flock from all over to not only buy books but treat it like a convention where like minded people get to talk about comics and life in general.  You will not get a better vibe of the comic industry then hanging out at this con for a few days and there is a lot to be happy about.  Even though I think the boards are less vibrant than they use to be a decade ago there is still a large swath of people here on the boards who are prime players in the industry which is always fun to be part of.

 

On 9/24/2024 at 9:50 AM, VintageComics said:

My first time in Baltimore was 2009 and it was an experience. Baltimore was always scary from a crime POV but it's gotten worse.

The reality is that [almost] every city, major or minor has taken a turn for the worse. What's happening is appalling. We have large homeless encampments all over our small town now where there were hardly any publicly visible homeless people in the near 30 years I've lived here (and I've known many of the homeless personally). It's terrifying how bad things have gotten everywhere, especially in cities who seem to not really know how to deal with these problems. 

I made it this year for Friday with my 16 yr old.  Last time I went was in 2010 and I remember homeless dudes wandering all over then, no more than this visit.  In fact, my report has a picture of some weirdo wandering around talking to himself with his pants falling off: 

 

This time I felt safe wandering around, to the degree that we walked down to the harbor (1.5 miles through downtown) Friday night and to Little Italy (2/3 mile) Saturday night.  The downtown seemed more alive with normal people which seemed to dilute the homeless, or maybe push them away a little.  Compared to other large cities I've been to in the past couple of years I would say fewer homies than average.  But good god do people honk their horns excessively there.  

Impressions of the con, I would love to go back often.  Good dealers that I don't get to see often out west.  I got in early Friday and with 15 minutes left to go before the early-entry people were let in I was in significant debt having blown what cash and checks I brought and committed to a deal for next month.  Wasn't too crowded, I found it easy to navigate, but still plenty of traffic in all the sections.  

The only complaint I have is that one of the staffers at Comicconnect/Metro's booth was vaping in the booth.  Just classless.  Customers all around.  

[VintageComics]

On 9/24/2024 at 3:43 PM, buttock said:

vaping

I always see someone vaping as sucking on a baby bottle and I can't unsee it.

On 9/24/2024 at 3:43 PM, buttock said:

Last time I went was in 2010 and I remember homeless dudes wandering all over then, no more than this visit. 

I'm sure I posted a con report of this at the time. 

My first visit in 2009 landed us at the Monaco hotel on Charles and at 2:30AM, and after checking I looked out the window and in the street there were about 15 cop cars and a mob of [homeless?] people. I just figured that was the way they welcome people to Baltimore. 

I've had great times in Baltimore, though. No complaints...although my ex used to get a lot of wedding proposals from randoms on the street. 

 

[buttock]

On 9/24/2024 at 1:56 PM, VintageComics said:

I always see someone vaping as sucking on a baby bottle and I can't unsee it.

I'm sure I posted a con report of this at the time. 

My first visit in 2009 landed us at the Monaco hotel on Charles and at 2:30AM, and after checking I looked out the window and in the street there were about 15 cop cars and a mob of [homeless?] people. I just figured that was the way they welcome people to Baltimore. 

I've had great times in Baltimore, though. No complaints...although my ex used to get a lot of wedding proposals from randoms on the street. 

 

I first met you wandering on the streets of Baltimore in 2010... 

[greggy]

On 9/24/2024 at 12:43 PM, buttock said:

 

I made it this year for Friday with my 16 yr old.  Last time I went was in 2010 and I remember homeless dudes wandering all over then, no more than this visit.  In fact, my report has a picture of some weirdo wandering around talking to himself with his pants falling off: 

 

This time I felt safe wandering around, to the degree that we walked down to the harbor (1.5 miles through downtown) Friday night and to Little Italy (2/3 mile) Saturday night.  The downtown seemed more alive with normal people which seemed to dilute the homeless, or maybe push them away a little.  Compared to other large cities I've been to in the past couple of years I would say fewer homies than average.  But good god do people honk their horns excessively there.  

Impressions of the con, I would love to go back often.  Good dealers that I don't get to see often out west.  I got in early Friday and with 15 minutes left to go before the early-entry people were let in I was in significant debt having blown what cash and checks I brought and committed to a deal for next month.  Wasn't too crowded, I found it easy to navigate, but still plenty of traffic in all the sections.  

The only complaint I have is that one of the staffers at Comicconnect/Metro's booth was vaping in the booth.  Just classless.  Customers all around.  

I think it helped that the Orioles are good this year so there were tons of fans watching the home games versus other years when they sucked and there were more fans from the opposing team walking the streets.

xoxo

greggy

[buttock]

On 9/24/2024 at 2:29 PM, greggy said:

I think it helped that the Orioles are good this year so there were tons of fans watching the home games versus other years when they sucked and there were more fans from the opposing team walking the streets.

xoxo

greggy

Lots of Orioles traffic.  I saw you across the room and by the time I made it over... vanished without a trace.  

[1Cool]

On 9/24/2024 at 4:31 PM, buttock said:

Lots of Orioles traffic.  I saw you across the room and by the time I made it over... vanished without a trace.  

That’s what people always say about Greg - fast as lightning!

[joeypost]

On 9/24/2024 at 10:30 AM, namisgr said:

A lot of old timers at this booth.

I usually do my best to stay out of photos. I must have let my guard down.

[jjonahjameson11]

Although this was only my 2nd Baltimore comic con, I vowed to hit every comic dealer's booth this year.  I gave it the ol' college try and I think I was able to get to 70% of the booths.  

There's simply too many comics in the room, and that's a great problem to have at a comic con, but I really wish I had the time to see all of the books.  Given the quality of the bin books, fair pricing, and some multi-level discounts, I spent far more time at some booths than I planned.

Case in point, this friendly dealer (forgot his name) had a great booth setup, and some unbelievable high grade/desirable books from the 70s/80's for a measly $2.  He also had a few boxes of even better books, unpriced, but when you inquired about specific books, he gave you prices that you couldn't refuse.  Furthermore, I noticed he had a several boxes of high-grade, early Warren mags (Creepy, Eerie, Blazing Combat) and later number Savage Sword of Conan (last two or three issues of the run) for $5 each.  Naturally, I grabbed a bunch.  

Finally, after all was said and done, I had picked up more than a shortbox of comics and twenty mags I would be happy to add to my collection.  Then he surprised me by giving me a 25% discount on my purchase.  I didn't even ask for a discount because the books and mags were so reasonably priced, but who am I to argue?

Here's the pic of his booth.  I believe he is Ion comics and I hope you check out his booth at the next show and throw some business his way.  You won't be disappointed 

[jjonahjameson11]

n

Edited Tuesday at 10:31 PM by jjonahjameson11

[bc]

On 9/24/2024 at 6:25 PM, jjonahjameson11 said:

n

My thoughts exactly.

-bc

[Ryan.]

On 9/24/2024 at 6:37 PM, bc said:

My thoughts exactly.

-bc

Sorry but I just can't agree.

[1Cool]

Not sure if anyone requested it but some people like to see what books were purchased.  The first few were from New Dimension’s booth where they were blowing out books for a few bucks a piece.  Looking back I should have not bought any of the copper spec books but old habits die hard.  The Bronze books were so nice it’s impossible to not grab a stack.

 

Edited Wednesday at 12:51 PM by 1Cool

[1Cool]

This batch was also from that same booth but they had some nicer books that were high grade and discounted.

[1Cool]

I tried to concentrate on Bronze Horror books when I could find them in higher grades.  The Teen Titan covers were so nice I had to grab a stack.

[1Cool]

Grabbed some nice Silver Age books from Matt (Skow) and made a nice combo deal to get 3 Wolverine Limited 1s from the Reese booth.  Nice guys and it was my first buy from them and hopefully not the last.  I’ll pump these directly into my e-bay store and hopefully get the buyers to come in since it’s been very, very slow on there.  
 

Thanks for looking!