Salutations friends!

Ben and I got to wander about the Long Beach Convention Center this Halloween weekend at the ever-flavorful Long Beach Comic Convention (LBCCon)!  In its sophomore year, this youthful con has come a long way over the last year and boasts a bigger space, more exhibitors and a much wider variety of people.  If you want the short review, here it is: Long Beach Comic Con is awesomesauce poured over a plate of yummy respect for comics, slow roasted with sprinkles of informative and a side dish good times with a sparse serving of mediocre attendance.

For those who like their reviews with a bit more information, read forth.

The space inside of the Long Beach Convention Center is ideal for the needs of comic book gathering — 35% bigger than last year.  Aisles inside are clean and easy to navigate, with publishers up front, just in front of the entrance, and copious aisles for the two artist alleys (which here, should be called the artist stages, as they seem to take center stage and highlight the talent as opposed to various other conventions), surrounded by various retailer booths in between and along the outsides.

Talent at the LBCCon is impressive, pulling out some of the finest in the area.  This year the convention stars include (bold indicates particular favorites of mine): Tim Bradstreet (who struck up a conversation with Ben and I at the beginning of the convention and is quite a pleasant gentleman), Max Brooks, J Scott Campbell, Amanda Conner, Scott Lobdell, Jeph Loeb, Mike Mignola, Dustin Nyugen, Steve Niles, Jimmy Palmiotti, Whilce Portacio, Tim Sale, Mark Waid, Bernie Wrightson, Joe Benitez, Joel Gomez, Eddi Nunez, Lord Mesa, John Narcomey Jr, Ruben Martinez, Dave Johnson, Thomas Jane, Michael Jonathon, Kit and Emma Steinkellner and Louis Leterrier.

Publishers were a much stronger presence than last year.  Aspen and BOOM! made a return, but they brought some industry associates like Arcana, IDW, Image and Top Cow.  We’d be remiss not to mention one of our favorite retailers 4 Color Fantasies (manned by owner Chris Brady) as well.

Oh, and Pitof.  The guy who made the Catwoman movie with Halle Berry.  Dirty Pitof…

The only part of the convention noticeably less impressive than 2009 was the programming.  It wasn’t the quality of programming that left me feeling a bit “meh,” but the distance I had to hike to get there.  Am I lazy?  Yes.  But it was a pain in the ass to have to leave the convention, walk down to street level, then up a block, down another block to the right and back towards the parking garage where a group of rooms completely detached from the Convention Center awaited with panelly goodness.  After talking to some of the LBCCon employees I learned that this douchery was the result of another Convention Center renter annexing all use of the convenient rooms because they didn’t want our geeky germs all over the place (or something like that).  Unfair, to be certain, but unexecusably annoying.

The programming itself, however, was fantastic.  I went to a few including:  Comic Book Writing 101 — Comic Book Sunday!, Listen to Jimmy Palmiotti — Amanda Conner Spotlight, Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics, Exclusive Premiere! Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam,  Webcomic Advocates Get-Together, 50 Questions in 50 Minutes with Mark Waid, Mike Mignola Spotight, Top Cow: We Create…Competition, and Getting Your IP Recognized with Jimmy Palmiotti.  Unfortunately there were several other panels I wanted to attend (especially the one with Louis Leterrier and Pitof the Destroyer) but time constraints and a small bladder kept me from listening in on all the goodness.

For some reason, despite all of this potential goodness, LBCCon wasn’t able to pull the crowds everyone hoped for.  It could be because the convention falls on Halloween weekend and most folks were out getting their ghoulish freak on.  Or perhaps a few fine fellows and gals got lost traveling from the con to the panels, never to be heard from again.  More than likely, the lackluster turnout could be a result of a second year convention feeling the empty pangs of growth.  Whatever the cause, it needs to get fixed.

Many of the presenters, exhibitors and professionals I spoke to were underwhelmed at attendance and disappointed at dismal sales.  Hopefully next year brings more fans to support our comic-labor of love because Long Beach Comic Con has the potential to be more than great -> It could be the greatest comic books convention in Southern California.

Check out the pics below (and a personal thanks to Zatanna, Ms. Marvel and the Invisible Woman — you were the bust best.)

Peace.

James

Just when you thought you were done reading my blogs, Ben asks me to report on Day One of WonderCon 2010!

On Thursday I drove up here with Benjamin, Sgt. Angle, Street Fece and Ash — the trip itself was fine.  Nothing exciting happened save the ramblings of five delusional and not-quite-matured men killing time with penis jokes and embellished stories of our youthful conquests.

We go to our hotel, the Marcone Marriott in San Francisco around 9:00ish and immediately made our way to the hotel bar where alcohol is expensive but desperately needed.  After a couple gin and tonics we decided to finish our prep for the weekend and continued working through the evening.

At around 6:00am this morning our room alarm clock went off with a fruious rigor that was answered by my fists.  Ben, Sgt. Angle and myself went to Starbucks in an attempt to restore our positive attitudes with coffee.  After the rest of the team was up it was onward to WonderCon!

This was Semantink’s first time at WonderCon and we were’nt too sure what to expect, but I’m pleased to say that it was, for the most part, awesome.

The Good

Panels had just enough star power and insight.  Whether you were going to hear Milla Jovovich and Ali Larter introduce their new Resident Evil trailer in 3D, wanted to hear Chiklas talk about his new comic, or just had the inkling to get some insight from one of your favorite comic producers — WonderCon had it all.

Layout was perfect.  We started at the end of the hall with the Artist’s Alley and Indie Publishers, then made our way across it all through the comic vendors, big-league booths and into vinyl toy-ville.  We got just enough of everything and spent little-to-know-time wondering where we were.  This may sound like a “meh” concern, but if you’ve ever been to San Diego Comic Con, then you know how detrimental poor planning can be during the larger conventions and how easy it is to get, literally, lost in the crowd.

The talent was spot on!  I saw some amazing up and coming artists, some soon-to-be-huge indie publishers, a few bigger names signing/sketching, just enough big-budget booths to satiate my palette and more than a few fantastic custom toy companies.  Sure, there were a few not-so-soon-to-be-famous folks as well, but it didn’t feel to heavily skewed in one direction or another.  There was success and there was hope for success and a good convention needs both ends of the spectrum.

The Bad

The staff was incredibly bad.  Upon our arrival we talked to three security guards who all told us that professional registration was at a different location.  In between talking to those three guards, we talked to four other guards who wouldn’t listen when we tried to ask where to go for professional registration.  When we finally got registered went downstairs where an incredibly rude guard told us that we couldn’t go in and told us that we had to wait in a special room — we said we’d just go back outside and were told that we’d “never get in.”  Snarky!

The organization was complete and utter shit.  Lines were formed haphazardly with tweens guiding us from one point to another (most of them texting while doing so), a writer/artist “speed dating” event that Sgt. Angle went to was very lopsided and he ended up talking to other writers most of the time, and none of the personnel seemed to know what was going on — I can’t remember how many times I received “I don’t know” as an answer to general queries…

Day One of WonderCon was, overall, a great time.  The entire Semantink team walked away exhausted, but satiated.  We got to see some old friends (Lord Mesa, Nathan Hamill and Dragatomy) and make a ton of new ones (Jackie Huang, John Giang, Westside Laserworks, Geek Chic and Lauren Venell).  We’re going to go through the TONS of cards/postcards we picked up today, check out everybody’s online resources and try to make even more new friends tomorrow!

I have to go now — Benjamin, Street Fece and I have a meeting, but stay tuned for some more from Ash and Sgt. Angle when they return from their TRON LEGACY shenanigans!!

James Ninness