WW Philly is making it's annual appearance at the convention center downtown Philadelphia. Now with an added (and imo unnecessary) "Sneak Preview Night" of Thursday. Also being held Fri to Sun June 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Looks like a stellar guest line up for those who collect autographs from celebrity's (Thor and the 5 Star Trek Captain's). Anyone going? (Harris? Bats? Biegel?) I know that Packcracker Ted will have a small part of someone's booth. I will be helping another dealer on Fri/Sat so not setting up. Willing to bring things though so if anyone requests then post here please.

Then on Sunday I will be down in the DC area doing a show in Tysons' Corner, VA. Easy access off the I-495 beltway. Dunn Loring fire hall. Besides my usual setup, Wayne/Tony from Zeno's Books will be setup too with there usual nice selection of non-sports. This show (since I have a whole bunch of tables) I will have my usual display of boxes and chase cards. Website for this show is Capicons.com. Bill McKay (sketch card artist) usually does this show but I think he will be up in WW Philly all weekend.

Hi Derek, yes, the usual trio of Alan, Harris and myself will be there on Saturday. I will be looking for boxes of the new Smallville release along with a binder if you have any. See you on Saturday!

I'll be roaming in Philly on Saturday as well.

I will also be there Friday through Sunday.

Will do Batman. I do have a binder put aside for you and will bring some boxes. Bond is new too. Anyone else? If they have a map or some sort of floorplan then you can find Ted at "Comics To Astonish" and myself at "Dave's American Comics". I spoke to Dave this evening and he said things were slow even though they had some sales. Figured Fri/sat will be there big days. Bill McKay you will find in artists alley (and I am assuming some other sketch card artists will be back there too).

My review of Philly.

First off, this event was POORLY organized. Long story short - if you planned ahead and pre-ordered tickets for anything (admissions, autographs), you got screwed. Pre-order lines were insanely long, where is you were walking up and paying with cash, there was no line. After the big morning line (Satruday) was all let in, there still had to be 500+ people waiting in the pre-paid line just to pick up their passes.

First thing, we went to Stan Lee's line knowing he had a Q&A an hour after the con opened. Found Stan, got in line. Through some mumblings in the crowd I learned I was supposed to check in with my pre-paid print-at-home ticket back at the registration booths outside the show floor. So I had to run back to where I started, stand in that line to trade in my paper for a ticket. There was still a massive line of about 500 people who again PRE-PAID for admission standing in that line. SO I made my way back. Thankfully my cousin kept my place in line. Stan was cool as could be, considering they were moving people through pretty quickly. I had Stan sign a drawing (I'll share that later). He was impressed so I got to spend a few moments with him. I also was pulled aside by one of his assistants who works on his website and had a nice conversation with her, exchanging business cards. More to come on that if what she said happens.

Then we wandered the floor. There were no non-sports cards to be found, save for some gaming stuff. The 501st had a bunch of free cards at their table, was fun to talk to those guys. Stopped by the Troma table and had Lloyd Kaufman sign a Toxic Avenger print I had. Funny guy. Bumped into Harris, Alan and Batman in Artist's Alley, nice to see you guys! I bought a cool Army of Darkness print from Arthur Suydam. Spent some time talking with artists Frankie B. Washington and my good friend Brian Kong. Also introduced myself to Sara Richards, who will also be appearing at the October Allentown show.

You should have seen Chris Hemsworth's line. It spanned the length of the convention floor all day long. At $100 a pop, he's leaving this weekend with a nice fat Brinks truck.

I checked out the Troma panel discussion, which was a lot of fun.

Other than the chaos of ticketing, I had a good time.

quote:

Originally posted by Ted Dastick Jr.
You should have seen Chris Hemsworth's line. It spanned the length of the convention floor all day long. At $100 a pop, he's leaving this weekend with a nice fat Brinks truck.

If it's the same system as here in the UK, the "star" gets paid a lump sum and the auto revenue goes to the organisers.

$100 a go is BIG money

As Ted said the line was incredible, but I do know that many vendors and artists said it was "dead" on Thursday and Friday and not much better on Saturday. I think these shows that cater to celebrity appearances are killing the traditional show as we have come to know them. Many of the attendees are there only for the actors, and after spending big money for travel, parking, high admission fees, and then the time and expense for getting an autograph or two, there is no money left for much else. I think it also keeps regular comic and other collectors away from the shows because they don't want to deal with the high cost of admission and the huge crowds. Wizard is paying incredible money to these celebrities and because of that the show admission is more expensive than it should be. I thought last year's show was better because the show floor seemed better, there were more dealers and artists compared to this year as they made way for more celebrity guests. There is little if any manufacturers, comic or otherwise. I can see Wizard having problems down the road as I think this celebrity appearance mentality will choke off the other aspects of the show. There are still some great shows out there that do a good job of balancing the needs of the collectors, dealers, and manufacturers with those of the people who want to see celebrities (New York Comic Con does a great job of this in my opinion) and shows like the Baltimore Comic Con have no celebrity guests unless they are comic creators and that show was packed last year, so good show management can make a world of difference.

Although I was disappointed with the overall show, I did enjoy the day with Alan and Harris as always, and we did get to do some interesting things, and we always have some laughs, so it sure beats a day of doing chores at home! It was great to see my buddy Kate Bradley and her boyfriend Paul, along with seeing Ted, Tbear, Derek, Brian Kong, Sara Richard, and others. Little if any non-sports as others have mentioned so kudos to Derek and Tbear for doing their part. We were on our feet just about the entire day and it was a late night as I didn't get home much before 11 due to travel problems (sorry Alan my bad!) so I slept well last night!

There were a few autographs I could have got from this show. Some good signers. This is a Typical British Show (Memorabilia & Collectormania) although Collectormania is free to enter.

quote:

Originally posted by hammer:
There were a few autographs I could have got from this show. Some good signers. This is a Typical British Show (Memorabilia & Collectormania) although Collectormania is free to enter.

This one was far from free!


Batman, I think you hit the nail right no the head. Big signers is awesome, but it severely cuts into or takes away from everyone else setting up at the show, and is unfortunately reflected on ticket pricing. Instead of a happy medium, it seems like they're putting all their eggs in the celebrity basket.

quote:

Originally posted by Ted Dastick Jr.:

quote:

Originally posted by hammer:
There were a few autographs I could have got from this show. Some good signers. This is a Typical British Show (Memorabilia & Collectormania) although Collectormania is free to enter.

This one was far from free!


Batman, I think you hit the nail right no the head. Big signers is awesome, but it severely cuts into or takes away from everyone else setting up at the show, and is unfortunately reflected on ticket pricing. Instead of a happy medium, it seems like they're putting all their eggs in the celebrity basket.

Memorabilia is far from free either

I enjoyed the show as well. It was cool to see all the celebrities. The artists area was great too and lots of great dealers as well. It was a shame and a bit disheartening to hear the artists and dealers saying they were not doing all that well though. There certainly were enough people there and Wizard's own press says it was "by far our biggest event there to date." As posted above, the line to pay $100 or $150 for a Chris Hemsworth autograph was mind-blowing, literally.

I put up some pictures (and a few from Alan as well) here:

Photos from Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Con

Here are some pictures from my weekend.

I had purchased the VIP pass for the CM Punk events so I was able to avoid the shockingly long lines that the general public had to go through that others already commented on.


I thought that I would miss the Stan Lee Q&A. But he showed up 20 minutes late. BTVS's Clare Kramer was the moderator.


Hayden Panettiere's Q&A


Chris Hemsworth's Q&A


Even though I had a VIP pass, I still waited about an hour to get CM Punk's autograph.


Then I waited about 90 minutes for the photo op.


He showed up about 30 minutes late to his Q&A. But he stayed for about 90 minutes. I think he had a lot of fun interacting with us fans.


After eating two cheesesteaks from Jim's Steaks, I went back to the convention only to find out that Jackie Martling's comedy show had been cancelled.


I'm not really a HUGE fan but it would have been a cool way to end Day 1.

Day 2 started with a sandwich from Dinic's. At the convention, I shopped around for comics and deals. I spent $30 on some Harry Dresden comics and a few Game of Throne variants.

I only attended two programs on Sunday. The first was a Spartacus Q&A with Katrina Law (Mira), Lesley-Ann Brandt (Naevia) & Craig Parker (Glaber).


The second program was for the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival. They played the documentary "Dirty Hands: The Art & Crimes of David Choe". Choe is known for the cover of the Jay-Z/Linkin Park album. He's also known for taking Facebook stock in lieu of payment for the mural he painted for their headquarters. The pre-IPO value is estimated at $200 million!

Overall, I was very satisfied. I got what I paid for which was a guaranteed autograph & photo with CM Punk and priority seating for his Q&A. But I can't help but feel a bit underwhelmed. I posted 29 pictures from NYCC last October ( http://nonsportupdate.infopop....711/m/7557095016/p/2 ). This time, I can only share 9. There were no non-sport cards or promos either.

Thanks a lot for sharing your pictures chen12. You got some really good shots.

quote:

Originally posted by chen12:
I posted 29 pictures from NYCC last October. This time, I can only share 9.

I think it is BS how much they regulate picture taking. I understand that they want you to pay for pictures with the celebs and they don't want your friend to "randomly" take a picture with you while you are talking to the celeb, but I don't understand how Wizard ACTIVELY discourages photo taking. It seems to just create more bad will among their potential customers more than encourage people to buy their VIP tickets.

Nice reports and pics! Thanks for sharing.

Here are the only pics I came home with:

Me with Stan Lee

Thanks to my cousin for getting this pic! The guys were yelling at him the whole time "No pictures!!" So glad he was able to.


The drawing I had Stan Lee sign



Lloyd Kaufman of Troma Movies

Thanks to everyone for sharing their pictures.

Ted - great drawing, glad that you were able to get it signed and that your cousin was able to snap a photo.