Closing Thoughts

Based on the tone of these articles it should come as no surprise that Wizard World St. Louis was a resounding success in my eyes.  That doesn’t mean that everything was done right and that there is no room for improvement though.  The biggest disappointment about this convention was the lack of current comic talent.  With a few notable exceptions they were unable to get current creators and most of the panels being hosted were based on nostalgia and not current comic news.  I understand that Wizard and the big two are not on the best of terms and this certainly showed with their notable absence.  Besides the big two they also did not have presence from Image, Boom, or IDW.  I enjoy Indie comics and while having Big Dog Ink there was notable for me it is unlikely most attendees had ever heard of them.

I am unsure if the prices of the concession were determined by the venue or by the convention planners, but they were unacceptably high.  I worked at a Six Flags as a teenager and do frequent movie theaters so I am no stranger to high price food and drinks.  Even I was unwilling to pay $5 for a 32oz fountain soda.  I refused to spend anything on concessions after seeing their price and from talking to other attendees I was not alone.  Local food chains within a few blocks of the convention center likely saw large increases in business during the convention.

There were two booths at the convention selling bootleg DVDs.  Many of the shows they were selling had never been released on DVD, but they were available for sale at these booths with homemade covers and burned DVDs with the disk number as the only label.  I have no idea how these booths were able to operate since their products seemed to be blatantly illegal.  This isn’t the first time I’ve seen these kinds of sellers, but it is the first time I have seen them at an official convention.  I would have loved to have owned some of the series they were selling, but I was unwilling to pay retail price for something burned in someone’s basement.  The high pressure salesmen with accents so strong you could barely understand them didn’t help my discomfort.  That doesn’t even get into my personal feelings on bootlegs.

To end my closing thoughts on a more positive note I was amazed at the turnout for this convention.  It was nice to spend three days surrounded by fellow geeks and to be able to have the kind of geek culture conversations that you don’t often get in every day life.  I don’t know how many people were local and how many drove in, but we all braved the snow and crowds to experience this and I am grateful that they finally brought it to St. Louis.  I hope this shows the country that we have a solid base of geeks here that are hungry for this type of convention.

Only a week after the convention and details are already being finalized for next year’s convention.  Daryl, Merle, and Shane from Walking Dead have already signed on for 2014.  From a Comic Book Talent standpoint 12 time Eisner award winner Mike Mignola will be a featured guest.  It is my hope that next year will be bigger and better.  Either way I will be increasing my coverage with more details, more pictures, and video.

The Costume Contest

The costume contest was one of the best organized and fastest moving I have been to.  There were approximately 200 contestants and the line to get into the room twisted around two halls.  Despite this once the contest started there was no delays.  The contestants were sent down the isles and told to stop and pose at three strategic locations allowing for the crowd to take up close pictures.  They were to watch the next square and move to it as soon as the person in front of them was done.  The final stop was on stage next to the judges.

The judges each added to the entertainment of the contest.  They were Jason David Frank, Brimstone, Jesse Snider(son of Dee Snider from Twisted Sister), and a special guest from within the cosplay scene.  The host was Jerrie “The Diffuser” Crippen winner of the reality TV series “Stan Lee’s Who Wants to be a Superhero?” Season 2.  Crippen found a good balance of banter with the judges and contestants throughout the competition and made sure that the line was always moving.  With his direction they made it through all 200 contestants in just about an hour.

Immediately after all contestants had been seen everyone was sent out of the room and encouraged to attend the after party.  The judges went through their notes and made their decision once the room was cleared and then Crippen announced the winners onstage at the party.  This allowed for a faster contest as well.  For those like me that were not interested in the after party this led to waiting around for the announcements in a very loud and crowded area.  This was the only real drawback I had for the costume contest other than my camera batter dieing half way though it.

There were male and female categories for best villain and best hero as well as a single best hero group, best villain group, and best in show.  There was a separate contest for children so these were adult only contests.  You could see a strong video game influence as there were multiple groups dressed as characters from Borderlands 2 and Team Fortress.  I lost track of just how many people were dressed as a character from Assassin’s Creed.

Some of the highlights of the costume contest for me:

• Some of the costumes were extremely impressive, but it was the showmanship that really pushed certain contestants over the top.  The best example of this was the man dressed as the Jack Nicholson Joker from the Museum scene in the 1989 “Batman The Motion Picture.”  He danced down the isle spinning and shaking his cane just like Nicholson.  This combination of appearance and attitude won him best solo male villain.
• There was a Doctor Who with a homemade K9 that he dragged behind him.  The costume was not the greatest, but his K9 was very impressive.
• The guy dressed as Kato was very acrobatic and did rolls down the isle.  This led to an on stage jump kick-off with Jason David Frank.  It was truly a highlight to see the original Green Ranger performing jump kicks on stage.
• Vampire Mary Poppins.   Pictures simply do not do her costume justice.  Her makeup and prosthetics were as good as anything seen on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  She had her umbrella up as she walked down the isle and was in character the whole contest.
• By having the contestants walk down the isles everyone in the audience had a chance to see the costumes up close and get posed pictures of them.  Also as they explained the rules of the contest they mentioned that there was a time when the winner was just the woman who showed the most skin.  They went over how they avoid that now and try to give fair and measured scores.  From beginning to end logistically they demonstrated that they knew how to run a well organized contest.
• The Predator costumes were amazing with enough detail that they could take the outer masks off and have snarling faces underneath.
• Green Arrow had the boxing glove arrow and shot it off on stage.  He then fumbled through his quiver until pulling out an arrow with handcuffs attached to the end.  It was so cheesy I couldn’t help but love it.

The Celebrities

In the back of the Vendor Hall there was a section of tables with rope lines setup for Wizard World’s celebrity guests.  These tables were used for autographs and pictures were explicitly forbidden in this area.  Some of the celebrities also had paid meet and greet sessions as well as free Q&A sessions.  There were also panels and events certain celebrities took part in.  The Celebrity list included:

• Stan Lee
• Lou Ferrigno(The Incredible Hulk)
• Dean Cain(Superman from The New Adventures of Lois and Clark)
• John Shea(Lex Luthor on The New Adventures of Lois and Clark)
• Billy Dee Williams(Lando Calrissian from Star Wars)
• Laurie Holden(Andrea on The Walking Dead)
• Jason David Frank(The original Green Power Ranger)
• Henry Winkler(The Fonz)
• James Hong(Big Trouble in Little China)
• James Marsters(Buffy, Angel, Smallville, Torchwood, Caprica, and the narrator of the Dresden Files audiobooks)
• Juliet Landau(Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
• Morena Baccarin(Serenity, V)
• Randy Orton(Professional Wrestler)
• Tom Felton(Harry Potter)

Out of these one of the most popular guests was Jason David Frank.  Power Rangers will have their 20^th anniversary this year so the demographic of children who were watching the show when it was first run are the perfect age to be convention attendees.  Jason David Frank has been a ranger on more seasons than any other actor and brought actual martial arts skills to a set of actors.  Since they did not have much footage of the original Green Ranger he also spent more time in costume than any other actor.  He almost single handedly set the tone for all future Power Ranger seasons and actors.  Meeting him at the convention I was surprised by how quickly he became one of my favorite guests as well.

Frank had a meet & greet, Q&A, held a karate class, and was a guest judge in the costume contest.  I will get into his performance at the costume contest in tomorrows article, but I will mention that he was one of the more energetic and amusing guests.  In his Q&A he was very open to questions and answered most of them with a joke or a funny story.  He came off as a celebrity that truly appreciated his fans and wanted to interact with them as much as possible.  He also more than most gave the impression that he knew how to enjoy himself and make the most out of his appearances while still not completely defining himself by a single role.

James Marsters was extremely amusing and had long stories for every question that was asked of him.  He was supposed to share photo opportunities and a Q&A with Juliet Landau, but she left early due to a prior commitment and fear of a sudden snow storm canceling flights out of St. Louis.   Masters stayed behind and signed autographs after his Q&A for as long as they would allow him despite the snow.

I did not have the opportunity to interact with most of the other celebrities, but James Marsters and Jason David Frank were really the two that made the biggest impressions on me.  They seemed to understand their fans and had a high level of respect for them.  They were true performers who made every moment entertaining.

The convention was less than a week ago, but they have already announced the first two celebrities for 2014.  The actors that play Merle and Daryl on the Walking Dead TV Show will both be as Wizard World next year.  Celebrity Guests have never been a big draw for me at conventions, but this year may have changed that.

The Vendor Hall and Artist Alley

The Vendor Hall took up the three largest rooms in the Convention center combined.  The first section was dedicated to the ticketing area.  There were ques for regular tickets, press, VIP, Special tickets, and Groupons.  These lines were almost always empty as the staff worked very quickly to process everyone and get them into the hall.  The main hall opened up to a large selection of vendors.  Past the venders was Artist Alley, comic creator guests, and a stage for taking pictures with cosplayers.  Finally the back area of the hall was dedicated to the celebrity guests.  Each guest had a table with it’s own line for autographs and there was a photo opportunity area shared by all against the far wall.  Restrooms and food vendors lined the outer walls.

There were a few vendors worth mentioning.  Big Dog Ink was handing out free first issues of two of their comic titles.  The Voltron Table overwhelmed me with nostalgia and had created custom USB keys shaped like the Lion Keys and loaded with Voltron digital media.  Brimstone comics were giving out samples of their BBQ and hot sauces and was manned by former professional wrestler Brimstone.  There was a table selling trades and hardbacks for $5, another table filled with quarter boxes, a Doctor Who booth, and more T-Shirts than I have ever seen in one place.    It took almost an hour to just walk the floor glancing at the tables not looking at anything too closely.

Many of the booths were clubs or organizations just there to talk to people.  ZOD was there teaching disaster preparedness through zombie apocalypse.  As an eye catcher though they also displayed weapons created for fighting zombies.  There was a baseball bat with a saw blade fastened to the end of it sitting right next to a zombie fighting robot that was still being constructed.  Not to be outdone the R2D2 building club had multiple R2s driving around the hall floor and was showing off the build process.  They are currently working on a Dalek as well.  The Ghostbusters club was showing off how they built movie quality proton packs and traps.  Whether your interest was steampunk, female geeks, or even haunted houses there was an organization there to talk to.

The highlight of the vendor hall for me was Artist Alley.  Over the course of the three days I had the opportunity to talk to Daredevil artist Chris Samnee for over an hour about Superman, conventions, fans, and just general chit chat.  He was a prime example of how a creator should behave at a convention.  He was humble and pleasant to talk to.  Fans tried to tip him for signing autographs and he told them there was no need because they were buying his books.  Artist Jorge Molina and writer Colin Bunn also showed similar positive interactions with fans.  While another creator on the floor was charging $20 to take a picture with them these creators were doing a real justice to their professions.

While there were countless pieces of art that tempted me I only bought two.  There was a sketch artist that met the perfect combination of skill and price for me to add two new purchases to my collection.  The first is a Christopher Reeve Superman sketch right out of Superman the Motion Picture.  Talking to the artist he shared my own frustration about most art being either overly posed or a fight scene.  Superman is a hero and should be seen saving people more often.  The other new addition to my collection is a sketch of Two-Face that was purchased for the sheer skill of it.

The Vendor Hall, while primarily being a place for retail, did have a good balance of things to see and people to talk to without feeling pressured to make a purchase.  This is important as other conventions I have attended have not had much more than vendors doing the hard sale in their Vendor Hall.  Like all vendor halls though there was one major downside.   The isles were roomy, but the hall was so crowed that I lost track of how many time people bumped into me.  Large backups for cosplay photos only made it harder to get around the floor.

Tomorrow I will get into more of the programming and celebrities of the convention.  For now please enjoy some more pictures from the convention floor.  Click on them to see the full size.

First Impressions, Venue, and Logistics

When I heard that St. Louis was getting a Wizard World convention I knew that I had to cover it for Funnybooks.  This was by far the largest comic book convention that St. Louis has hosted to date in regards to size and attendance.  Over the course of this week on the site I will be posting my coverage of this event with a new focus each day.  The short summery though is that the convention was a huge success with a very good turnout and they have just announced that it will return next year on April 4-6.

This was my first time attending a convention at the America’s Center.  Wizard World St. Louis took up most of the first floor and the official after party took up a large section of the upper floor.  The venue has large open foyers outside of the vendor hall and event rooms so there was always a place to go if you were feeling crowded.  Restrooms were available both inside the dealer room and throughout the venue.

Upon arrival I was met with a very long line in the hall.  I assumed that this was for people who still needed to get their tickets and continued on to the press booth.  This was the first thing that I will note that is different than any other convention I have attended.  They did not use the standard lanyards and badges that most conventions use, but instead used wristbands for access.  Since the convention was three days I was concerned about the band holding up, but it was a sturdy material that didn’t seem to mind getting wet.

After getting my wristband I discovered that the long line was actually for people who already had their bands and needed access to the floor.  Thankfully the line moved very quickly.  Attendees only needed to hold up their arms to display the armbands for access to the hall.  I was wearing a hoodie that continued to fall over my band, but I noticed that the vendor hall was the only place that they were checked.  No one looked for the bands when going to panels or other anything in the event rooms.  While I had initial concerns about the wristbands and having to wear it for three days the method did seem to allow for rapid entry to and from the main hall.

Like most large conventions the largest area was taken up by the Vendor Hall.  This area contained all the dealers, celebrity guests, artist alley, and even a stage for cosplayers to take pictures on.  Tomorrow I will go into more details about the Vendor Hall and Artist Alley.  One thing I do want to mention though is something I have never seen at a convention before.  As soon as you entered the Vender hall there was a section of couches and chairs for sitting.  Anyone who attends conventions knows that walking is one of the worst parts of a convention and by the end of the day your feet end up hurting.  I found this area to be very helpful for taking small breaks, looking through the calendar of events, and socializing with fellow attendees.  It is something that more conventions should look into providing.