Continuing his march to the sea, grading and slabbing everything in his path, Gareb Shamus has added a stop on his pop culture tour in Cincinnati, Ohio with the Cincinnati Comic Con Wizard World Convention. PR in the jump, but the Shamus/Wizard brand acquired the existing Cincinnati Comic & Anime Show which ran once, last year, with an expected attendance of 1000 and 50 dealers. Here’s a report.

The Wizard North American tour comprises 10 different shows and the schedule stands as follows:
Wizard World Comic Con Tour:
March 26-28, 2010, Toronto Comic Con, Direct Energy Centre
April 16-18, 2010, Anaheim Comic Con, Anaheim Convention Center
June 11-13, 2010, Philadelphia Comic Con, Philadelphia Convention Center
August 19-22, 2010, Chicago Comic Con, Donald E. Stephens (Rosemont) Convention Center
October 7-10, 2010, Big Apple Comic Con, Pier 94
October 15-17, 2010, New Jersey Comic Con, New Jersey Convention and Expo Center
November 12-14, 2010, Austin Comic Con, Austin Convention Center
Atlanta Comic Con, TBD
Cincinnati Comic Con, TBD
New England Comic Con, TBD

With three cons to be scheduled, the obvious openings are May and July — what show gets to go against mighty San Diego? Word on the grapevine is that Shamus hopes to run a show a month, and he’s well on his way to that goal.
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The Angoulême comics festival wrapped up over the weekend, with the Grand Prix being presented to Baru, a well-respected French cartoonist whose genre-spanning career is the kind of thing the French do way better than us.

The Comics Reporter has the rest of the prize winners here. Winners include Riad Sattouf and Joe Daly, but please go check out the entire list before we spoil it for you.

More from the fest:
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Franco Aureliani, Jimmy Cheung, Frank Cho, Geof Darrow, David Finch, Ron Garney, Adam Hughes, Greg Land, and Paul Pelletier have all been announced as guests at C2E2, the Chicago convention taking place April 16 -18. While the list of guests includes many familiar con-going faces, Ware hasn’t appeared at a mainstream comics show in quite a while, so even though he’s local, getting him to the show is a bit of a coup. Complete list and PR in the jump.
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Wes Tillander, the previous owner of the Atlanta Comic Convention, sent out a press release clearing up the fact that he’ll still be running three of his smaller shows a year, and he has a contract to prove it. Text below:

I’M WESLEY TILLANDER, FOUNDER OF THE 15 YEAR OLD (4 TIMES A YEAR ) ATLANTA COMIC CONVENTION.CALLED “THE BEST ONE DAY SHOW IN THE SOUTH!” . WHEN  WIZARD WORLD RELEASED THE ANNOUNCEMENT THAT THEY PURCHASED MY SHOW…I HAVE HAD OVER 100 EMAILS AND PHONE CALLS WONDERING IF THE ONE DAY SHOW IS GONE…IT IS NOT…

    IF YOU HAVENT HEARD WIZARD HAS BOUGHT ONE…..ONE ….OF THE ATLANTA COMIC CONVENTIONS 4 SHOWS A YEAR….THEY ARE LOOKING NOW FOR A DATE… THE WIZARD SHOW WILL BE CALLED THE “ATLANTA COMIC CON..WIZARD WORLD” AND WILL BE A 3 DAY SHOW. THE OTHER 3 ONE DAY ATLANTA COMIC CONVENTION  SHOWS WILL GO ON AS USUAL THROUGHOUT THE YEAR …
 
   AT THE END OF THIS EMAIL , IM GOING TO INCLUDE THE SECTION OF THE CONTRACT I SIGNED /WITH SHAMUS –WIZARD WORLD DETAILING THE SITUATION AND MY INVOLVEMENT WITH THE WIZARD SHOW TO CLEAR UP THE SITUATION
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With this thrilling poster by Daniel Clowes leading the charge as it cleaves its way across the internet, a new website for theToronto Comic Arts Festival has launched. Guests for the show include Clowes, James Sturm, and more, with more to come. Exciting!

After a few false starts, Gareb Shamus/Wizard World’s slate of media conventions has announced an expansion to Atlanta, date and venue TBA. The new Atlanta Comic Con Wizard World Convention takes over the Atlanta Comics Convention, which is run by retailer Wes Tillander. The show will expand from its present one-day status to a full-blown three-day affair.

For those of you keeping score, the Wizard World lineup as it now stands:

Wizard World Comic Con Tour:
March 26-28, 2010,Toronto Comic Con, Direct Energy Centre
April 16-18, 2010, Anaheim Comic Con, Anaheim Convention Center
June 11-13, 2010, Philadelphia Comic Con, Philadelphia Convention Center
August 19-22, 2010, Chicago Comic Con, Donald E. Stephens (Rosemont) Convention Center
October 7-10, 2010, Big Apple Comic Con, Pier 94
November 12-14, 2010, Austin Comic Con, Austin Convention Center
Atlanta Comic Con, TBD
New England Comic Con, TBD

As you can see, the roster is getting busy, and more venues are under consideration.

Also, Dork Shelf has a podcast interview with Gareb Shamus on the Toronto con.

Gareb Shamus announced today that he acquired and will produce the Atlanta Comic Convention, now renamed Atlanta Comic Con Wizard World Convention.

“The spirit of the Atlanta convention was very much in line with our own shows. The fans in Georgia appreciate the festival feel of this show,” Shamus, CEO of New York-based Wizard Entertainment said. “The fans here are savvy, and they are ready for the evolution of their con.”

Founded in 1994 by 20-year comic veteran Wes Tillander, the Atlanta Comic Convention showcases comics, cards, prints, gaming artwork, videos, toys, manga, anime, statues, new artists, book signings and much more.

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Diamond and Wizard have renewed their age old pact with Diamond’s commitment to giving retailers drinks and snacks at June’s Philadelphia Comic Con, this press release tells us. Diamond will sponsor a hospitality suite at the show. Read on with an UPDATED press release.

Diamond Comic Distributors and Wizard Entertainment announced today a renewal of its strategic partnership, with several new initiatives planned for 2010. The first event for both companies will be tied to Wizard’s Philadelphia Comic Con, with Diamond hosting a trade only event for retailers.  

At Wizard’s Philadelphia Comic Con, Diamond will host a hospitality suite where retailers can meet one-on-one with Diamond customer service and sales representatives, as well as schedule exclusive demos on Diamond’s point-of-sale program, ComicSuite.

“Wizard remains an important vendor for Diamond and its comic book retail accounts,” said Diamond’s VP-Purchasing, Bill Schanes. “We look forward to working together more closely in the coming year, with special events and publishing projects that will help retailers sell more products.”

 

“I am proud of my 20 year friendship with Diamond – Steve Geppi, Bill Schanes, Roger Fletcher, and the rest of the Diamond crew,” said Wizard CEO, Gareb Shamus. “By using the combination of Wizard, ToyFare, FunFare and or our ever expanding comic con tour, we are now able to host Diamond retailers.”

 

In 2009, Wizard was a top ten publisher to the comic book specialty market, according to Diamond’s year-end market share, and continues to provide successful publications and products for the comics industry. Additional projects are slated between the two companies, with details to be announced at a later date.

 

Wizard’s Philadelphia Comic Con is scheduled for June 11-13, 2010 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Retailers will join with tens of thousands of fans to converge at Philadelphia Comic Con 2010 to celebrate what’s great in pop culture: Movies, Comics, Toys, Video Gaming, Games, TV, Anime, Manga, Horror, Wrestling, MMA, Original Art, Collectibles, and more!

Quite a few people announced today or yesterday that one-day Saturday tickets at the San Diego Comic-con had sold out. It actually sold out on December 18th when we made the screen shot below:

We haven’t been publicizing the availability of single day tickets here, both to avoid ay kind of rush, and because of our own pool to see who comes closest to guessing when the show sells out entirely. As of today, Friday is looking to go very very soon.

Despite the increasingly crowded confines of the SD convention center for Comic-Con, a planned expansion is still up in the air, and there will be fewer conventions overall in SD in 2010, as the crap economy takes a toll. All of you San Diego scholars will want to read the whole article (and the bitchy comments), but the main takeaway is that nerd con is still not considered a top revenue source for the county:

San Diego, the forecast noted, continues to be a beneficiary of the strong medical and health care sectors, which this year will be the source of 16 conventions. Two of those, the Society for Neuroscience and the American Society of Anesthesiologists, are among the 25 largest medical meetings in the nation, according to the report.

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The Long Beach Comic Con, which ran a successful first time 3-day show last October, has announced a one-day show for Saturday February 20 at the Long Beach Convention Center. Aspen Entertainment and Top Cow have been announced as companies exhibiting, along with several dealers.

Just as a reminder, one-day passes go on sale for the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con today.

Will they sell out today, tomorrow, in March? We were toying of the idea of a pool in the comments thread and whoever gets closest to the time we post our “SOLD OUT IN SAN DIEGO” announcement wins a stack of books. Who wants to play along?

RULES: The date is the day ALL PASSES ARE SOLD OUT, and I post about it — Meaning ALL FOUR DAYS are sold out. To keep things fair, I won’t monitor this thread at all, and after I post, I’ll get a third party to be the judge of who wins.

I expect Saturday to go pretty fast (because they don’t know) and probably Sunday the last if the past is any guide. However maybe I’m all wrong and no one will buy a pass until the schedule is announced.

HAW HAW HAW

UPDATE: This contest ends tomorrow at NOON! he thread will be closed and preserved for all time.

With the successful completion of the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival this past weekend, the New York con scene has finally rolled up its carpet and winterized the boats. But for those of you who just can’t get enough wandering around a room filled with longboxes and husky men named Paulie, you are in luck! YOU only have two months to wait until the next show! February 27th will see an all-new comics show take place:Mike Carbo’s New York Comic Book Marketplace.

Given the generous hints — quotes about the the Big Apple Con and, oh okay, the name Mike Carbo itself — it’s easy to see this is a continuation of the old Big Apple cons, a dealer-friendly show in the old timey comics collector tradition. It’s MIke Carbonaro, of course, who sold the Big Apple name to Gareb Shamus, but he’s free to run a non competitive show and this is it.

But just to wrap up everything about the past year in New York cons in one bright, shiny, sweaty package, wait until you see the venue for the new NYCBM?
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Despite our best intentions, we just couldn’t drag ourselves out of the house for King Con this weekend. We were physically unable to do more than have an “I can’t get out of bed” type weekend. Those who did seem to have had universally positive vibes over it, despite some organizational snafus. While the event was definitely scaled back from some initial hopes, based on comments, it seems to have been a pleasant, laid back atmosphere to get to see a lot of up-and-coming artists who are part of the modern, web-friendly generation.

From what we heard there wasn’t a huge crowd or huge sales but it was nice. Some reviews:

Jimmy Aquino from whom we took the above picture:

More people should check out small shows like this as they are more of a representation of the love of making comics. As I’ve said in the past, I tend to purchase more at these smaller shows as well. Support small press! While I buy a ton of mainstream books, I tend to remember the more personal stories out there.

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King Con, a new Brooklyn-themed convention, kicks off this weekend at the Lyceum, spotlighting the abundant cartooning talent of “America’s Fourth Largest City”. The guest list is very heavy on online folks — ComiXology, ACT-I-VATErs and Zudites — but that kind of points out where emerging and established cartoonists are hanging out these days. Other topliners include autiobio pioneer Harvey Pekar and author Jonathan Ames. Complete panel schedule is here.

The activities kick off tonight with a screening and party for THE ACT-I-VATE EXPERIENCE, a film about the web collective at the Lyceum. More info here.

We’ll be at the show tomorrow at least. We’re looking forward to a more relaxed gathering, and pound for pound, the guest lineup is a pretty exciting array of talent. Some peeps and their doings:

ACT-I-VATE
Becky Cloonan
Harvey Pekar
C.M.Butzer
Vanessa Satone
Eric Skillman
Raina Telgemeier
Alisa Harris
Brian Heater
Tim Hamilton
Seth Kushner
J.T. Yost

New York’s long schedule of comics conventions has its penultimate outing next weekend November 7-8, with Brooklyn’s King Con. The panel and guest lineup has been announced¸ including Al Jaffee, Harvey Pekar, Peter Kuper, Jonathan Ames, Cliff Chiang, and more. It’s worth the trip just to listen to Al Jaffee.

Well, it’s been a busy week in the ongoing (choose one):

a) war between Reed Exhibitions and Wizard/Gareb Shamus

b) “flaming Viking Death Ship” for Wizard/Gareb Shamus

And some kind of roundup post seemed warranted. While we’ve been on semi-vacation, Sean T. Collins and Rich Johnston did the heavy lifting of finding posts and messages now deleted. But a few lagniappes, as it were, remain to, perhaps, garnish the story.

If you’re sick of all this already, then pass by, unmolested. If you have a strong stomach and a few minutes…click on the more link.
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And on the West coast, it’s the Bellingham ComiCon at the Hampton Inn’s Fox Room, with guests Paul Chadwick, Michel Gagne, Brandon Jerwa, and more. Canadian currency accepted for admittance!

Add some comics to your pumpkin beer and leaf peeping at this weekend’s Boston Comic Con at the Back Bay Events Center, Guests include Walt and Louise Simonson, Greg Darrow, Ming Doyle, Khoi Pham, Cliff Chiang, and lots more.

Send us piccies!

Yesterday’s announcement that next year’s Big Apple Comic-Con was planned for the exact same dates at New York Comic-Con unleashed a firestorm of opinion and a wee bit of acrimony as well. As we reported earlier, what’s shaping up is a Con War between the Gareb Shamus-owned slate of shows — Chicago Comic-Con, Wizard World Philadelphia, Anaheim Comic-Con, Big Apple Comic-Con and Toronto Comic-Con — and a group of shows owned by Reed Exhibitions (a sister company of Publishers Weekly, host of this blog), which include the New York Comic-Con, New York Anime Fest, and the new C2E2. Here’s Friday’s developments:

The New York Comic-Con’s director Lance Fensterman responded at Newsarama, sounding a bold stance:

“We confidently welcome any competition, whomever they may be,” was the response of Reed Exhibitions, in light of Friday’s surprise news that Gareb Shamus’ Big Apple Con will to head-to-head in 2010 with Reed’s New York Comic-Con & Anime Fest.

…”New York Comic Con is without question the second largest pop culture event in North America with a legitimate attendance of 77,000 last February,” continued Lance Fensterman, Reed’s Vice President, Publishing and Pop Culture and show manager of the New York events. “In 2010 the event will grow to occupy nearly the entire Javits Center – nearly 750,000 gross square feet and also host the New York Anime Fest.

“With 51 other open weekends on the calendar, it’s a curious decision to run an event that aspires to be similar to NYCC on the exact same weekend, but that is a question that the creators, fans, and publishers will answer…Or already have with 60% of the enlarged NYCC already sold with still 12 months to go. I think this speaks for itself in terms of the support from all corners of the industry.”

At his own blog, Fensterman posted that hostilities had escalated at the show, with several Reed Exhibition employees escorted from the floor:
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According to handouts at this weekend’s Big Apple Con, next year’s show is being held October 7-10 — the exact same dates as the long announced New York Comic-Con.
Accidents do happen, but it’s pretty incredible that the only date available for the Big Apple show was…the same dates as the second-biggest show in the US?

Is that even feasible?

Industry observers are already reacting with shock to the announcement. In a huge market that clearly loves comics, a spring or summer date would make a lot of sense. But going up against another, established show that has a great deal of good will on its side seems…well, odd. The idea of exhibitors and guests having to choose between two concurrent shows is also…mind boggling.

CBR has more and some analysis

With so many non-comics-related media guests, some commenters have speculated that Shamus’ shows would try to avoid direct competition with conventions like NYCC or Comic-Con International in San Diego by virtue of offering less of a comics focus (a view supported by promotional newspaper stories hitting this past week). However, with a four-day show planned at the same time as next year’s expansive NYCC convention (this years’ Big Apple show runs Friday to Sunday), it appears as though Shamus and company will attempt to at least capitalize on the reputation of NYCC, if not directly try to steal some of the shows thunder.

Developing.

Even as we type, the Big Apple Comic-Con has kicked off over in the unknown lands of Pier 92. While a pier on the river on a raw, blustery day sounds like a challenging place to be, based on the pictures now coming over Twitter, people are already lining up for the autographs.

As you can see from the link, the Big Apple is a wonderland for celebrity autographs; co-guests of honor Jim Lee and Joe Quesada provide some comic book content. There’s even a Wax Steven Spielberg, casting calls, and all sorts of other events and to dos, including parties featuring Naughty by Nature (tonight) and Taylor Dayne (tomorrow).

Here’s a story from New Jersey News Room on the show and owner Gareb Shamus..

Variety has more on the recent launch of GeekchicDaily, a joint venture between Shamus, producer Peter Guber and electronic entrepreneur Peter Levin which ahs already raised $1 million in venture capital:

By focusing on all areas, GeekChicDaily’s founders believe they can attract a demo that advertisers are hungry to reach with their marketing messages. The site should especially appeal to Hollywood’s studios and TV networks, who have upped their presence at fan conventions around the country to give first looks at their movies and TV shows in hopes of generating positive word-of-mouth.

“We think (GeekChicDaily) is a wanted commodity for an underserved constituency,” Levin said. “We want to give them stuff they would love to read but don’t want to spend the time searching for.”

The focused newsletter concept has been successful for DailyCandy, which has signed 3 million subscribers since it launched in 2000, with brief pieces on shopping, products and dining. Comcast paid $125 million to buy the venture in 2008.

Here’s some more pictures from the floor. Love the hobbit in #2!