It was absolutely packed with indie comic creators, and iirc, admission was $5.

The layout was not great- I spent four or five hours on Saturday going through artists’ alley and didn’t even make it through the whole thing. The one panel I did attend was comic-specific: Storytelling with Michael Golden, which was mildly informative.

This past winter, there was a great con in Orland Park, IL called Dan Con. It cost $2 to get in, there were a lot of comic dealers, and the artists’ alley was roughly equal in size to the dealer area. A lot of the artists there were selling creator-owned comics, and there were some relatively big names like Ben Templesmith and Tim Seeley. If you’re living in the midwest now, it might be worth checking out Dan Con 2013.

For Wizard World, I pack my own food and take public transit to get there, which cuts down on the cost significantly.

Jeff Moy and I started off the con together in the same horrible location that saw no traffic at all. We eventually both moved to better spots.

Even then, it was hard to interact with con-goers because of the horrible layout. People were packed in tight in some places and when any open aisle presented themselves they dashed through. That’s not exactly conducive to selling my original comics in a sea of non-licensed prints and t-shirts.

Typically WWC has been a good money making show for me. Not this year. If this new layout and focus is here to stay I won’t be going back. C2E2 is a much better show, more focused on comics and the Reed staff are loads more helpful than anyone at Wizard.

[...] about Wizard World yesterday, I realized that I never put together my comments on this year’s Heroes Convention [...]