Wizard Bans Ex-Staffer From Con Without Explanation

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If you wanted any more evidence as to how petty Wizard can be … via Tom Spurgeon comes word that Steven Hoveke, former Wizard staffer and current publisher of Square1Press, was banned from Wizard World Philly. He had a table in Artists’ Alley, where he was selling sketchbooks for Walter Simonson and Howard Chaykin, and he appeared there all day Friday. When he returned Saturday, he was denied entry without being given a reason.

Later he Twittered that he was told that it was because of his association with Long Beach Comic Con, a competing show to Wizard’s delayed-and-not-yet-rescheduled Wizard World LA con. LBCC is run by other former Wizard employees. No word on whether Wizard is reimbursing him for expenses, like table fees, after banning him.

There’s another interesting mention in Hoveke’s blog post, about how Wizard tries to have everything their way, screwing up his plans:

Howard Chaykin, after having been tricked by Wizard, had to sign all day at the Dynamite Entertainment booth, apparently as some sort of deal setup to lure Dynamite to the show, as they were not going to setup there, or at least not as big a setup as they had this weekend. He had fixed the gitch tho, and was all set to sign in AA the rest of the show with Walter Simonson, our other attending artist.

What right does Wizard have to promise artist’s time to other publishers in order to secure their attendance? I can understand having certain obligations, if Wizard paid for Chaykin to attend, but an all-day signing? That’s excessive.



3 comments

  • Wow…not that I needed any other reasons to hit the Long Beach con, pettiness by Wizard World against them more or less clinches the deal.

    Seriously, if you leave a market (I’ll believe “postponed” over “canceled” when they announce a date) and someone else steps in, they’re not a nasty evil competitor. Not that I’d consider even that grounds for ejection.

    Seriously, Wizard, WTF?

  • Metal MIsfit

    Nothing bad this company ever does surprises me anymore. So many good people have worked at that company, but none of them are calling the shots these days.

  • “Howard Chaykin, after having been tricked by Wizard, had to sign all day at the Dynamite Entertainment booth, apparently as some sort of deal setup to lure Dynamite to the show, as they were not going to setup there, or at least not as big a setup as they had this weekend. He had fixed the gitch tho, and was all set to sign in AA the rest of the show with Walter Simonson, our other attending artist.”

    I’d like to clarify here, and Steve’s a friend, so no disrespect intended and Howard’s a legend, so no disrespect intended there either, but the confusion about Howard’s spot was not due to anyone at Wizard. It was always our intention to have Howard upfront with us and any confusion comes down to miscommunication between us at Dynamite and Howard, but no fault to Wizard on this one…

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