Comics (in)Fest

Denver had an event called "ComicsFest", last weekend and it was a little bit of a disappointment. Located across the street from a concurrent Sci-Fi fest, it was basically some vendors and a few c-level "creators". I steered clear of the Sci-Fi fest, but of course a few of them wandered over (even some dork in a Klingon costume).

"ComicsFest" was set in a room about the size of the average garage, with room for one person to walk down each aisle. It was very hard to look through each vendor's comics. Especially when everyone was wearing a winter parka..and some with giant backpacks. I sorta' felt like I was suffocating.

Outside the room, they had the "creators" crammed in a hallway. Again, ONE person could pass through. The only name I recognized was Mike Baron, and he was selling autographed trade paperbacks of his stuff. A buncha' zombie and vampire artists, too. Including some chick who was the "star" of a direct-to-DVD feature called "Zombiez in my Colon" or some crap. Uh huh...I'm sure her clothes stay on through the entire film.

The admittance fee was WAY overpriced and the staff was worthless. I was stupid and actually asked to pay for an admittance wristband. Nobody checked wristbands and I could've walked right in and saved myself ten bucks. The guy who took my money was all sorts of stupid. He didn't explain what I was paying for, I had to ask him for the freebies (all of TWO folded/stapled pamphlets), where the main room was, and if I could have a bag.

I spent 17 bucks and got 48 comics. Mostly the random cheesy junk that I like. Although I went to one dork and sifted through his 50 cent box... I picked up a recent "justice league of america" so I could have some more hate-fodder. The guy immediately jumped on me and said "If you want an autographed version of that, we've got one! Cuz' we MET Brad Meltzer!!!" The man had waited his whole life to brag about that worthless fact.

BFD...I've met Sgt. Slaughter, ya' schmuck. I don't get the whole fanboy "We've got autographed comics" deal. I mean, if I have an issue of Amazing Spider-Man, I want it autographed by Spider-Man. Since that's impossible, I don't want my comic signed by someone who is NOT Spider-Man. That's like getting the production man at Topps Baseball to sign an Albert Pujols baseball card. Although my buddy and I did find a Superman book that was "autographed" by Clark Kent.

Better organization and a larger venue and this "ComicFest" could be something worthwhile. All the money they spent on getting shitty vampire artists could've been applied to organization and a better facility. The fan-base is there, but the organizers are apparently uber-cheap and went with the cheapest ballroom they could score. On the positive side--at least it wasn't a Super 8. Not everybody can be San Diego Comic-Con, but even when that was starting out, it was located in a fairly sizable downtown hotel.