Wizard World Big Apple Comic Con 2009: A Review

The Wizard World Big Apple Comic Con was held on Pier 94, 55TH Street at 12th Avenue in Manhattan on October 16 to 18, 2009.

The Big Apple Shows were started in 1996 by Mike Carbonaro. They were originally held in the basement of a church near Columbus Circle, and later moved to the Penn Plaza Pavilion near Madison Square Garden. The show was bought out this year by Wizard Magazine.

Under Wizard, the show has been moved to Pier 94. In one respect, this is a definite improvement, as it is a much larger space. The Big Apple show became notorious during their church basement years for cramming as many guests and comic book dealers into as little space as possible. The problem was alleviated somewhat by moving to Penn Plaza, but even then it seemed the show was determined to fill the space beyond maximum capacity. In that regard, Pier 94 in an improvement.

Unfortunately, the location of Pier 94 is not ideal. The church and the Penn Plaza Pavilion were both located right near subway and bus lines, making access easy. In contrast, Pier 94 is a five block walk from the nearest subway line. And it was a long walk, especially that weekend, which was cold, windy, rainy, and generally nasty.

Pier 94 is sort of an upside down "T" shape. And, unfortunately, Artists Alley, where the majority of the comic book creators were seated, was all the way in the back, at the base of the "T." So who was up front? "Special celebrity guests", that's who. There were a score of television and B-movie actors from Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, the sixties Batman show, and various other things. There were a bunch of wrestlers, and several people from realty TV shows. Of course, there were a number of sexy pin-up girls & models. Oh, yes, and notorious baseball player Pete Rose was there, too.

You already had these type of media guests at the Big Apple show in the past, but it was on a much smaller scale. But Wizard really turned it up to eleven. I'm not surprised. Wizard is sort of the comic book journalism equivalent of Maxim, i.e. a men's magazine with a major focus on pop culture, with lots of T&A content. Although in Wizard's case, they are geared more towards teenage boys than guys old enough to drink.

Okay, I'll admit, I enjoy collecting the occasional signed photo from actors. I usually like getting ones from individuals who have played villains or supporting roles, since those are usually the more interesting parts than the leads anyway. At this show I did get an autographed photo from David Hedison. After all, he played the role of the doomed scientist in the classic horror film The Fly. He was in the entertaining television series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. He played Felix Leiter twice in the James Bond films, including in the much-underrated License to Kill. And he's done dozens of other jobs on stage, screen, and TV over the decades. So, yeah, it was a thrill to meet him.

As far as actual comic book related guests went, once you managed to make your way back to Artists Alley, there were a good number of prominent, talented creators, as well as several small press & independent artists. I was glad they weren't left out in the shuffle. Sometimes the most talented creators are the ones who are not working for Marvel or DC Comics. I got a number of books signed, and had several nice sketches done by the artists. Among the numerous guests at the show who I spotted were creators Joe Kubert, Neal Adams, Jerry Robinson, Adam Hughes, Jim Steranko, Herb Trimpe, Jim Calafiore, Tim Vigil, Billy Tucci, Stephane Roux, Eric Canete, Mark Texeira, and Mike McKone.

Unfortunately, one guest who I was really looking forward to meet who did not show up was Paul Cornell. Apparently, Wizard invited him, and then subsequently failed to arrange for him to be flown in from Britain. Which became quite odd when I ran into Rich Johnston, online comic book columnist for Bleeding Cool and occasional comic book writer, who told me that Wizard arranged for him to be flown in from Britain to the States to cover the Big Apple show.

Now this makes no sense. I mean absolutely no offence to Rich Johnston. His online columns have entertained me for years, he wrote a truly mind-bendingly bizarre Doctor Who comic book entitled "Room With A Déjà Vu," and he's a genuinely nice guy. But Paul Cornell, in addition to writing several Doctor Who novels and television episodes, some of which have been nominated for Hugo Awards, is also the writer of Captain Britain, Young Avengers, and Dark X-Men for Marvel Comics. So if Wizard was able to fly in Rich Johnston, they certainly should have been able to also bring in a prominent author such as Paul Cornell. They really dropped the ball on that one.

More than one person described the Big Apple show as "a bootleg New York Comic Con." The New York Comic Con is the first truly large, well-organized comic convention in New York City in over a decade, and has been held annually at the Jacob Javits Convention Center for the past four years. A lot of people felt that Wizard was shooting to duplicate the scope and success of the New York Comic Con, but fell sort in more than a few areas.

The next New York Comic Con is scheduled for October 8 to 10, 2010. And when is the next Wizard Big Apple show to be held? On October 7 to 10, 2010. Yes, that's correct, Wizard is positioning itself to be in direct competition to the New York Comic Con.

Um, no. I don't think that's going to fly. If it comes down to a choice between the two, I'm definitely going to the New York Comic Con in October of next year. And several people I spoke with agreed with me. I am not sure what Wizard expects to happen. At best, they'll get a bunch of people coming in on Thursday October 7th, and then for the rest of the weekend attendance will be split between the two shows. At worst, Wizard could end up getting crushed.

And how is this going to work in terms of comic book companies and creators? Are Marvel and DC going to spring for booths at both shows? How are creators going to decide which show to attend? Wizard is, for better or for worse, the largest comic book industry publication. They do seem to wield a certain amount of influence in the biz. This is just pure speculation on my part, but I could easily foresee some sort of conflict of interest. Wizard could hypothetically tell such-and-such high-profile creator "Do our show instead of the New York Comic Con, or we will no longer promote you in our pages." Even if that does not happen, the whole situation creates the appearance of impropriety. People will speculate, rumors will circulate.

Wizard may think they're engaging in healthy economic competition with the New York Comic Con, but I just cannot imagine this ending well, one way or another.

In conclusion, the Wizard World Big Apple Comic Con was enjoyable, but also flawed. If Wizard wants to compete with the New York Comic Con, they still have a lot of work ahead of them.