Rant: Media Guests

[Trev]

So I stopped into a shop on the south side of Austin today that I frequent when I happen to return from work travel on a wednesday (Tribe Comics) and saw a poster for a show called Central Texas Comic and Toy Expo -- http://www.centexexpo.com/

This is like the 3 or 4th small show in the last year in the Austin/San Antonio area that has tried to leverage the current Wizard model of having primarily 'media' guests and charging high fees to get in -- in this case Michael Rooker could be said to be the headliner and it is $15 for 1 day or $25 for 2.

What you would need 2 days for at this show, I don't know.

This format is starting to drive me nuts -- there are more media guests than name comics creators and the booths will be crap. Maybe they'll get 2-3 local dealers and con a few collectors into paying too much for a table.

It is San Diego Lite Lite. I would just love there to be a solid comics show with a low cost of entry and a few name creators. They seem to be able to do this on the east and west coast, but what do we get? A bunch a crap promoters leveraging a few D list stars and some local artists, a few guys selling swords, and 2-3 dealers with $1 books from the 90s and VG stuff from the Bronze age into a crazy high entry fee.

I am actually starting to wish someone would just do a decent hotel show aimed only at comics fans with low table costs and some fun. Does everything have to be laden with media guests now??

Ok, end rant. Looking forward to San Diego, which is the grand daddy and at least we'll get name creators, name media guests, quality panels, and some decent dealers there.

[Trev]

$200-$250 for a booth!! grr . . .

[BadDeacon]

Dude! Are you kidding?!? Eddie Munster is going to be there! And the little girl that played a zombie in a few seconds of Walking Dead! Plus, two hot chicks I've never heard of!
[/sarcasm]

Yeah, that show looks pretty lousy. From what I can tell, Texas doesn't really get any good comic shows.

[comicm]

Two shows that are great for comics are Heroes Con in North Carolina and Baltimore Comic Con. These are exclusively comic shows.

I finally have a good show close to me which is Denver Comic Con but they do the Hollywood thing to but it is still a great Con.