Was hoping I was going to see you there Mike.
Well, I've made it home from the show. It was fun to go but it's good to be home. The 4 hrs round trip of driving has made me want to sit home and chill but tomorrow it's back to work.
The show was kinda hit and miss. We arrived at the show and being this is the 1st time we had been to this show at this hotel, I took one look at the building and said "There is the convention hall right there" and indeed, I did walk right into the convention, just not the front entrance. So basically me and my wife walked right in and saved $20 in entrance fees. I couldn't believe how easy it was to waltz right into the show and not be the main entrance. Once I was in, I just couldn't bring myself to go pay....call me a thief...
The scene was pretty packed and a bit chaotic. The convention spread 2 rooms and the comics were mainly in one ballroom. The convention dealers were set up in a figure 8 pattern. This made for cluster-fucks of people. The dealers didn't seem too pleased about it either. I heard more than one complaining that they were having a bad show. Considering the turn-out, I was a bit surprised.
Artist alley ran alongside the figure 8 of the convention dealers and made a straight line. So basically the room was laid out in an "81" fashion and the artists made up the "1". But it didn't end there. At the bottom of the one was an opening into another nearly equal sized room that was filled with artists and writers. Some of the notables in this room were Bill Tucci, Michael Golden and Brian Pullido. There was that artist that sings his stuff Ringo. And a lot of other mid-level artists. In terms of creative talent, this was a massive expansion. The last time I came to this show, there was like 3 artists. This time there was like 20. Bringing a shout to Mike (bigw), I think he would have enjoyed the show a great deal. As for me, I'm not much for visiting the artists. I took one casual walk around them and checked their personalities out more than their work. Golden was off in the ozone. Tucci seemed flanked by convention groupies and was sucking it up. I felt oddly sad for Pullido who sat quietly and flashed sheepishly shy smiles at people as the walked uninterestingly by his material. Artists seemed for the most part busy on either an assignment or a well paid commission. I think pound for pound, they kicked the comic dealers asses.
Back in the comic scene I scoured the area for suitable comics to buy. There was no shortage of decent books, but there was a tremendous lack of decent prices. My wife wanted to buy me a comic for Xmas in between $75 -$100. Knowing I had this gift in the back of my pocket, I searched endlessly for a suitable product. Unfortunately, I never found myself able to say "I want this". To be honest, in the whole show, there was only about 3 dealers who even deserved more than casual looks.
Some dealers must think that name and nicely packaged comics trumps incredibly high prices (Heroes aren't Hard to Find). Others with recognizable names and faces (Mile High) had an incredible amount of just plain shit in front of them. I know Virginia congers up images of chickens on the front porch and banjo playing, but please don't bring your most worthless beat up junk to fill an entire booth at a show and expect people to just lap it up. Mile High may have had one of the top 3 worst stashes at the show.
Other guys were filled with the latest variant covers from the latest new books at the expected jacked up prices. I didn't see any of these move but I seen a lot of people look. I was one of them. But Im not moved to pay $20+ for a variant Image United when anything over a year old (or less) could be found just adjacent to them for $1 or less. If I was in search of moderns, I could have easily made out. But I wasn't.
My main picks for the day was 2 books.
A really nice copy (VF-) of Amazing Spiderman #123 (The cool Power Man cover).
And a low grade 2.5ish copy at a very reasonable price of Hulk #180. (1st cameo appearance of Wolverine). Surprising in 32 years of collecting, my first snag of the Wolverine trifecta of #180-182.
I was relatively pleased with these two books.
The rest of my haul was 7 NM issues of Bronze Thor's in the #230 - 250 range. Remarkably sweet copies for a take all day price of $1 each. Unfortunately, I found nothing else of similar worth. I also snagged a real nice JLA with Perez art from 1980 that brought back memories of a book I once owned as a kid. I've got to say, George Perez was and still is a God amongst a lot of mediocre artists from now and then. For merely $1, I drooled at some truly ass-kicking shit from the pages within.
Other than that, I got nothing else. Not really worth the drive really. My wife made a nice haul of plenty of funny books for $2 or less. She actually came home with more books than me. And some Savage She-Hulks she has been collecting. (She has nearly completed the original run now and even has a list).
If the experience of being around comics itself wasn't so fun for me, I would have called the show a dud. But I'm kinda the type who can have a bad day at a convention and call it better than a good day at work. I'm upset I didn't take my wife up on the Xmas present. But I had a good time.
On a one last note. I'm a bit surprised how much near nudity one can get away with if attending a comic convention. Sure you had the usual tramps in comic garb trying to look hot. But I actually seen a nice looking girl or two who just couldn't show enough skin. 1 girl had a button down shirt with 1 button buttoned only and that was lower than the nipple line. And a skirt that was so high it exposed the bottom of her underwear. I've certainly seen a lot of skanks who made you sorry you looked, but there was one or two at this show who wasn't half bad and were practically genitally exposed. I swear, if a cop would have been present, there could have easily been a few arrests made. I guess when comic books are present, you are allowed to dress as slutty as you want even if there is a bunch of 10 year olds walking around.
Oh and the ballroom lighting for looking at comic books totally sucked. You don't want to look at high priced comics in low light. The artist room was way better lit. I think a lot of dealers were generally pissed. I heard A LOT of negative comments from them. And to be honest, I think they had a beef.
In any event, by time the next one rolls around, I think I'll be ready to go back.