Category: Comic Con

Don’t Miss Your Chance To Get A Photo With Con Man Star Alan Tudyk at LBCE ’16!

Don’t Get Shut Out! Alan Tudyk Photo-Ops Are Available For Advanced Sale!
There’s been a lot of excitement about the Con Man & Firefly star’s appearance next Saturday at the Long Beach Comic Expo. If you are one of those people we are happy to offer you the chance to get a professional photo with Alan.
Alan will only be taking a limited amount of photos with fans so to guarantee your spot in line be sure to purchase your photo-op in advance. 
You may be asking “Hey, LBCE! What is a photo-op and how does it work?” 

Well here’s how it’s done. You just follow this link over to the Epic Photo-Ops website and pick out your favorite celeb coming to LBCE ’16. From there you can get info on prices and when the photo sessions will take place. Some guests may only be available on certain days. 

If you like you can pre-purchase your photo-op on Epic’s website and you will be emailed a receipt. Bring that receipt to Epic’s booth at the 2016 LBCE to check-in during your designated photo-op time. Photo-Ops can also be purchased at the Epic booth at the LBCE, but all on site sales will be cash only. 
From there you get in line with other fans, you enter the photo studio, pose with your celeb, snap a photo and Epic will print a beautiful 8×10 for you right there! Or you can get digital copy or both! You can have up to 4 people in a photo so bring your friends!

For more info and to purchase your photo-ops click here.

In addition to photo-ops with fans and signing autographs in our Celeb area, Alan will be taking part in a special Con Man/Spectrum panel. 

Taking place 2/20 at 1:30pm in our Thunderdome programming room, Alan will be joined by Con Man Executive Producer PJ Haarsma and comic writer & editor Shannon Eric Denton to discuss the IndieGoGo financed series and Spectrum, the comic based on the fictional sci-fi show featured in Con Man.

THE SIXTH ANNUAL LONG BEACH COMIC EXPO RETURNS ON FEBRUARY 20 AND 21, 2016!

THE SIXTH ANNUAL LONG BEACH COMIC EXPO RETURNS ON FEBRUARY 20 AND 21, 2016!


Long Beach Comic Expo Officially Announces First Wave of Guests, Discount with the Aquarium of the Pacific,
Teases Programming Highlights and Opens Press Registration


January 29, 2016) Mad Entertainment Management officially announced today the first wave of guests for this year’s Long Beach Comic Expo along with a new discount program with the Aquarium of the Pacific. The spring counterpart to Long Beach, CA’s annual celebration of the best in comics and pop culture returns as one of the two best weekends of the year for fans and families!.  Attendees can meet celebrity guests, cosplay stars and comic book writers and artists including Chris Claremont, Amanda Connor, Terry and Rachel Dodson, Joshua Hale Fialkov, Agnes Garbowska, Paul Jenkins, Scott Kolins, Jae Lee, Aaron Lopresti, Fabien Nicieza, Michael Avon-Oeming, Jimmy Palmiotti, James Tynion IV, and over 100 guests! Mad Entertainment Management also announces that, for the first time ever, convention attendees will receive admission to the Aquarium for just $9.00 (regularly $29.95) when they visit the Aquarium after 12:00pm on either the weekend of Long Beach Comic Expo or the following weekend.


“This will be the biggest Long Beach Comic Expo ever. Throughout the month of February, as we lead into the show, fans will hear more about our stellar programming including the second annual Dwayne McDuffie Awards and the return of the Columbia Memorial Space Center innovative Space Expo,” said Martha Donato, Long Beach Comic Expo Executive Director and Co-Founder. “And we’re thrilled to announce that, for the first time ever, Long Beach Comic Expo attendees can receive one discounted admission ticket for the popular Aquarium of the Pacific when they present their official badge at the Aquarium ticket windows.”


In 2016, the Expo will take over two entire exhibit halls with over 150 exhibitors featuring some of the continent’s best vintage and modern comic book dealers, over 100 creators in Artist Alley, the all-new Animation Island, Cosplay Corner, a kids area and the annual Comic Expo Costume Contest.


Fans can enjoy an exciting weekend full of exceptional guests, exhibitors, and engaging panels, at Long Beach Comic Expo, Saturday, February 20  from 10:00 am – 7:00 pm and Sunday, February 21 from 10:00 am – 5:00 PM at the Long Beach Convention Center. Tickets are available now at www.longbeachcomicexpo.com.


Follow Long Beach Comic Expo on Facebook and Twitter for the latest news and information.


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ABOUT LONG BEACH EXPO: Long Beach Comic Expo is an annual event held at the Long Beach Convention Center that celebrates comic books and pop culture and showcases the exceptional works of talented writers, artists, illustrators and creators of all types of pop culture. At Long Beach Comic Expo, you’ll find exhibitors promoting and selling all types of related products, as well as entertaining and educational programs for all ages, guest signings and meet & greet sessions with celebrities. Long Beach Comic Expo is a MAD Event Management, LLC production. To learn more and purchase tickets, please visit www.longbeachcomicexpo.com.

Comic Cons: Comikaze Expo 2015 in Los Angeles this week!

Let’s make a deal and meet Wayne Brady at Comikaze!
Comedy legend Wayne Brady is coming to the show, and will be at Comikaze on Saturday October 31!

Just added!!! Meet the star of CW’s THE FLASH Danielle Panabaker! Say hello to Caitlin Snow Saturday Oct 31st for signings and photos! Pre-order your photo and autograph NOW, so you will get your guaranteed chance to meet her!

You can also PRE-BUY your Summer Glau and Carrie Fisher Photo and Autographs. Prices can go up on Saturday, so SAVE and BUY ONLINE! 

CLICK HERE TO PRE-BUY AUTOGRAPHS AND SAVE!!

Grumpy Cat is coming Comikaze…and she ain’t happy about it!

She’s the most famous cat that hates you! Grumpy Cat will be meeting fans at the Hot Topic Booth #949 in the West Hall on Caturday Oct 31st. Grumpy Cat hopes you don’t show up…
Plan your show PANELS,  SIGNING AND PHOTO SCHEDULES with the Comikaze Expo Survival Guide!

Plan your show PANELS,  SIGNING AND PHOTO SCHEDULES with the Comikaze Expo Survival Guide!

The Best Place for Kids on Halloween!

Stan Lee’s Comikaze Expo is the place for kids to be for the ultimate in Halloween thrills and chills! Bring your kids to the West Hall from noon to 2pm some trick-or-treatin’ Comikaze-style!

Then’ it’s on to the biggest Kids Costume Contest in all L.A. at 3pm, sponsored by Disney•Pixar’s THE GOOD DINOSAUR!

All info for kids costume contest is HERE.

This year, we also have a whole hall of open gaming and tournaments! Headlined by Ascension and YuGiOh tournaments, and a celebrity D&D tournament.
Don’t miss it!

Comic Conventions: Todd McFarlane to Appear at Comikaze Expo!

 Todd McFarlane to Appear at Comikaze Expo!
Check out Comikaze Expo




His groundbreaking artwork on Marvel’s Spider-man and Venom turned him into a household name. His creation of Spawn, formation of his own toy company and achievements as an animation filmmaker made him a comic book superstar.

Meet Todd McFarlane, Founder and President of Image Comics, Creator of Spawn and iconic industry entrepreneur Saturday only for a limited signing engagement in West Hall and panel with Stan Lee and friends on the Hot Topic Main Stage. 

Plan your show PANELS, SURVIVAL GUIDE, SIGNING AND PHOTO SCHEDULES with the Comikaze Expo – Buy Tickets Survival Guide!
Find out about how you can pick up your badge early (A ticket gets you a badge! A badge gets you in!), the new layout of the hall and other tips and tricks to make sure you have the best Comikaze possible. Check the webiste to see the full signing and photo schedule, as well as a complete list of panels.

The Comikaze Expo Survival Guide will help you get the absolute most out of your Comikaze Expo experience! Plus…Save money on gas and parking when you sign up for LYFT! Use code word COMIKAZE for a FREE ride (up to $20) to the L.A. Convention Center!

Long Beach Comic Con 2015 Report: Day 1


The Long Beach Comic Con held on Sept. 12th & 13th has greatly expanded this year with a larger amount of space covering comics, toys, media and even space exploration!

 Special guests this year included never before seen guests like Stuart & Kathryn Immonen (Uncanny X-Men, Journey into Mystery), Adam Kubert (X-Men) Clayton Crain (Ghost Rider), Jim Calafiore (Red Lanterns, Secret Six), David Peterson (Mouse Guard), Art Adams (X-Men, etc.), and returning guests such as Kris Anka (Spider-Woman), Tim Bradstreet (Punisher), and Garry Brown (Catwoman).

 
Media guests such as John Barrowman (Torchwood) and Chloe Bennet (Agents of SHIELD) and cosplayers such as Vampy Bit Me, Nicole Jean Marie, Destiny Nickelson, etc.

There were photo ops available with the Supernatural Impala car as well as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles van!

San Diego Comic Con 2015 Report: Part 3


Other events and stuff! With Star Wars and its new film around the corner there was a big sneak preview with an orchestra with the main actors from the film hosted behind the convention center. We were luckily, though surprised, to learn the event since we had a view of the fireworks from our hotel room and only found out it was Star Wars related the next day.

There was also a Nintendo exhibition event at the hotel where attendees can play games and win prizes. 

The big outside event this year was talk show host Conan O’Brian hosting his show at the downtown San Diego theater. Guests of his included Game of Thrones, Walking Dead and more.

Right outside the convention center was also an Assassins Creed outdoor obstacle course (ala American Ninja Warrior) and a barbershop onsite! There was a Heroes tv outdoor set experience and small events sprinkled throughout the Gas lamp District as well.

San Diego Comic Con 2015 Report: Part 2


Why do we attend Comic Con? It’s mostly due to meeting the comic creators that do not show up at other Southern California shows. This year at the DC, Marvel, Dark Horse and Image booths we were able to meet and get signatures and sometimes sketches from creators such as Billy Tan, Siya Oum, Chrissie Zullo, David Finch, Jock, Marjorie Liu, Chip Zdarksy, Tom Yeates and Len Wein.
The Marvel booth is usually the busiest booth (non-product related) on the floor but this year with no movie premier event happening the location was more subdued though still traffic heavy. 
There was a lack of big-name artists/writers appearing there and the usual people that appears such as J. Scott Campbell, Mark Brooks, Humberto Ramos either didn’t have appearances there or no longer even sketched for free. 
DC’s booth was split into two signing areas which did cause confusion with attendees at times when which table a creator would be appearing at was unknown causing line-ups for them to spiral into oblivion. 
One of the quicker booths to get autographs and sketches was Dark Horse, possibly due to having some not-as-well know creators signing which caused be to go ahead and get in their signing queue since it was very quick and Dark Horse providing free posters or mini-prints for the creators to sign. 
Image had a more wrist-band needed line-up this year (e.g. Chew, Snyder, McFarlane, etc.) but was a bit more easily obtained if you went directly to their booth once the doors opened. Fortunately Image had limits on the amount of wristbands they gave out which helped fans not get cut-off due to time limits of the creators.
IDW had some good signing events throughout the week and creators such as Mike Zeck and Don Rose appeared and signed happily for their fans.

San Diego Comic Con 2015 Report: Part 1


Another San Diego Comic Con has come and gone and while the convention keeps getting bigger and bigger, this year’s comic-centered events seemed a bit more low-key (if that’s possible at SDCC) that previous years. Possibly due to Marvel not bringing in a movie-themed property to their booth or DC only bringing in their Batman v. Superman cast for one appearance, the excitement to meet comic creators didn’t wow or go as big as even SDCC 2014. 

It’s still an overwhelming event and one that is set to dull the senses, Comic Con was a fun event to attend and experience even though SDCC 2015 wouldn’t be ranked among my highlights of all comic conventions this year.

Preview Night

Badge pick-up was smooth with a quick line up and then the corralling into the Sails Pavilion in order to get to the main hall. For a 3-hour day that opens at 6pm, people were lined up already around 1pm.

As usual the herds of people and scalpers marching into the convention hall on preview night meant the hot exclusives would be gone even before we made it onto the floor. Exhibitors are well grounded on getting to the lines of retailers first, even swapping out their exhibitor badges with general passes in order to circumvent some of the line rules.

An infuriating item for me this year as the DC Comics Jim Lee Batman sketch exclusive figure which  was set to retail for $300 but DC decided to dived the 150 figures to floor retailers for some reason meaning by the time the doors first opened they were already marked up to $1,000!

Due to the inevitable long lines for all the SDCC exclusives this was the first year we did not line up to buy any of the con exclusive items.

Comic Convention Report: WonderCon 2015 Review (Los Angeles, CA, (4/3-4/5/2015)


WonderCon Anaheim 2015



WonderCon returned to Anaheim for 2015, again during the Easter weekend which probably impacted the number of attendees and guests that could bypass events and work holidays to participate in the fourth WonderCon at the Anaheim Convention Center. 



Attendance for 2015 was decent and comparable to previous years though the amount of “wow” factor special guest, exhibitors and events decreased significantly. At the very first WonderCon held in Anaheim back in 2012 exhibitors such as Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, and movie studios appeared. But for 2015, Marvel, DC, Dark Horse were missing and only Boom Studios, Lion Forge and Image had a publisher presence on the floor.


Statue displays



The set-up of the floorplan was changed significantly with the artist alley space moved to the Hall A section instead of the previous year’s Hall D and the badge pick-up also kept next to Hall A instead of the bottom basement hall for pick-up. Publisher booths were kept near the doors and the special guest signing table was moved to the mid-hall location. Some of the bigger tier artists were placed near each other causing some major line congestion and blockages that caused some exhibitors to pitch a fit and request some artists or signing lines to be moved.


Jae Lee sketching

Artists such as Babs Tarr (Batgirl), Phil Noto (Black Widow), Jae Lee (Batman/Superman), and Darwyn Cooke (New Frontier) had significant lines throughout the con with Babs’ line being the longest all 3-days of the event.


Phil Noto sketching


Other guests such as Dan Jurgens, Kevin McGuire, Ken Lashley, Steve Epting, Ron Lim had more manageable lines and commissions could still be acquired on the second day of the convention. It always eludes me when convention organizers do not place big name talent at table corners where lines can be more controlled instead of placing them smack dab in the middle of artist alley where lines just clog up the walk way and block other exhibitors.


Rob Van Dam


Tempo and excitement for WonderCon 2015 was lower in expectation and turnout when I asked other attendees of the event. The lack of many more higher-profile guests, media guests and the Big 2 publishers significantly loosened the “wow” factor in this event and SDCC-lite it was. 


With the 2016 event for WonderCon moving to the Los Angeles Convention Center the change in venue will either make or break the event. The LACC significantly lacks the foot-traffic and restaurant and Disney location of the Anaheim Convention Center but hopefully the closer star power location will bring in more guests and “wow” missing this year.