BALTIMORE COMIC CON and the BLOODY nerve

Spent most of the day yesterday down in Baltimore for the Comic Con. Truthfully, I don’t like comicbook conventions very much because I get really cranky in large crowds, but this is a particularly good show for young and new comic fans alike.

Unlike some of the bigger media exhibits and cross-over marketing arenas like we see in NY or San Diego, the attention here is on genuine comicbook fandom; the joy and love of the medium and the object without all the summer blockbuster hoopla. Due to the attention focused on comix and toys through big media the rising cost of floor space at some of those other conventions has made it hard for retail comicshops that make their living out of collectables to have much of a presence. Baltimore is much more like an old-fashioned comic con.

Plenty of people there to buy, sell and talk about their love for the medium without all the hype. It also seems to attract a really good set of professional, old-school guests (probably the proximity to NY) in a much more approachable environment. More on that in subsequent posts.

I didn’t get the chance to stay over and go to the Harvey Awards with any of my fellow Zudites (pressures of a weekly comic and all), but congratulations are in order for all the editors and talent from Zuda Comics nominated for excellence this year. Great job, guys, and a well deserved bit of praise. Special congratulations should go out to David Gallaher and Steve Ellis, creators of Zuda’s HIGH MOON, for winning the award for best online series!

Lot of good things going on at that convention that I’ll want to talk about in later posts, but I was particularly glad to see a re-packaging of  former Zuda competitor BLOODY PULP, by Jorge Vega and Jeff McComsey. I reviewed this comic back in July during its run on Zuda and found it to be a really well-thought out and carefully constructed eight pages. Anything can happen in the free-for-all of a Zuda competition of course, and BLOODY PULP came in second place that month, not winning the contract that would allow it’s continuation on the site.

I met Jeff and Jorge for the first time yesterday, and I was pleased to see they reformatted PULP for standard trade paperback editions. They’ve put out a twenty-four page sampler package and it looks great. Really great work, guys, that should have no trouble finding a good publisher. You can find more info on the comic at the website here.

Comix take a long time to produce and, let’s face it, people don’t go into this industry for the money nor the glamor. It’s good to see people getting together to talk about comix they love owning and love making, good to see creators and companies rewarded by their peers for hard work that they’ve done, and very, very good to see creators willing to keep finding new ways to tell the stories they want to tell. Yeah, it was much like an old-school, comic con.