Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 23:34:47 -0600
To: [c--m--x] at [indra.com]
From: Sprung Glennkey <[w--ai--h] at [imaginot.com]>
Subject: Re: The World of Wizard

-Poster: Sprung Glennkey <[w--ai--h] at [imaginot.com]>

>-Poster: bart beaty <[b--ea--y] at [po-box.mcgill.ca]>
>Heidi:
>>Was there anywhere a speck of respect for comics as art? Not that I've heard.
>
>Surely we can't blame Wizard for that though? I attended the Chicago
>Comic-Con in 1994 and in 1995 and I didn't see a speck of respect for
>comics as art at either of those events, just the opposite. And Eric's list
>of indy creators in the artist's alley seems pretty similar to what I saw
>back then as well (in 1995 none of Fantagraphics, Black Eye or DQ showed
>up, for example). This con sounds like it was the same as it ever was to
>me, only apparently better attended and with better sales.

I can't agree with that at all.  There weren't even a tenth of the
alternative cartoonists present that there were in '94 or '95.  Last year
there were far fewer, but this year there were almost none.  There really
were only like a half dozen present.  Artists' Alley was about a quarter of
what is has been in the past, because there were also far fewer mainstream
artists than in the past, and half of the people that did show up were new
mainstream guys no one had heard of.  Frankly I was shocked at how few had
shown up.  Jon Porcellino was so depressed that he left about an hour after
he got there and gave his paid-for spot to Joe Chips (who got told by
Diamond the very same day they were canning him, I might add).  At the con
you went to, FBI, D&Q, Black Eye, NBM, Caliber, probably a dozen better
known self-publishers either had booth or were at least represented by
ChiCom, and there were dozens more artists there.  Your "for example"
turned into fuhgeddaboutit.  Even a lot of local cartoonists didn't bother
showing up.  Of companies, I only noticed Slave Labor, Trilogy, and Top
Shelf this year, and the handful of artists Eric mentioned in the Alley.
That's it.  And you certainly should blame a good bit of it on Wizard
because the literature they send out to pros and exhibitors, along with the
changes in booth/alley policies make it more than clear they would rather
you didn't bother if you're not corporate.  On the consumer side, the
advertising leveraged McFarlane, Stan Lee, but mostly Star Wars guys whose
face you've never seen.  The general lack of respect for art is more
subtle, I guess, and probably not even deliberate.  But it is still obvious
in the cancelled auctions and galleries, and in the featured guests (Todd
McFarlane was the only guest artist, the rest were all sci-fi actors except
Stan Lee, as opposed to Eisner, Ware and people like that in '94 and '95),
and in the pathetic programming. There was a single how-to track though,
Image guys + Dixon and Quesada.  Right.  Most of the better-known art
dealers that have been coming for years were noticably absent.  All artists
on the signing schedule were associated with Image except for something
called Cliffhanger (they could be, too, but I don't know who they are).
The exhibitors' solicitations weren't as outright offensive as last year,
but they were still pretty childish.  Attendance on the other hand, was at
all-time highs, close to SD, or so we're told.  So high in fact, that they
reached the safety limit on how many they could allow in the Convention
Center on Saturday and had to have people waiting to get in.  Both this
year and last year the shows were well-run and effectively promoted, but
they have also managed to pretty much gut the content of any
sophistication.  Tragic, because they have these kinds of numbers, and for
so many of these people Wizard World is going to equal comics, when they
could do so much more.  I'm not not saying it was ever a haven for the
underground, it wasn't.  But it was never anywhere near this
single-mindedly corporate in the past.  Blech.  Needless to say I drank a
lot.  No, even more than normal, I mean.  Fortunately, good friends kept
heavy blunt objects well out of my reach.  So you can see why I didn't say
anything about Wizard World until Anti-Disinformation Man was sorely
needed.  Exegesis! >B^)

Pax ex machina,
Glenn
......................................................................
"When the Americans left the Earth,
 they left some very strange artifacts."
    --- Andrei Codrescu, via Jerry Stratton
"You'll never make money if you're merely entertaining, intelligent,
  or fun.  Good thing I'm none of those.  My career is safe as houses."
    --- Dorkin
[w--ai--h] at [imaginot.com], [g--e--n] at [suntimes.com], aaa.wraithspace.com
......................................................................





 _________________________________________________________________
 To leave this mailing list, send mail to [m--r--o] at [indra.com]
 with the message UNSUBSCRIBE COMIX