Comic Book Conventions

Kleefeld's 'Fanthropology' #7: I Come To Bury Fandom

Posted 4/26/13 5:08 pm EST by MTV Geek in Comic Book Conventions

I'm a regular reader of Dorothy Gambrell’s webcomic Cat and Girl, but her April 9th strip caught my particular attention.

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Kleefeld's 'Fanthropology' #3: Invasion Of The Con-Snatchers

Posted 3/29/13 12:58 pm EST by MTV Geek in Comic Book Conventions, San Diego Comic-Con

By Sean Kleefeld

How many of you were able to attend Comic-Con in 2008? There’s an interesting story that came out of that particular convention. Well, there’s interesting stories that come out from just about every Comic-Con. Quite a number of them from each, in fact. But there’s one from 2008 that’s especially interesting for us here in our discussion of fandom.

Let me set the stage for you. After hosting a few different venues, Comic-Con first started using the San Diego Convention Center back in 1991. Attendance that year was around 15,000 -- needless to say, they didn’t take up all the space themselves! But with more space available at the Convention Center, the show was able to expand over the years and attendance broke 50,000 for the first time in 2001. The show kept expanding and, by 2004, they were officially taking up the whole Convention Center in its entirety. Fire codes meant that attendance was effectively maxed out for that facility starting in 2006, and the show has had a pretty consistent number of people attending since every year since then. Read More...

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Kleefeld's 'Fanthropology' #2: Where Do We Come From?

Posted 3/22/13 4:55 pm EST by MTV Geek in Comic Book Conventions, Comic Books

By Sean Kleefeld

Video game enthusiasts are a comparatively new fandom. The very first video game of any sort does date back to 1947, but as a whole they weren’t really commercially viable until the early 1970s. Pong was really the first video game hit of any sort, and that’s well within the timeframe of recent memory; there are gamers out there who remember seeing it in an arcade for the first time. So it’s fairly easy to understand the development of video game fandom, as it followed much the same path as comics before that, and science fiction before that. Read More...

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Monster-Mania 2013: Mingling With 'The Walking Dead, Lando, and More!

Posted 3/15/13 5:50 pm EST by MTV Geek in Comic Book Conventions

By Aaron Sagers

When it comes to towns known for being convention hotspots, Cherry Hill, NJ, doesn’t exactly come to mind first. It isn’t San Diego, New York City, Chicago or even Atlanta. But for a decade now, and over the course of 25 shows, Monster-Mania has turned the Jerz into a monster’s ball for horror nerds. Read More...

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Kleefeld's 'Fanthropology' #1

Posted 3/15/13 3:40 pm EST by MTV Geek in Comic Book Conventions

By Sean Kleefeld

Welcome to the inaugural edition of Kleefeld’s Fanthropology! I expect you’re asking yourself, “What is this? What’s fanthropology? Who is this Kleefeld guy anyway?”

Fanthropology is the study of fans and fandom. The word itself is a portmanteau; that is, it’s the words “fan” and “anthropology” smushed together. A little play on words, but I like the term because it gets right to what we’re talking about here. Anthropology is the study of human beings in relation to their culture. So while the archeologist is digging up fragments of old pottery, the anthropologist is trying to figure out who were the people that created that pottery and how did it fit into the overall mosaic of their daily lives. But with FANthropology, we’re focusing our studies to the subcultures of fandom specifically. Read More...

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Unicongate: Brony Convention Implodes, Many Sad Ponies

Posted 3/12/13 1:47 pm EST by Valerie Gallaher in Animation, Comic Book Conventions

This sounds like one of the most epic convention fails of all time -- but who expected it would come out of "My Little Pony" fandom?

According to The Daily Dot, last month's LasPegasus Unicon in Las Vegas was "botched" -- saddled (if you would excuse the pun) with claims of fraud, theft, bounced checks, "fake money," and attendees being kicked out of hotels. If this is all true, it sounds like the Bernie Madoff of fan conventions. Read More...

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Power-Con Adds Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles To The Mix, Announces Dates

Posted 12/13/12 12:21 pm EST by Valerie Gallaher in Animation, Comic Book Conventions, Mattel, Toys

The popular Masters of the Universe/Thundercats convention extravaganza Power-Con has just announced their 2013 dates -- as well as another pop-culture icon under their umbrella.

Nothing less than the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be added to Power-Con's roster of heroes:

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NYCC Panel Recap: Gay Marriage in Comics - Revolutionary or a Step Backwards?

Posted 10/15/12 1:30 pm EST by MTV Geek in Comic Book Conventions, New York Comic Con

Panelists Joan Hilty and Phil Jimenez at New York Comic Con

By Elizabeth Keenan

2012 was the year of gay couples marrying in comics, with Archie’s Kevin Keller marrying his boyfriend Clay and Marvel’s Northstar finally marrying his boyfriend Kyle. But as much as these weddings point to acceptance of gay characters, they also raise questions about the narrow roles that those characters still face. The New York Comic Con panel "Gay Marriage In Comics - Revolutionary Or A Step Backwards?" sought to address these issues.

Moderator Chance Whitmore of Fanboys of the Universe and a volunteer for Prism Comics first asked his panel, “Why now?” After all, gay characters Apollo and Midnighter married over ten years ago, but that event didn’t receive the type of media attention that Kevin Keller or Kyle and Northstar did. Read More...

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Take A Floor Tour Of NYCC With MTV Geek's Steven Smith!

Posted 10/14/12 11:28 am EST by doraziov in Comic Book Conventions, New York Comic Con

If you can't get out to New York Comic Con this weekend, let our own MTV Geek LIVE! host Steven Smith give you a guided tour of the con floor! Along the way Steven test-drives the "Back To The Future" DeLorean, runs into Travie McCoy from Gym Class Heroes and artist Alex Pardee, and tons more!

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Local Comic Con Spotlight: River Road Expo

Posted 10/10/12 2:08 pm EST by Valerie Gallaher in Comic Book Conventions

This week many comic book fans and industry-type folk have only one thing on their minds, which of course is New York Comic Con. The sights, the talent, the celebrities, the exclusives...and tons of parties! But increasingly, especially in the current economic environment, another type of comic convention has been picking up steam -- the local show. We're not just talking "local" as in one located in a major city, but truly local, serving the fans of a particular geographic area. Here is a quick snapshot of one such event, which happened last weekend in the Tioga Downs Casino in upstate New York: River Road Expo. Read More...

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MorrisonCon Diaries Day 2: Grant Morrison And The Meaning Of Life

Posted 10/5/12 2:00 pm EST by MTV Geek in Comic Book Conventions, Comic Books

Grant Morrison on his couch (photo by Pat Loika)

MTV Geek special correspondent Ali Colluccio gives you an inside look at the much-talked about and enigmatic MorrisonCon. This series documents her MorrisonCon "diary" day-by-trippy-day...

I hate early. Must kill early.

Luckily the MorrisonCon crew gave us a great reason to drag ourselves out of bed: free breakfast and a Chris Burnham sketch jam! For an hour the "Batman Inc." artist drew sketches for the audience. There was everything from Judge Dredd on the toilet, to Grant Morrison as Doctor Who, to a very satisfied God of Thunder.

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MorrisonCon Diary Day 1: Grant Speaks!

Posted 10/3/12 3:16 pm EST by MTV Geek in Comic Book Conventions

The Road To MorrisonCon (photo by Pat Loika)

MTV Geek special correspondent Ali Colluccio gives you an inside look at the much-talked about and enigmatic MorrisonCon. This series documents her MorrisonCon "diary" day-by-trippy-day...

I still didn’t really know what to expect when I walked downstairs to the first full day of MorrisonCon.

The first panel of the day was called “Grant Morrison & The Future of the Third Millennium” featuring Darick Robertson, Frank Quitely, along side Chris Burnham the guest of honor himself. The main “theater” looked not too different from the panel rooms you’re used to seeing at a comic convention. But the stage was a bit lower and instead of a table and chairs lined up, looking at the audience, there were cushy black couches. Read More...

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MorrisonCon Diary Day 0: "Through The Looking Glass"

Posted 10/1/12 4:00 pm EST by MTV Geek in Comic Book Conventions, Comic Books

MTV Geek special correspondent Ali Colluccio gives you an inside look at the much-talked about and enigmatic MorrisonCon. This series documents her MorrisonCon "diary" day-by-trippy-day...

How do I even start to describe MorrisonCon?

Billed as a once in a lifetime event for comics fans, MorrisonCon is a boutique comic convention. Carefully curated and very exclusive, fans put down quite a bit of money to come to the Hard Rock Las Vegas for what’s been promised to be an unforgettable weekend.

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MorrisonCon Features 'Occult Ritual,' 'Brain-Blurring Cocktails' and 'The Walking Dead'

Posted 8/29/12 3:15 pm EST by Valerie Gallaher in Comic Book Conventions, Comic Books

If you're worried at all about the Mayan 2012 prophecy coming true at the end of the year, you might want to make a pilgrimage to MorrisonCon in Las Vegas to have acclaimed writer/shaman/guru Grant Morrison to set you straight. At the panel entitled "The Invisibles and the Pre-Apocalypse" -- occurring, significantly, at the end of the convention -- Morrison promises to provide some essential insight:

As the Mayan's Long Calendar comes to an end on December 22, 2012, will the acceleration of invention, technology, and environmental disruptions bring about a long foretold ancient apocalypse and is humanity ready for the transformations that awaits us? Exploring The I-Ching, McKenna's Timewave Zero Theory, Native American mythology, The Sekhmet Hypothesis and 2012 predictive technologies like Clif High and George Ure's Web Bot Project, Grant breaks it all down and explores, demystifies and examines what it all means. Has his vision for this next stage of existence changed since he penned THE INVISIBLES? What advice can he offer for fellow prognostinauts in apocalyptic times?

After which I would only imagine Morrison and his followers heading out into the Nevada desert to form a new society based on high magick, psychedelics, and comic books. Read More...