So, Wizard has just announced the return of Wizard World Los Angeles Comic Con in September, stating that they’re filling “a real need for a Fall event that encompasses all the best that pop culture has to offer.”
The thing is, we’ve already got a Wizard con in the area (Anaheim Comic Con, running this weekend), and we’ve already got a fall convention of about the same size (Long Beach Comic Con in October). The three convention centers are all within 30 miles of each other, so they’re going to draw from the same pool of attendees, and the same pool of comics guests. And since Wizard is big on trying to present a uniform experience for all of their cons, we can expect Anaheim and Los Angeles to be basically the same.
I can only think of two reasons for Wizard to add Los Angeles at this time:
- They’re planning to move back to the more well-known location after moving out to Anaheim last year. Is anyone here at Anaheim right now? Can you tell me whether they’ve announced dates for next year?
- In keeping with past Wizard convention behavior, they’re trying to muscle out Long Beach for daring to step in and put together a successful convention from scratch (and one that actually focuses on the “Comic” part of “Comic Con”) when Wizard canceled WWLA 2009.
it would be nice if the East Coast got that kind of Comic Con love… closest event to me is 3 hours or so away…
3 hours? Wow. Yeah, you’d think instead of oversaturating a market they already cover, they’d try moving into a new area with no competition. But then this is the same industry where DC and Marvel seem to be more interested in poaching each other’s readers than catering to anyone else.
I guess now that I think about it, central or inland California is also 3 hours from the nearest medium-to-big con. It’s about 6 hours from LA to San Francisco on a good day, so anyone near the midpoint will be driving 3 hours to either WonderCon or one of the LA cons. And it’ll probably take me 3 hours in traffic to get to San Diego this year, now that I’m a bit farther away.
Wow..it takes that long now? I remember family trips from (roughly) Anaheim to Pismo Beach would take slightly less than two hours. Getting to San Francisco would take four. Of course, that was back when you could actually find a parking space in SF and walk the streets without getting mugged. San Diego is pretty crowded too.
Then again, getting to downtown Phoenix used to take half what it does now. Plus the roads aren’t hot (figuratively speaking…in the summer the roads and everything else never cool down!) because the city is broke.
You hear that people? Arizona is broke, so if you come to Phoenix for that con watch your speed lest you become an easy target for a traffic ticket.
Are you sure? Google Maps says Pismo Beach is 200 miles from Anaheim, so whoever was driving must have been a real speed demon to get there in under 2 hours.
EARLY morning drive, plus we didn’t joke about his being ‘Barney Oldfield’ for nuthin. Leadfoot was another. Claimed that slowing down and using the brakes wasted gas. And that drive had a few curves to it at the point it turned north so to this day I am afraid of roller coasters. And my hair was prematurely white. lol No, I’m not kidding.
LOL! I can really picture that drive!
Kelson, it’s because Gareb Shameus is a money grubbing schmuck.