Wizard Serves up Sour Apples
Wizard has announced its dates for the 2010 Big Apple Con, choosing October 8-10. The exact same dates as Reed Conventions has placed its New York Comic Con and bringing the ongoing war between the two companies fully out into the open.
The war appears to have started when Reed announced it would start a new show, The Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo, and choosing April 16-18, 2010 as the inaugural dates. Wizard, the only game in Chicago for years saw this as an encroachment on their territory announced a new Southern California show in Anaheim for the exact same dates.
Last week Reed announced that they, along with the Institute for Comic Studies, would hold an industry conference in the days just before the C2E2 show opens to the public. Wizard went public just days later with their own industry conference, in conjunction with GeekChicDaily, for the same dates. It should be noted that both of these must have been months in planing but I feel the need to point out that GeekChicDaily is owned by a partnership that includes Gareb Shamus, founder of Wizard and their currant Managing Director.
Over the weekend the event staff for NYCC purchased tickets for this years Big Apple Con and attended the show, something they had done for the last 3 years as a professional courtesy and to see what new things are being done. Shamus had the entire team removed from the show and banned from further Big Apple Cons.
This week Wizard announces its new dates for Big Apple Con 2010 will be The same weekend as NYCC, October 8-10. This means the most pop culture companies must chose which convention they believe will give them the best bang for the buck. Do they make appearances at both conventions? Which con should get their 'A-List' talent? For the comics industry which industry conference do they send their senior editors to and which one gets the interns?
For me Reed has been simply acting on what the industry and public seam to be interested in, creating shows that draw from every corner of pop culture and placing them in areas that fans can reach. Wizard comes across to me as spiteful, reacting to Reed instead of the industry in an attempt to force companies to make a choice regardless of what might be best for fans, the group these shows are, supposedly, held for to begin with.
Lance Fensterman of Reed Entertainment has posted his own comments here.