Let’s be honest with ourselves, aside from Chicago, Wizard World conventions aren’t all that great. And in the case of Philly, it’s always been a con of convenience more than a major must-go-to event. Nicely situated in downtown Philadelphia, a Chinatown or Greyhound bus will drop me off a little less than two blocks away from the convention center, with the Marriott Hotel right across the street. If I was just doing the Saturday, I could easily huff it up from DC in the morning, get to Philly just as the show was to open, then head back down that same day like it was nothing. It’s been even easier now that I’ve made friends with comic fans who live in the area, and are more than happy to let me crash (just the way I planned it! MUWAHAHAHAHAH!!!). This has been a godsend for me personally, as I rarely go to conventions as a fan anymore, instead showing off art and doing sketches for folks in good ol’ artist alley. And that table ain’t cheap!

This time around, I wasn’t sure in what capacity I’d be going to the show, but the folks in charge certainly wanted to influence my decision. An 8-foot table for the 4-foot price certain is a steal, but only if you actually need all that space, and I didn’t have enough new product for a convention I had already done twice. So I would only be going as a fan, reppin’ PCS as best I could, and things seemed destined to go south from jump. My usually speedy bus to Philly suffered from a driver with no sense of direction and a few traffic jams, before finally making it sometime after seven o’clock Friday evening (I had a work function to go to earlier in the day). I had hoped to pick up my badge before the show closed for the day, and what made it worse was not getting the Friday program, where I would have seen that there was going to be a screening for the live-action Blood: The Last Vampire!! Arrrrgh!!!

The following morning, I awoke on my friend’s couch to the sounds of heavy rain, and a little bit of thunder. And me without an umbrella. Since I’d have to walk to take the metro, I decided I’d wait for the rain to die down before heading out, eventually making it to the convention center around noon. One of the first things to rub me the wrong way, the volunteer staff. I know they’re important to keeping things in order at conventions, but some of these people took their jobs way too seriously. I tried to go through a door into the convention center, only to be met with an incredibly rude young lady that seemingly poofed outta nowhere to tell me to use the other door. Where was the other door? About ten feet away! And it wasn’t like there was any foot traffic going in and/or out of the convention center at the time. But fine, whatever. I go for my badge and head onto the main convention floor.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything sadder in my life. Immediately, I notice just how much smaller the whole space looks compared to last year. I don’t know if anyone would argue that it was the same space as last year, but it sure as hell didn’t look it! The main thing I noticed was the total absence of the usual booths; no DC, no Marvel, not even Image or Dark Horse.

Sure, pros from those companies were there, but scattered throughout the area. Right there, the entire landscape of the con was drastically different from anything I’ve experienced before. There’s nothing to really catch the eye, and you were left to wander aimlessly into this void, slowly sucking your lifeforce away, as you struggle to find something of interest. But I soldiered on, and eventually made it to Artist Alley. Even before I started doing time behind the table, it had been a main draw for me as a fan. It was great meeting new artists and writers and talking with them, and being impressed with their work without feeling like I had to be in awe of them, like the pros who work for the larger publishers. I’ve made friends with a lot of these guys, and it’s still great to see them whenever I do a show. But dammit if AA didn’t look noticably sparse this year! I knew a lot of guys from previous years who swore they’d never do Philly again, citing the high registration fee and overall treatment they would receive from the organizers. And I can definitely sympathize with them, just comparing my experiences doing Philly with shows like the Baltimore Con and the Pittsburgh Comic-Con. Not that we’re treated like supreme royalty or anything, but we’re offered food and drink, and sometimes, the organizers and miscellaneous staff just come around from time to time to see how we’re all doing. It’s the little things, people, the little things! There’s no kind of love like that at a Wizard World show, far as I can tell. But beyond that, everything else about the show just seemed to be on a much smaller scale. Lines for (genre) celebrity signings were non-existent, comic vendors were few and far between, not to mention being severely limited in product (I wanna be able to find current comics I may have missed two or three weeks ago, not no silver age back issues no one cares about anyway!),  and there were hardly any news breaks that we couldn’t have found out about through other means.

So what happened? Aside from Wizard World Philly just not being a very good show, this year it had the unfortunate luck of falling on the same weekend as the more popular Heroes Con. Now, you could argue that if not for this fact, WW Philly could have been better. But we’re still dealing with a show that was already diminishing in popularity. A show that smaller indie creators were fed up with two years ago. A show that’s offering less while charging people more (A friend of my lamented at having to pay$35 dollars for a Friday pass).