When one thinks of Philadelphia, usually the first things
that come to mind are cheesesteaks, the Liberty Bell, and the Phillies. However, when I think of “The City of
Brotherly Love”, only one thing comes to mind, Wizard World Philadelphia. Now mind you, this would be my first year
travelling down to Philly for this con.
In fact I’ve been heading south since 2008 (except last year when I
lived on the other side of the country), so needless to say, I’m no stranger to
Philly’s Wizard World show. However this
is my first time reporting on it, so we’re going to see how this goes.
After emerging from the subway station out on to the sweltering
streets of Philadelphia, I couldn’t help but feel a slight twinge of
excitement, just knowing what lay ahead of me within the Pennsylvania
Convention Center. As I walked through
the doors and the mercifully cool air hit me, I knew that this was where I
belonged. I could finally be amongst my
brethren and not feel like such an outcast.
This show has always been a bit special to me. A lot of firsts happened here. This was my very first con, this was where I
was first fully introduced to the wonders of Zenescope, where I first started
making “donations” to the art community and where I met some of my good
friends. So, as you can see, this is an
important convention to me, which I try to get to every year. With that in mind, I hope to do the show
justice and bring in more people to attend this wonderful convention.
So, right off the
bat, I gotta say how much I enjoyed the ease of access this show had. What I mean by that is just how easy it was
to maneuver around the place. You didn’t
get that claustrophobic feeling every time you tried to pass between the
different booths. I liked how open and
free the convention felt and it was just the right size for me too. I’m not a huge fan of large crowds (although
I don’t think most people are), so for a show this size to come around is just
plain awesome for me. It was small
enough where you didn’t get the massive crowds like in New York or San Diego,
but large enough that it draws in some pretty amazing talent and celebs.
Which leads me to
my next point: the overall content of the show.
I found that there was quite a bit to see and do. I could honestly spend a whole day just
perusing through all of the different vendors.
Comic book re-sellers were everywhere, which is a colletor’s dream. Being a collector myself I love going through
and finding that one book necessary to either further or complete my collection
and a lot of the books are fairly cheap compared to someplace like eBay. However, the comics are just the tip of the
iceberg. There were action figures,
t-shirts, leather-working, old video games and so much more. The variety was just plain fantastic and that’s
not even including the exhibitors. Two
of my favorite independent comic book companies were in attendance: Zenescope,
who are practically right down the street from the convention and Big Dog Ink. In my opinion, both of these companies are
doing something fresh and innovative with their stories and I’m always apt to
support, not really up-and-comers, but not really as big of companies as DC or
Marvel. The best part is, everyone at
both booths seemed very laid back and easy to talk to. Hands down one of my favorite things to do at
conventions is to interact with the creators of some of these series that I
read. May it be to get a little insight
as to the creation of a character, or just to shoot the breeze. Either way, it’s great to be able to meet the
people behind the pages.
Now, I could
easily and I mean easily, spend a month’s paycheck in Artist Alley. Here’s where I love the ease of access again
because I could freely browse through all of the different artists without
having to vie for position. Wizard World
Philly managed to procure artists of all different media, but all with the nerd
culture in mind. You don’t understand
how much I enjoyed seeing all of the different ways Batman or Spider-Man were
depicted, not to mention all of the female characters. Artist Alley is probably one of my absolute
favorite sections to wander through because not only do you get to pick up some
more great art, but you can also meet and converse with all of these new writers
and artists. And now we go over to the
Special Guest section, where all of the celebrities hold signings and photo
ops. Now we’re not talking about B movie
actors and actresses, although some people prefer them over the big names,
Wizard World Philly brings in big names from shows and movies that the
attendees know and love. This year
alone, I was able to meet the captain himself, William Shatner and the legend
Stan Lee, not to mention Adam Baldwin, Gina Torres, Summer Glau and Jewel
Staite, who, I’ve gotta say are some of the nicest people you’ll ever
meet. Now that’s some star power right
there. I really want to say thank you to
people running this show for giving me the opportunity to meet these people
whom I’ve marveled on screen for so long.
It truly was an honor. The only
thing I didn’t get to experience were the panels (and they all sounded pretty
cool too), but that’s only because I got lost amongst all of the great stuff
happening on the show floor. Perhaps
next year I’ll actually make it to some.
So, the show was
absolutely amazing, except for one incident that occurred Saturday
morning. Essentially what happened was,
I had previously purchased tickets online for autographs from a select few
celebs. When you finally get the ticket,
it gives you the option to either print it out or send it to this app on an
iPhone called Spotpass. I figured I
would save some trees and give myself three less things to carry around with me
and downloaded the tickets to my phone.
Fast forward to the Saturday of the convention and I’m standing in line,
waiting to meet Stan Lee. Now, I’ve been
in line for a good half an hour to an hour at this point. So, I finally make it up to the front of the
line, I’ve got my ticket queued up on my phone and I’m told I need a paper
ticket. Believe me, I was not happy at
the point, so I furiously ran around the show floor, hoping to see some signage
saying where to redeem these tickets. I
finally ended up at the information booth, only to be told that I would have to
go downstairs to Kinko’s in order to print out the tickets, which increased my
anger even more. Then it was suggested I
go out to the Guest Relations/Press Registration booth to see what they can do
about the ticket. After I had to forward
my e-mail receipts to the coordinator at the booth, I got them printed out, but
was told that the tickets had said that a physical ticket would be required to
meet these people. At that I had missed
the autograph time slot for the morning and would have to wait until the
afternoon to try again. Now, maybe the
tickets did say that, I know I didn’t see it, but if that’s the case, why would
they even give you the option to download the tickets if a physical one is
required? It just doesn’t make sense. One thing that could have been done would
have been to have a sign out in front of the Special Guest area, saying that a
physical ticket was required for pre-purchased autographs or photo ops and even
then have a station set up so you could then print off the tickets if you
needed to. I mean something like that
could have prevented an unnecessary headache, for me and possibly for others as
well. I was definitely cheesed off for a
good portion of the day, but it didn’t ruin the convention for me. This is just something that should be
considered for future shows.
Overall the
convention was a great experience, despite a miscommunication. As I headed out of the hall for the last time
this year, I left with a newfound perspective on a lot of things as well as a
greater appreciation of all of the friends I’ve made at this show. Sure there will be other shows and new people
to meet, but Wizard World Philadelphia will always be my show of firsts. So thank you to everyone who helped make this
show possible and for making it such a wonderful experience. I would most definitely recommend this
convention to anyone looking for a relaxing and enjoyable time and to the
populace in general. Wizard World Philly
2013 was one hell of a show.
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