EARTH PRIME TIME: THE WATCHER’S LOOK AT BOSTON COMIC CON

This past weekend, citizens of Earth Prime finally got their Boston Comic Con at The Seaport World Trade Center. After much anticipation, the show was a glaring success for the fans, promoters, organizers and vendors. I am Uatu, The Watcher. I have taken an oath to aid humanity and monitor key points in human history without interfering. Here just some of the events happening at Boston on Saturday and Sunday, for us Watchers to study.

Boston Comic Con is angling to be a major independent comic book show in the country, and even after a reschedule and change of venue, founder Nick Kanieff has his target on being the number #3 show in the country behind touchstone San Diego Comic Con and New York Comic Con. If what I have seen from this past weekend is any indication, they may just make it. From the long entry lines, to the elaborate cosplay, to the amazing panel artists and guests the Beantown nerd and geek culture crowd uproariously rejoiced, seemingly forgetting about the unfortunate events of the Marathon Bombings in April that caused the show to move.

Observe! Boston Comic Con Fans Fanning Out on Fan Pier

As The Watcher, I’ve seen some things. but never have I seen a line for tickets in Boston for something other than October baseball.

Nick Kanieff’s initial attendance prediction of 12,000—15,000 people was exceeded, and with a venue three times the size of The Hynes, one wonders if this is the best spot for the convention in 2014.

But I am just an observer, sworn not in interfere with my cosmic juju.

[READ MORE at DIGBOSTON.COM]

EARTH PRIME TIME: BOSTON COMIC CON WITH NICK KANIEFF (PART 2)

 CONTINUED FROM PART ONE ( HERE! ) 

Boston Comic Con has been rescheduled for this weekend, August 3-4, at The Seaport World Trade Center. Founder Nick Kanieff joins us for the epic conclusion of our two part interview (Part One HERE) about the challenges of moving this great independent comic book show and the incredible growth Boston Con has seen since its first years.

The Boston comics community was looking forward to the show in April, and now are even more ready to get together this summer as a celebration of comic books and pop culture at the rescheduled date and venue.

DIGBOSTON: We have portfolio reviews, cosplay contests. Is there anything you are looking forward to as an event organizer?
NICK KANIEFF: The ongoing joke is that as the organizer I never get to enjoy my own show. I’m really excited this year about the original art auction. We had our first art auction last year and a portion of the proceeds goes to the Mike Wieringo Foundation, a scholarship for aspiring comic book artists to attend a program at the Savannah College of Art & Design. Our first art auction was very successful.

This year we are still donating to that particular charity and we are also donating to The One Fund.

Once we put that out there to the artist’s community, the support was overwhelming. People that would not normally donate to an art auction—there aren’t that many of them in the comic book convention world (Heroes Con, Baltimore Comic Con, and us)—probably because we are the three conventions that are considered more comic book purist and comic art driven shows. Mike Mignola(Hellboy) said “I am putting a piece of original art at your auction.” That’s gigantic. Mike Mignola’s huge and his art goes for tons of money. Everybody is stepping up to the plate, so I have a feeling the art auction is particularly huge this year.

The Amazing Screw-On Head - Mike Mignola

We have the costume contest, every year that gets bigger and bigger and bigger. The cosplay community keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

I’ve been to Anime Boston and I scratch my head because it’s all cosplay. It’s a social event. There’s not a lot going on, but it is a huge social event.

It’s mindblowing to me how big the cosplay community really is. That’s always exciting. 
We have IDW showing up as a publisher this year. That’s pretty cool. We’ve got a Magic the Gathering tournament going on.

DC Comics and IDW will be doing portfolio reviews for you aspiring comic book artists out there. We’ve got our exclusive Boston Comic Con t-shirt by Tim Sale. We have our exclusive My Little Pony Boston Comic Con variant comic (Agnes Garbowska) – limited to 1000 copies.

[READ MORE at DIGBOSTON.COM]

EARTH PRIME TIME: BOSTON COMIC CON WITH NICK KANIEFF (PART 1)

Boston Comic Con has been rescheduled for this weekend, August 3-4, at The Seaport World Trade Center. Founder Nick Kanieff joins us for a two part interview about the challenges of moving this great independent comic book show and the incredible growth Boston Con has seen since its first years. The Boston comics community was looking forward to the show in April, and now are even more ready to get together this summer as a celebration of comic books and pop culture at the rescheduled date and venue.

DIGBOSTON: Can you tell me how you started running this show?
NICK KANIEFF: We had our first show in 2007. I had been a collector most of my life. I got to a point where I decided to sell my collection. I had some good friends that ran a comic book store, I asked them the best way to liquidate the collection, they suggested a combination of eBay and going to Cons and setting up as a vendor. There is a little show that’s been run here for 15 years. I set up there, was selling my comics and I noticed that it was a small show and the vendors were unhappy. It wasn’t what I remember as a kid. I remember there was an electricity in the air. It was crowded with people, it was colorful. It was a huge trading floor, it was a stock exchange with so much excitement. I started poking around, how come Boston doesn’t have a major comic book convention? No one could give me a good common sense answer to that question.

If I could start a show and bring back the magic, the allure, the electricity that I felt as a kid, then this thing can go through the roof.

I did just that. I started the show in 2007 at the Back Bay Events Center with 900 attendees. Three-four times the amount of the existing show, that had been there for 15 years.

The show has gone from 900 people to last year’s 10,000. We moved from Back Bay Events Center to The Hynes. Unfortunately, the Boston Marathon tragedy happened and we postponed and rescheduled to The Seaport. Our estimated attendance for 2013 is between 12-15,000 people.

It’s just gotten bigger and better and we are now nationally recognized and ranked and a show people come to from all over the country.

We’re putting Boston back on the map as a major city that has a major comic book convention for fans that deserve it. Boston deserves a well-run, big comic book convention. We’ve hopefully given that to them. My goal at the end of the day is to put on the best show that I can. The way I know that I’m successful is if the fans, the vendors, and the artists all walk away saying we had a great time, a lot of fun, we made some money and that was the best show I’ve ever been too.

I just want to make it bigger and bigger and better.

That’s great. I’ve been going since 2009, and each of the Cons keeps getting bigger and bigger — to the benefit of the Con. There was plenty of space, and lots of happy people last year. I have just as good a time at Boston as I do at New York.
That’s the barometer, when a fan like yourself says that, I know we are doing our job right.

[READ MORE at DIGBOSTON.COM]

HEY…PART 2 is HERE!

DigBoston and LeaguePodcast Comic Book Picks of the Week for October 10, 2012

COMICS

The Joker returns to Gotham City in the most highly anticipated book of the month, Batman #13 (Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo). This story kicks off the ‘Death of the Family’ storyline, we anticipate Snyder’s Joker to be particularly freaky with his face attached to his skull with straps and hooks. Preview at Newsarama. … Here’s some collected editions we think are worth checking out! Smoke and Mirrors is collected and available for pre-order. This book incorporates magic and a strange new world. Check out our interview with the creators here! … Saga from Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples is a must read sci-fi drama recommended for all Star Wars fans. New 52 Nightwing Vol. 1 and Neal Adams Batman: Odyssey Hardcover are also recommended for pre-order. … Picks this week from LeaguePodcast.com.

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DigBoston and LeaguePodcast Comic Book Picks of the Week for August 1, 2012

COMICS

Leather jackets, untold simian legends and special guest Jeff Parker (Thuderbolts) give us The Planet of The Apes Annual #1, augmenting the past year in BOOM! Studios ape-talk from Gabriel Hardman & Corinna Bechko. … There’s a 5 story high ginger on the Zakim Bridge and the new Captain Marvel teams up with Spider-Man to knock her down! I say impale her on the Bunker Hill Monument! Avenging Spider-Man #10 brings the battle to our fair city … First X-Men #1 takes a look at early years of Wolverine and Sabretooth before Xavier’s team is formed. Story and art by League favorites Christos Gage and Neal Adams. … Picks this week from LeaguePodcast.com.

Pass the Daily Dig along! Your friends can sign up here!