WonderCon Capitalizes on the ‘Fantasy Economy’
This story originally appeared in PW Comics Week on March 3, 2009 Sign up now!
By Douglas Wolk -- Publishers Weekly, 3/2/2009 3:02:00 PM
This year's WonderCon, held February 27-March 1, was an acid test for what a mid-size convention could be like in the new economy—and Friday’s business was sluggish enough that the mood at San Francisco's Moscone Center was nervous. Fortunately, attendance and sales picked up enormously on Saturday, and many publishers and vendors were reporting solid or better-than-solid sales by Sunday. David Glanzer, director of marketing and public relations for the San Diego Comic-Con International, which owns and manages WonderCon, said that while he did not have exact attendance figures as yet, he expected attendance to be at least about 29,000, the number that attended last year’s WonderCon, “and very likely more.”
Bob Chapman of Graphitti Designs described sales activity at the show this way: “We live in a perfect fantasy world that has a fantasy economy." Radical Comics publisher Dave Elliott said that they'd done better at WonderCon than at this year's New York Comic-Con. (He also noted a sign of the times: Radical is phasing out its 32-page comics in favor of a 48-page, $4.99 format.)
The book of the show, unsurprisingly, was Watchmen—when DC Comics' booth was giving away reprint copies of the original periodical, Watchmen #1, the line stretched down the wall of the convention center, and the Friday night screening of the movie was the hottest ticket around. WonderCon is the kind of convention that attracts plenty of cosplayers, and many of them were dressed as Watchmen characters: at least a few Sally Jupiters, a body-painted Dr. Manhattan with black briefs, and more Rorschachs than you could shake a canister of sugar cubes at. It's as much a media show as a comics show, and official news from comics publishers were thin on the ground: Marvel announced that Arthur Adams would be drawing one of their Ultimate titles, DC that Judd Winick and Paul Dini would be writing Batman-related series. IDW, meanwhile, let it be known that they're publishing a deluxe collection of the late Dave Stevens' Rocketeer material and collecting Bil Keane's Family Circus, and Boom! Studios formally announced a co-publishing deal with Fox Atomic, although they didn't name any specific titles they'd be publishing.
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| The graphic novel panel with (l. to r.) David Petersen, Windy Pini,Alex Robinson and Stan Sakai |
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| Jill Thompson at the Dark Horse booth |
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| Viz editor Annette Roman |
So far, the gloomy economy has not had a significant impact on shows like WonderCon. “We’ve always done well in a bad economy,” Glanzer said, “this past weekend people were spending money and we’ve got high unemployment in California.” And while he acknowledged that the economy, “has never been this bad before,” he also doesn’t anticipate the downturn affecting the upcoming San Diego show either. “We don’t anticipate much impact. There is always way more demand for hotels and exhibit space than we can accommodate.”
“We give people value for the dollar,” Glanzer said in explanation, “and in our surveys fans feel that they get their money’s worth. At WonderCon they got a Watchmen screening and a lot of other stuff for a reasonable rate and the fans realize that.”
[Additional reporting by Calvin Reid. Photos courtesy of Deb Aoki and about.com and check out her WonderCon Gallery.]
