Long Beach Comic Con
LBCC is a local convention that JayCompanyComics.com exhibits with 4 booths, 2 endcap locations. Unlike true blockbuster events like San Diego Comic Con or even Wondercon, the necessity for going with large display isn’t necessarily to capitalize on hoards of fans walking through the doors. Instead it is an opportunity to clear out remnants of inventory, and put a few bucks in our pockets at the end of a long convention season.
One Endcap location for JayCompanyComics.com at the Long Beach Comic Con
The Long Convention Season is the key term here. The marathon starts with excitement at January’s Amazing Arizona Comic Con, and continues with a packed spring season of Emerald City Comicon, Wondercon, C2E2, and others. The peak is Comic Con International in July, but there are other good events in the fall such as Baltimore and the ever growing New York Comic Con. JayCompanyComics.com exhibits at many of these shows, as well as several of the Wizard World and other regional cons too. The Bottom line, there are a ton of great comic con style events.
Long Beach just happens to be at the very end of the line.
Compounding the actual impact, Southern California itself has many events in addition to Wondercon in Anaheim and San Diego Comic Con- there’s Stan Lee’s Comikaze Expo in Downtown LA in the fall, as well as a twice weekly warehouse pop culture swap at Frank & Sons Collectible Show.
And once again Long Beach is at the very end of the line.
For the Long beach Comic Con itself- at its best, it’s a cute, local show. One of the LBCC employees, Mike Scigliano keeps an online journal at Publisher’s Weekly, often talks about the thrifty spending practices. While keeping it local, most studios and talent in attendance also make numerous store signings in addition to being at all the events listed above. The guest list is more of a local showcase than anything else.
For whatever reason, there is a lack of a true SUPERSTAR headliner on the show floor. When LBCC launched just few years ago, Stan Lee was at the ribbon cutting, Geoff Johns and the Blackest night crew had a gang signing, Geoff Loeb and Simone Bianchi were promoting Wolverine/Sabertooth run, Jim Lee had a meet and greet with the fans, Deadpool Creator Rob Liefeld generously drew pictures. While these names didn’t return in following years, events like the DC52 propped up their guest list with many local creators involved.
Stan Lee & Jeph Loeb cut the Ribbon at 1st LBCC
This year was another story- a thin guest list to begin with, LBCC’s biggest headline talent- David Finch backed out of many of his fall commitments such as Las Vegas Comic Expo as well as this event. Given that there was no big comic market event to rally around to mask the lack of star power, there wasn’t a true buzz on the show floor motivating fans and retailers.
Perhaps the way to sum up the event: Fans, talent, and exhibitors in SoCal are simply fatigued.
Convention staff have teased that they will be bringing Mark Millar/Grant Morrison reunion, and other European talent to the December 2013 Long Beach Comic Con. Here’s hoping this small market operation, run in an overcrowded market can turn the ship around.
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