Mood:
rushedTopic: Comic Cons
TODAY'S FEATURE - Blog #3536: Back in blog #3516, I mentioned that I was looking forward to attending a comic con in the Long Beach area of the Los Angeles Metro Area... That would be the Long Beach Comic Con, which added the 'Horror' word to its name this year, as once again it occured during the Halloween Season! I'm not going to repeat here what I said in the earlier blog post for the most part, other than the links I believe you would be interested in. This 2011 LBCC is now the third of the three of the weekend cons that the LBCC has hosted. There has also been two one day expos, which I have had the pleasure of also attending! Here are just a few photos from the earlier cons, as uploaded at my Facebook Fan Page, Michael D Hamersky On Comics: I will be adding more photos to the 2011 LBCC&HC photo album in the next four hours, and in the days to follow. Tina took over 200 photos and I took over 200 photos from our one day there, (Saturday). Plus I have videos to share from this con, which will be posted both at my YouTube Channel as well as the Facebook Fan Page. Plus here are the links for you to check out to match up with the photos and videos that I will be presenting at my Facebook Fan Page, as these links have links to the exhibitors, panelists, and Artist Alley participants: The 2011 Programming Schedule Including 1st time Masquerade Ball Oh, and so you can see what everyone else is saying or has alreday said about this year's Long Beach Comic & Horrr Con... Here's the Facebook Fan Page for the LBCC, so that you can be interactive with the promoters / attendees for this year's Con! So... With All that out of the way... What was 'My Take' on this year's con?! First, Tina had a book launch that has to be finalized for this upcoming week, so we just made plans to arrive early and stay as long as we could yesterday... Which turned out to be from 9:30 AM to 9:30 PM, so we saw quite a bit during those 12 hours! Here's my immediate topics and my thoughts: Parking: Totally blown away by the numbers of cars we saw in line before it was even 9:30 AM! We arrived at 9:20 AM, hoping to make it inside the underground parking facility at the Long Beach Convention Center! We did, which was great, as the parking was only $10 and we had access to our car whenever we needed it! Registration: If the numbers of cars was any indication of what we would find upstairs in the convention center itself... Well we were blown away by the long line to get the badges to get in! We were going to pick up our Press Badges at the Professional Counter, but stopped to take pics of the line, and that everyone at that time was in a good mood, and ready to take on the con in half an hour. My understanding later, when inside, was the line had grown even longer, and reached the corner of the block on the outside. This was the most persons arriving early at this con ever in its three years of operating, and the staff had to add on additional computers to handle the overflow of those wanting to get in, and had not purchased online badges! Opening Day Ceremony: (Pictured above and with a video to be uploaded!) Tom Pinchuk once again provided the welcoming message, and a good job in doing so once again! Exhibit Hall: The Entrance was the same as the previous year, but the con's promoters had listened to the advice given last year, and made several improvements on where to stage certain events, etc. The layout design of where Artists Alley was placed was better also! Panels: Yeah! All the panels were on the same floor as the exhibit hall! And we didn't have to go around the building to get to them like last year! Vast improvement! Of the 12 hours we were at the convention, we spent almost 4 hours at 4 different panels. Great selection of topics for me! Events: The 1st ever Masquerade was fine for a first time event at this con. Tina refuses to stand in line for tickets to get into the main hall for the San Deigo Comic Con Masquerade, and I just don't get the same feeling as attending it when seeing it in adjacent hall with the video piped in! Here at the Long Beach Comic Con... We walked in a half hour before starting time, and had front row seats! We'll be sharing photos and videos in the days to follow. Plus for a 1st time event... It had 17 entries! Not bad at all! Plus, those that were there, had fun! Artists Alley: There were so many people to see, both Facebook Friends and newbies (to me!) at this show, that I didn't get to see everyone one on one this time. I knew we just had the one day, but there were four really goood panels I wanted to attend as well. My apologies to those we didn't get time to talk with! And yes, there were many artists there, from comics, fantasy, sci-fi, anime, etc. This is a great section to check out! Exhibitors: The way the floor design is set up... You had to walk by and through the front wave of booths that were held by the exhibitors. We spent a little bit of time checking some of them out... But since I wasn't there to buy from other dealers or comics publishers... I walked by the comic dealers, waving to those I knew, and glancing at the comics publishers wares that were displayed. For those that were there for this activity, there appeared to be ample supply of dealers and exhibitors to choose from. Other Activities: Films - There were films, but after an hour and a half drive up for us from the San Diego area... I'm not going to take in a film. Plus the majority of the films were horror films, which Tina normally doesn't take in at the Big Screen. So we didn't check this out. After Exhibit Hall Closed Activities: Although not officially part of the Long Beach Comic & Horror Con... The 2011 Zombie Walk at the Long Beach Convention Center was a massive undertaking! There was talk of the Zombie Walk's promoters going for the record of the most Zombies ever! And trust Tina... She believes they were darn close, if not setting a new record! We were coming back from dinner and upon the elevator door opening... Were shocked at the crowd size! We had come to finish the con's activities of a concert and the Masquerade. The concert was not set up, and with the crowd outside, I believe that took some of the con's attendees attention. However, the Masquerade although small in number of attendees at first, ended up with about 40% of the room filled. Tina enjoyed herself at this Masquerade, and believe me... She is tough on Masquerades that are held! Well... That's it for the written word on the 2011 LBCC. For visual sights and sounds... Be sure to check the links to the photo album and the YouTube Channel videos via my Facebook Fan Page shown above! My thanks again to Martha Donato, Phil Lawrence, Mike Scigliano, and Drew Seldin for presenting once again such a smooth & FUN comic con! We will definitely be looking forward to the 2012 one day LBCC Expo in the Spring, and then the weekend con in November of 2012! ~Michael D Hamersky On Comics!
My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now at 3,536 total posts in number! I do appreciate your continued reading and support of this Blog! BTW, You can 'follow' this blog by clicking the 'Follow' Button at this NetworkedBlogs app link! We currently have over 2,594 'Followers'! Thanks to ALL of YOU that have already clicked that button! And for those of YOU that haven't yet... I would appreciate it if YOU would!!! ~ Michael D Hamersky Note: My online 'Local' Comic Book Shop (LCBS), carries many different genres of comics, magazines, graphic novels, and comic con promotional items. Possibly even copies of the item(s) that was mentioned here today...!If I have it... You can find it 'Under The Big Top Of Comics' at: http://www.ComicBooksCircus.com/ Web Page Note: This blog post is written for the IE Browser standards. Chrome, Safari, Netscape, Firefox and the other browsers serve the page up differently, sorry about that! The screen display resolution is best seen at the setting of 1024 x 768 on your laptop or desktop computer. Note: As of Monday, June 27th, 2011, I'll be using my new laptop, where the default resolution is 'higher', so there may be some temporary glitches until I am used to the new resolution. NOTE: All images and characters within this blog post are copyright and trademark their respective owners.
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