2011 D.C. Comic-Con

Sunday was Father's Day. As it happens, mine lives a few hundred miles away, so other than a present and a phone call, I was off the hook in terms of having to make plans. Thus, I was free to indulge two of my iffier passions in life: comic books and professional wrestling, as the Gods of Awesome Timing scheduled the D.C. Comic-Con and the WWE's Capitol Punishment pay-per-view on the same day.

I felt last year's inaugural D.C. Comic Con was a good first step, but only if the show had aspirations to grow. Unfortunately, while there seemed to be a better selection of comics, and this year's guests were better than last year's, the convention organizers don't appear to have any desire to expand beyond George Mason University's Student Union Building II, never mind, actually hold the D.C. Comic Con in D.C.

I realize that since it's not my money at stake, it's really easy for me to say, "Hey, guys, you should be holding this thing in the D.C. Convention Center or at least the ballroom of the Washington Hilton, not the same building I once took the LSAT in." But it's not like D.C. doesn't have more than enough nerds to fill a dozen convention centers. Additionally, there isn't a big, pop culture-ish event of any sort that's held in this city, meaning interest would be huge, even among non-comic book readers. And when you consider the close proximity to New York, Baltimore, Philly, etc., it almost seems like it would be impossible to fail.

Since Marc Nathan, the organizer of the Baltimore Comic-Con, also helps runs this one, I wouldn't be surprised if part of the reason for keeping the D.C. show small and unambitious is so it won't cannibalize the audience for Baltimore. If so, he needn't worry. There's plenty of nerdiness in this region to go around. But I get why it might be a concern, so here's what I would suggest: A point of pride for the Baltimore Comic-Con is that it's strictly about comic books, not an overall pop culture convention, as San Diego and most other shows have become in recent years. So why not go the opposite route for D.C.? Let Baltimore stay all about comics. For D.C., yes, have comics, but also fly in Bruce Campbell and Felicia Day and other C-list celebrities to sign autographs. Let the horror, RPG, anime, etc. exhibitors in. Have booth babes. Whatever. Comic book purists may turn their noses up at Wizard World shows, but there's nothing inherently evil about them, and they're held in pretty much every major city in America--except, inexplicably, D.C.--so you can't say they're not popular. And if the D.C. show was held in spring and Baltimore in the fall, enough time would pass between them so that Baltimore shouldn't lose much, if any, business.

There's a huge vacuum in D.C. just waiting to be filled, and if Nathan and company aren't interested, they should surrender the D.C. Comic-Con name to someone who is, and just have the George Mason show fall under the Virginia Comic-Con umbrella.

Anyway, on to the con itself.

--It seemed like there was a better variety of dealers this year. One guy in particular had a great selection of '60s and '70s comics that weren't in super condition, but were only $3 each. I picked up some old Batman comics. I haven't read them yet, but I have smelled them. Seriously, old comics smell awesome. If Blogger offered a scratch and sniff widget, I'd show you.

-- I was one of the first 100 people to get in, so I got the con exclusive, a free copy of Witchblade #136 with the D.C. Comic-Con variant cover.

See? The Washington Monument! Cherry blossoms! Things you find actually in D.C., not on the George Mason campus! Regrettably, several people beat me to putting their copies up on eBay, where demand would have been soft regardless. But now with the oversaturation, it's virtually non-existent. Since I'm not a Witchblade fan, I suspect this is going to end up in the trash.

-- Probably the biggest factor in my deciding to go to the con this year was that Larry Hama was one of the guests. The guy wrote the G.I. Joe comic when I was a kid. The guy's still writing the G.I. Joe comic. I used to dream of owning a copy of G.I. Joe #1, which, back in the day, Overstreet had priced at something like $50. But when you're 8 or 9, $50 might as well be $5,000,000.

Eventually, I grew up and moved on to more mature material. You know, like Batman. So I never did get a copy of this issue, even though A) It's no longer worth $50, and B) Even if it was, I could now afford it. But when I heard Hama was going to be there, all of a sudden, it became vitally important that I own a copy. I didn't hear about the show in time to buy one on eBay, so as soon as I got into the con, I made a beeline to the first dealer I saw with a good back issue selection and was in luck.

Granted, owning this isn't quite as cool as it would have been when I was a kid, but it's still a nice thing to have.

It was only after I got home that I realized Hama also wrote the Barack the Barbarian mini-series. Which was pretty godawful, but I still would have gotten it autographed. The lesson being, always do your homework before you go to one of these things.

-- Finally, I had a bit of a...well, not exactly an epiphany, but a moment of realization while at the show.

When I first started going to conventions as a kid, the coolest part was looking at the comics that dealers had hanging up on the rack behind them. The really old and/or rare and/or valuable ones. Back then, I was mostly relegated to the quarter bins. Maybe the dollar bins, if I'd saved my money. But the rack comics? So far out my price range, it wasn't even funny. Forget $50 for G.I. Joe #1, Silver Age comics usually went for hundreds. Golden Age books, even more.

But between eBay and the collapse of the comic book collectibles market, prices have dropped considerably. And now, as someone who has a fair amount of disposable income, I looked at those same comics I did 20 years ago, and suddenly realized, "Holy shit, I can actually afford these."

That doesn't mean I'm going to buy them. I have no real desire to be a hardcore collector. But ever since it was announced that Stan Lee was going to be the guest at the Baltimore Comic-Con in August, I've been thinking about how cool it would be to have a Stan Lee-signed comic. It just seems like the sort of thing every comic book fan should own. And while I could easily find something that he wrote relatively recently for little money, how much cooler would it be if it was an early issue of The Amazing Spider-Man or X-Men? Not even in mint condition. Just in reasonably good shape that I could frame and hang on my wall? What's the most I can spend on one comic book and still maintain a decent amount of self-respect? I suspect I'm going to find out.

Tomorrow: My day of geekery continues with a recap of Capitol Punishment.