[private]Con Review gives readers the quick need to know run down of major geek conventions and expos, with ratings and basic reviews that highlight the best of each con while giving you a reference to look back on as you decide where to make your geeky vacations of the future.

Long Beach ComicconCon Name: Long Beach Comic and Horror Convention

 

Location: Long Beach Convention Center, Long Beach, Ca

 

Dates: October 29th & 30th 2011

 

Ticket Costs: $25 per day, $45 all weekend

 

Website: longbeachcomiccon.com/

 

History: The 2011 convention was Long Beach’s 3rd year running both a spring expo and fall convention in sunny Long Beach, California. Its first year was marked by Stan Lee & Long Beach City Councilmember Robert Garcia opening the show with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and an overall attendance of 6,300+ unique individuals. The show has continued to steadily grow ever since.

 

Major Guests:

  • Joe Benitez
  • J. Scott Campbell
  • John Carpenter
  • Gerry Conway
  • Felicia Day
  • Seth Green
  • Thomas Jane
  • Angus Oblong

 

Major Exhibitors:

  • Aspen Comics
  • Boom Studios
  • IDW Publishing
  • Top Cow Entertainment
  • Team Unicorn

 

Review:

Staying There:

Right on the coast of downtown Long Beach, this convention has found itself a beautiful home that it continues to return to. The area around the convention is fairly affordable with countless hotels, restaurants, shopping, and side attractions. Some of the more well known hotels around the area might cost you a pretty penny for the weekend, but if you look around you can easily find an affordable travel lodge, best westerns, and the like resting you for around $50-100 per night. Unfortunately, unless you get lucky with your hotel, you should be expecting to pay around $10 a day parking anywhere near or under the convention center itself. However, the location is worth it with its beautiful weather and proximity to good food, drinks, and attractions like the Long Beach Aquarium.

Getting In & Interacting:

As for the convention itself, ticket prices are a little higher than you’d expect for a convention of this lower-medium size. You won’t find any of the big two comic companies here, but smaller and indie comic publisher fans will love the ability to interact with favorite creators and talk easily with publishers at a con this size. Bumping into editors like Mark Waid, Vince Hernandez, and Scott Dunbier is simple at a convention like this, but building up the courage to pitch them your great comic idea or show them your amazing portfolio is all on you. In the meantime, you might wait in line for a short while to chat with big name comic writers and artists, but this will be nothing like San Diego’s Comic Con. At Long Beach you can go right up and talk for several minutes with almost any creator there, thanks to the more laid back tone and lower attendance numbers. Even big name celebrities like Seth Green, Thomas Jane, and John Carpenter had signature lines that moved more like waiting for your order at McDonalds than attempting to get on the new ride at Six Flags. So if celebrity interaction, signatures, sketches, and photos are your thing? This is the convention for you.

Right upon entering the exhibit hall of the convention you instantly see the booths for Aspen, Boom, and IDW right at the front entrance. During signings and peak hours of the day you might view a line or small crowd around these big company booths, but generally you can walk right up and talk to whatever creators happen to be on hand with next to no wait. This makes picking up and getting any convention exclusives or variants signed by their creators quick and easy. Behind these booths were several other studios (such as Raw and Top Cow), comic dealers that were hosting signings, a packed artist alley, and groups like Team Unicorn that fill their booths with sexy women and internet celebrities. In years past, this convention held B-list celebrities and older comic film/TV actors, like Adam West and Lou Ferrigno, that were sadly absent this year. Many of the creators and celebrities were simply walking around (interacting with dealers, fans, and other big names) and were more than happy to sign your collectibles or take a picture if not full on chat your ear off and answer any questions you might have.

The only downfall to the convention being so small and friendly is that it can’t really draw in a lot of the big comic creators from Image, Darkhorse, DC, and Marvel that live far away or don’t have the time to break away from their work for just any convention. In the past Long Beach has drawn the likes of Stan Lee, Geoff Johns, Robert Kirkman, and Jeph Loeb, but these days your bigger named creators present tend to be more like Christos Gage, Amanda Conner, and David Finch. Still, these are great creators who all have the time and stories to make a fan feel special.

Buying Your Swag:

This convention was packed with dealers, as they became a vast majority of the exhibitor’s hall. There the traditional convention dealer’s stood with booths packed with the current hot items, variant covers, and great convention deals. Beyond this there were several local shops offering the odd variety of figures, back issues, trades that could hold a gem or two if you searched deep enough. However, a lot of the dealers at this show seemed to be peddling over prices back issues, box-less action figures, and garage sale quality items. There were certainly deals to be had and a few diamonds in the rough, but on the whole the dealers felt more like they were at the convention to fill space than truly move product.

Entertainment:

In terms of Panels, there was a wide variety of horror movie screenings and ‘how-to’ workshops. Smaller conventions like these rarely get the big announcements that 50,000+ attendance cons get. Still, these are the type of panels where you can not only ask your favorite celeb a question, but you can often ask them several. If you wanted to learn more about Aspen MLT’s upcoming titles, pick the brains of Marv Wolfman and Mark Waid, or ask Felicia Day just what makes her so damn cute? Then you’re in the right spot. But if you wanted to know when Marvel’s next big event was or why Warner Bro’s can’t make a good superhero movie, you might need to save up your money for San Diego or New York shows.

Highlights of the show’s panels were Robot Chicken’s hilarious Q&A with Seth Green; comic panels with Aspen, Axe Cop, Darwyn Cooke, and Wendy Pini; Some great workshops and ‘how-to’s that included writing with Steve Niles & Jimmy Palmiotti, Mark Waid & Josh Fialkov’s how to break into the industry, ComicsPro giving fans the rundown on how to open their own comic shop, and a very artistic tale of how to get into animation storyboarding. Other celebrities like Thomas Jane also presented interesting tales in the form of panels during the show, but one group stole the entire convention’s programming. Felica Day and her cast of The Guild had filmed part of the series’ 5th Season at Long Beach Comic Expo this spring and were now on hand to talk about it in great detail. With three separate panels and a full cast signing, the cast of The Guild conquered the show’s schedule and fans were given a whole new perspective on the series. Felicia Day’s group offered screenings of the 5th season, Q&A, and even tours of where they filmed in the convention center with detailed background on how it all went down.

Outside of panels, the convention also played host to screening several horror movies, live wrestling, and laser tag right on the exhibit hall floor. The scheduling was nowhere near overwhelming, but there was constantly something to do as long as you were open to all the varying geekdoms hosted. If you were more focused however? You might find yourself with a lot more downtime at this convention than you would at the larger gatherings and expos.

 

Rating:

Long Beach Comic & Horror Con’s humble size and good location make it a relaxing amount of fun. It is nowhere near overwhelming but can keep you entertained. However, when one considers the costs and potential for such a convention, it certainly still has room to grow. Overall this convention ranks a 6 out of 10, with expectations of getting better with each year.

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