New York Comic-Con, although bigger and better, hasn’t been around as long, and in its 4 year history, has been bouncing around the calendar – it was in February, the next year it was in May, then February again, and then October!

It’s quite possible that Big Apple Con had that weekend scheduled first – New York Comic-Con takes place at the Javits Center, and they have to take what dates are available, and work around the Toy Fair, Travel Expo, etc.

I’m not sold on the idea that Wizard World/Big Apple is practicing “aggressive scheduling” – it seems to me like it might be the other way around.

Not to mention the fact that Wizard took the Big Apple con, which used to be small, friendly, and cheap, and turned it into something big, agressive/crowded, and expensive. I’m happy to pay a $10 entry fee to buy cheap comics; I have no interest at all in paying a $30 entry fee to wait in line to get a picture signed by somebody who was on Stargate once.

While Shatner and Lee did show. On their website they claimed to had other people that were going to talk but that didn’t end up being true. They were there just to do the signature factory.

@Kelson – Its still about 45 minutes walking because you have to stop at multiple intersections or 5-30 minutes by cab depending on traffic and lights. Public transportation would be more like 25 minutes to 1 hour. Just so you have a reference.

I was at Wizard World Big Apple yesterday and it was a dark dank bland con. It was considerably less than the Big Apple National convention that it bought out. Most of BIG names were the media and sports names. There were a bunch of empty tables and many vendors seemed very unhappy. Several who came in with me at opening were saying they were so unhappy they were not going next year- and the show had barely started. I was effectively through the entire convention in about two and a half hours. I bought a three day pass and left when I was done with NO intention of going back. There was no programing to speak of hence no reason to go more than one day- other than the catch people for over priced autographs because not everyone was going to be there everyday. Honestly the convention was basically a dealers room with a 25 or 45 dollar admission fee.

Its all management because say what you will the staff I talked to were very nice.All of the Celebrities I spoke with and all of the dealers were great.

Clearly the people at Wizard are delusional or worse. As everyone aid why not move to a point 6 months away from comicon and they’d have something (if they can sooth the pissed off dealers).

Honestly I will go next year-I’m going to buy a one day for Thursday just to see what is what- and then I’ll spend the next three days at Comicon where there are actually things to do.

Oh yeah, Johnny Zito: This year Philly had those dates first and Heroes Con was responsible for the counterscheduling due to constraints at their venue. From what I understand, Wizard con staffers subsequently reached out to Heroes Con to try to help avoid any kind of conflict on future dates, although those Wizard staffers are no longer with the company.

Baltimore CC does this, but limits the celebrities to comics.

How BACC will fill four days (and the space) remains to be seen. NYCC does it with an industry conference and a trade show.

Next year will be very interesting for Shamus…

I actually didn’t realize that Shameless is holding his Big Apple con this weekend, when I first posted, and that those were guests at this year’s con. I don’t live anywhere near NY, so that was off my radar. Thanks for the correction.

It’s a shame that Shamus would do this.

A pox on him.

Who schedules an event within walking distance of a similar event?

As far as Wizard World Los Angeles is concerned, I think we can pretty much assume that Anaheim Comic Con takes its place.