Baltimore Comic-Con 2009 coverage
by Henrik Andreasen I have reported comic book news and done interviews for more than 20 years, and for the past 15 years, I have been fortunate enough to cover quite a few US comic book conventions. By doing that, I have come to know a lot of people in the business, and have, during these 15 years, helped some of my friends from time to time at conventions. In the past four to five years it has become a more regular thing, so whenever I’m on the West coast, I’m helping Anne Hutchison and Bud Plant; and whenever I’m on the East coast I’m helping David Spurlock, setting up and taking down his booth.
This time around, as the headline of this article indicates, I was on the East coast helping J. David Spurlock at the Vanguard booth at the Baltimore Comic-Con. I have known David since 1993-94, when I met him in San Diego. Back then, he was just starting his transition from commercial illustrator and university art instructor to publishing by way of his then, recently launched, Vanguard Productions, which had just premiered the eclectic, cutting-edge anthology magazine, Tales From The EDGE!. Over the years, David has expanded Vanguard's publications to include the original Popular Artist Sketchbook Series and later on, the most elaborate, Career Retrospective Series. I bought his Al Williamson Sketchbook (big fan!) back in 1998, which was David’s first book, and have bought a big part of Vanguard's output since then. You can read more about all the great books David has produced through Vanguard over the years
here. Highly recommended!
Anyway, my reason for being in Baltimore was the 10th anniversary of the Baltimore Comic-Con (BCC afterwards), and my fifth consecutive time at the convention. People, including myself, have a tendency to compare the different comic conventions to each other, in terms of the number of attendees, and which high profile guests the conventions have. Bigger often seems to be the way of measuring how good a convention is, which is not always a fair way of looking at it. I’m more interested in the different vibe the different conventions have. I love going to San Diego and have so for many years, and I love the great mix of media there is present at the convention, all though I’m mainly there for the comic part of the show. The night life is always a lot of fun, but it seems like there is a thousand things you should/could be attending at any given time, which forces you make choices all the time, while sleeping very little. With the convention lasting almost a week at a very high intensity, you also spend the better part of a week afterwards recuperating.
This is much different from the laid back vibe of the BCC, which for someone like me, who is from a country where being laid back is part of the mentality, is really endearing. Just for the record, laid back does not equal lazy! It is more a state of mind, or in the case of the BCC, a feeling of being welcomed, feeling relaxed and having a good time. The reason for it being so is in great part due to the people arranging the convention, chief among them Marc Nathan and Brad Tree and not forgetting the amazing crew of dedicated people they work with. It is not that they pamper their guests, it is more that they treat them nicely, in the sense that you try to treat people the way you would like to be treated yourself. Being treated nicely is how some of my friends, who have been guests over the years, have told me they felt about being at BCC. At the convention I also talked to quite a few 1st time guests, and they also enjoyed the vibe of the convention and the fact that it was purely about comic books. There are conventions you need to be at due to work obligations, and then there are conventions that you go to because you want to, and I have many artist friends that mention Baltimore in that regard, and I whole heartily concur.
I mentioned above that one of the factors that people often measure conventions by, are the number of high profile guests they have. Seeing that the BCC is one of the smaller conventions on the circuit, one would think that they weren’t able to get a lot of interesting guests, but nothing could be further from the truth. What compromises a good guest list is very much up to each individual persons taste. However, having a guest list that includes classic artists like Joe Kubert, Neal Adams, Herb Trimpe, Dick Ayers & Bernie Wrightson plus contemporary creators like Brian Michael Bendis, David Finch, Jim Cheung, Matt Fraction, Tim Sale, and personal favourites of mine like George Perez, Matt Wagner, Kevin Nowlan and many, many more, is a list of creators I suspect many fans could only hope to meet in one place. See the whole list here at the conventions
homepage. I’m certain that the amazing guest list is very much due to the great vibe of the show, and the good word by mouth talk of the show that makes creators who normally only do the biggest shows, or creators who make very rare conventions appearances, come to the show.
For the past three years the BCC have also been home to the Harvey Awards, which is held on Saturday night at the Marriott Inner Harbor Hotel. I love awards shows, and I have really enjoyed going to the Harvey Awards while attending the convention. Kyle Baker has been the MC for the last three years, but this year Scott Kurtz was the MC instead, and he did an amazing job running the ceremony, but more on that later. Who is also to be commended on running the awards ceremony is Marc Nathan and his staff, who does an excellent job, and it is really apparent that they love having been giving the opportunity to have the Harvey Awards. Contrary to other comic book awards ceremonies you need to pay in order to attend, as the ceremony starts with a dinner. The price to attend this year was $100, which may seem like a lot of money. However, it is well worth the price of admission as you get a very nice dinner and an incredible swag bag. This year it contained a Batman Illustrated by Neal Adams vol. 1 HC, PvP vol. 1: At Large TP by MC Scott Kurtz, a Turok Archive vol. 1 HC, Darkness Accursed TP, Mom's Cancer HC, Phineas and Ferb Chapter Book plus a lot of other cool stuff.
The awards ceremony started with a reception at 7 PM, where they had some appetizers that were pretty tasty, especially if you, like me, hadn't had much to eat during the day. At 8.30 the doors opened and I went to my table. I was sitting at table 12, which probably had the best view in the whole room, as it was just in front of the podium - not sure who I have to have sex with and/or kill after the show to pay for getting such a great seat, but I'm sure someone will let me know. At the table I was joined by long time friend Mark Wheatley and his lovely wife Carol, Michael Finn a volunteer from the HERO Initiative, Barry Kitson, Charlie Kochman, who is the executive editor at the Abrams comicart imprint, and his wife Rachel plus a couple who's names I can't remember - sorry!
The ceremony was started by Harvey Awards administrator Paul McSpadden, who quickly passed the reins over to Scott Kurtz. Like I mentioned earlier Scott did a great job as he is very funny guy, and if he wasn't doing comic books he should be doing stand-up. I do not know if it was intentional or not, but he kind off made the ceremony into a roast, about the industry and all the different presenters. As an example Steve Englehart was presented as a pioneer in the industry, the guy who gave the Indians small pox! And Scott have no fear as he started out pointing out that unfortunately there were not enough people in the room to meet Diamonds minimum requirement, so...Very funny stuff and to say that in Diamonds back yard - we were of to a good start to say the least. Barry Kitson was the first presenter and did a good job setting a high standard for the rest of the evening. It is hard to recap all that took place that night, but here are a couple of high lights. When George Perez presented a couple of awards he apologized for having a sore throat and having a hard time speaking. Later when Brian Michael Bendis came to the stage as a presenter with the same kind of sore throat he blamed George for it, because they had made out last night and he was sure that that was how he got his sore throat. George replied from his table that, if you go bald, you never go back!! And then you had Bryan J.L. Glass (The Mice Templar) who did a forward flip on to the stage, as he had promised to do that if he won. He then held a very emotional speech, where he mentioned that the award should probably be renamed "break through talent" instead of best new talent, as he had been in the business since 1992, all the while trying to hold back the tears.
Anyway, without further delay here are all the different winners;
BEST WRITER Grant Morrison, ALL-STAR SUPERMAN, DC Comics
BEST ARTIST Gabriel Ba, UMBRELLA ACADEMY, Dark Horse Comics
BEST CARTOONIST Al Jaffee, TALL TALES, Abrams Books
BEST LETTERER John Workman, MARVEL 1985, Marvel Comics
BEST INKER Mark Morales, THOR, Marvel Comics
BEST COLORIST Dave Stewart, UMBRELLA ACADEMY , Dark Horse Comics
BEST COVER ARTIST James Jean, FABLES, Vertigo Comics
BEST NEW SERIES ECHO, Abstract Studios
BEST CONTINUING OR LIMITED SERIES ALL-STAR SUPERMAN, DC Comics
BEST BIOGRAPHICAL, HISTORICAL OR JOURNALISTIC PRESENTATION KIRBY: KING OF COMICS, Mark Evanier, Abrams Books
BEST SYNDICATED STRIP OR PANEL MUTTS, Patrick McDonnell, King Features Syndicate
BEST ANTHOLOGY COMIC BOOK TATTOO, edited by Rantz Hoseley, Image Comics
BEST GRAPHIC ALBUM – ORIGINALTOO COOL TO BE FORGOTTEN, Top Shelf
BEST GRAPHIC ALBUM - PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED NAT TURNER, Abrams Books
BEST SINGLE ISSUE OR STORY Y: THE LAST MAN #60, Vertigo Comics
BEST DOMESTIC REPRINT PROJECT COMPLETE PEANUTS, Fantagraphics Books
BEST AMERICAN EDITION OF FOREIGN MATERIAL GUS AND HIS GANG, First Second
BEST ON-LINE COMICS WORK HIGH MOON, Scott O. Brown,
http://www.zudacomics.com SPECIAL AWARD FOR HUMOR IN COMICS Al Jaffee, TALL TALES, Abrams Books
SPECIAL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN PRESENTATION KIRBY: KING OF COMICS, Mark Evanier, Abrams Books
BEST NEW TALENT Bryan J.L. Glass, THE MICE TEMPLAR, image books
One of the night’s biggest winners was Abrams comicart imprint, but unfortunately most the awards were accepted by editor Charlie Kochman on behalf of the artists, as not many of them were present. Hopefully Abrams will be back next year in full force with a booth at the convention, where fans can pick up some of the award winning books and meet the creators behind the award winning books.
At the ceremony Neal Adams was also given a HERO Initiative Award. Michael Finn from the HERO Initiative did the introduction, after which he presented Neal with the HERO Initiative Humanitarian Award. Neal Adams is known for his work in the comic book industry for creator rights, and his most recent efforts found him collaborating with Joe Kubert and Stan Lee. They collaborated in an effort to force the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in Poland to return Holocaust survivor Dina Babbitt's wartime artwork created during her Nazi captivity. Neal created a 6-page comic book, which he pencilled and inked, highlighting the injustice suffered by Dina. It was in recognition of his efforts on Dina's behalf, that Neal was awarded the Hero Award. Neal went up to the stage and held a very heartfelt speech, about all the problems they had faced trying to get Dina's artwork back, which they still haven't succeed with. Dina has unfortunately passed, but Neal Adams and a lot of other people are still working hard to get the artwork back to Dina's two daughters. Neal also mentioned that he was officially back doing comics, and that he turned the first 90 pages in of a Batman GN to DC Comics, so that is something to look forward to at some point.
After all the official awards was given out, Paul McSpadden took to the stage once more and announced that they had a surprise award they were going to give out, after which Kevin Brogan from the HERO Initiative went up on stage. From the stage he talked about how wonderful the Baltimore Comic-Con had been to the HERO Initiative in the past 10 years, and revealed that they had raised more than $100.000 in those 10 years. He then presented Marc Nathan with a HERO Initiative Award which he humbly accepted. A great way to end an amazing awards ceremony.
The rest of the night was spend at the Marriott bar, which is the place people tend to hang out at after a long day at the convention.
I do not often go to panels, but for those who were interested in that, the convention had around 10 panels each day. No where near as many as the biggest convention, but plenty to have panels for everyone, and few enough that you were able to attend the ones you were interested in, and still have time to walk the floor.
This year the convention also had its very first costume contest, which took place on Sunday. The first price of $1000 was won by Paul Day in a very impressive Iron Man costume. Kevin Perkins from Allied Advertising helped the convention run the contest which was a great success.
At the convention, I normally spend the most my time at the floor, as I enjoy getting to meet all the guests in their booths, and do a lot of shopping for back-issues. Baltimore is one the best conventions to look for back-issues, as there is a strong retailer present, as the convention is normally followed by the Diamond Retailer Summit, and this year was no exception. I spent a lot of money!
Aside from the BCC, Baltimore also has one more big attraction if you are interested in comic books, and that is Geppi’s entertainment Museum. I had the luck of attending the opening back in 2006, and also went back again the year after, as one tour of the museum is not enough to enjoy all it has to offer. This year the Retailer Summit started with an opening reception at the museum Sunday night, and I was lucky enough to be able to attend and got to see the museum for a third time. Still very impressive, and I spent a great time there with Katherine Keller and her husband Ralph from Alternate Reality Comics and their good friend Jay Bosworth from Maximum Rewards. They have some great comic shops in the Las Vegas area, so if you are even in that area check them out. Should you go to Baltimore make sure to go to Geppi's museum. Find out more on the museums homepage
here. We left the museum to go to a small open bar party held at the Holiday Inn bar, where we spent a couple of hours more in the company of good friends.
There were a lot of other things going on, so I might have missing quite a bit, but two days at a convention like the Baltimore Comic-Con goes by so fast, that it is not possible to do all of it, all though I gave it my best try. But I’ll be back attending next year in August to try again.
Henrik Andreasen travels quite a bit to attend different US comic book conventions, but he is in fact Danish and lives in Denmark, which several surveys claim to be populated with the happiest people in the world. Henrik Andreasen does not dispute that claim, as he feels quite happy.
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