Swag! Baltimore Comic Con 2019 Edition
by Hannah Means Shannon
This past weekend, I enjoyed attending Baltimore Comic Con, a show that focuses very strongly on comic creators and comic vendors, meaning original art is a big sale item at the show, as well as collectible back issues.
It’s always hard to hold onto my wallet at Baltimore Comic Con, but thankfully I got a bunch of free comics and graphic novels from attending the 2019 Ringo Awards.
Here’s my haul:
My back-issue find was a bunch of Heavy Metal Magazines from the 1980’s. Since I’m a Heavy Metal editor, obviously the history of the magazine is dear to my heart and I don’t tend to find them “in the wild” that often.
I had fun hanging out with Devil’s Due and hearing about Josh Blaylock’s new series Arkworld (2020), bringing together many antediluvian theories about advanced civilizations, and snagged one of the few remaining t-shirts riffing on alien conspiracy theories. Peter Rostovsky also brought out a color version of Damnation Diaries for the first time, a hilarious and chilling tale that mixes Dante’s Inferno with therapy sessions.
Sponsors brought a lot of great books to the Ringo Awards, including Boom! Studios’ Once & Future, Valiant’s Bloodshot and Livewire, and Dark Horse’s Black Hammer. I also got to hear a lot about Source Point books at the show, including Paul Storrie’s The Viking Queen.
I checked in with metal band The Sound of Thunder and had a great discussion about comics and music, picking up their latest publication and preview of their next project, as well as the fabulous homage poster starring Rai and dedicated to Iron Maiden’s Somewhere in Time cover. Look out for their upcoming collaboration with Valiant Entertainment. 
