by: Chris Eaton
Second time around.
We here at the Realmcast gushed over how much we loved the Long Beach Comic Con last year. Coming off a really shitty San Diego, it perked up our almost dead expectations of what a comic con should be. In what was almost a last minute ordeal, the LBCC managed to capture that comic con love in a bottle and give us wonderful spoonfuls of it. To say it was great show is an understatement. So, we come to year two.
Today kicked off the second annual LBCC. Held at the Long Beach Convention Center, one of the better convention centers in the greater SoCal area. The build to this year, riding off the positive buzz of last year, was it was going to be bigger, and better than last. At the same time, not eclipsing what made year one great. Did they succeed?
Yes. Yes they did.
This year the convention takes place in Hall A, the bigger hall of the convention center. It’s spacier, allowing more booths to open up if need be. Image, IDW, Aspen, and Image are among the big companies who have booths. Artist Ally has grown into two full sections, with far more artists than last year. The wrestling is back, with local promotion Mach 1 Wrestling providing matches every half hour to con goers. Lastly, dealers. There are a delightful number of dealers this year, all bringing something different to their tables, and enough of the same to provide some competitive prices. Our own Austin spent many a good penny on filling in his Transformers TBP at hobo level dirt cheap prices. That aspect, the grand workings of the floor, is in full swing this year.
The panels on the other hand, is a little more complicated. The one down side to the layout of the convention center is that all of the ballrooms are located on the other side of the convention center. Meaning, if you want to catch a panel, you need to head out side, head down stairs and jaunt around the center to the ballrooms. Once there, everything is nicely laid out of your , so as not to confused as to were to go (along with plenty of staff to that knows whats up). I managed to catch the DC documentary showing just in time because of this. So far, the traveling from the show room to the ballrooms is the major complaint. The same we had at Anaheim last year as well. Seems to be some curse for the organizers. As I know for a fact there is a large ballroom above the main hall. (I know this as it’s the room I attended the first Pacific Media Expo there) I’m not entirely sure why for the bigger panels this room couldnt’ have been utilized. But if this is the worst thing I can complain about, then the show is still doing something right.
Tomorrow. Day 2. Superman/Shazam DC Showcase showing. Marvel Anime, and directors panel. Plus, the Hero Initiative costume party at Rock Bottom. Check back during the day for updates from the show.
