I couldn’t attend Baltimore Comic-Con last year because of family commitments, but I did attend in 2012 and had a blast. If you’re in the region, I highly recommend attending. As you’ll see below, you get the same top talent as you would at New York or California Comic-Con, but it’s WAY less crowded. Also, the focus at Baltimore Comic-Con is on comics. I still would like to attend both California and NY Comic-Con one day, but it’s pretty awesome not to have to battle for space with people who don’t care for comics. This year Baltimore Comic-Con has expanded to three days and takes place over the weekend of September 5-7, 2014!
Who will be there?
Well, there’s Dave Gibbons, the artist and letterer behind Watchmen! He’s coming all the way over from England and I hope to get a few minutes with him. Prefer a Marvel artist? What about Alex Maleev who’s worked with Micheal Bendis on New Avengers, Daredevil, Halo: Uprising, Moon Knight, and Spider-Woman? Long-time readers of Comic POW! will know what a huge fan I am of Greg Capullo’s work on Batman. (Also see this and this) Good thing he’ll be at BCC as well! Mark Waid’s coming back and I definitely intend to followup on our meeting from 2 years ago. Local, but very famous, artist Frank Cho (most recently of Wolverine fame) will be showing up. As a new fan of Fables (future post material), I’m also hoping to get some time with him. Those are the creators I’m most excited to meet, but they are not nearly all the creators attending. Here’s the full list as of now:
Marty Baumann (Pixar artist); Jeremy Bastian (Cursed Pirate Girl); Mark Buckingham (Fables); Dave Bullock (Batman Black and White); Greg Capullo (Batman); John Cassaday (Doc Savage); Bernard Chang (Green Lantern Corps); Sean Chen (Amazing Spider-Man); Jimmy Cheung (Infinity); Cliff Chiang (Wonder Woman); Frank Cho (X-Men: Battle of the Atom); Richard Clark (House of Gold & Bones); Steve Conley (Bloop); Alan Davis (Wolverine); Rachel Deering (In the Dark); Todd Dezago (Tellos); Tommy Lee Edwards (Star Wars); Garth Ennis (Preacher, The Boys); Ray Fawkes (Constantine); David Finch (Forever Evil); Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (All-Star Western); Dave Gibbons (Watchmen); Bryan JL Glass (Mice Templar); Michael Golden (The Ravagers); Cully Hamner (Animal Man); Dean Haspiel (The Fox); Fred Hembeck (Garfield); Adam Hughes (Before Watchmen: Dr. Manhattan); Justin Jordan (Luther Strode, Green Lantern: New Guardians); Barry Kitson (Empire); Aaron Kuder (Action Comics); David Mack (Shadowman); Kevin Maguire (Guardians of the Galaxy); Alex Maleev (Moon Knight); Billy Martin (Vitriol, The Hunter); Ron Marz (Witchblade); Bob McLeod (X-Men: Gold); Tradd Moore (Deadpool Annual); Mark Morales (New Avengers); Dan Parent (Archie, Veronica, Kevin Keller); David Peterson (Mouse Guard); Joe Prado (Justice League); Brian Pulido (Lady Death); Tom Raney (Incredible Hulk); Ivan Reis (Aquaman and The Others); Budd Root (Cavewoman); Don Rosa (Donald Duck); Craig Rousseau (Perhapanauts); Joe Rubinstein (The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe); Andy Runton (Owly); Alex Saviuk (Web of Spider-Man); Louise Simonson (Power Pack); Walter Simonson (Thor); Andy Smith (Superman #23.1: Bizarro); Allison Sohn (sketch card artist); Charles Soule (Thunderbolts); Jim Starlin (Thanos: The Infinity Revelation); Ben Templesmith (The Memory Collectors); Peter Tomasi (Batman and Two-Face); John Totleben (Swamp Thing); Herb Trimpe (GI Joe: A Real American Hero); Billy Tucci (Shi); Rick Veitch (Saga of the Swamp Thing); Mike Vosburg (Lori Lovecraft); Mark Waid (Daredevil); Lee Weeks (Daredevil); Bill Willingham (Fables); Renee Witterstaetter (Joe Jusko: Maelstrom); Thom Zahler (My Little Pony); and Mike Zeck (Secret Wars).
But that’s not the only reason to attend Baltimore Comic-Con. Just like any other Comic-Con there are lots of great cosplayers. There’s also a costume contest for the best costume in a variety of categories – men, women, group, and child when I attended in 2012.
How could I forget the panels? A great chance to hear announcements about what’s going to happen to your favorite characters and ask questions!
Additionally, it’s a great place to shop; I bought some great prints that adorn my home office. In addition to artwork there are clothing items, rare comic issues, and tons of other things to buy.
I hope to see you there, but if not, be sure to come back in September as I post the images and interviews I manage to capture at Baltimore Comic-Con. (And be sure to check out Comic POW! in the intervening months as we post more information about the amazing Baltimore Comic-Con!