“We’re almost at the point where we’re treating comics as a weigh station before you make your money or impact.
“ Robert Kirkman is important to us because of the writing on his comic book, not because of the TV shows that result,” Spurgeon explains during coffee at Smith’s Columbus studio and publishing company, Cartoon Books. Self-described comics lifers with decades spent in the medium, Spurgeon and Smith have felt the field’s identity slip into something uncomfortably transient. This week, the author behind Bone and RASL and the former editor-in-chief of The Comics Journal will “soft launch” Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, an ambitious festival that uses the 15th largest city in the nation as a home for three days of exclusive comic book celebration (and one animation presentation). Among exhibitions for multimedia heavyweights like Cartoon Network and Starz, only one event revolves around sequential art-a signing from manga superstar Masashi Kishimoto.Ĭartoonist legend Jeff Smith and comic journalism vet Tom Spurgeon are neither interested in convention halls, movies, television or games. Next week, NYCC will rent out the Hammerstein Ballroom and its 3,500 seats. SDCC’s Hall H- the convention’s largest hangar that seats 6,100-didn’t feature one panel devoted to comic books this summer.
CINCINNATI COMIC EXPO 2015 FLOOR PLAN SERIES
With only 30,000 fewer attendees, San Diego Comic-Con annually sends legions of fans and cosplayers through The San Diego Convention Center, a series of exhibition halls covering 615,700 square feet.Īs the years and acquisitions have passed, these two staples of comic book adulation have gradually shifted their focus to movies, gaming and television. Javits Convention Center, a massive structure of drywall and gray carpeting stretching 840,000 square feet. Since 2006, New York Comic Con has occupied The Jacob K.