If you know me or have read any of my previous work, you might be surprised to learn that I passed on a chance to meet William Shatner along with a number of other sci-fi celebrities this past weekend. While I had the time and money to attend the Wizard World Comic Con in Raleigh, I do not support this convention.
I have been a fan of science fiction and comic book culture since my childhood. As someone who goes to conventions, knows a number of writers and artists, writes about pop culture and loves comics, I don’t believe that Wizard World is a reflection of the culture that I am proud to be a part of.
WRAL, The News & Observer and a number of other Raleigh-based media outlets devoted a significant amount of attention to Wizard World this weekend, highlighting the big name celebrities like Shatner and David Tennant who attended. Even the headline for the Time Warner Cable News report was “Many Celebrities Expected in Raleigh for Wizard World Comic Con.”
This is my main problem with Wizard World: it’s entirely celebrity driven. I have no problem with celebrities at conventions. Just last November I was at NC ComiCon in which actor John Barrowman was a featured guest. I also met “Star Trek: Enterprise” star Anthony Montgomery at ConCarolinas last summer.
But the difference between these conventions and Wizard World is that they put more emphasis on the culture itself rather than just on celebrity guests. At these cons I attended panels about writing, filmmaking, podcasting, diversity in comics and a wide range of other topics. Furthermore, the organizers of these cons highlighted creator guests in their advertisements.
If you go on the Wizard World website, you have to scroll past dozens of ads for celebrity guests and photo ops to find any information about panels or other events. This kind of promotion only benefits the corporate owners of the convention and does little for the industry as a whole.
Beyond this, the prices for admission to Wizard World and for photo ops are significantly higher than most other conventions. They charge $75 for advanced tickets and $85 for at the door, and it’s only a three-day convention. Plus attendees have to pay extra for celebrity photo ops and autographs, which as previously stated is the con’s main attraction.
When I attended the aforementioned NC ComiCon last fall, it was only $35 for a three-day pass and $20 for a day pass. Not to mention the experience of this convention far surpassed the limited number of activities featured at Wizard World.
Alan Gill, the owner of Ultimate Comics in Chapel Hill and a friend of mine, talked about the misconceptions regarding Wizard World and the ways in which they steal the spotlight from other cons in the area.
“Most people are looking at it like sour grapes since they are in a bigger venue and had more people come to their event and got more press than me,” Gill said. “At the end of the day they are a celebrity signature show.”
Gill also said people often mistake Wizard World as being related to NC ComiCon, which it is not.
Because Wizard World travels around the nation, they end up hurting independently produced cons in order to boost their profits. These kinds of corporate tactics are, to me, counterproductive to the goals of geek culture. Boasting about celebrity guests over actual comic book-related events does little more than draw in mainstream audiences. True fans should be every con’s target audience.
I would have felt hypocritical if I had attended Wizard World. The ideals and tactics of Wizard World contradict my views of what a convention should be, which is why I didn’t attend and why you shouldn’t either the next time it rolls into Raleigh.
