So, the Wizard Entertainment juggernaut came to town this weekend, as the popular comics and pop culture convention expanded into several new cities in 2014, including mine.

I wasn’t really planning on going to this show, for a couple of reasons: first, the pricing for even one-day tickets was much higher than I’d like, and secondly, because I’m not really a celebrity autograph hunter, and that’s really what the Wizard shows are all about. Also, I’m an established fan of the locally produced, long-running Virginia Comicon, and there’s a bit of a rivalry going on between the two right now. Every media story about this being the first “comicon” in Richmond kind of irks me – give me a David vs. Goliath battle, and I’ll pick the little guy pretty much every time.

Still, I was curious, and a friend of mine happened to have won a family pack of tickets and offered up extra one to me, so I spent a few hours on Saturday walking around, gawking at the celebrities and the lines to “interact” with the celebrities, browsing the wares of the many vendors hawking collectibles, t-shirts, comics, and skeevy bootleg DVDs, and generally taking in the aura of this particular gathering of the geeks.

And, I had a pretty good time. The celebrity line-up wasn’t bad (although the folks I was most keen to see ended up not showing due to illness (James Marsters) or filming commitments (Eliza Dushku, Alan Tudyk), though they did have Adam West and Burt Ward from the 60s Batman tv show, who put on an entertaining show during their Q&A panel, Michael Rooker and Dave Bautista, fresh off of the success of Guardians of the Galaxy, and they managed to score a couple of excellent late-breaking “gets”, including Ron Perlman and Bruce Campbell.

A couple of folks in my party were thrilled to get their photo taken with Mr. Campbell, or have the Batman ’66 movie poster they’ve been carrying around since childhood signed by the stars before framing it (in each case, for a significant fee). For that aspect, the show was pretty cool, even if it’s not really my thing.

I did end up picking up a couple of things while I was there and visiting some friends exhibiting things – my friend Chris Otto was there promoting his web comic A Dog’s Life and doing sketches for the kids. Chris’s work is great all-ages fun, and something any pet owner or animal lover would appreciate. I had the honor of being the first sale for his new print collection, The Monster in the Closet. I also checked in with my friend Micah, who was there promoting his book, Li’l Eddie Books – Ricky’s Spooky House, a board book adaptation of Poe’s Fall of the House of Usher, an idea which makes me exceedingly happy. I’ve already got a copy of the book because I contributed to the successful Kickstarter linked above, but I did buy a book of short stories featuring the work of Micah and his charming and talented wife Shannon.

As I also like to do at these things, I wandered about a bit and found something new: I met Tom Hutchinson of Big Dog Ink, a small press out of Chicago, and picked up a couple of volumes of his throwback superhero series Critter, which I’m also enjoying quite a bit; the art is gorgeous.

This show also provided an outlet for the local costuming community, which is always a good thing, because there are some pretty talented people nearby. I found a pretty good gallery of some of the best at Filmfad; where I totally didn’t end up in the background of anything.

So, that was the show; like most comic-related cons I’ve been to, they didn’t have enough to really warrant picking up a pass for the whole weekend – I was done after a couple of hours. All in all, I’m glad they came to town; it gives people another outlet, and I’m relatively sure that Richmond is big enough to support two dueling comcions covering somewhat different aspects of the fan experience – this one’s about the spectacle of big celebrity names, while the VA Comicon (who does four shows a year), is more a pure “comics” thing, and does a great job of bringing in artists and creators, and provide a great venue for small press and independent creators to get their work in the hands of fans. I wish both operations the best of luck, though in the end, I’m still partial to the local show, and hope the big corporate guys moving into the territory builds the market for both rather than crowding the little guy out.

See you at the big local VA Comicon show November 22-23!