Sorry I didn’t stick around, I didn’t realize you were looking forward to meeting up or I would have stayed a bit longer. Usually I figure people think “Oh it’s an awkward internet person. Uh, sure I’ll meet up with you…what’s a good VERY public place?” I was looking around for you at first, but wasn’t quite sure how to get in contact other than Twitter. By the time you were waking up, I think we’d probably already made several circuits of the floor ourselves.

All that being said, I totally agree with absolutely everything you said about the “convention.” I had a bad feeling about it, but that’s because I was really insistent on going and usually that leads to disaster: if I want to go, it’s probably going to be a flop. So, if nothing else sticks, you can blame it on me.

Unfortunately, you’ve dashed my one positive thought about it, that it was good for collectors. I’m far from a collector, and I don’t particularly care to have originals of anything since I tend to think of comics as being something for reading, not for admiring in a plastic case. As such, I had no idea what the relative value of everything was, but seeing the sheer volume of heavy-duty cases I figured it must have been important stuff, and I was just in the wrong spot. Sadly, it seems I was mistaken. I could have figured, I heard at least one of the vendors saying something about a basement being the origination point for his merchandise. The only other part of it that would be cool, autographs and glad-handing famous or semi-famous people and artists, has never really appealed to me, sadly.

The joker was in much better spirits when I was there, so I suppose he must have just arrived, and hadn’t quite seen that he was alone in his costume. Also, I think there were two other people in costume, but I don’t remember what they were, because they weren’t nearly as elaborate. So, I’m guessing maybe they left as well.

Still, in spite of how atrocious the bazaar itself was, the worst part was the logistics. I was actually going to ask you the same question you posted about the cost to get in, since I knew you were more involved than I was, but clearly that didn’t grant you any more clarity on the matter. The signage going in was terrible to us, too. We actually pulled a U-turn right at the exit of the campus cause we somehow passed Lot A, we were probably about to head into the shopping center you parked at. Someone walked with us to the student union cause he had no idea and I was using my phone to navigate the whole way (thank God Google maps had the building names labeled, cause the PDF you mentioned did not really help me AT ALL). As we were walking out, two people asked us for directions, and one of them was deaf, so I hope I gave clear enough directions to him, since we were already right outside Lot A by that point. And of course, once you got into the building, you had to follow the voices (and with the area at the entrance under construction as it was, I felt like they were missing an opportunity to re-enact some epic Highlander scenes).

Finally, I’ll say this: maybe it was first-year bumps, but I’m feeling like it’s more that they just didn’t put as much effort into it. As you said and was posted on the website itself, this was a joint venture between two people who do these cons for their respective areas all the time, and having not yet been to the Baltimore one, I’m going on your word that at least one is really good. Therefore, they should have known how to do better. Of course, maybe they were too swamped with their own previously-existing conventions to throw themselves at this, but I don’t think that’s a very good reason. If you want people to treat these things seriously, you have to be able to take them seriously yourself. Depending on how people react, maybe next year will improve. I’ll definitely be taking a long hard look at what they’ve got to offer next year before I think about coming down.

However, you said Baltimore’s is really good, and I’ll probably check that out. There’s also Otakon and Balticon, though those are far from strictly comics-based, and of course a good 50-75 miles away from this one.

I sort of agree about the inventory. I found some good stuff, but yeah, I did notice a lot of the same TPBs over and over. But I think there was a more-than-decent selection of $1 comics and old comics.

I definitely agree about the door prize thing. It slowed the line down to a ridiculous degree. I’m guessing a lot of people would have happily given their contact info if there’d been a stand off to the side, as opposed to having a clipboard forced into their hands while they were waiting to get in.