This year was my first year attending the Baltimore Comic Con and it was better than I expected it to be. Baltimore Comic Con takes place at the Baltimore Convention Center, the same convention center as Otakon. From what a lot of convention goers were telling, the con has grown a lot from what it started out as. While the con was only 2 days, Saturday & Sunday event, starting next year they will be becoming a 3 day event. Save the date: September 5-7, 2014. The one interesting fact I heard from the hotel staff is that cons like this actually help drive in more business to that area than anything else. Considering that area is a huge tourist spot, I can see how that makes sense.
Baltimore Comic Con does a lot for kids especially with panels dedicated specifically for them. Panels like “Drawing Funny Animals” with Mark McKenna, “Doodle! Scribble! Draw! with Mark Mariano, and “Imagination Station: Comics, Arts, and Crafts Sunday”. Children under 10 of course enter free and this year kids have really stepped up their cosplays
This year was apparently the biggest yet, especially with guest like George Perez, and Jay & Silent Bob.
The main show floor, the same level as the fountain, housed the Dealers room and Artist Alley The space was huge enough that it was not an issue to have both in the same area. Baltimore Comic Con is your traditional comic con; great panels, cheap comics & action figure, guests, artists, and of course cosplay. While having industry booths and stage sets are cool, it’s always great to be able to talk to some of the artist behind your favorite artwork or comic series. Series’ like the Adventure Time and Bravest Warriors had a big booth there with a lot of the artist on deck to sign autographs and conversate with fans about the titles/characters.
The best thing about cons like this is that artists who have created their own series find it easier to talk to fans to get them interested, update them on future projects, and of course sell some books. In the case of Drumfish Productions not only were they selling some of their great titles like Sentinels, Neverminds, and their latest title Bugged, but they also had their new line of Figurines based on the characters from Sentinels and Neverminds. Paigey, along with her partners in art Little Asian Sweatshop and Maria Danalakis, had a table filled with just amazing art, stickers, hair clips, coin purses, basically they brought their etsy shop with them. So if you needed to accessorize, stylize, or just have pretty pictures on your wall they were the people to see. Award winning and talented artist Jeff Balke was on deck promoting more amazing art than you could spend money on and his latest project The Balkenator which he did colors for and along with fellow artist Joe Romano II who did the pencils and inking.
Baltimore Comic Con was a nice fun con to visit when you don’t want to spectacle of cons like SDCC. It’s the best chance to meet upcoming and well known artists, as well as meet celebrity guests without the crazy lines to get on another line to meet them. It’s a great environment to get kids interested in reading comic books, to introduce your friends or significant other to conventions or cosplay, and have a good time.
