Conning the Cons?

This morning, Wizard Entertainment unleashed the news into subscriber’s mailboxes that had already been cycling around the Internet throughout November, the advent of a New England Comic-Con. Or, if you will, the second coming of such an event, if their one-time WizardWorld Boston counts at all. Considering the ignominious manner in which Wizard had to pull out of the Bay State previously — as well as the rise of the homegrown Boston Comic-Con over the last few years — I thought reading carefully through their “news item” (i.e. taking it as something other than advance promotion) seemed wise, starting with the page title versus the headline:

GAREB SHAMUS, WIZARD ENTERTAINMENT CEO, ACQUIRES NEW ENGLAND COMIC CON

New England Comic Con Announced

Can you spot the contradiction? “Acquired” and “announced” are two very different verbs, and there’s a duel of connotations between them: Is Shamus taking over an old show, or is Shamus starting a new one (which may require shutting down an old one and poaching its resources and legacies like a vulture)?

Of course, eagle-eyed Heidi MacDonald likely did, and, being a journalist, she compared the opening lines of the news release to some of her own Internet sleuthing:

Gareb Shamus, CEO of New York based Wizard Entertainment, announces today that he has purchased New England Comic Con, in a move to further expand the Wizard World Comic Con tour.

“We’ve known Larry for many years, and his exceptional 35-year old New England Comic Con gets us into Boston in a big way.”

The Shamus quote seems to be referencing Larry Harrison, owner of Harrison’s Comics & Collectables — about whom MacDonald notes:

A search for “new england comic con” and Larry Harrison yields almost no results. Dig around a little and you get a “North East Comicon” site run by Harrison’s Comics which looks to be a modest one-day hotel/dealer show set for January 10 with Ethan Van Sciver as a guest.

Adding to the confusion, there’s a listing for the Boston Comics Spectacular which announces

THE BOSTON COMIC SPECTACULAR IS NOW The New England Comic Con – Boston’s Longest running show gets a new promoter and a new name! http://www.necomiccon.com/ .

The Boston Comic Spectacular shows a previous event in September, again with Van Sciver.

Living here in Boston almost all of my life, I’ve long thrilled for any chance to attend local shows, be them good or poor. Many of these, including the 35-year-old “institution,” have been little more than massive retailer rooms, lacking almost anything in the way of programming, creative professionals, or all-ages entertainment. More often, they’ve been rooms of shuffling, old fans and crumpled speculators looking either for that issue from their childhood or another mylar-bagged treasure for their war chest (and, later, to have slabbed by CGC).

That said, neither the North East Comicon nor the Boston Comics Spectacular have been comics-reader household names over the last four decades, really. I’ve been to the latter a time or two, and in recent years they have begun to quietly accomodate(/sequester) creators in a separate room, but the m.o. of being aimed at/for retailers has remain largely unchanged.

Now, here are the questions: Which has Shamus acquired, what of the old show will remain, what will Wizard bring, and why has Wizard–in whatever capacity–returned to Boston?

My sources (who at this time wish to remain nameless) say that Shamus, indeed, is taking part in the show run once by Harrison. That is not a typo: It wasn’t “once run” by Harrison but, rather, run only once by him. Prior to that, it was overseen by Monkeyhouse Entertainment/Primate Productions as “The Boston Comic Book & Toy Spectacular,” frequently taking place at the Boston Radisson. (Note the convenience of dropping the “& Toy” from its title.) This no-frills, recurring event passed to Harrison recently when its original show-runner alledgedly got into trouble with the authorities for assaulting a person. Moreover, attendance at the latest Spectacular was less than 200 people, putting Harrison et all in dire straights.

Enter Shamus. Back to the Wizard text:

“New England has a long legacy of cartoons and comics embedded in their history, making the fans there very appreciative of comics’ impact on society and pop culture,” said Shamus. “I’m excited to bring these discerning fans an even better Con experience and everything they expect from a Wizard run show.”

Larry Harrison, owner of Harrison’s Comics & Collectibles, and Jimmy Tournas, the former owners of New England Comic Con, will be intimately involved in the new show production to ensure fan favorite traditions are maintained.

To be fair, Shamus is correct about the first part: Boston (and New England at large) has a sensational history and population of comics creators and works. But this has never been something either the North East Comicon, the Spectacular, or even WizardWorld Boston attempted; if anything, this has been the province of the New England Comics brand, home of The Tick, and the rising Boston Comic-Con, moving in 2010 to an even larger facility to accomodate its expanding attendee base.

(I’m ignoring here the fact that the Wizard staffer who wrote this has twice overlooked using proper grammatical hyphens. So be it.)

Word has it that Wizard has tried reaching out to the Boston Comic-Con after the fact but they have yet to respond. I suspect this feels more to them like carpetbagging rather than tapping into and delivering on Boston’s superb comics potential. Supporting that idea is the additional word through the grapevine at Shamus et al haven’t purchased the Spectacular (now, yes, being renamed the New England Comic-Con) at all. Rather, it’s being handed to them by Harrison and Tournas…and Wizard is handing it right back to them, with a shiny Wizard brand stamp on it (foil-embossed, naturally). Given the recent dismal history of the Spectacular, rumor has it that Harrison and Tournas offered it to Shamus nearly gratis. It becomes, then, a win-win: The Spectacular gets renamed, rebranded, and revived; and Shamus gets another toehold on the convention market, his golden parachute from Wizard publication and a failed WizardUniverse.com webportal (not to mention the catastrophe that was Black Bull).

If it’s a win-win for them, guess who the fleeced losers are?

The New England Comic Con acquisition is the first of several Comic Con tour expansion announcements expected in the weeks ahead.

“We bring together more fans, in more cities than anyone, to celebrate their passion for pop-culture. We’ve had such a strong positive fan and industry reaction to our new show launches that expanding the tour just made sense,” said Shamus.

Again, verbs: acquiring verses bringing together. (Ok, actually gerunds; I already forgave the hyphens, alright?)  Shamus has only a failed record of bringing together fans in the Boston area; why else unceremoniously pull the plug on WizardWorld Boston right after its inaugural year? All Wizard has done so far is acquire a hypothetical fan base of attendees for a show that was hemorraging them.

In all likelihood, any gains made by this New England Comic-Con will be at the expense of the Boston Comic-Con; the latter show has had a pair of events annually for the last few years. Watch for Shamus’s show to either claim an overlapping or adjacent date to the BCC once its post-April show is named — or go gunning right for April itself.

Lastly, I am obviously pessimistic about Shamus’s show enhancing the Boston and New England comics communities. True, they are still rather autocephalous, spread out all over rather than yet having come together as a union. But, if Wizard paints a target on Beantown — position it not against the Boston Comic-Con but against some other city’s established event — it could likely weaken this comics commonwealth just as it’s taking root.