Baltimore Comic Con - it's NOT Wizard

If you've only been to Wizard World, let me say the Baltimore Comic Con is vastly different from it. As you can tell from the photos, it's pretty stripped down. DC's booth, shown in one photo, is simple--nothing flashy at all. Marvel's booth was one single table with a sign that said "Marvel Creators" and then 3 guys - (Dan Slott spent a lot of time there) sat jamed together at the table and did signings and stuff. There were no huge banners hanging from the ceiling or flashy big-screen TV's or video game playing areas. Just a comic convention about comics. There also were VERY few people dressed up in costumes of any kind. Believe it or not, I did not see a single Storm Trooper.

You can also see how empty the floor looks - these were taken Sunday shortly after the con opened. The line of people is already in here. Pretty empty! It was never really crowded. Sure, some creators had long lines for a good part of the day, but for the most part it was easy to walk through.

The set up for this con was almost like a huge artist alley. In one photo you see Perez - that's how the booths were. Creators just had a table, some had art pages for sale or sketch books or comics, but many of them just had themselves and the table and some pens. On Saturday all of the early arrivals stood in lines to get on sketch lists for artists, and then the second wave was people getting their signatures.

There were vendors, but it didn't seem like there were as many as at WWC, and the deals were better too. Most of them were in one section, apart from the creators and publishers.

This was really a different con from WWC, and it was nice. The focus on comics was really cool. You could just walk up to a table and say "Hey" to your favorite writer or artist and have them shake your hand. Most of them, asside from some late arrivals, were at their tables most of the con. While some sat there and didn't want to be disturbed while they did sketches, most would at least say "hi" back and some just signed books for huge chunks of the day. There weren't any huge gaming rooms or video games or bimbos. You could walk through pretty easily (as long as you didn't get stuck behind the guy with the cart full of longboxes). People were very friendly and polite and it was just a cool con.