We're off to see the Wizard World
BY BERT EHRMANN

The WIZARD WORLD 2001 COMIC CON was held from Friday to Sunday, August 17 through the 19th. I attended on Saturday with my friend Tim and his son Clark. The con was a lot like cons of years past - packed with fans, lots of dealers selling everything from comics to bootlegged videos, the occasional celebrity, industry representatives from most of the major comic/ media companies and *bloated prices for admission.

I spent about $80 at the con, picking up a copy of SPACE: ABOVE AND BEYOND - THE COMPLETE SCORE, TOTAL WHITEOUT and TOTAL WHITEOUT MELT DOWN (a comic book) by Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber, and one pack of KNIGHT RIDER trading cards (for a "friend", I'd never buy that sort of this for myself).

Celebrities on hand, included David Prowse, Kenny Baker, Peter Mayhew, Lou Ferrigno, and Erin Gray! ERIN GREY! Okay, maybe not so much Erin Grey.

It was interesting to see all the stuff I used to own - TRANSFORMERS, G.I. JOE, HE-MAN etc. all going for big bucks. I saw a "rare" carded Star Wars figure from 1985 going for almost $2000. I also saw some original HE-MAN figures from later in the series going for $40.

Speaking of "big bucks", there was an original Dave Stevens painting (creator of THE ROCKETEER) on sale for $22,000! That's right, $22,000!

The funniest part of this con, and it holds true year after year, is the convention "phreaks" (people who dress up as their favorite comic book character and wander the convention in costume). The group of "phreaks" on hand included a few THUNDERCATS, OPTIMUS PRIME, BENDER, and a platoon of STORM TROOPERS who kept saying "game on" whenever they put their helmets back on after taking them off.

Noted comic book artist/ painter Alex Ross was the "2001 Guest of Honor" and had an art gallery set up showing some of his work (it was more of an interesting display of original paintings, lithographs, costumes, resin statues and a giant model of Superman than an "art gallery"). I can only imagine how much all of the paintings were worth, but it must have been a lot. Two police officers were on duty in case any "fan boy" decided to try to raid the loot.

Interestingly enough, both Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes (aka Jay and Silent Bob) were very popular at the show (who'd have guessed THAT). I can only assume their popularity, as I never got to see them. There was a one-day wait for tickets to their conference. Last year, both walked around at the Graphiti / View Askew booth answering questions and signing autographs (I guess that's what a major motion picture opening within a week of the convention will do for your popularity.

* It sucked that admission was $20 to walk through the door and say "hi". Here's the math that I did to come up with that startling conclusion - last year almost 35,000 people walked through the convention. You do the math, 35,000 people x $20 = 700,000. That's $700,000 from the admission till, not including the money they take in charging comic dealers for space in the convention center. It's a nice racket if you can get it.