Fellow poweteers Sindra and Raistlin joined me this past weekend at the Fall ’09 Boston Comic Con. This small convention has started getting attention and has been growing by leaps and bounds each show. Traditionally held at the Back Bay Events Center near Copley Square, the show runs twice a year, once in the Spring and once in the Fall.

Read on for more about the convention and what I thought!

The great thing about this convention is that it is still small enough to not be running any panels. At no time do you feel pressured to be somewhere. You can wander guilt-free from table to table looking for cheap trades, books, toys, statues, and posters or just browsing at some of the beautiful art on display by the many talented artists attending the show. Its one giant room of comic book vendors, a giant room of well-known artists, and several smaller rooms with lesser-known artists. Thats about it. Nothing more. Nothing less. As you walk in, you are greeted with a table with posters that range from small posters to posters that are six feet tall of more. All of the posters are reprinted classic comic book covers from milestone issues, variant comics, and some fan favorites. This table is a popular stop just before people get in line for the headlining artist’s table for an autograph.

Bill Seinkowicz was scheduled to be there this year, but unfortunately his appearance was postponed until April. I was looking forward to seeing him as I really enjoyed his very unique art style in New Mutants back in the day. As a stand in, they managed to get Walt and Louise Simonson to attend. As an X-Men fan, I hadn’t realized that X-Factor was started by the pair and their run even included Apocalypse’s first appearance. Walt is also very well known for a very popular run on Thor. It was a treat to see someone pull out a Sideshow Collectibles replica of Stormbreaker, Beta Ray Bill’s hammer for Walt to sign and Walt’s reaction.

Also in the big artist room were Tim Sale, Eric Canete, Herb Trimpe (co-creator of Wolverine), Jim Calafiore, Scott Wegener, Khoi Pham, Cliff Chiang and several more. I picked up a wonderful set of 6 postcards from Cliff Chiang called “Bombshell Beauties” that were basically swimsuit style pin-ups of popular characters such as Cheetara holding up Ma-Mutt from Thundercats, Teela from He-Man, Supergirl and more. You can see some of the here by clicking on Pinups.

Moving to the lesser-known artist rooms is a bit of a mixed bag most of the time. This year wasn’t bad. There was really only one table that I felt really uncomfortable walking past. The artist was socially awkward and only had two small pamphlets for sale on a big white table. It was barren except for those two items. Two tables down from him was the complete opposite experience. Another lesser-known artist by the name of Sara Richard had her art on display and sale. The art drew passersby in right away and she was able to keep them there by being social. Having worked the Artist Alley at AnimeBoston, thats the exact combo I found to draw people in long enough to realize they liked the art they were looking at. Add to that a very unique artistic style and the result ended with each of us buying at least one print. Both Raistlin and Sindra picked up Vash the Stampede, with Sindra also getting a Gambit print. I came back later and picked up a Transformers:RoTF Ravage print. Probably one of the best non-official pieces of TF movie artwork I’ve seen to date. You can check out more of her work here. Click on Icons to some of the prints we bought.

There was a constant pull to get back to the vendor room to see if any new trades had been put out in the 5$ Trade Paperback bins. The three of us have come to find the $5 Trade bins to be the hallmark of this convention. I ended up buying about 13 trades. We’ve started a new thread on the forum to share what trades we’ve bought recently or are currently, so if you are interested in what I picked up, check it out here!

I stated at the beginning that one of the great things about this convention is that there are no industry panels. This con isn’t about whats new and whats coming, its about what has already happened and an opportunity to experience some of that for yourself. Its a comic book convention for comic books. Something that many larger shows can no longer say.

The next show, in April, will be held in a larger venue and feature major artists such as Jim Lee and Mike Mignola. Not to mention the rescheduled Bill Seinkowicz. See you there, Poweteers!

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