by Mike Favila & ComicsOnline.com Staff

Having visited Richmond many times over the last decade, I was really interested to hear Wizard World would start doing a convention there.  Though it has amazingly good food, and an interesting music scene, I didn’t really consider it a massive metropolitan area.  Apparently, they also have a pretty healthy comics scene, but had never done a convention of this magnitude before.  Obviously, we at ComicsOnline.com had to check out Richmond Comic Con.

For the inaugural outing, Kevin, Emil and I went down south to see if there would be interest.  Richmond Comic Con took place over the weekend of July 31, and was held in the Greater Richmond Convention Center.  I myself have never been inside, but had passed it often when we were down here.  The hall itself was enormous, and provided lots of room for people to maneuver around.  The Convention Center itself was very clean and well lit, and it was kind of cool to be able to just walk in and immediately join the panels if we were interested,  instead of having to take the elevators to the top.

Guests

Tony Hale (Arrested Development, Veep) was also there, and graciously signed his new book Archibald’s Next Big Thing.  I didn’t want to embarrass myself too much, but I was a huge Veep fan, and he’s definitely an integral part of the comedic team.  We talked a little about his new book with Tony Biaggne, and who his book was targeted to.  It looks like a kid’s book, but browsing through it made me feel like it was readable at my level as well.  I purchase a copy and had it signed.

Legendary artist Neal Adams was also in attendance, doing sketches and talking to fans.  His work on X-Men has always been riveting, so it was nice to ping him and ask him about what projects he was working on and how he doing overall.  The line for Kevin Eastman was insane! At the moment, he’s also the publisher of Heavy Metal, the classic magazine, which had a booth next door.

Additionally, there was a huge cosplay contest held on night.  The players definitely didn’t hold back when it came to inhibiting their characters and really showing off.  Take a look at our gallery on Facebook here!

Panels

This year, ComicsOnline.com was lucky enough to host a number of panels at Richmond Comic Con.  We had our friend Ben Shaw join us for an interesting discussion about his new comic Ethan Stone PI, and his varied and interesting experiences at the Joe Kubert school.  I had no clue lettering was so important to the development of every grad there!

For the ComicsOnline.com podcast, Kevin and Emil were joined by Flashback Comics’ Troy-David Philips, and Marc Lutz.  The podcast discussed a number of topics ranging from the New 52 from DC, to whatever everybody was reading.  It was nice to have a little back and forth discussion with the audience about their perspectives on Marvel Cinematic continuity, versus DC’s non integrated plans for their movie and TV properties.  Here’s a link, if you wanted to listen in….

James O’Barr was in attendance at Richmond.   To this day, The Crow is still a classic within the genre.  Though it’s been over a decade since the graphic novel was released, the work is still as emotional and resonant as when O’Barr released the first issue.  After the discussion, a screening of the movie starring Brandon Lee was held.

Dave Batista, a Washington, DC native, took the time to join the Wizard World tour as well.  He was joined by Michael Rooker upstairs in the main hall.  They covered a lot of ground discussing the massive hit of the summer, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.

Manu Bennett, one of the driving forces behind Starz’ Spartacus, was in full force at the convention.  At his panel, he was gracious enough to answer a lot of fan questions and provide an awesome headlock to our very own Editor-In-Chief.

Retailers

There were a number of comic retailers at Richmond Comic Con, though not as many as I’m used to from Wizard World Philadelphia.  Of course, that’s to be expected with the first round of any event as major as this.  What’s nice is that Wizard has been throwing so many of these that the experience was very pleasant.  lines were very organized, there was no jam in the entry or exit lines, and the booths were organized in such a way that it was easy to get your bearings and use the map in the convention guide easily.

There were vendors selling hand bound leather journals.  Another was selling awesome fake badges (I personally liked the Agents of SHIELD ones) and the obligatory signed photographs and posters.  At some point, I’m going to have to pick up more of this swag, but for now, I’m usually pretty focused on getting the back issues that I’ve been missing.

Overall, we had a great time at Richmond Comic Con.  As this is its first year, the crowd was intimate, and there were a lot of opportunities to just stand and hang out with a lot of comic creators and media personalities, without being hustled on to the next person in line.  I’m sure as word spreads, this will less be the case.  For now, it’s a promising start with room for potential.  Since Wizard World is at the helm, you can be sure that they will continue to invest in making Richmond Comic Con a worthwhile event that will only grow every year.

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