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by: Gamertell on Oct 6th, 08 at 1:38 am
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Mid-Ohio-Con 2008: Comics, games, Hulk, Jay and the Batmobile

Section: News, Originals, Consoles, PS3, Xbox-360, Gear, Clothing, Comics-and-Graphic-Novels, Figures & Toys, Conventions

gamertell mid-ohio-con 2008 program guide coverAfter getting shut down, resurrected by new owners, moved to a new venue and taking place two month earlier than normal, the Mid-Ohio-Con (aka MOC) was this past weekend (October 4-5, 2008) at the Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, OH (USA). The convention is typically a showcase for Ohio area comic book artists and stores with a smattering of additional celebrity guests and other goodies.

There were two videogame booths a the MOC, one for Ninja Gaiden and the other was promoting Soul Calibur IV. At the Ninja Gaiden booth, there were three nice monitors and two ladies sanding around who I guess were supposed to engage passers-by, but really talked to one guy for about three hours and didn’t seem to hand out any of the T-shirts or wrist bands they were holding. One kid did manage to play at one station for the entire first day which seemed OK to others since no one else was really stopping. At least he scored a T-shirt (he eventually stopped playing to put it on).

The Soul Calibur IVbooth had three screens as well and one larger screen that looked like the guy just didn’t bother to take out of the plastic wrap. He also spent a lot of time tapping on his phone and then was at a laptop for a while I assume playing that game. There were a couple freebies at this booth for grabs, but the shoestring lanyard and two small linticular cards (not even the Yoda or Darth Vader images) are not even worth slapping on the scanner to show you.

gamertell mid-ohio-con 2008 ninja gaiden booth photo by pj hruschak

Of course, comics and comic book talent are the real reason to head to a comic book convention. About 40% of the Convention Center was occupied by comic book stores and another 40-50% with talent. The bigger names got their own booths with the tri-colored curtains for backgrounds and others were at rows of smaller tables in the way back. It seemed like they tried to group things together, like celebs in one aisle, big name artists together, which caused some clogging in the center section.

The bigger the name the longer you had to wait in line. Artist Alan Davis, for example, had a pretty high price for his sketches and one group of guys told eme they had been in line for three hours, and the line never seemed to have less than 20 people in it at a time. Alan Dean Foster (writer) was rarely at his booth signing and was, seemingly, in panel discussions most of the day. Chris Claremont (writer) was moved to the other side of the center to make room for his line which seemed to be the longest. Artist and legend Joe Kubert also made a limited appearance at the con but was represented with two booths, one for himself and the other for his art school.

I stopped and chatted a while with the very friendly Patrick and Shelly Block, the Disney Comics writing and art team (who were doing free sketches, a rarity at any con), as well as artist Jamie Snell, who was “grandfathered into a booth” (which is why he had only the curtains behind him). Theirs and a few other tables were surprisingly empty from curious conventioneers who spent much of their time in the store booths and waiting in line for the “bigger name” artists.

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