March
19 WWLA, Day 2

Day three of Wizard World L.A. is getting going as I type this, and whatever happens today with crowds and the L.A. Marathon, Saturday was definitely a success for the show. There was a good crowd at the L.A. Convention Center, though it was never unpleasantly packed. Fans were actually buying from dealers at a pretty good clip, and the overall mood was relaxed and fun.
Running into Wizard chairman Gareb Shamus at the end of the day, he was definitely pleased with the show's evolution and the way it is positioned to go forward. That's definitely the next big step for the show, which needs to do some work on attracting a wider audience than die-hard fans and bringing in some more exhibitors. There were a few notable absences on the floor, such as Dark Horse and L.A.-based manga house TOKYOPOP. A few indies, such as Top Shelf and AdHouse also would give the show a boost.
There was plenty of news coming out of the panels held by Marvel and DC, most of it involving new comicbook series and creative teams. The comics-creating producers of "Lost" — co-creator Damon Lindelof, Jeph Loeb and Javier Grillo-Marxuach — talked about comics and TV in an entertaining panel. Kevin Smith was on hand to congregate with his flock.
Spike TV and Lions Gate were there on the Hollywood end, but that's a roster that needs to expand. The show also could use more Hollywood promos, as the sort of actor-packed, preview-screening panels for the major studios' major releases that are so popular at San Diego and WonderCon were sorely absent. Sure, the Mattel booth was showing the "Superman Returns" teaser and Marvel had the trailer for "X-Men: The Last Stand" at its booth, but this is the last really big show before those movies really start to hit and neither Fox nor WB was on hand to whet fans' appetites.
Scheduling is obviously going to be something that the industry has to deal with, and something will have to give with WonderCon in early February, the new New York Comic-Con and this show all crowding the early year calendar. The New York show is the least flexible, as the Javits Center in New York is booked so heavily that the space they obtained this year was the only space and the slot they could fit the show in. WizardWorld L.A. has been working to get itself into the L.A. Convention Center since it kicked off and has a good slot for an L.A. show, the marathon notwithstanding. That leaves WonderCon in a tough slot, and a change of schedule and/or a downgrade in venue from the Moscone Center West seems most likely for that show. But as long as there's this many shows so close together, smaller publishers and even a few minimajors are going to have to pick and choose as attending all three is an expensive proposition.
Obviously, there's some big questions for the industry to answer. Attendance patterns at pretty much every con indicates that the fans love these shows and are happy to show up in big numbers regardless of weather, planning difficulties, hotel shortages or road closures. So the question becomes how to manage the shows so not to crowd the calendar and maintain the quality of guests and events that keeps people coming back. The growth this show has over the previous Wizard World shows makes it a hit for the company and gives it the platform it wants to grow the show in the future.