Healing Factor: Boston Comic Con Rescheduled For August 3 and 4

The Boston Comic Con was originally scheduled to take place last weekend at the Hynes Convention Center on Boyston Street in Boston. Unfortunately, the event was abruptly postponed last Friday, due to the usual mundane and obvious reasons a convention gets put off: some douchenozzle blew up the street upon which the venue was scheduled, and then spent Friday, to paraphrase Stephen Colbert, trying to make a dazzling escape from law enforcement on a landlocked boat.

It might sound like a small thing to reschedule a relatively small city comic convention – Boston’s a big town, and the Boston Comic Con has become quite a little convention, but it’s still only about four years along from being an old school, buy-your-back-issues-and-get-out convention as advertised on late night UHF channels) – but you’d be surprised. In talking with the owner of my local comic store, where they know me by name and ask me to stop referring to myself as “The Comic Con,” I was told that the biggest problem with rescheduling was finding a venue. Apparently the Hynes Center is fully booked pretty much a year ahead of time, and there simply aren’t all that many venues in town of the right size to book a thing like this. In a lot of ways, you either have a hotel’s function room (which holds about 90 people), the TD Banknorth Garden (which holds about 15,000 people), or you just wait for the Hynes to have an open spot on the calendar.

So while I held onto my advance tickets (which the convention assured us would be accepted for any alternate dates) to show the people so desperately trying to give this town a decent convention that some of us were pulling for them, I was fully expecting to eventually hear that the convention was being cancelled until next April.

Yeah, I was wrong.

NEW DATE: August 3-4! NEW VENUE: Seaport World Trade Ctr! Details on the website! Tell your friends! bostoncomiccon.com #comicmarket

— Boston Comic Con (@BostonComicCon) April 27, 2013

Okay, so they’re having a convention. But that doesn’t mean that any of the originally-scheduled special guests or artists are gonna show up, right?

Oh, you’d be surprised.

From the notice sent to ticket holders:

THE 2013 BOSTON COMIC CON IS BACK!! THE NEW DATES ARE AUGUST 3-4, 2013.

First, we wish to thank all our fans who supported The Boston Comic Con by demonstrating the highest degree of patience and understanding imaginable during a very challenging time for all of us. And we want to reward you, our fans, by putting on an even bigger and better show than originally planned!

We’re moving! The Seaport World Trade Center is the new home of Boston Comic Con! It features more parking, easier highway access, as well as a direct stop in front of the venue on the MBTA Silver Line in Boston’s historic waterfront district.

We have reconfirmed our major comic book creator guests (who have all been wonderfully supportive of us). Let’s welcome back… George Perez, Mike Mignola, Mark Bagley, Bill Willingham, Tony Daniel, Ed McGuinness, Tim Sale, Steve Niles, Colleen Doran, Aaron Lopresti, Don Rosa, William Stout, Amy Reeder, Frank Cho, David Mack, Mike Choi, and Joe Eisma! And we’re still re- confirming!

And guess what… we are adding even more guests as the support for Boston Comic Con keeps pouring in from comic book creators all over the country. Let’s give a Boston welcome to… Dan Didio, Phil Jimenez, Brian Azzarello, Cully Hamner, Barry Kitson, Paul Gulacy, James O’Barr, Howard Chaykin, Dave Johnson, Terry Moore, and Michael Golden! That’s just the beginning. Keep an eye open as more guests join us leading up to the show.

A thank you and a shout out to The Walking Dead’s Laurie Holden who will be coming back to the support Boston and The BCC! We are also in the process of adding more media guests. Be patient, as it takes a little bit more time to book celebrities (welcome to Hollywood). We’ll keep you posted.

We will of course continue with our great programming events like the BCC costume contest, film festival, gaming, and charity art auction.

As a reminder, advance tickets purchased online for the original show date will be GOOD for the rescheduled show. And if for any reason you can’t make it to the show in August, please submit a refund request through Eventbrite and you will be refunded. You will have until August 1, 2013 to do so. Keep watching our Facebook and Twitter feeds for more info as we grow the guest list between now and then.

For those of you who still haven’t purchased tickets, you can do so on our website: www.bostoncomiccon.com.

This is exciting news, not only for the obvious reason that clearly the convention organizers have worked like hell to get this thing back up and running, all in a little more than a week… but also because the original guest list was damn good, but some of these new guests are really exciting. You can say what you want about Dan DiDio’s management of DC Comics, but there is no denying that he is one hell of a charming and entertaining presenter at convention panels. And if you’re telling me that I might have a chance to get a Crow sketch from James O’Barr, and maybe a Reuben Flagg or The Shadow from Chaykin? Well hell, I might hold onto my art budget for San Diego a couple of weeks earlier and spend it right here in town instead.

So there’s some irony for you: some fuckstick with a name and a plan like a supervillain fucks up plans for fans of superheroes… only to wind up with the convention coming back stronger than originally planned.

More details are available at the convention’s Web site, and you can get advance tickets for the event via Eventbrite… but if you can’t, we will be covering the event the way we originally planned.