San Diego Comic Con Update
Wednesday, July 18, 2001

The excitement is building, as this year's San Diego Comic-Con International is set to open to the public in just three hours. Expectations are exceptionally high this year, as the convention is opening for a Wednesday night preview, for the first time in its history. The preview will run from 5:30 - 8:30 PM, and is limited to dealers/exhibitors, comics professionals, and attendees of the convention who purchased 4-day advance badges.

I have a personal interest in the success of this evening's preview night, as I was the original instigator of the preview night program. I've been asking the convention for several years to open the hall on Wednesday evening especially for comics creators, as it has been so difficult for creators to shop during the normal dealer's room hours. One personal disappointment for me over the past few years of rapid growth in convention attendance is that I've been able to make contact with fewer, and fewer, of my friends from the comics creative community. The normal operating hours of the convention are just so full of panels, programs, talks, and signings that connecting with your friends has become almost impossible. Having Wednesday night exclusively as a shopping/get-together evening seemed to me to be a good way of bringing back a little of the old personal nature of the convention that made it so unique. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that tonight's preview will be a success...

Our booth this year is a shock to many who have seen us exhibit in the past. Until three years ago, we used to bring tens of thousands of comics for sale, in beautiful custom-built cabinets. Then, two years ago, I switched us over to computer monitors, and trade paperbacks. Last year, I left all our product at home, with our exhibit consisting exclusively of monitors set to our website, but brought a team of 17 staff members, mostly to buy old comics. This year our exhibit is monitors exclusively, with only Lynne, Pam, Rowan, and myself to man the booth. My reasoning in going so light on staff is that we have already committed to all of you to try and keep our service levels as high as possible during the current CONSALE 30% off sale. By minimizing the number of staff members in San Diego, I dramatically decrease the disruption in our shipping that San Diego has caused in the past.

Another reason for not going heavy on staff is that I honestly don't give a diddly whether people take advantage of our convention special. Believe it or not, I'm offering everyone attending the convention $10 in free comics, plus free shipping anywhere in the world (!), just for sitting down and utilizing our website. This may seem crazy, but in point of fact, it actually makes a lot of sense. As all of you are well aware, once someone has ordered through our database, they get hooked. It's getting them to place that first order that's hard... That's why I'm giving the first $10 away for free. I figure it's worth it if it gets a few hundred (or thousand) people to try our system. In any event, it's still cheaper to give away a few thousand comics, than to pay all the airfares and hotel costs of having another dozen staff members fly out here. Strange, but true...

My only actual news report from the convention is that I just turned down a cash offer of $5,000.00 (from Alex Acevedo of New York's Alexander Gallery) for the 10.0 THOR #156 that we are supposed to be auctioning during the convention. Sadly, this auction will not be coming to pass right now, as the staff of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has never returned my call. You would think that they would be eager to help promote a benefit auction that could potentially net them a donation of $5,000 or more, but I called them in April, and I have yet to hear back from them. All I wanted from them was to send out coordinated press releases with us, so as to bring as much attention to the auction as possible. So far, they've seemingly been too busy to return my call. When they finally do get back to me, I'll announce the new date of the benefit auction. I hope Alex Acevedo still wants to bid...

That's it for tonight. For those of you who can receive photo's with your e-mails, I'm enclosing a shot of all of us with the Mile High Comics booth. I wanted to also have a picture of the super-cool props that Dreamworks Pictures brought fro the upcoming remake of THE TIME MACHINE, but they are being poopie heads, and not allowing any photographs. We'll try again tomorrow to get permission to take a picture of their display.

Happy collecting!

Chuck Rozanski,
President - Mile High Comics, Inc.