San Diego Comic Con Update
Friday, July 20, 2001

The convention is rocking onward today, with thousands more avid fans roaming the halls, attending panels and talks, gathering in autographs of their favorite creators, and picking up bargains at the various booths. Attendance is about the same as yesterday, with an estimated 12,000-15,000 fans in the hall.

This year's convention is following a trend that was set many years ago, with prices at many of the booths at rock-bottom levels. It is not unusual to see signs plastered over some booths with various products at anywhere from 40%-75% off of retail price. The back of the dealer's room, in particular, is filled with dozens of stands that are steeply discounting.

I am frequently asked by many folks attending the convention as to how the dealers selling at such low prices can survive. The answers lies in the fact that San Diego has become a place where retail stores from a 500-mile radius come to sell their overstock. Often times this product was paid for long ago, and any revenue that can be generated is pure cash flow for the seller. This makes those dealers pretty reckless about pricing, especially on Sunday. Their logic is that it is better to sell overstock items for pennies, than to have to put them back into storage in the back room for another year. This makes the convention an excellent spot for bargain-hunting.

The flip side of this situation is that dealers who are not looking to dump overstock are sometimes unable to sell enough to justify the high costs of setting up at the convention. This is a real problem, as I've heard from several dealers that they are considering cutting back drastically on their displays next year. I hope this does not come to pass, as I think that it is important to have both discount dealers, and standard dealers, to keep the vitality of the convention alive. While discounted products are great for bargain-hunters, they are not the ultra-rare, one-of-a-kind items, that many fans seek at a national convention. Only with dealers of all spectrums can that need be satisfied. My hope is that the crowd tomorrow is so large that good sales wash over to all dealers in the room, thus justifying further participation in the convention by all the companies currently represented. It certainly worked out that way last year, so I am optimistic that all the dealers will leave the rooms with smiles at the end of Saturday.

On the news front, I was today handed a CGC population report by John Jackson Miller, the editorial director of COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE magazine. This report details how many comics have been graded by Comics Guarantee Corporation that were published between 1935-1972, in unrestored grades of 9.0, and higher. Frankly, I was shocked at the report's contents. Given the number of comics I've seen on dealer's tables at conventions, I fully expected that there would be a huge number of older comics that would fall into this grade spectrum. Instead, the report indicates that even after over 77,000 comics have been submitted to CGC during the past year and a half, very few pre-1972 comics have achieved the highly desirable Fine/NM, and up, grading. As a case in point, there have been less than 300 Timely comics (total) that have grade out at 9.0 or above. Given that Timely was the Marvel imprint of the 1940's, that's an astoundingly small number. Some Timely titles, such as DARING MYSTERY, have only had a single issue meet the standard.

Coming closer to the present, I was also amazed to learn that there were only 5 copies of FANTASTIC FOUR #1 that made at least the 9.0 grade, while SHOWCASE #4 has had only two high-grade copies, and ATOM #1 has only had five. Suddenly, the high premiums being paid for older 9.0, and higher, CGC books starts to make sense to me. It's remarkable to consider that many, many comics (such as ATOM #6, #9, #11, etc.) have yet to have had a single copy submitted to CGC that made the 9.0 grade! I'm certain that over the next few years that far more older comics will enter this elite population, but it is certainly eye-opening to realize that high-grade older comics are no where near as common as I had originally believed. My thanks go out to Steve Borrock of CGC, and John Jackson Miller of COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE for this remarkable data.

From this point I want to move directly to pictures of the convention. The feedback I've been receiving for the past couple of days is that everyone is very pleased to be seeing these glimpses of the action at San Diego. As a result, I encouraged Pam to go out and shoot pictures all over the convention. Pictures that I participated in included shots with my friends Bud Plant, Russ Cochran, and Ken Krueger. Bud and Russ are long time dealers and publishers (as well as good friends of mine), while Ken Krueger is one of the founders of the San Diego convention, and in 1974 helped a skinny little kid, who was sleeping in a 1963 Chevy, to get his start in comics dealing. Ken's been ill for a couple of years, and was too frail to make the convention last year, but he made it for a single day this year. Seeing him again has been the highlight of my convention!

Here are the rest of the photos. Enjoy!

Chuck Rozanski, Ken Krueger and Rowan Rozanski

Chuck Rozanski and Bud Plant

Terry Moore - Strangers in Paradise, Abstract Studios

Andi Watson - Skeleton Key, Slave Labor Graphics

Chuck Rozanski and Russ Cochran

Rowan Rozanski and Don Rosa

Mike Kunkel - HeroBear and Kid, Astonish

Lou Ferrigno - a.k.a. The Hulk!!

Mike Mignola - Hellboy, Dark Horse Comics

George Perez over at CrossGen Comics

Tiffany Taylor - Playmate, Insight Studios

Bishop and Darren G Davis - Black Tide (New Project), Tide Wave

Jill Thompson - Scary Godmother, Sirius

Brom - Gothic Artist, Sirius

Drew Hayes - Poison Elves, Sirius

Sergio Aragones and Stan Sakia, Dark Horse Comics

Rick Geary - In Artist Alley

Artists at TopCow Productions, including Parks, Wohl, Silvestri

TopCow Productions Girl

Rich Koslowski - 3 Geeks

Happy collecting!

Chuck Rozanski,
President - Mile High Comics, Inc.