ICV2.com has a very timely Q&A with David Glanzer, Comic-Con International’s director of marketing and public relations. He talks about space issues in San Diego, as well as growth at WonderCon this year:
You mentioned that the exhibit floor is bigger. Are you getting the same kind of mix as San Diego with studios, videogame companies and anime in addition to the comic book publishers?
Yes. One of the things that’s cool is that it’s always been very comics-centric and it still is. Part of our mission statement is to bring comic books and popular culture to a wider audience, so our floor reflects that.
One of the things we’ve seen this year is an increase in videogame companies. This year we have EA, Capcom, Ubisoft, and some other videogame companies taking part.
And we’ve added a couple of movie studios to the floor. We’ve seen a ramp-up in terms of programming for those movie studios. That’s not only movie, but television as well. We’re kind of excited about that.
We have a lot of studios that are not only bringing some film content and screenings, but a lot of special guests. There’s a lot of really exciting things that are happening, and I think we’re going to have some really special guests too, whether it be from television or movies. There’s a new X-Files movie out there, and I think there’s going to be a pretty cool panel on that at our show.
He mentions that last year’s attendance at WonderCon was 20,000. “We count our attendees as one person each — uniques. It’s a conservative number we use and that’s a total of professionals, exhibitor, volunteers and attendees.”
This year’s WonderCon is coming up Feb. 22-24 at the Moscone Center South in San Francisco. Guests include Jim Lee, Kurt Busiek, Brian Wood, Becky Cloonan, Ben Templesmith and many more.
