Bmore Nerdy

Posted on Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 at 12:01 am

Whether fans here have been aware of it or not, Baltimore has quietly given birth to arguably the strongest, and most pure comic convention in the United States – Baltimore Comic Con.

I had the pleasure of attending the 11th annual installment this past weekend at the Baltimore Convention Center, and enjoying the show as an attendee would, it’s amazing how drastically different it is from similar large scale comic cons.

What makes it so different? Namely, the team running the convention, lead by Marc Nathan, who owns a comic store of his own, never forgot about what brought them to the dance – comic books.

The convention has grown to take up the majority of the bottom floor of the Baltimore Convention Center, and it is literally that, wall to wall comics.  Creators from every era, a section dedicated to the independent, web and small press creators striving to make it on their own, and of course dozens of vendors, there is never a moment of the Hollywood spirit which seems to have grown into the two largest conventions of the US, New York Comic Con and Comic Con International in San Diego.

At Baltimore Comic Con, it’s all about the four-color tales which Hollywood blockbusters have been made from, not the movies themselves, and in that, there is a great innocence and purity which you rarely find in such celebrations of fandom.

If the smiling faces on attendees and vendors alike was any indication, that’s just how they like it, and even though I only got to see one day of the show – that’s how I liked it too.

May Baltimore Comic Con continue to grow, and may many generations continue to enjoy it…despite how some of our local politicians may feel about comics in general.

Filed in: Comics.