For the last month, roughly, I’ve been an exceptionally busy gal on the weekend. Between the first weekend of February until the first weekend of March, I’ve been at some sort of con every other weekend:

• Wizard World St Louis
• Planet Comic Con (in Kansas City)
• STL Comics Winter One-Day

HOLY EXHAUSTION, BATMAN! My poor wallet hurts.

However, it was a pretty fun to have so many, so close together, to compare how different they felt. Different levels and experiences, etc. So, while I plan to post about each one individually, I’d like to take a moment to compare the three.

Wizard World St Louis:

• Size: WWSTL is the first con I ever attended in my life, back at the first one in 2013. It’s definitely grown since then, but it isn’t a massive con.
• Celeb vs Vendors: While making massive improvements on the vendors from last year, especially in the comic vendors, this was still heavily focused on the celebrity guests. Which, I don’t mind a heavy push on, but I love hunting through the vendors and seeing all the goodies.
• Experience: Overall, it wasn’t too bad. However, I did have one massive complaint, which I’ll dig further into on the individual post- If a significant guest cancels, even if it isn’t someone you pay extra for, please let someone know. And if they aren’t actually down, don’t advertise that they are. But, I’ll explain later.

Planet Comic Con:

• Size: This was definitely one of the biggest cons I’ve went to. It didn’t top Fan Expo Canada, but daaaaamn. I spent all of Saturday there, and saw nowhere near everything. Or even HALF of everything.
• Celeb vs Vendors: THIS WAS SUCH A PERFECT BALANCE. I cannot express to you how pleased I was with the balance between vendors, celebs, and industry creators. Planet Comic Con has that down perfectly.
• Experience: I was slightly terrified to go, because I’d never been to Planet Comic Con or Kansas City, MO. However, I actually LOVED the con and had a great time, overall.

STL Comics Winter 1-Day:

• Size: This is my second time attending one of these, and it was smaller than the previous time. However, I cannot stress this enough – this is definitely a show of quality over quantity.
• Celeb vs Vendors: This is also a vendor heavy event – there’s a few artists with tables, but mostly this is very focused on comics and collectibles.
• Experience: This was honestly one of the best experiences from all three cons. The vendors I bought from were extremely friendly, there were loads of great deals and well priced books, etc. I found what I was on a mission to find and then some. This is seriously one of my favorites to do. I like the small, focused atmosphere, friendly people, and the fun of hunting for things without being overwhelmed.

 

While it was a lot of fun traveling all over Missouri for nerdy goodness, I’m relieved to hopefully have a little break. Especially while I’m trying to save for Fan Expo.

Stay tuned for more posts about the individual cons soon, and a peak at what I brought home.

~Angel