In light of the bombing at the Boston Marathon and the subsequent manhunt that had the city of Boston on lockdown Friday the Boston Comic Con was cancelled.
What to do? Some of the writers and artists had made it to Boston for the weekend with the intent of meeting their fans, sign books and sketch the fans favorite characters. Many came toting boxes of books for the con. It didn’t take long for people to start thinking of what to do since they were already there.
By Friday evening the answer was flying around the Twitter-verse (and most likely many other ‘verses as well). Impromptu signings at Boston comic book stores were being tweeted by writers, artists and comic book stores. Retweeted over and over by fans near and far, spreading the word… Boston Comic Con may be cancelled but do not despair we are here and will have a non-con comic con.
Didn’t make it to one of the impromptu signings yesterday? Do not despair. Here is a tweet from this morning:
Boston TODAY: Signing at @larryscomics w Tim Sale, David Mack, Tim Seeley,& Nick Bradshaw, Sunday noon-4 Lowell, MA conta.cc/13DzdOb
— DrDavidMrMack (@davidmackkabuki) April 21, 2013
I already knew that there are plenty of awesome people in the comic book industry, but this goes to show that you can’t keep them from meeting with their fans even when the Comic-Con they traveled to be at gets cancelled. After a day of fear and isolation, these individuals brought smiles and in some instances an early/extra free comic book day to a city that you can not keep down. As a Bostonian that has been living on the west coast for years, I can’t be prouder of my hometown for how they responded during a time of terror. As a geek I am proud that these artists, writers and stores stepped up and solved the question of what to do with the con cancelled to give the fans something much needed after the week they had just endured, a time to smile and relax.
Below is an update we received from one of the contributors to the “Boston Non-Con Comic-Con”:
Hi there,
Yesterday, we announced that we would be giving our convention stock to the main comic book stores in Boston, following the cancellation of the Comic-Con this weekend.
We had an interesting day!
We started giving away free comics at Harvard Square, and delivered copies to Newbury Comics, The Million Year Picnic and New England Comics. We ended up at Davis Square’s Comicazi – signing at a table next to Bill Willingham, David Mack and Tim Sale! Thanks to all these stores that helped us out. I have attached some photos from the day.
We will be going to Comicopia (Commenwealth Avenue) today with the last of our stock.
We are delighted that sites like Comic Book Resources, Comic Related and national newspapers have picked up on the story. If you go to the stores and they’re all gone – don’t worry!
Simply e-mail info@neilgibsoncomics.com and we’ll send you over some free digital copies.
(The photos in this piece were provided by Neil Gibson Comics – T Publications, along with the preceding update)
