Television personality and Kansas City native Blair Butler will appear at Planet Comicon next spring. Butler is the host of G4’s “Fresh Ink†comic book review segments and substitute host for the network’s flagship “Attack of the Show†program. She has recently started writing comic books, co-creating the upcoming Image Comics series Heart with Kansas City artist Kevin Mellon.
Planet Comicon — Kansas City’s largest comics and pop culture convention — will be held March 24-25, 2012, at the Overland Park International Trade Center in Overland Park, Kansas.
Show promoter Chris Jackson said that he has tried to book Butler in past years, but schedules never worked out. “I have seen her on panels and host panels at San Diego Comic Con,†Jackson said. “I have watched from the crowd in the aisles below the G4 stage as she does live TV from SDCC. I have seen the enormous lines for signing under the sails when she appears with other G4 TV personalities at SDCC. She is great! This is a wonderful opportunity for all of us in Kansas City to meet her.â€
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After a massive convention schedule reshuffle that knocked Planet Comicon off its previously announced weekend, promoter Chris Jackson has confirmed that Kansas City’s largest comics and pop culture convention will be held on March 24th and 25th, 2012.
The promoter had previously announced the March dates as “likely” but not confirmed.
There has been no word from Jackson yet about how the new dates will affect the bookings of previously announced guests Jason Aaron, Dan Parent, Don Rosa, Stan Sakai, and Skottie Young. “I’ll update the website and Facebook soon and list some guest info,” Jackson said.
The rescheduling chain reaction was originally triggered by renovations at San Francisco’s Moscone Center, the traditional home of WonderCon. For 2012, WonderCon decided to move to Anaheim on a different weekend than normal. That turned out to be the same dates as planned for Chicago’s C2E2 convention. In a defensive move, C2E2 then shifted to an alternate weekend in early April — the weekend originally announced for Kansas City’s Planet Comicon.
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Planet Comicon 2012 will not be held April 14-15 of next year as originally announced. The new dates for the show have not been announced yet. Promoter Chris Jackson is scrambling to determine the best weekend for Kansas City’s largest comics and pop culture convention after Chicago’s huge C2E2 convention rescheduled its event on the original Planet Comicon dates.
“WonderCon announced on September 1, 2011 that they have selected March 16-18 as the dates for their 2012 show,” Jackson said. “C2E2 in Chicago, which was originally scheduled for March 16-18, has now moved their show to April 14-15, stepping directly on the announced dates for Planet Comicon.”
Jackson says that he will definitely reschedule the show, with the new dates to be announced by September 10th. “It is quite difficult to obtain dates and many factors have to be taken in to consideration,” he said. “We did a lot of research when selecting the original dates to make sure there was no major conflicts and, at this late date, options for dates are very limited. We will do the best we can and hopefully the fans, exhibitors and guests will support the new dates when selected.”
The dominoes began falling when WonderCon — a major San Francisco convention — shifted to Anaheim on March 16-18. “It’s traditionally held in San Francisco at the Moscone Center, but that venue is undergoing major renovations and dates were not available,” Mark Evanier wrote on his NewsFromME blog. “So things don’t get crowded [in Anaheim], Wizard World will postpone its April 2012 show and ReedPop’s C2E2, which had been planning a March show in Chicago, will have it some other time.”
The shuffle of so many major events has left some Kansas City creators in a bind. As the news of C2E2’s conflicting date broke, writer/artist Kevin Mellon tweeted, “You’re [bleeping] kidding me. C2E2 is now the weekend of Planet comicon here in KC. Thanks.” That brought a Twitter response from Iowa’s Phil Hester of “!!!! That is a nonstarter.” Hester has been a fixture at Kansas City conventions for more than 20 years.
Planet Comicon has been at the center of the Kansas City comics scene since the 1990s, growing larger each year. Guests already announced for the 2012 show include Stan Sakai (creator of Usagi Yojimbo), Dan Parent (artist for Archie Comics), and Skottie Young (artist of Marvel Comic’s acclaimed Wizard of Oz adaptations). It is not yet known if the date shuffle will affect these scheduled appearances.