By Jondi SoperG.A.M.E.R.S. Editor

Back when I picked up my first game comtroller, if someone would have told me one day I would be the controller, I think I would have laughed at them - or giggled, since I was a young girl at the time. But look how far we have come in the world of video games - from the days of Atari or Comma-dor 64 to the XBox 360 Kinnect and the Wii. With each new innovation in video gaming, it makes one wonder what they may come up with next?

There was a time we might not have been able to imagine the graph-ics of a mere video game looking as vivid, colorful and real as they do today. Some of the games on the market are nothing short of pure art, not to mention the cinematics involved in some of them.

Games today are not just

entertainment. You don’t just sit down for a bit and play. You are immersed into a different world, - be it fantasy, war, another era, another planet - with the way the games are de-signed, you - the player - become every bit as much a part of the game as the components the designers input with lines of code.

The first game I remem-ber playing and loving was this silly game called “Hunt the Wumpus.” You were a little stick figure moving about a map, try-ing to fund this monster called the “wumpus.” You would reveal rooms on the map and the colors of the room would help you determine how close you were. You could eventu-ally make a guess as to his location and try to shoot him, but if you guessed wrong? The wumpus ate you. I loved that game and if someone would have told me then that a few years later there would be

even better games in a few years on the first Nintendo system, I wouldn’t have believed them.

And look at what we have now! How far we have come!

So where will we be in

another year? How about five or 10?

Maybe by then us lazy gamers won’t even have to get up off the sofa to look for our controller anymore.

December 2011 ~ Vol. 5, Issue 4

GamerGrrl

Photo by Amy Vitale

See Page 6

Where will video games be in a decade?

3

gamepolitics.com

Here we go again.Square Enix put out a

press release this afternoon stating that it had “reason to believe that unknown par-ties may have gained unau-thorized access” to a server related to its Square Enix Members service offered in North America and Japan. In response, the company temporarily suspended op-

eration of the free service as of last night.

“We sin-cerely apolo-gize for any i n c o n v e -nience caused by the tempo-rary suspen-sion of the SQUARE ENIX MEMBERS service,” reads the press release.

“We take data security

extremely ser iously and we regret any i n c o n v e -nience this may have caused our customers and fans.

We appreciate your pa-tience and support at this time.”

The company says that

while some personal infor-mation may have been ac-cessed, credit card informa-tion is not stored on the server in question so members can breathe a little easier.

Square Enix estimates that the suspension will con-tinue for a few days while it investigates the incident.

Updates will be posted on the Square Enix Members page at http://www.square-enix.com

SQUARE ENIX hacked

Top Ten Non-Con Things to look forward to in 2012By Alissa “Saki” Faith ~ www.D20 Girls.com

10. Continuity of the DC reboot Batman (comics) 9. Biosock Infinite

8. Avengers vs. X-Men (more comics) 7. The Avengers (movie)

6. Avatar: The Legend of Korra 5. The Dark Knight Rises

4. Borderlands 2 3. Diablo III (if it comes out... yes please?)

2. More Young Justice episodes 1. Zelda Symphony (in Dallas January 10th!)

4

By Shawn Scott Smithcon-news.com

December 8, 2011 – Stan Lee, the legendary comic book writer, editor, actor, producer, publisher, and current Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of POW! Entertainment, today an-nounced that he will make a special appearance at Wizard World New Orleans Comic Con, January 28-29, 2012, at the Ernest N. Morial Con-vention Center. Lee, a mem-ber of both the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame and the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame, will be on site on Sat-urday, Jan. 28 to meet fans, sign autographs and pose for photographs. Special VIP packages will be available.

Lee, recognized as the creative force that brought Marvel Entertainment, LLC to the forefront of the comic publishing industry, is the co-creator of Spider-Man*, The Incredible Hulk*, X-Men*, The Fantastic Four*, Iron Man*, Daredevil*, Sil-ver Surfer*, Dr. Strange* as well as hundreds of oth-ers characters and currently serves as the Chairman Emeritus of Marvel.

In 2001, Lee co-founded POW! Entertainment, where he currently serves as Chair-man and Chief Creative Of-ficer. Most recently, the com-pany partnered with Michael Eisner’s Vuguru to produce original digital content and also announced two proj-ects with 1821 Comics: Stan Lee’s Kid Universe, a part-

nership to produce content for young fans, and a graphic novel entitled Romeo and Ju-liet: The War, a reimagining of the classic tale 200 years in the future. Additionally, POW! is developing 2 live action shows and their first non-American superhero in order to provide a number of new superheroes across various platforms for a new generation of fans.

“Stan Lee is responsible for so many of the iconic characters who have shaped comic books and films for decades, and we are ex-tremely honored and thrilled that he will be attending New Orleans Comic Con next month,” said John Ma-caluso, Wizard World Board of Directors member. “Fans in Louisiana and throughout the Southeast will be excit-ed to take advantage of this unique opportunity to meet this legendary figure.”

Among the standout ce-lebrity guests also scheduled to attend New Orleans Com-ic Con are Adam Baldwin, Mary McDonnell, James Marsters, Michael Biehn, WWE® Diva Kelly Kel-ly™ and WWE® Superstar Zack Ryder™. The event, produced by Wizard World, Inc. (WIZD.PK) will bring together thousands of fans of all ages and dozens of ce-lebrities and industry profes-sionals to celebrate the best in pop-fi, pop culture, mov-ies, graphic novels, comics, toys, video gaming, televi-sion, sci-fi, gaming, original art, collectibles, contests and

more.The lineup of superstar

artists at Wizard World New Orleans Comic Con reflects much of Lee’s most popu-lar and enduring characters, including Carlos Pacheco (“X-Men,” “Green Lan-tern”), George Pérez (“Su-perman,” “JSA”), Jesus Merino (“Avengers Forev-er,” “Superman/Batman”), Félix Ruiz (“Halo: Fall Of Reach – Boot Camp,” “Marvel Zombies 5), Tyler Kirkham (“Green Lantern: New Guardians,” “Amazing Spider-Man”), Barry Kit-son (“Uncanny X-Force,” “Spider-Man”), Greg Horn (“Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark,” “X-Force”), Ber-nie Wrightson (“Batman,” “House of Mystery”), Norm Breyfogle (“Batman Beyond, “Life with Archie”) and Ar-thur Suydam (“Marvel Zom-

bies,” “Army of Darkness”) and dozens of others.

New Orleans Comic Con is the first stop on Wizard World’s 2012 North Ameri-can tour. Hours are Satur-day, January 28, 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.; and Sunday, January 29, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Tick-ets are available in advance online at http://www.wiz-ardworldcomiccon.com/neworleans.html at a savings over tickets purchased at the door. Advance adult single-day tickets are priced at $25 ($30 on site); weekend all-session tickets are $40 ($45 on site), and tickets are free for children age 10 and under when accompanied by a paid adult (limit two children per adult).

VIP packages with special entry and exclusive items are also available on a lim-ited basis.

Stan Lee to appear in New Orleans

5

By Mirkat “Aby” Yorkwww.D20girls.com

Heyo!This is D20Girl Aby from

Ohio here to be an unoffi-cial anime reviewer. Now because my ten-hour day, forty hour week, job has me sitting infront of a computer, I figured I'd use some of that time to watch movies on the Youtubes. I apologize for us-ing your precious tax dollars in such a way, but I'm mak-ing up for it now by doing something useful and pro-ductive with what I watch.

The idea came to me af-ter watching the same five videos about kittens or the same four AMVs five billion times, when I found Funi-mation's channel. I started browsing through their fairly large selection of shows and realized that I could review the anime I watch. Wouldn't that be awesome? SO! With-out further ado, I shall begin my actual review.

The first anime that I would like to review is an anime that I stumbled upon called

"Shigurui: Death Fren-zy." This twelve episode show based off the novel “Suruga-Jô Gozen” Jiai by the author Norio Nanjo and produced by Mad House, is chock full of blood, guts, in-tensly dramatic scenes and samurai. World knows I love all of those, but I especially love samurai. That was what peaked my interest in the first place. However this isn't your typical Rurouni Ken-

shin or Samurai Champloo type. This beautifully done anime is completely serious, super dark and not for the faint of heart. I wouldn't rec-ommend this to watch while at work or with children ei-ther. That's how intense it was.

The story itself is really good. It starts off as a death match between two crippled warriors, and then you're suddenly thrust back in time to before they became the way they are. It's sort of like Berserk, where the story leads you to where you start-ed and you learn why the characters are the way that they are. Great for character development. A couple of times I did get confused as they switched into another flashback of things that went on before that particular epi-sode, but other than that, it all gets rounded out. For sto-ry I give it eight rice balls.

Art wise. Oh man. I love

the art in this. It's very simi-lar to other serious serious anime, like Samurai X or Serial Experiments Lain. The style is mostly realis-tic. Rarely contorted unless it fits the moment. It's not cartoony in any way, so it's really easy to tell that this anime should be nothing but serious business. Anatomy is well done. The overall style of it, is very refreshing. I give it ten sumi-é brushes.

As for music, the style is pretty in a simple, traditional and haunting way. The open-ing credits through me for a loop because it starts off with drums and bells and sounds kind of cheerful, and then the rest of the orchestra joins in and then it's back to be-ing serious. In the episodes themselves, the music is true atmospheric music with sim-ple taiko beats occasionally. Here and there, someone plucks a couple notes out of a shamisen. Then there is a

very strange sound. I think it might be singing. It certain-ly sounds like singing, but when it starts it goes on for a good two minutes. Occasion-ally there is some chanting or perhaps it is a didridoo. Whatever the instruments used, it's very non-intrusive and fits the mode. I give the music portion of it nine tai-kos.

Overall, this anime is re-ally good. Especially if you like gore. I wouldn't suggest watching it around children or at work due to graphic scenes. Other than that, it's good. It shows the dark side of the samurai world. It's de-lightfully gruesome, and it has a good story. I give the series a full nine sakura blos-soms.

Well, that brings my first anime review to a close. I hope you get the chance to look up this piece and watch it. Until next time. Ja-ne!

Not for the faint of heart:Shigurui: Death Frenzy = 9/10 sakura blossoms

6

Icv2.com

DC Comics retained its hold on the top spots in No-vember direct market sales rankings released by Dia-mond Comic Distributors, but buoyed by aggressive marketing (including free matching copies on Point One) Marvel narrowed the market share gap during the penultimate month of 2011 (see “Comics Turn Posi-tive”).

Justice League topped the charts for the second month in a row—in fact the quar-tet of DC Comics at the top that also includes Batman #3, Action Comics #3, and Green Lantern #3 remained locked in place for the sec-ond month in a row (the first issue of the revamped Jus-tice League shipped in Au-gust or it would be a case of 3 months in a row at the top of the charts for the flagship “New 52” titles from DC).

Interestingly the top four DC titles are all non-return-able, which is not the case for about 41 of the DC titles that shipped in November. In the case of the returnable books (designated by an as-terisk), Diamond applies a return reserve of 10% against the sell-in numbers and uses that to calculate its indexes, which are how we calculate our sales estimates.

That means the numbers shown in our sales estimates for those returnable books are lower than the actual sell-in numbers, but could be higher (or lower) than the final numbers.

Marvel mounted some-

thing of a comeback in No-vember with three number one titles that made the top ten, along with the second issue of Wolverine and the X-Men. The numbers for Marvel’s top book, the $5.99 Point One were seriously in-flated after Marvel shipped retailers 100% of their initial orders as free copies. The new Spider-Man team-up book, The Avenging Spider-Man #1, which came in at #6, came polybagged with a digital code that could be used to redeem a digital copy of the book, and was aided by numerous variant covers. Marvel’s revamped (and re-numbered) Uncanny X-Men #1 also benefited from a number of cover variants.

Marvel’s dollar share was also aided by some high-priced comics. In addition to Point One, the anniver-sary issue #600 of The Fan-tastic Four carried a $7.99 price tag, and provided read-ers with 100 pages of all new FF stories (and also included the return of Johnny Storm). Marvel was also aided by two Fear Itself epilog books, Fear Itself #7.1 and Fear It-self #7.2, which both made the “Top 25.” Marvel placed 4 titles in the top ten in No-vember (versus 3 in October) and reduced DC’s share of the “Top25” from an over-whelming 19 to 6 advantage in October to a16-9 ratio in November.

DC’s original hardcov-er Batman: Noel, which brought in more than twice as many dollars in sales than any other November GN release, helped revive

the graphic novel category, which was up 12% for the month. Written and drawn by Lee Bermejo, who il-lustrated the popular Joker hardcover that came out last year, Batman: Noel is a sea-sonal saga with potent sales prospects in both the direct and bookstore markets.

With the success of The Joker hardcover and now Batman: Noel it is clear that DC has found another way to profit from its Batman fran-chise with these high quality original graphic novel hard-covers.

Dark Horse got in on the hardcover action with a new Hellboy: House of the Living Dead collection, which fin-ished second, ahead of Dy-namite Entertainment’s The Boys Vol. 9: The Big Ride, which ended up third (an-other indication that Garth Ennis’ saga remains a very popular property, especially on the GN side).

The effects of the smash-ing ratings for the late Oc-tober debut of Season 2 of The Walking Dead were manifested by the presence of three volumes of Rob-ert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead in the “Top 25” led by Volume 1 (more new readers for the 14 and counting vol-ume series), which finished at #4 for the month.

Kodansha USA’s Sailor Moon Vol. #2 was the top manga on the Diamond GN list coming in at number 8. The fact that the second vol-umes of both Sailor Moon and the prequel Codename Sailor V both made the “Top 25” testifies to the continued

potency of that property.Here are ICv2’s estimates

of the sales the “Top 25” comic titles sold through Di-amond Comic Distributors in November:

158,700 Justice League #3

150,984 Batman #3134,875 Action Com-

ics #3122,644 Green Lantern

#3113,352 Point One #1112,153 Avenging Spi-

der-Man #1109,911 Uncanny X-

Men #1100,077 Detective

Comics #3 90,417 Flash #3 83,356 Wolverine &

X-Men #2 80,143 Incredible

Hulk #2 78,240 Batman: The

Dark Knight #3 77,747 Superman #3 77,678 Batman &

Robin #3 73,809 Fantastic Four

#600 72,485 Uncanny X-

Men #2 65,621 Wonder Wom-

an #3 62,974 Batgirl #3 62,223 Aquaman #3 61,997 Batwoman #3 60,758 Teen Titans #3 60,562 Fear Itself

#7.1 59,774 Green Lantern

New Guardians #3 58,854 Green Lantern

Corps #3 58,006 Fear Itself

#7.2

‘Justice League’ tops charts in November

7

by Scott ThorneIcV2.com

If you missed it this week, Amazon, as a Christmas present to brick and mortar retailers, an-nounced it would give up to $5 in credit on any item if a customer would go into a store, scan the item using the Amazon Price Check app, then purchase the item through Ama-zon. The customer saves 5 percent of the cost of the item, up to $5, Amazon gets millions of people out there price checking for the company, and the local retailer suffers yet another attack upon their business model. Grant-ed, Amazon's promotion targets big box retailers, since both compete by selling a comparatively small selection of items at the lowest perceived pos-sible price, more than us.

The product catego-ries we sell make us es-sentially an afterthought to Amazon. Looking at the current list of top 100 toys and games sold on Amazon, only four items we sell in the store show up (Bananagrams, Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan and Apples to Apples), though if you sell Melissa and Doug items, you are in a world of hurt as it looks like half the items listed come from the Me-

lissa and Doug line. Ap-parently, some of the large chain retailers are actually undercutting Amazon on items such as DVDs and books and this is Amazon's way of fighting back.

Still the problem comes from a violation of an im-plicit agreement between customer and brick and mortar store: the store still will offer a selection of items, available for im-mediate purchase and pos-session, and answer or

attempt to answer ques-tions the customer might have about the items un-der consideration. The customer, in return, will give reasonable consid-eration to the store's of-fer and may or may not choose to purchase said item, but will not make a deal with another store while standing right in front of you. Essentially, that's what Amazon is ask-ing their customers to do: find an item in your store, get all the info they can from you, then deal with

the salesperson they brought in with them. As Gary Ray, owner of Black Diamond Games, put it on his "Quest for Fun" blog,

there is an implicit agree-ment between customer and salesperson:

Here's something I learned when I was younger. When you enter a business and engage a sales person, you have entered into a social con-tract where it is expected that both of you are acting in good faith. The sales person honestly and fac-tually attempts to assist you, while you have inten-tion to actually buy. It's alright if you're "shopping around," or not ready to buy, but the intent should be that the sales person has a chance at some time in the future.

Now, thanks to Ama-zon, we have a violation of Ray's social contract. Be-fore this, when a customer came into the store and scanned a UPC code, sure they could be checking the price, but they could also be looking for more info about the game from the manufacturer or check-ing out a review (this is a major reason we don't use QRC codes extensively in the shop. I have no desire to train our customers to look for more informa-

tion on their cell phones. If they want to know more about a game, I want them coming to the staff). Now, if I spend time with them explaining the details of a game, then they check the UPC code and don't buy, I have to wonder if I just spent the last ten min-utes working as an unpaid salesman for Amazon. Almost makes me want to put in a cell phone jammer (Don't. They are illegal in the U.S. with anyone caught manufacturing, selling, owning, or using one subject to an $11,000 fine and up to a year in jail. No one has ever yet been punished for using one, primarily because, according to the FCC, "no one has complained").

Rolling for Initiative is a weekly column on IcV2.com by Scott Thorne, PhD, owner of Castle Perilous Games & Books in Carbondale, Illinois and instructor in market-ing at Southeast Missouri State University. This week, Thorne looks at the Amazon price check app and its “attack” on stores’ business model.

Thanks A lot Amazon!

8

NERD NEWSPathfinder MMO

plannedPaizo has licensed the

Pathfinder MMORPG rights to Goblinworks, a new company formed for the purpose. In Pathfinder Online, players will take the roles of any of Path-finder’s character classes, or go beyond standard op-tions to create other char-acters. The company is promising to solicit much player input during the development of the game, much as Paizo did during the development of the tabletop Pathfinder RPG.

GenCon to remain in IndianapolisGen Con will remain

in the city of Indianapo-lis through the end of the decade, the company an-nounced earlier this month. The agreement with the Indianapolis Conven-tion & Visitors Associa-tion will keep the nation’s largest hobby game show at the Indiana Convention Center through 2020.

Comic sales turn positive

Comics and graphic novel sales in comic stores turned positive for the year to date in November, ac-cording to information re-leased by Diamond Comic Distributors today. The total comics and graphics

novel market for the first 11 months of the year was up 1.87 percent over the first 11 months of 2010. If this trend continues, 2011 will be the first up year for comic sales in the direct market since 2007.

November was an ex-ceptionally strong month, showing 19.44% growth vs. the year ago period. Comics were up 23% and graphic novels up 12%. We took a look back to see whether November 2010 was an unusually weak month and it was about the same size as October, so the increase looks le-git.

Toy Vault to release new board gameToy and game manu-

facturer Toy Vault will be publishing a new mech-fighting board game de-signed by Richard Borg. The new game, entitled Abaddon, is expected to release in 2012.

The game is set on the planet Abaddon, a desolate wasteland that produces “Feronium.” Two factions fight for control of the re-source using mechanized suits called “Links.”

Battles take place on a 28” by 19” game board using 32 detailed minia-tures and 18 free-standing landscape features. The game system utilizes a

deck of 100 cards repre-senting offensive and de-fensive weapon systems and special battle dice. Unpredictable and ran-dom events and malfunc-tions are resolved through the use of special “Wild Fire” cards. 15 mission scenarios are included.

Abaddon is designed for two to four players.

Del Toro off Star Trek 2

Although the various reports linking Benicio Del Toro to Star Trek 2 were all careful to note that negotiations were ongoing, the fact that the initial reports came out over a month ago, with shooting to begin early next year, led most to be-lieve that his involvement was a done deal. But that was not to be. A dispute over financial issues led to a breakdown in the talks, according to Vulture, and Del Toro will not appear in Star Trek 2.

‘The Big Bang Theory’ trading

cardsCryptozoic Entertain-

ment will release The Big Bang Theory Trading Cards in February. Se-ries stars Kathy Cuoco, Johnny Galecki, Simon Helberg, Kunal Nayyar, and Jim Parsons will all

sign cards. Additional au-tograph cards and ward-robe cards will also be an-nounced.

The basic configura-tion is five card packs for $3.50, and 24-pack boxes.

Cryptozoic Entertain-ment has also released Ba-zinga!, a party game based on The Big Bang Theory.

Peckham to write ‘Twilight Zone’ Sreenwriter Tony Peck-

ham (The Book of Eli, Sherlock Holmes, Invic-tus) is in negotiations with Warner Bros. and Leon-ardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way Productions to pen a rewrite of Jason Roth-enburg’s script for a new Twilight Zone film that Warners sees as a major tentpole.

According to Variety, the new Twilight Zone movie will be a single narrative “with elements from the Twilight Zone universe,” and not an an-thology film like the 1983 Twilight Zone movie, which included four sepa-rate stories.

Created by Rod Serling the original Twilight Zone TV series remains one of the highpoints for science fiction on the small screen. It spawned a number of comic books and a series of graphic novels from Walker Books in 200

10

There are few things as exciting to me as a new con. So, it was with great regret that I was forced to miss last year’s Amaz-ing Arizona Comic-Con (AACC). That being said, I won’t make that mistake again and am excitedly counting down the days to this year’s AACC January 6th-8th in Mesa, AZ. In anticipation of this upcom-ing show, I had the plea-sure of interviewing one of the masterminds behind the show, Jimmy Jay of Jay Company Comics and Amazing Arizona Comic-Con. Please read on for some of the exciting details of this show:

First off, what is the his-tory of this show? How did the idea come to reality and what was the process?

“History of the Show. Hmm this sounds quite lofty, and I don’t know if we approached the start of the convention as idealists per se, rather than being a product of necessity.

AMAZING COMIC

CON’s parent company is JayCompanyComics.com. This is the retail business I started with my family about 17+ years ago. My brother Bill and my mom-until her passing- and I established the largest con-vention dealership of new/modern books on the comic con circuit.

It became apparent that there was a gaping hole in the convention calendar and my brother and I wanted to fill it. The Phoenix Comic Con prior to this wanted to move their venture out of the Mesa Convention Cen-ter, and out of the weather friendly January time slot to compete with the other summer comic conven-tions.

Our decision to promote and organize a show was very solution based-

We knew there were number of vendors that were abandoned which count on the Q1 cash flow, and a number of fans that got shut out from the shuf-fle. Of course you can guess

that the Phoenix area is gorgeous in the winter time and a bit more appealing here rather than the scorch-ing summer months.

Add to this, JayCompa-ny over the years has found that Arizona has one of the most knowledgeable fan bases and customer bases of any city in the country. We have been retailing at special events since the mid 90s with the CHAOS Fan Fests and other shows, so we felt very comfortable in this market. There’s a huge base of indie creators in this city as well, which further reinforced our instincts for the start up.”

What are some things you are most proud of about your show? What makes Amazing Arizona Comic-Con a must experience for a con-goer?

“The AMAZING ARI-ZONA COMIC CON is the annual kick off event for the Comic Con circuit. If the San Diego Comic Con is the “Super Bowl”, then the Amazing Arizona Comic Con is an exciting “week 1”!

The AMAZING ARI-ZONA COMIC CON has much more going for it than it’s time slot though. We are committed to bring-ing an extremely relevant guest list to the fan com-munity. Instead of trying to focus on genre celebrities

from yesteryear like many other regional shows, we want to bring the focus back to comic books and the creators. Comic Books, and comic creators at a comic con? In this day and age, this seems like a novel concept?!

The Guest List for this year’s convention is sec-ond to none. The most topi-cal movements in comics have been The WALK-ING DEAD setting rat-ings records on TV and the New DC52. Therefore we brought Walking Dead cre-ator ROBERT KIRKMAN to headline the AMAZING ARIZONA COMIC CON. Joining Kirkman will be Batman Artist GREG CAPULLO- which was the #1 top ranking book for the September DC Re-launch, along with a ton of DC52 Creators. We added Deadpool/X-Force/Cable creator ROB LIEFELD. Aspen Comics’ JOE BEN-ITEZ is returning to the show, and we will be bring-ing on the Bad Girls with many of the ZENESCOPE Creators and more.

The best thing about at-tending the AMAZING ARIZONA COMIC CON is the personal one-on-one interaction between the fans and pros. Unlike the monstrous national shows, the AMAZING ARIZONA COMIC CON offers an in-

TALKING AMAZING ARIZONA

11

timate setting where you can actually ask questions, chat, take pictures with your favorite creators and personalities rather than having a factory signing environment. The panels and programming reinforce this as well.”

I’d imagine the last few weeks have begun a very busy time leading up to the show. What are some of the things that you are most excited for this year? What are you looking most for-ward to?

“We’re very excited for the 2012 AMAZING ARI-ZONA COMIC CON. The real buzz starts at the pre-show Drink & Draw mixer happening December 8th at the Tilted Kilt in Mesa, where exhibitors, pros, and fans come together and hang out with us before the hustle and bustle of the hol-idays and the show itself.

While we will be doing a ton of press and PR for the con through the month of December we’re anxious for the event itself though. We have some great pro-gramming coming together that marks the event much more than just a collector’s marketplace- although that is available too!

The AMAZING ARI-ZONA COMIC CON is the perfect kick off event for the 2012 Comic Con-vention Season.”

There are many avid

comic fans that live in Southern California that might not have made the drive out to last year’s show. What are some things you’d like that audience to know that you think will make them jump in the car and make the drive for the weekend?

“The Phoenix to SoCal connection is much closer than people realize. We have been coming to the Arizona marketplace since the 90s. It’s an inexpen-sive, quick flight; or a per-fect road trip of about 5-6 hours with a couple of your friends. As far as the appeal for the fans- the interactiv-ity with the caliber of com-ic talent is second to none. We are bringing the top names in comic talent such as Robert Kirkman, Greg Capullo, Rob Liefeld, John Layman, and more without the frenzy and crowds of SDCC. At the AMAZING ARIZONA COMIC CON, we’re all fans enjoying our industry together.”

In addition to the suc-cesses you’ve experienced with the Arizona show, I’ve heard that there is an expan-sion planned to also have a show in Orange County. Is this more than just a rumor? If so, what are some details that you can share with us?

“With the move of Won-derCon to Southern Cali-fornia, we took the previ-ously announced Orange County Comic Con off the 2012 schedule.

We are, however, pro-moting the Image Comic Expo February 24-25-26 at the Oakland Convention Center. This is a celebra-tion of the 20th anniver-sary of Image Comics, and looks ahead to the future of creator-owned comics.

The guest list is growing each day, and we should talk more in-depth about this event in its own space. Already we have Todd McFarlane and all the Im-age Founders & partners, along with Joe Casey, BK Vaughan, and more.”

Is there anything else that you would like to share with our readers about the show or your company?

“Our start in the industry had Comic-Con at its very center. I remember going to my very first San Diego back in 1986 as a 13 year old kid with my mom walk-ing me to the door. I met the likes of Jack Kirby and Mo-bius, that year, along with Erik Larsen who sat behind a rag tag DC booth, and a teenage Rob Liefeld who breezed by a Malibu fan table. I was clearly bitten

by the Comic Con bug, and it never left. While working in the industry for nearly 2 decades, I’m thrilled about our company’s evolution into convention promotion. I hope to bring the same thrill to each and every per-son walking through our doors, spending the week-end with us.”

Huge gratitude goes out to Jimmy Jay for all of this information! Although, ex-cited about the show prior to this interview, I’m even more pumped now. Having just made the drive from Riverside, CA to Phoenix, AZ for this year’s Phoe-nix Comicon, I was very pleased with the short trip. If you are coming from the LA/Inland Empire/OC area, the drive is slightly more than a trip to Vegas and well worth it. So, make sure to add tickets to AACC to your gift list ASAP and send those loved ones that buy for you this link to buy them today: http://amazingarizonacomiccon.com. What could be a bet-ter way to bring in a new year of geek fun than at the first con of the year? If you can’t make it to AACC, make sure to follow me on Twitter (@The_Con_Flu-ence) for updates on all of the fun!

COMIC CON WITH JIMMY JAY