Returning to Fan Expo Boston reminded me why comic conventions endure: A field report - Burning Topics - Hot News - Real Issues

This past weekend was the annual Fan Expo Boston convention, otherwise known to my fellow aging millennials as “Boston Comic Con”. What was once an annual pilgrimage for me during my time working in the comic retail mines has become something of a more sparse affair, thanks to a new job, scheduling, and that whole pesky pandemic that occurred in 2020. But some of my favorite nerd memories are from this show: driving a massive van onto the World Trade Center show floor, seeing Arrow‘s Manu Bennet do a draw-off with Phil Noto, and hearing famous nerd characters and places described in the thickest Boston Accents imaginable (you haven’t lived until you’ve heard the North Shore version of “Petyr Baelish”). Boston Comic Con, Fan Expo branding or not, has a soft spot in my heart, even though it has changed a LOT in the few years since I last attended.

The last time I attended Fan Expo as a retailer was in the mid 2010’s, and the last time I went as a civilian was in the far off year of 2019, when I made the trek on my own to meet Todd McFarlane, only to find out that the Toddfather had to reschedule to the next day and I missed the announcement cause I went too early that night. As a lifelong Spider-Man fan, missing out on my favorite Spidey artist was so heartbreaking that I almost swore off conventions altogether after that, but time (and a press pass thanks to AIPT) heals all wounds.

After getting up earlier than usual on a Saturday and getting my exercise in (which would come back to bite me later), I made the trip down to Boston and, after a hilariously typical GPS snafu with parking, finally arrived at the Thomas M. Menino Convention Center. It’s a far cry from the old space that used to house Boston Comic Con, the Boston World Trade Center, yet the fact that it’s only a few blocks away from its former home is honestly one of those weird quirks that only a city like Boston could have.

Fan Expo Boston 2026 Crowd

After arriving at the convention center and grabbing my press badge, I made my way to the main convention hall for my first pass through the crowd. Or at least, I tried to, as the main exhibition area was already near capacity at just 11 am. The pathway to get your badges was… elaborate, to say the least, as you had to walk from one end of the convention center to the midway point of the building, down a set of escalators where you’d get your badge set up, then backtrack to get your badge scanned for entrance back where you started.

It was a confusing process that involved a lot of awkward participants, but the staff working the event were at least nice about assisting the many baffled patrons.

Fan Expo Boston 2026 Artist Alleyways and Backways

After finding the location of the comic creator panel area (see my breakdown of the Green Lantern Panel with Jeremy Adams and Morgan Hampton), I attempted to make my way along the artist alley, which was conveniently up against a side wall on the left of the hall. This layout made for a pretty easy-to-navigate area for the many creators that Fan Expo had lined up for this year. While it was never a slouch during the Boston Comic Con heyday of my (relative) youth, this year was a murder’s row of talent, featuring such creators as Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow writer Tom King, Mister Miracle artist (and frequent King collaborator) Mitch Gerads, Absolute Wonder Woman artist Hayden Sherman, Batman/Superman: World’s Finest artist Dan Mora, Invincible artist Ryan Ottley, Absolute Superman writer Jason Aaron, and Batman: The Animated Series writer/producer Paul Dini.

Yes, one of the star creative minds of Batman: The Animated Series was in attendance, and since he was one of my “I will go to a convention for this ONE PERSON” creatives, he was my first choice, and while I may be a little biased, his setup was arguably the best of the bunch. With two long tables full of his comic work, animation cells, and even prints of title cards of his Batman episodes, Dini’s booth was heaven for this longtime Batfan, and the placement of his fellow B: TAS coworkers like Kevin Altieri and Alan Burnett right next to him made it very quick and easy for me to get some prized signatures on the booklet from my DVD series collection.

While I’m sure they had heard the “you were my childhood” saying for the hundredth time by the time I got to them, you could tell that they were just as touched as when they heard it the first time. Dini was even surprised when I asked to get Detective Comics #826 signed, saying it wasn’t one people usually give him but that he loved writing that issue.

What surprised me most about the comic guests wasn’t the roster, however. It was their popularity. Or should I say, lack of popularity for some of them. Hayden Sherman practically had no line at all throughout my time there, despite one in three people in the crowd holding signed issues of Absolute Wonder Woman. Same for Tom King and Mitch Gerads, who at least were happy to see AIPT represented. Dan Mora, though, had quite the wait, with the line of us hidden behind a curtain to not cause a traffic jam, and Ryan Ottley’s line never made enough progress for me to dare wait in line.

Returning to Fan Expo Boston reminded me why comic conventions endure: A field report

The Stars Come Out To Fan Expo Boston 2026…..or Don’t

Of course, the big draw for any convention is the celebrity guests, and Fan Expo Boston had plenty of big names to draw a crowd. Chris Evans! Karl Urban! Elijah Wood! Sean Astin! William Shatner! And…Mel Gibson, who had a massive line but was curtained off from the regular crowd of people (maybe the right call to make given…well, you know). But what surprised me the most about the celebrity area was that for how packed it was with people wanting to get autographs and photos, the actual celebrities there at the con at 1:30 pm on a Saturday were pretty sparse. Sure, there are panels and special photo op sessions throughout the day, but a lot of that area was surprisingly barren for someone like me with a press pass and desire to snap candids of celebs to send to random friends and family (my dad was bummed I missed the Smallville guys). I did get a quick candid of Karl Urban and a fan, and was stunned at how handsome he was a hundred feet away.

Excuse me, Your Tentacle Is In The Way

While I love the chance to connect with comic creators and awkwardly try to talk to celebrities, my favorite part of any convention is the cosplay, and in that regard Fan Expo Boston did not disappoint. While the crowds made it hard for some to navigate, the sheer creativity I saw on display was truly jaw-dropping.

There was a stunning Venom that had not only bendable symbiote tentacles, but a full-sized Spider-Man dummy that he’d slap around on the floor for photos.

Master Chief and Cortana roamed the halls and graciously allowed me to take a picture of them in the entrance to the floor right as they were trying to walk in. And the daywalker himself, Blade, was outside texting his friends.

Conventions are where people get to showcase their creativity and love of the fictional worlds we turn to for comfort and an escape, and the variety of costumes I saw this year was really cool. The far and away winner of the con, though? Rogue. I think I saw more Rogues than any other character, and they all had really awesome and unique takes on the X-Men’s Southern Belle. Move over Harley, a new cosplay queen is in town, sugah.

Fan Expo Boston 2026 Cosplay-Master Chief and Cortana

Cash is King

One aspect of the convention that I embarrassingly underestimated was the sheer amount of money I’d be spending. Being as experienced as I am with the convention circuit, I had my budgeted allowance of cash on hand for the occasional print or exclusive variant cover, but what I wasn’t anticipating in the seven years since I had attended Fan Expo Boston was the fact that everyone was charging for signatures. While the prices weren’t astronomical (they ranged from $10-$15 for the basic signature, with the rate increasing if you were getting something graded or sketched on), I was a little stunned, as in the past only the biggest names in comics would charge in order to keep their lines down. But no one else was bothered by this.

As the day went on, I came to the realization that the money I was giving to these creators was going to them directly, something I can’t say is fully true when you purchase their books from your favorite retailer or online. Not only that, but with DC’s Absolute titles and Image’s Energon series exploding on the reseller market, I can understand creators wanting to make sure that they weren’t just churning out signatures on books for someone to fill their eBay inventory with. It’s an unfortunate but understandable aspect of being a comic fan that meant I had to be a little more choosy in what I got signed by whom, which in the end made what I DID choose more important to me than just getting a stack of World’s Finest issues signed and calling it a day. Paying ten bucks to a creator that I like, that ensures they get to keep making things that I want to read? That’s worth it to me. That being said, the fact that I had almost blown through my allotted cash after a few artists’ tables definitely made me make a mental note for next year to bring more than I intended to, just in case.

‘Nuff Said

By the early afternoon, the sheer volume of things I had packed into the hours I was at the show started to wear on me, and with my phone full of pictures and the desire for more caffeine taking hold, I regretfully had to call it a day. This meant maneuvering through the seemingly endless sea of retailer booths, of which I regretfully didn’t have much time or money left to check out. As someone who used to be on the other side of those booths, I did have a pang of sympathy for them as they watched a sea of “just looking” eyes wander past. From that angle, it’s a wonder to me that there are still retailers operating these giant cons, but one thing that did stick out was that the few booths actually selling comics were fairly busy. It’s almost like the very thing that started these conventions is picking up steam again, before the costumes and the celebrities and the big expos took over and started to jump in with photo packages and multi-day “Breakfast with the Hobbits” passes.

But even with that gaping maw of commercialism at its center, these cons serve an important purpose in the nerd community. It can be lonely being a comic book fan. Sure, that’s a wild thing to say when a Spider-Man movie just hit a billion dollars again, but at times it feels like our fandoms are more splintered than ever. But at a convention, none of that matters. All that matters is what you connect with, and conventions are places that, for all the money they generate and ask for, give people of all walks of life a way to express themselves and their love of the medium they choose.

As I left the convention center, my feet sore and my back aching from carrying too many comics and hardcovers (something I will never learn, apparently), I was filled with something I haven’t had in some time as a comic fan: unity.

Being in a line of people who are all gushing over Dan Mora, hearing others coordinate schedules to maximize time with creators, seeing families dressed as variations on Wolverine and Deadpool, it all melded into one thing: being a fan. Sure, an event like Fan Expo Boston is designed to gobble up said fans’ hard-earned money because of their love of these characters and stories, but it’s also giving us a place where we can celebrate these characters and thank the people who brought them to life, who give us a much-needed escape from the increasingly insane world we are living in. It’s a place to come together and be too hot, wait in lines that are too long, and try to fit as much into as few sentences as you can about the importance of a work to the people who created it.

And I honestly wouldn’t have it any other way (except with maybe a hundred fewer people).

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