Baltimore Comic Con 2025- Day Two
The Baltimore Comic-Con is a comic book-centric fan convention held in the fall of every year since 2000. The show is a creators’ favorite and features marquee writers and artists both past and present, a handful of media guests, publishers, and hundreds of vendor booths offering genre-related items including new and back-issue comic books, pop culture collectibles, toys, original art, and so much more.
Day Two (Saturday) is typically the busiest day of any large Con, and this was no exception, with aisles filled (though not uncomfortably) and plenty of costumed fans walking around. Signing lines for Chris Claremont and Walt and Louise Simonson (comics’ nicest couple?) were long and active all weekend, more so on this day.
Weather outside was outstanding for the show weekend, and the usually busy downtown streets were cordoned off for the morning, in order to make way for the Baltimore Running Festival, which featured marathons of all lengths, and draw a heavy outdoor crowd.
While bigger shows like New York Comic Con typically have a set weekend reserved annually, smaller shows like Baltimore change dates, based on venue availability, and take into account other events, sporting schedules, and more. This year, the show fell on the following weekend after NYCC, so some of its thunder was taken, and dealers were tired but generally happy with show sales.
Most comic news announcements come out of the bigger shows (NYC, San Diego) so there was no news to break, with the show feeling more like a friendly neighborhood gathering and swap meet with extended family and friends that had the same comic and pop culture interests.
Artist Alley was busy with indie talent selling their wares, and the CGC booth stayed busy with fans and dealers running books over to be appraised and slabbed with a universal condition grade.
===
Bad Idea Comics writer Robert Venditti (Planet Death, Survive, and the upcoming Ordained), along with Bad Idea staff Dinesh Shamdasani, Peter Stern, and Siena Fallon, brought a look at their biggest slate of titles to date, including, Cul De-Sac, Habitat, Warbird, and more. The company continues with their stunts of limited chromium covers, a stake-through-the-slab version of Cul De-Sac, and other variants, to mixed reviews.
Jim Shooter, writer of Legion of Super-Heroes, Editor-in-Chief at Marvel Comics, and founder of Valiant, Defiant, and Broadway Comics. passed away recently and colleagues Louise Simonson (New Mutants, Star Wars), Walter Simonson (The Mighty Thor, Ragnarok), and Al Milgrom (West Coast Avengers, X-Factor), celebrated his life, with moderator Mike Gold.
Mike Grell is a writer/artist whose creations include The Warlord, Starslayer, Jon Sable, Freelance, and more. He has enjoyed successful runs on Superboy and the Legion of Super Heroes, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, the Tarzan Sunday comic strip, James Bond, and others and gave insight into his uniquely cinematic style of storytelling, alongside Mike Gold.
Howard Chaykin, the acclaimed writer/artist of American Flagg!, Time2, Black Kiss, and so many other projects, returned to give his unexpurgated opinions, passionate viewpoints, and stories behind the page, from his many decades in the business.
As the writer of comics including Batman, Human Target, Wonder Woman, Helen of Wyndhorn, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, and many others, ex-CIA officer Tom King has won Ringo and Eisner Awards and explained how he approaches his projects, and what’s coming next.
Longtime writer James Robinson (Starman, Leave It to Chance, Fantastic Four) still has a strong loyal following and is always entertaining to hear speak as he spoke about his career in comics and in Hollywood.
The often-stunning original art created for this year’s Baltimore Comic-Con Yearbook was auctioned at this special event and there were many deals to be found by creators drawing their version of characters from Jeff Smith‘s Bone. 
Paul Pope is a best-selling cartoonist whose award-winning works include Batman: Year 100, Battling Boy, The One-Trick Ripoff, THB, and more. He appeared in conversation with award-winning colorist and editor José Villarrubia.
Giancarlo Esposito is best known for his iconic portrayal of drug kingpin Gustavo “Gus” Fring in the series, Breaking Bad, a role he continued in Better Call Saul. He also memorably appeared in Captain America: Brave New World, The Mandalorian, The Boys, and many others and regaled the large crowd with stories from many of those starring roles. 
The three members of the big screen’s Weasley family from the Harry Potter films, Bonnie Wright (Ginny), James Phelps (Fred), and Oliver Phelps (George), appeared together, tackling of course, all things Potter (including the recent baking show) and how the legacy of the films has been over the last two decades.
National / International concert or pop culture event coming through the Midwest / Kansas City area? Please email details to johnc@weheartmusic.com with a good lead time to be considered for Show Preview and Show Coverage consideration.
