Wizard World East draws larger than expected crowd
Second year show deemed huge success by all involved

Congers, NY (June 9, 2003) After all the dust settled at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in downtown Philadelphia, PA, Wizard World East is pleased to announce that attendance was 21,000 paid and promotional attendees, up from last year’s inaugural event’s attendance of 16,000. The show also boasted 120 retailers, 45 exhibitors and more than 115 artists and industry professionals.

“After just 2 years of running Wizard World East in Philly, the show has taken off and become such an amazing and cool place to go,” says Gareb Shamus, Chairman and CEO, Wizard Conventions, Inc. “It was great to see all the smiles on the faces of the fans, publishers, manufacturers, dealers and creators. Everyone at Wizard had a really fun time putting the show on (and are exhausted) and look forward to next year's extravaganza.”

The exhibitors’ community has also been impressed with the speed at which Wizard World East has become a vital force on the show circuit.

"For years the east coast needed a major comics convention and in just two years Wizard has successfully filled that need, adding Wizard World East to the roster of the year's most important and best-run shows,” says Bill Jemas, Marvel Entertainment’s COO and President. "With strong support from the creative community and a terrific turnout by enthusiastic fans already excited by X2 and chomping at the bit for the HULK, Wizard World East stood out as a benchmark celebration in this most important year for the comics' industry."

One of the most consistent themes throughout the event was the enthusiasm and the excitement of the fans at this show, from the panel discussions to the signings sessions on the floor, to the casual conversations that sprung up all over the city as fans of comics, toys, gaming, anime, and manga got together to share their love of all things pop-culture.

“The fans in Philly were incredible; even though I was on the tail end of a two week promotional road trip, their enthusiasm and passion for Batman: Hush powered me on through the busy weekend and got me jumping to hit Chicago,” says Wildstorm Editorial Director Jim Lee.
Jim Lee will be the guest of honor when Wizard World Chicago returns to the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, now entering its 7th year, on August 8-10, 2003. Last year’s 2002 expo was another record year for Wizard World Chicago, with over 40,000 people attending the country’s largest three-day pop culture extravaganza.

Another major factor contributing to the overall success of Wizard World East show this year was the strength and the importance of gaming at the show, which was evidenced by the geographic diversity that the gaming companies saw from the players. “We had over 300 people play in the MechWarrior National Championship, with players from coast-to-coast and even coming from Hawaii, says Martin Stever, Executive Vice President, WizKids, LLC. “We also had over 170 WizKids Envoys visit us at Wizard World, coming from 31 states, 4 countries, and Puerto Rico.”

Following after Wizard World Chicago and just in time for holiday buying season, the newest addition to the Wizard World family is Wizard World Texas, which will premier at the Arlington Convention Center November 21-23, 2003. The show will promise many of the usual Wizard World highlights as well as a host of special guests, all wrapped up with a special twist for Texas.

Wizard World East, Wizard World Chicago and Wizard World Texas are produced by Wizard Conventions Inc. Wizard Conventions is a sister company of Wizard Entertainment Group, an industry leader in the collectibles market that publishes four magazines, Wizard: The Comics Magazine, InQuest Gamer: The Gaming Magazine, ToyFare: The Toy Magazine and Anime Insider: The Japanese Animation Magazine. Wizard’s publications have a monthly national readership of more than 2 million and are currently sold in 25 countries and five languages.