NCSFest a Success!

The inaugural NCSFest was a rousing success! Loaded with stellar programming and with a booming Main Street Marketplace, we had fantastic crowds and a lot of fun. If there was any downside, it was just that there was so MANY panels and speakers happening simultaneously at the Big Tent, the Huntington Beach Arts Center, the Library and the premium events at the Hyatt, it was tough to choose what to go and see and some of the programs had small crowds as a result.

I know some people who nay-sayed this Festival as just another comic-con in the middle of where two of the biggest cons in the world takes place. Anyone who attended the event now knows what we had been trying to explain all along, this is NOT a comic-con. This is much more of a celebration of the comic arts, with a totally different vibe and with a greater connection to the community it took place in and to regular (i.e. not comic book super-fans to frequent comic-cons) people who just got exposed to great comics and content they had no idea existed. I’m betting at least 100 people who stopped by my booth are going to be looking for the next issue of MAD Magazine when it comes out, knowing it’s still out there and having seen what it’s all about these days.

Kudos to all the people who worked so hard to put this on. I hope this becomes and annual event. It will only have bigger crowds next year now that people know what it’s all about.