Swooping down to a city near you

FIVE years ago, comic book artist Frank Miller held up a copy of Wizard magazine and tore it in half during a speech at an award show. He called it a “monthly vulgarity [that] reinforces all the prejudices people hold about comics.”

And though Miller eventually made peace with the magazine -- even appearing as a guest of honor at the magazine’s Chicago convention last year to promote his “Sin City” film and a Batman comic -- the incident illustrates the passion that the magazine can spark, hate it or love it.

One thing appears certain, though: The Wizard World Los Angeles comic book convention, an offshoot of the magazine, has been growing by leaps and bounds. And borrowing a page from the Angels baseball team, Wizard World Los Angeles has in fact called Long Beach home for its first two years. This year’s three-day show, however, is coming to the Los Angeles Convention Center beginning Friday.

The show, which moves into L.A. just as the high-concept exhibition “Masters of American Comics” moves out of the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Hammer Museum, is a meld of comics, toys, video games and pop culture paraphernalia. It is also the brainchild of Wizard Group Entertainment Chairman Gareb Shamus, who not surprisingly also oversees a cluster of niche publications that includes InQuest Gamer, ToyFare, Anime Insider and his flagship title, Wizard: The Comics Magazine.

According to Shamus, the move to the larger space in downtown Los Angeles was prompted in part by last year’s 20% increase in fan attendance, to almost 25,000 over the three days.

“We wanted to establish the show on the West Coast before going into the heart of L.A. in a big way,” says the 37-year-old Shamus from his Manhattan office. “Once we were able to do that, we needed a lot more space than the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center offered.”

The move also puts the event closer to the movie studios and actors who attend the show as part of panels and to sign autographs, setting it apart from Wizard’s other conventions in Chicago, Philadelphia and Dallas.

Last year, the Southern California convention previewed more than a dozen movies, highlighted by the appearance of Marvel Studios Chairman and Chief Executive Avi Arad, “Fantastic Four” actor Chris Evans and “Serenity” writer-director Joss Whedon.

This time, “Clerks II” writer-director Kevin Smith and Margot Kidder from “Superman” are slated to appear with actors from “Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace,” “Angel” and “Firefly.”

At its core, however, Wizard World is a comic book show. And although the mother of all comic book conventions, Comic-Con International, is held each summer 130 miles to the south in San Diego, Angelenos have been hankering for a major comic book convention to call their own, says artist Rob Liefeld, a guest at this year’s Wizard World show along with the likes of Batman and Superman artist Jim Lee, cover artist Adam Hughes and Catwoman artist Tim Sale.

“There hasn’t been a big, grab-your-attention, dominant comic book show in Los Angeles in at least 10 years,” says Liefeld, who grew up a comic book fan in Southern California and most recently worked as an artist on the “Teen Titans” for DC Comics and on “X-Force” for Marvel Comics. “The first two years ... the activity on the floor was great, and now that the show is in L.A., the expectations are even larger.”

Mounting a major comic book show in a major metropolis is no easy feat, however, as the organizers at the inaugural New York Comic-Con learned last month. They underestimated attendance and were forced to turn away hundreds of angry fans who held prepaid tickets.

“It was a debacle in that a lot of people couldn’t get in, but a lot of people showed up for it, which is encouraging since it was just their first show,” Shamus says. “Fortunately for us, we have a lot experience with our own events.”

That said, Wizard World’s expansion plans have been dealt a couple of setbacks in recent months. Earlier this year, the company canceled its Boston show after just one year, citing “outside costs” as the reason. (Its 8,800 in attendance also lagged far behind Wizard’s other conventions.) And fans and comic book professionals alike protested what one critic called “Wal-Mart-style business practices” when Wizard tentatively scheduled a 2006 Atlanta show opposite the well-established Heroes Con in Charlotte, N.C. In response to the outcry, the show was shelved, but plans are in the works to bring the show to Atlanta in 2007 and 2008.

IN addition, Wizard has taken its share of slings and arrows for catering primarily to the “scantily clad women with big breasts” and “men on steroids in tights” crowd.

“I guess the Wizard shows are fine if you like new comics, but I’m more a fan of old comics, and to me the Wizard shows are a lot like the magazine: They pay a lot of attention to what’s new and what’s hot,” says Bill Morrison, creative director at Bongo Comics, which publishes the Simpsons comic books. “Because we do humor comics, and despite the fact that ‘The Simpsons’ are huge, Wizard is not interested in our products and doesn’t do articles about us,” he adds.

Despite the lack of attention from the magazine, Bongo Comics has appeared at Wizard World L.A. as a guest of exhibitor Golden Apple Comics. “Though most of the people are there for the superheroes, there are plenty of people who come by the booth and who are happy that somebody who has to do with ‘The Simpsons’ is there,” Morrison says.

Wizard Chairman Shamus makes no apologies for the content of the magazine and responds to criticisms by noting that superhero-focused Marvel, DC and Image comics account for the bulk of comic book sales.

“Consumers are voting with their dollars, so we need to focus on how we can appeal to the most people possible,” he says.

Though there’s not much of a chance you’ll see Chris Ware (“Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth”) or Art Spiegelman (“Maus”) on the guest list anytime soon, Liefeld says the convention’s focus on the superhero genre lets him and like-minded artists bond with their particular audience.

“In contrast to San Diego, where the comic industry sometimes feels dwarfed by the sheer size of the show,” he says, “Wizard World Los Angeles is a great place for people to [just] talk about comics.”

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Wizard World Los Angeles

Where: Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 S. Figueroa St., L.A.

When: 1 to 7 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday

Price: $25 for a single-day ticket; $45 for a three-day ticket

Info: www.wizarduniverse.com/conventions/la.cfm