The Shortboxed Team along with Kihei Comics hosted the first ever, independently produced, Preview Night for Cal Comic Con, the best comics-only comic con in the country.
So what exactly was Preview Night? Well, it’s a little challenging to describe. On the outside, it looks like a bunch of comic book nerds trading and buying comics at a bar. But it was much more than that – we held it at an awesome craft brewery called Stereo Brewing, and instead of regular old common comics, it had some of the rarest and most sought after Golden Age comic books in the hobby. And instead of comic book nerds…well we’re still comic book nerds, but it attracted some of the biggest collectors in the hobby. Oh yeah, and there was also an open bar and food graciously sponsored by legendary Brian Ketterer, or better known as Foolkiller on the CGC boards.
Golden Age Goodies
To be honest, the entire event caught us by surprise. Both the quality of the comic books that attendees brought and the quantity of high end collectors was insane. Crazy deals and trades happen all the time, but most of the time they’re private deals behind closed doors. Here at Shortboxed we wanted to throw an event for the common collectors, a place that would be inviting to everyone.
We love collecting all genres of comic books, but our personal collections mostly consist of rare Golden Age comic books. While promoting the event we never asked anyone to bring anything crazy – they just did, surely trying to one-up each other.
Preview Night was not a traditional comic con. It was simply a safe place for comic book collectors (and dealers) to trade or buy comics from each other, completely free and open to anyone. Each attendee was asked to bring no more than 2 short boxes of comic books, and that may not seem like much, but that forced them to bring their best books to sell or trade. Collectors from all over the United States and Canada coalesced into a packed brewery to buy, sell and trade with each other.
Cal Comic Con
This couldn’t have been done without legendary dealer, Terry O’Neil, and his famous Cal Comic Con. All these collectors flew in for that main event. We’re just happy we were able to help bring the collecting community together. As a collector, I believe we need more of these events to keep the hobby healthy and fun!
The Communities That Bind Us
The CGC Boards are still the de facto forum for comic book collectors, but a little app called Instagram has created a new way to interact with comic book collectors. The simplicity of the photo-sharing app allows users to casually browse, chat and show off their collection. More than 60% of the Preview Night attendees are part of the Instagram, and the event could not have been possible without the #igcomicfamily being so involved.
The power of the comic book collecting community really shined through Preview Night, with word of the event spreading like wildfire through the CGC boards and Instagram – so thank you to everyone who posted, shared or attended the event! We hope you had as much fun as we did.
See you next year!
