KANSAS CITY, MO — You've likely seen the ads for Planet Comicon Kansas City, which kicks off Friday at Bartle Hall.
But you may not know that it's grown to be one of the biggest shows like this in the country, with more than 75 thousand people expected to visit. Like so many great things, it has some pretty humble beginnings.
I talked to the two men who started it back in the late 1990s about the growth of this show, and I spoke to an Academy Award-Winning actress making her first trip to Kansas City this weekend.
Show founder Chris Jackson is, first and foremost, a comic book guy.
"I saw a need for a comic book show," he told me, as he showed off some of his most valuable comics.
In 1999, the first Planet Comicon Kansas City was held in Overland Park.
"Our first show was very small, it was in about a 20,000 square foot space, it was maybe 1200 attendants,” Jackson told me. “And our first guest at our very first show was Kenny Baker."
If you don't know, the late Kenny Baker was the actor inside the R2-D2 robot in the original Star Wars trilogy.
William Binderup owns Elite Comics in overland park, and teamed up with Jackson to start the show
"I thought it was a great idea,” Binderup told me. “I didn't know if we'd be successful."
Twelve hundred people in year one has turned into an absolute spectacle today. The show is “successful” in every sense of the word.
"We've got 75 thousand happy people in one room,” Binderup said. “Don't find that very often."
Many of those thousands are there to find specific comics for their collection. They come ready to drop, in some cases, thousands of dollars on a mint-condition issue they're missing.
"There's customers that I see once a year,” Binderup said. “They come to Planet, and they're like, ‘I'm trying to get Amazing Spider-Man 1-100, I'm missing 14, 19, 26, 31, and 99, what do you got?’"
But many others wait in line for hours to meet the celebrity guests, with a line-up this year that includes names like David Tennant, Andy Serkis, Christina Ricci, even Ann-Margret.
And those big names are lining up to come here.
"They know the show,” Jackson told me. “The show's gotten a reputation for being very solid, and the ability for these people to meet their fans. Now, agents seek us out. We want to bring our guest there."
One first-time guest this year is Academy Award-winning actress Helen Hunt. I spoke to her by phone, and asked her why she does shows like this.
"I've just met a lot of really sweet people,” she told me. “And I get reminded that what artists do, sometimes, matters."
I asked her what she expects most fans in Kansas City to ask her about when they come to her table.
"In your part of the world, in our part of the world, Twister seems to land,” Hunt told me with a laugh. “I think that movie made a big impression. So I have gotten a couple of people dressed up as cows, and one poor kid dressed up as an actual tornado. So, we'll see if Kansas City can deliver on that. Beat that Kansas City!"
Jackson told me that he thinks maybe the best thing about Planet Comicon is that it allows people to, basically, geek out about what they want to geek out about.
"A lot of the people who come out and enjoy Planet Comicon, were the nerds and the geeks. Maybe they're the ones who got bullied,” Jackson said. “You come out to Planet Comicon Kansas City, and you're in a safe environment, nobody's going to judge."
By the way, Binderup told me he sold a comic at the show a few years ago for $30,000. The same guy came back a few years later, and the value of that comic, the first appearance of Wolverine, had almost quadrupled.
Translation: tons of fans, and potentially some big business, this weekend in Kansas City.
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