Battle of the Cons!!

A single lousy business week separates two terrific conventions at the tail-end of the summer of 2010! The Baltimore Comic Convention falls on the weekend of August 28-29, 2010 and then Dragoncon (in Atlanta, GA) hits on the following weekend, September 3-6, 2010. Mind you, each show has its own unique charms, but Baltimore is more of a pure comics show and Dragoncon is a media smorgasbord of actors, authors, comics pros and nearly naked female cos-players (I just had to throw that in there). You can see my dilemma?

Here are the scheduled guest for Baltimore: Mike and Laura Allred, Sergio Aragones, Ivan Brandon, Tom Brevoort, Jim Calafiore, Eric Canete, Bernard Chang, Howard Chaykin, Sean Chen, Cliff Chiang, Frank Cho, Mike Choi, Steve Conley, Amanda Conner, Shane Davis, Dan DiDio, Al Feldstein, Francesco Francavilla, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Ron Garney, Sterling Gates, Bryan J.L. Glass, Michael Golden, Cully Hamner, Dean Haspiel, Jonathan Hickman, Greg Horn, Adam Hughes, Jamal Igle, Georges Jeanty, Van Jensen, Geoff Johns, J.G. Jones, Denis Kitchen, Barry Kitson, Rich Koslowski, Michael Lark, Greg LaRocque, Erik Larsen, Steve Lieber, Luna Brothers, David Mack, Laura Martin, Ron Marz, Todd McFarlane, Mark McKenna, Mike McKone, Bob McLeod, Terry Moore, Mark Morales, Chris Moreno, Sean Murphy, Steve Niles, Phil Noto, Ryan Ottley, Jimmy Palmiotti, Jeff Parker, Lauren Perry, David Petersen, Brandon Peterson, Chris Pitzer, Paul Pope, Eric Powell, Jack Purcell, Mike Raicht, Tom Raney, Chris Roberson, James Robinson, Budd Root, Don Rosa, Craig Rousseau, Stephane Roux, Jim Rugg, Tim Sale, Stuart Sayger, Bob Schreck, Louise and Walter Simonson, Jim Shooter, Allison Sohn, Andy Smith, John K. Snyder III, Jim Starlin, Brian Stelfreeze, Paul D. Storrie, Karl Story, Billy Tan, Ben Templesmith, Mark Texeira, Herb Trimpe, Timothy Truman, Billy Tucci, Dexter Vines, Neil Vokes, Doug Wagner, Matt Wagner, Mark Waid, Marv Wolfman, John Workman, Bernie Wrightson, Kelly Yates, and Chrissie Zullo!

And .....

Here are the scheduled guests for Dragoncon: Doktor A, Neal Adams, Glenn Barr, Dan Brereton, Amanda Conner, Darwyn Cooke, Peter David, Huck Gee, Donato Giancola, Kelley Jones, Stan Lee, Joseph Michael Linsner, Todd Lockwood, Travis Louie, Don Maitz, Mike McKone, Mike Mignola, Kathie Olivas, Jimmy Palmiotti, George Perez, Brandt Peters, John Picacio, Tim Sale, Shag, Greg Simkins, Vincent Villafranca; plus celebrated sci-fi/fantasy/horror actors such as Sean Astin, Rene Auberjonois, Morena Baccarin, Robert Beltran, Avery Brooks, LeVar Burton, Jason Carter, Erica Cerra, Claudia Christian, Bill Daily, John de Lancie, Lexa Doig, Barbara Eden, Gigi Edgley, Michelle Forbes, Jonathan Frakes, Joel Gretsch, Larry Hagman, Linda Hamilton, Danielle Harris, Virginia Hey, Marta Kristen, Sean Maher, James Marsters, Paul McGillion, Robert Duncan McNeill, Jason Momoa, Edward James Olmos, Ray Park, Adrian Pasdar, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Elisabeth Rohm, Saul Rubinek, Michael Shanks, Rekha Sharma, Armin Shimerman, Marc Singer, Marina Sirtis, Shawnee Smith, Kevin Sorbo, Brent Spiner, Jewel Staite, Sam Trammell, Laura Vandervoort and Garrett Wang; plus noted genre authors such as Kevin J. Anderson, Jim Butcher, A.C. Crispin, Bill Fawcett, Christopher Golden, Laurell K. Hamilton, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Rosemary Laurey, Todd McCaffrey, Rebecca Moesta, Jody Lynn Nye, Mike Resnick, John D. Ringo, Brandon Winn Sanderson, Susan Sizemore, Michael Stackpole, S.M. Stirling, Janny Wurts, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro and Timothy Zahn.

Attempting to take in both shows will require me to split my budget between the two (unlikely, barring an intervening Powerball win) or throw support towards a single one of these great weekends. Any suggestions?