Philadelphia experiment: In this week's "Pipeline," Augie De Blieck Jr. files his report from Wizard World East, and it's not that flattering to Dan DiDio and the DC panel:

"DiDio did the slide show presentation, highlighting a couple dozen series with short corny write-ups, as is the DC norm. The only problem is that he had no other clue what to do past that. On the dais with him were Howard Porter, Tom Raney, Justin Gray, Mike Turner, Ron Garney, and Dan Jolley. DiDio took a half hour to give the slideshow presentation and then opened up the floor to questions which ranged the gamut, only half of which could be touched upon by the people on the panel. The disorganization wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that DiDio acted like a drunken lout through most of it, giggling at his own jokes and several others that went unheard. I could be charitable and think of it as a nervous reaction to the flop sweat appearing on his brow, I suppose. The best he could come up with was asking creators on the panel what they thought of books they had nothing to do with - or which had just come out three days ago. When one mentioned he hadn't read the book yet that DiDio was asking him about, DiDio mockingly (I hope!) scolded him for not reading through his comp box. The book just came out on Wednesday! Comp boxes are monthly, if I've heard correctly.

"It was so bad that there were two running jokes that comprised the majority of the dais conversation. 'It's the best book I've ever read' and 'she's a lesbian.' Truly, it was a shining moment for DC."

(And thanks for the plug, Augie.)