Can you elaborate?

They did that with Oh My Goddess! also but the result was that the cover said something different from the indicia which made it very confusing to catalogue.

Okay, my Tony Isabella signature story.

There are a dozen or so comics that make up the foundation of my comic book collection and essentially kickstarted my love of specific characters.  Four of them happen to be The Shadow War of Hawkman mini-series. I still have my childhood copies of the series, so when I saw that Tony Isabella was going to be at the New Mexico Comic Expo I was incredibly excited. Whenever I have taken comics to have creators sign, I generally like to have them sign ones that mean something to me (like my first issue of Uncanny X-Men was #245 and that was the one I had Claremont sign when I met him). I suppose that perhaps I had too high of expectations, but I was really hoping for some sort of reaction, and all I got was him complaining about his rental car, hotel and the city of Albuquerque.  I have held that series in such high regard all my life as a keystone of my comics fandom, so I have always held Isabella (perhaps unjustly) in a similar high regard because of my love for it and the emotional connection I feel towards it.

One of the things manga has over American comic books is that they are finite series. The only real parallel with American comics is self-published works, although there are imprints that have also produced finite works. Personally, I would have accepted the peaks and valleys of an ongoing American comic book if they'd never rebooted the titles, but the constant relaunches are confusing.

Yeah, I would agree with that.  Might have been made promises by the Con that were not kept.  Sadly, that filters a lot into those situations.  Some people manage that kind of thing better than others, in a public setting.

I've heard that a lot, with celebrity signing gatherings and conventions.  When the promoters are disorganized r outright dishonest, it often filters to those making appearances and affects their mood.  It can also be as simple as they encountered some astronomical jerk a little before you see them and it threw them off their game.

I have coordinated signings and provided off-site retail support for book signings, while working at Barnes & Noble and there is a lot that goes into having a well organized and friendly event and that goes a long way in making the celebrity relaxed and comfortable with the public and provide a great experience.  The more you deal with the inept and the amateur, the more your focus is taken off the public.  Those events can get pretty bad.  With comic conventions and store signings, you get a lot of people in over their heads, with poor staffing and planning and people too inexperienced to be able to adapt and improvise and keep things running smoothly.  It is a real skill-set.

When we had our first Harry Potter Midnight Release Party (Book 4), the store manager and the community manager were not there for the event.  We had taken reservations for 6 months and only really started getting large numbers in the last week.  The media ignored things until that last week, then started running piece after piece, like they discovered the Harry Potter phenomena, rather than the readers who created it, via word of mouth.  We were sent only enough copies to cover our pre-orders and about 100 more.  Everyone decided they were just going to walk in and pick it up.  On the day of the party, I made the decision to cut off pre-orders, so we had any books available for walk-ins, at the release.  That left us 100 copies.  The store manager didn't put on extra staff for the event.  The closing staff was expected to handle it, with little or no direction.  I spent the morning and afternoon fielding media requests and did a radio interview and worked with the local tv station manager to set up filming for an editorial response to a stupid statement made by someone on a network program, which said the books had little or no literary value.

We had a constant line from the checkout counter, to the back of the store and then back to the entrance, outside and two stores down the strip mall (Office Depot and Best Buy), until about 3:00 am, with booksellers taking reservations for copies, as we got resupplied.  People were POed, big time.  The staff was even more POed at our incompetent store manager (who was also shtupping the community relations manager).  We were all ticked off at our home office for not ordering larger volumes.  They were angry with Scholastic because they didn't print enough to meet the initial demand and had to go back to press.  It took three months before we regularly had more than a couple of copies on the shelf for purchase.  Then, we ran into resupply issues with the first three books, in succession (as new readers then bought up everything of the first, then moved to the second, then the third).  A little planning and a little leadership would have made a better experience for all.  With the next book, we made sure we got our hands on as many copies as we could (we had a thousand copies on hand for the release, this time), we had staff on hand, had drilled everyone, had worked out how lines would flow, party areas, entertainment for before midnight, keeping people in the line calm and contented, while still excited, etc.  Had a great experience and never another problem.

In both of those situations, there were hiccups; but, the difference was in who planned things and who was there to direct everyone in their jobs and to adapt on the fly.  Planning will take care of 90% of it, especially if you plan for things to go wrong and have contingencies ready to go at a moments notice.  The rest is keeping an eye on the crowd "temperature" and responding accordingly.

I have been to mostly small and mid-size cons; but, even the more professional lack for staff and are adapting to situations.  Large or small, the best ones adapt quickly and have planned ahead for the problems.