And here we go with the final installment of Old Comic Book Convention Photos week. I think everyone knows what a “Booth Babe” is – she’s the model-like girl at a convention who usually works in an exhibitor’s display area or prowls around in front of it, chatting with potential customers and repeating all the talking points she’s been given for the day. She might even be handing out product literature or free samples and you willingly take it because “Hey, a pretty girl is giving me stuff.” You could always find booth babes at car shows, boat shows, and consumer electronics shows like CES. The same types of places where Adam West might show up to lean against one of the original Batmobiles.

Back in the 1990s, there was an explosion of booth babes at comic book conventions, usually at a publisher’s booth. Sometimes they were actually on staff at the publishing company, sometimes not. Thanks to the explosion of Image Comics in the early 1990s, there was a tremendous increase in costumed characters as well – not the fans dressed in costume, but professional models, male and female, hired by the publisher to wear custom-made costumes based on characters in their books. They would hang around the booth or stroll around on the floor, mingling with the fans, driving traffic back to their booth and posing for “Hey! Look at me with a pretty girl at the convention!” photos with tubby fans in too-small X-Men t-shirts. Image had them, Harris Publications trotted out a couple of different Vampirellas, and other publishers jumped in.

Malibu Comics, always able to identify and then exploit a trend, had their own costumed characters with the launch of the Ultraverse in 1993.

Despite Malibu Publisher Dave Olbrich’s self-proclaimed “irrational fear” of costumed characters, the company started out with two, one male and one female, and had two very expensive custom-made costumes manufactured for them. I think the costumes were about $1000 each or somewhere in that neighborhood. One costume was for Prime because he was considered the biggest male “star” of the Ultraverse; the other was for Mantra because she was considered the sexiest female character. Both costumes looked fantastic, but the Prime costume, once it was put on the male model, just looked ridiculous. Sometimes what looks great and works on the page does not translate into a workable costume on a human being. I think the Prime costume only made one convention appearance before it was mothballed. The Mantra costume, however, looked awesome on the 20 or so women who came by the offices for a fitting and an audition.

The official Mantra model was named Caroline and she made at least two San Diego appearances, one in 1993 and the other in 1994. She had no comic book experience or interest but as a professional model, was certainly in familiar territory on the convention floor with two Malibu handlers tracking her at a watchful distance at all times. She was a very good sport about the whole thing and posed for something like a billion photos.

One of those photos is on the right. It’s Caroline as Mantra posing next to Malibu Comics Co-President Bob Jacob at one of the official convention parties during the 1993 San Diego Con. I believe that’s a beer in Bob’s hand, and I think that’s former Diamond Comics Distributor big shot Tom Stormonth in the background. Malibu marketing whiz Alan Payne (now at IDW) is on the left.

You can see some other photos of Caroline as Mantra at the Mantraverse website. And there’s also a photo there of the JK2 Costumer’s model in the suit as well.

That’s it for photos this week. I’ve got another pile I might dole out later in the year, so keep watching the blog. In the meantime, have a great weekend!

[Photo © Tom K. Mason]

Previous installments of Old Convention Photos can be found here:
Jim Balent and Lita Ford
Sergio Aragones and Joe Kubert
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Alexander Siddig
Brian Pulido and Steven Hughes