clay harrison dot net

11 years ago I attended my first Comic-con.

It was awesome.

I had heard you can’t see everything in 4 days and it’s true. Lori commented that I was among “My People” and it was a glorious time.

Last year, Lori, Terry and I hit Comic-con for prolly the last time. Terry had never been and Lori wanted a vacation even if it meant me disappearing for 4 days. Now you can’t see everything in 4 days cause it’s totally out of control.
Record attendance last year and I expect that this year it will be broken from what I read and see.
Then I see this. Not the picture, but the comment.
While it’s great we get all these comic book projects outside of the actual printed media we all enjoy, have we bumped ourself out of the convention that has COMIC in the title? This has caused 2 problems in comic fandom the way I see it.
1. The minority is now the majority. Films and Anime have boosted con attendance to unmanageable numbers. People flood this con to see the latest TV, Film and stars. Comics? Not so much.
Those that actually attended Comic-con are posting 2 hour traffic jams before the weekend even started. Last year there was a line for everything. Terry and I actually collapsed in a room hours before the Lost panel just to rest only to realize that people were waiting for Lost hours before it was starting.
Last year Comic-con security did it’s best to manage traffic flows and arrange lines so to move faster and be efficient. Rooms were creating lines for panels that were hours away. Times during the weekend, we just gave up on seeing something because the lines were just too long. We never waited for the bus cause it was faster to walk. Traffic was bad and the crowds riding the bus filled up before it even got to our hotel. The weekend had people lined up just to get in.
Pics like this show the large crowds (as well as various Flickr streams). I don’t think it’s worth it unless you live in downtown San Diego. The drive in and parking are $$$. The lines are a beating. People were on G4′s coverage talking about fights over SWAG. WTF people? I know various people I follow on Twitter would love to be there but have a list of complaints on why they are not attending.
I’m curious if gas wasn’t so expensive how many more would be there but that’s another debate.
Comic-con has taken it’s glasses off and let the ponytail down to show the world it’s not ugly but a total whore that will date a guy named Blaine and totally shit on a guy named Ducky. The majority of the space in the dealers room is movie promotion. Yea it’s cool to see the Owlship from Watchmen but do I need to show crack to crack heads?
Marvel and DC are the 2 biggest publishers and have small areas at Comic-con. Artist alley seems to get smaller every year. The rows are so packed at times its not worth trying to go down cause some cosplay character has his 8 foot sword.
Is it fun? Is it worth it? Will Comic-con become Hollywood and look down on the one that brought it to the dance? Where are we headed with it? Comic-con could go the way of E3 and fans won’t be able to attend.
2. Burnout. Once Hollywood has mined all it can from comics would it up and leave?
IN A HEART BEAT.
There are genres that appeal to the fanboys/fangirls but if Hollywood saw that Comic-con wasn’t worth the cost it would bail on it. Celebrities wouldn’t show to promote films and yes it would get back to where it was.
At a cost.
The convention center is huge and space is costly and the dealer’s tables are not cheap. So just remove all the movie companies and see what a ticket cost? See what a table cost? The struggling artist would pay premium to have any space.
We are enjoying seeing some of the good stuff transfered to film but what happens when it’s a glut? (I also refuse to say GREAT cause some of the choices are meh.) Have we peaked in a area outside of comics itself?
Prolly not. Marvel is betting an entire studio on it. DC is hoping to revive the Superman series.
Maybe cause I’m a cynical Gen-Xer and can recall the comics glut of the 90′s and how the industry fell because of it. I look at Anime sections in book stores and it takes up huge sections and graphic novels are in the dusty corner of the store with the bad lighting.
So what now?
Competition? Could something in the South (hopefully) or the East coast compete with Comic-con?
I hope. I would love to go to a con that had room and guest that appealed to “My People”. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not limited to comics. I love seeing Lego represent at cons. I love the costumes.(Just in the contest and maybe not so much on the floor.) I recall the great days of the Dallas Fantasy Fair/Festivals. I saw Jack Kirby. A young Peter David took fans out to the lounge to continue talking after a panel. Comics were read and not graded and sealed.
Maybe I’ve just got a case of the “Gold Ol’ Days”. I don’t know. I just felt like doing a comic book post about the industry and Comic-con is looking like it’s about to burst.
I’ll leave with this. As fans we should enjoy what’s available and not belittle what’s available. I liked Iron Man more than Dark Knight. That’s not me saying I hated Dark Knight. I enjoy that I got to see both. When Tim Burton did Batman in 1989 we all enjoyed Batman because it was what was available and it was done well. Don’t get me wrong here either, if a film is bad it’s just bad and their is no saving it in any genre. What it did to was shift the way people looked at comics for the better.
So I let people read. Friend of mine enjoyed Wanted so I let him read the graphic novel. I said it’s WAY different than the movie but read it, none the less. I recommend Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale books to any fan of the TV show Heroes as well as a launching point for Hulk, Spider-Man, Daredevil and Superman.

I still think they should film a season of The Deadliest Catch in Paris Hilton’s bikini bottoms.

Tags: comic-con, comics, dc, graphic novels, marvel, san diego, sdcc2008