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One of the artists of another webcomic that I follow (QC) posted a rather observant article on his tumblr - and I wonder what our people here think:

http://jephjacques.com/post/27366296877/the-problem-with-comic-con

jwhouk said:

One of the artists of another webcomic that I follow (QC) posted a rather observant article on his tumblr - and I wonder what our people here think:

http://jephjacques.com/post/27366296877/the-problem-with-comic-con

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Yes. It used to be about comics and now it's about pushing media and cosplay. It's only peripherally about comics now. Kinda strange for a COMIC Con.

I experienced a few cons, myself, while living in Toronto. I'm sure they pale in comparison to San Diego, but the comparison still applies.

It's a glorified flea market, especially for the big companies. You've got these giant, unnecessary displays to promote movies or games that will be mostly forgotten in a few years. I remember seeing a huge display for Sucker Punch. They were showing the trailer over and over, selling merch, etc. There was another gigantic display for the Aliens Blu-Ray box set. You even laid down in a pod and watched the trailer for it. It just seems ridiculously unnecessary to me. It's just promoting a boxed set of movies. It's not a carnival ride.

And of course, as the author of the article says, there's large booths dedicated to video games, as well. I saw this, as well, seeing things like the latest Halo being promoted (I don't know which one), and the Kinect.

But then I remember this stupidly huge amount of space being wasted to promote Rogers. They're a major corporate entity in Canada, responsible for a great deal of cable, internet, and phone packages. They had this luxurious set up with lounge chairs and television sets. In fact, I would wager to say it was the largest booth there. And most of the time, there was barely anyone there.

I have to wonder if maybe these cons should set up their panels different than a "first come, first serve" basis and maybe more on an individual basis. Not sell tickets, but just have people sign up or something. And for people who missed it, why not have it available online shortly after? It's going to show up on YouTube, anyway. Why not make it official?

For me, the most enjoyable stuff was meeting with different comic book creators. I got to chat briefly with Jeff "Animal Man" Lemuire, bought the first volume of his Vertigo series, Sweet Tooth, which he signed. I briefly met Dan Didio and managed to hold back ranting how his direction for DC sucks.

But yeah, my biggest impression from these things was just how they're just a huge, glorified, nerd flea market. And you've got people there who go in droves to buy the stupidest shit. The worst sight for me was seeing all the people who lined up to see Stan Lee (myself included; I got a signed photograph of him). I can understand if you want to meet him or even have something signed (one guy had an original copy of Amazing Fantasy #15 - Spidey's first appearance - and was going to get it signed). Yet there were hundreds of people who would bring up at least half a dozen different things for him to sign. It's like they were only interested in his signature so they could sell it and nothing else.

TL;DR version: Cons suck for more reasons than the article describes.

Comic-Con outgrew itself years ago. When I went in 2005, the convention floor was packed. The comic artists we were interested in seeing, including Steve Kuntz, were douchebags (except Frank Cho who was very nice to us). The people we wanted to get signatures from had lines that were incredibly long. We went into a panel to escape the crowds (and so I could sit for a while since I was very pregnant at the time). There was talk even then about moving the con to Vegas in order to have a bigger venue..

It was huge back in '93 and '94 when I went. (helped that I was living in Point Loma at the time. ) I don't think I'd want to deal with it anymore.

Other side of the coin, the Comic part, is that the media used to be huge, now it's barely a fraction of what it was 20 years ago. You were a huge hit in the comic market if you were selling 750,000+ copies of a comic, now you are the ruler of the known universe with only 125,000+ (Feb 2012 numbers are being used here). That's a monumental change. Comics are making a comeback but are still far, far behind what they used to be.

...and fans still call it the dark age.

Sparhawk said:

Other side of the coin, the Comic part, is that the media used to be huge, now it's barely a fraction of what it was 20 years ago. You were a huge hit in the comic market if you were selling 750,000+ copies of a comic, now you are the ruler of the known universe with only 125,000+ (Feb 2012 numbers are being used here). That's a monumental change. Comics are making a comeback but are still far, far behind what they used to be.

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The problem with those numbers, though, is that that was during the heyday of comic book collecting. That was during the time when "collectors" would buy several copies of a #1 issue of a series, which created a glut in the market. The sales weren't because of the quality of the comic, but because collectors thought they'd be valuable later on. Of course, the joke was on them, as all those #1's were worthless in a matter of years.

Nick, that was when I was selling comics, and it wasn't just first issues or "collector" editions. People were actually reading comics. There wasn't a "reboot" every couple of years, there were references to past issues, sometimes many years in the past. People were reading comics because they loved the characters, not because of an "event". When sales started to slip, companies got scared and started changing things constantly, reboots, giant events that meant nothing in months, dumping of histories and years of continuity just to make everything more "reader" friendly. Sales crashed because the company control wouldn't let the creators do their job, create stories and art.

Ah, I stand corrected. Though I would gather the "collectors" didn't help. But yeah, I really do miss the days of giant events, crossovers, and reboots. It's why I've grown away from most of the Big Two and towards more creator-owned properties. It's for this same reason that I stopped reading Fables. It started out fantastic, but then they started doing spin-offs and crossovers, which is exactly what I was trying to avoid in reading it.

I have opinions but..don't know how to say what I mean. I'll try to articulate it better later.

Speaking specifically of SDCC..they have somewhat set themselves up for change. The banners for the con read 'Celebrating the Popular Arts'. So...what is popular is what gets celebrated, be it movies, TV, comics, video games and art. Personally for me, I go for the artists. Having a chance to talk to some of my favorite comic artists is just..there isn't a thing like it, especially for me as an art major.

And no. Never in Las Vegas. 114 degress in the summer? No thanks. Despite them being able to hold mass amounts of people at the same time, I think SDCC will expand the convention center first (which I already heard staff mentioning being a possibility) before moving to Vegas. Staff did go to Anaheim to see if maybe SDCC could be moved there and they were not impressed, so I also doubt it would move there.

I'm actually curious to see what will happen in a few years, if things will settle down at all. Everyone always talks about fake nerds and people that just want attention or to run with what is popular. I'm curious to see if that will run its course. For me, as long as I can afford it, I will always attend SDCC for a multitude of reasons.

Seems like at this point complaining about the lack of comic attention at SDCC is like complaining about the lack of music videos on MTV.

It's not complaining about the lack of attention, though. It's the growing focus on movies and video games, rather than comics. Which is okay in theory, but not when the booths take up far too much unnecessary space.

And then there's the complaint of the line-ups being too long or that people who came to see certain panels can't see them.

They would never go to Vegas. San Diego would fight to keep them there. Also, SDCC gets a lot of special treatment from the city. If it were to move to another, larger convention center in a different city, it would get treated by the city as being just another big event.

DarkAudit said:

It was huge back in '93 and '94 when I went. (helped that I was living in Point Loma at the time. ) I don't think I'd want to deal with it anymore.

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Heh. We were just living across the bay on the Silver Strand in Coronado. Took the trolly from 32nd St. to avoid the traffic hassles. It was still a pita.

Allen who is Quiet said:

They would never go to Vegas. San Diego would fight to keep them there. Also, SDCC gets a lot of special treatment from the city. If it were to move to another, larger convention center in a different city, it would get treated by the city as being just another big event.

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Like, say, GenCon.

Oh wait, that's right, they don't CALL it that anymore since they moved to Indy, do they?

SDCC is a bloated monster and more about the show itself than the fans. It's become E3. If you want an awesome con that's all about the fans and the stuff you like, Dragon*Con is the way to go. SDCC has gotten so big at this point they're taking over plots near the stadium (a block or two away from the con center itself).

Also, there's no way SD would give up ComiCon. They kind of money the Gaslamp district and the hotels make off that weekend is insane, and the city wouldn't let that go. The Trolley is packed all weekend, the streets have more people than cars, it's a madhouse.

jwhouk said:

Like, say, GenCon.

Oh wait, that's right, they don't CALL it that anymore since they moved to Indy, do they?

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No, they still call it Gencon. Not sure why you'd think otherwise.

CynicismKills said:

Also, there's no way SD would give up ComiCon. They kind of money the Gaslamp district and the hotels make off that weekend is insane, and the city wouldn't let that go. The Trolley is packed all weekend, the streets have more people than cars, it's a madhouse.

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This is off-topic, but have they decided what to do about the football stadium yet? When we were there a few years ago Qualcomm Stadium was in the news quite often because the city said it needed either to be renovated or have a new stadium built. I know for a while they were talking about a spot in Chula Vista as the new site. If "The Q" is left empty maybe they could do something with Comic-Con there. Though traffic in the Mission Valley area is a mess on a good day.

According to Wikipedia nothing has been decided yet.

Even if it isn't in the press, I do want to point out, that comics are still most definately at SDCC. There are multiple booths selling all kinds of comics. Thousands and thousands of comics. There are even booths that sell very rare, very expensive comics. (1st appearance of Batman for $40,000? If only.)

And my favorite part, comic artists, are still at SDCC.

I'm not saying that SDCC doesn't have it's issues, because I know that it does. But a lot of the experience of comic con is what you make of it. You can spend the whole weekend waiting in line for popular panels (12,000 people waited in line to see the reunion of the Firefly cast and its creator - needless to say, many people were disappointed). Or you can spend the weekend in costume. You can spend it with friends, wandering around the Gaslamp district. You can also spend it in the dealers room, not even straying to go see panels.

LittleKagsin said:

I'm not saying that SDCC doesn't have it's issues, because I know that it does. But a lot of the experience of comic con is what you make of it. You can spend the whole weekend waiting in line for popular panels (12,000 people waited in line to see the reunion of the Firefly cast and its creator - needless to say, many people were disappointed). Or you can spend the weekend in costume. You can spend it with friends, wandering around the Gaslamp district. You can also spend it in the dealers room, not even straying to go see panels.

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Agreed, but then you can say the same for any con with a moderately large to huge crowd.[DOUBLEPOST=1342756020][/DOUBLEPOST]

WasabiPoptart said:

This is off-topic, but have they decided what to do about the football stadium yet? When we were there a few years ago Qualcomm Stadium was in the news quite often because the city said it needed either to be renovated or have a new stadium built. I know for a while they were talking about a spot in Chula Vista as the new site. If "The Q" is left empty maybe they could do something with Comic-Con there. Though traffic in the Mission Valley area is a mess on a good day.

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I dunno, however Qualcomm's a decent ride away from the Convention Center, so I can't see them doing much with it unless it's some sort of big premiere. The other issue is transit, as there's no late night Trolley service to the Con center area.

Even as big as the con has become, wouldn't the stadium be overkill? The Sports Arena or the SDSU arena would probably be better suited to host a concert-sized event.

I only brought up Qualcomm because I remember one of the problems the city faced was finding a purpose for it if a new stadium was built or the Chargers relocated.