Jul. 26th, 2008 11:06 pm
Comic-Con, R.I.P
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
i_calql8You so missed me, admit it.
Okay, so I get to San Diego after a crack-o-dawn wake-up at 5 am. I get to the Gaslight District at 9, an hour before the dealer floor opens...and the number of people already there is amazing. Parking is a b***h, of course, but getting to the place I have in mind to park means having to wade through a morass of cars, and tricky one-way streets. I had hoped to get to the underground parking beneath the Convention Center. No such luck...so on to Plan B.
If you do lose your sanity and try to attend Con, and you don't get lodging at a nearby hotel, find the Pacific Highway, a street just past the Embassy Suites near the Center. Lots of parking, relatively cheap ($12 for the day), and only a 3/4 mile walk to the Convention Center. That distance is gonna seem reallly long when you're walking back with bags full of stuff you bought from the dealer floor, though.
To their credit, the folks outside the building did a great job herding those of us who hadn't gotten our badges yet. I was only in line about 15-20 minutes before they got me my badge, lanyard, and bag o' stuff. Considering the masses of people I saw still coming into the Con Center, that's amazing.
I got to the dealer floor spot-on at 10, when it opened. I didn't get to anything actually comic book-related until the third aisle of dealers. Everything else was art, books, toys and t-shirts. The aisles were still easy to move through, but somewhat crowded. By the time I was 1/4 of the way across the dealer floor, I had bought some fill-in comics for my JSA collection, and a Comic-Con Special Edition of Astonishing X-Men #25 at cover price.
I also met Terry Moore, of 'Strangers is Paradise' fame--always a great guy to talk to. I asked him if he had anything to tease us with for his new comic, 'Echo' (issue #4 on sale, and good stuff)...he said with a smile,"Nope...no cats to let out." I also met Steve Rude, the artist of 'Nexus', one of my all-time favorite comics from my comic-reading days of the 80s. If you haven't read the book, it's crackling-good space opera...go get the back issues now, while they're still cheap.
After I traversed about a third of the floor, aisle by aisle, the better-known and larger booths came in sight. Unfortunately, this is where disillusionment set in for me. For instance, the SciFi Channel and BBC America had booths here. What exactly do they have to do with comic books? Hell if I know. SciFi was promo-ing its new Stargate series, and BBCA was hyping Doctor Who and Torchwood (the woman who played Tosh was supposed to be there, but I couldn't stay that long. Just as well--one look in her eyes, and I would have melted in what would most probably have been a spectacular display of starstruck tongue-tied infatuation.) DC Comics' booth had a bunch of artists and writers I had never heard of before, but the crowds were humongous nonetheless, for some unknown reason.
By now, this was a place not meant for the claustrophobic. People were thick as Pacific fog at dawn, and they were stopping to take pics of anyone in a decent costume. With the advent of the digital camera, this is almost a constant. I had to watch myself constantly, to make sure I wasn't accidentally stepping into someone's shot. It was close, it was hot, it was smelly at times, and it was all very tired. I was beginning to lose enthusiasm quickly, and I was only on the floor for an hour and a half.
What finally did it for me was the last three or four aisles, which were chock full of demos for...video games. Most of them weren't even comic book-related games. They shouldn't be here anyway--if I wanted to see video game promos, I'd have gone to E3. If I'd wanted to see Star Trek or Star Wars stuff (lots of 'Clone Wars' hype), I'd go to their conventions--they have nothing to do with comic books, imho, and I am speaking as a person who likes them both.
There was a section just for playing Pokemon (which is not comic related). Marvel wasn't even there, except to promote their new video games. A&E, ABC Family, G4, and HBO were promoting shows that had nothing to do with comic books. Dark Horse seems more interest in shilling their hardware than their printed matter. Dexter, Knight Rider, The Big Bang Theory, Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles, Pushing Daisies, Chuck, It's Always Sunny (or as I call it, It's Never Funny) in Philadelphia...the list of TV shows being hyped goes on and on...none of them having to do with comic books. You get the idea.
The San Diego Comic-Con has become too big, too crowded, and too Hollywood. This will be my last one, barring any segmentation, which I don't see happening any time soon. I will try to take in WonderCon this winter, and I have discovered a convention that is on the grow in Phoenix, which I will look into. San Diego's, though, has lost its way, and I won't buy into this new way any more.
Okay, so I get to San Diego after a crack-o-dawn wake-up at 5 am. I get to the Gaslight District at 9, an hour before the dealer floor opens...and the number of people already there is amazing. Parking is a b***h, of course, but getting to the place I have in mind to park means having to wade through a morass of cars, and tricky one-way streets. I had hoped to get to the underground parking beneath the Convention Center. No such luck...so on to Plan B.
If you do lose your sanity and try to attend Con, and you don't get lodging at a nearby hotel, find the Pacific Highway, a street just past the Embassy Suites near the Center. Lots of parking, relatively cheap ($12 for the day), and only a 3/4 mile walk to the Convention Center. That distance is gonna seem reallly long when you're walking back with bags full of stuff you bought from the dealer floor, though.
To their credit, the folks outside the building did a great job herding those of us who hadn't gotten our badges yet. I was only in line about 15-20 minutes before they got me my badge, lanyard, and bag o' stuff. Considering the masses of people I saw still coming into the Con Center, that's amazing.
I got to the dealer floor spot-on at 10, when it opened. I didn't get to anything actually comic book-related until the third aisle of dealers. Everything else was art, books, toys and t-shirts. The aisles were still easy to move through, but somewhat crowded. By the time I was 1/4 of the way across the dealer floor, I had bought some fill-in comics for my JSA collection, and a Comic-Con Special Edition of Astonishing X-Men #25 at cover price.
I also met Terry Moore, of 'Strangers is Paradise' fame--always a great guy to talk to. I asked him if he had anything to tease us with for his new comic, 'Echo' (issue #4 on sale, and good stuff)...he said with a smile,"Nope...no cats to let out." I also met Steve Rude, the artist of 'Nexus', one of my all-time favorite comics from my comic-reading days of the 80s. If you haven't read the book, it's crackling-good space opera...go get the back issues now, while they're still cheap.
After I traversed about a third of the floor, aisle by aisle, the better-known and larger booths came in sight. Unfortunately, this is where disillusionment set in for me. For instance, the SciFi Channel and BBC America had booths here. What exactly do they have to do with comic books? Hell if I know. SciFi was promo-ing its new Stargate series, and BBCA was hyping Doctor Who and Torchwood (the woman who played Tosh was supposed to be there, but I couldn't stay that long. Just as well--one look in her eyes, and I would have melted in what would most probably have been a spectacular display of starstruck tongue-tied infatuation.) DC Comics' booth had a bunch of artists and writers I had never heard of before, but the crowds were humongous nonetheless, for some unknown reason.
By now, this was a place not meant for the claustrophobic. People were thick as Pacific fog at dawn, and they were stopping to take pics of anyone in a decent costume. With the advent of the digital camera, this is almost a constant. I had to watch myself constantly, to make sure I wasn't accidentally stepping into someone's shot. It was close, it was hot, it was smelly at times, and it was all very tired. I was beginning to lose enthusiasm quickly, and I was only on the floor for an hour and a half.
What finally did it for me was the last three or four aisles, which were chock full of demos for...video games. Most of them weren't even comic book-related games. They shouldn't be here anyway--if I wanted to see video game promos, I'd have gone to E3. If I'd wanted to see Star Trek or Star Wars stuff (lots of 'Clone Wars' hype), I'd go to their conventions--they have nothing to do with comic books, imho, and I am speaking as a person who likes them both.
There was a section just for playing Pokemon (which is not comic related). Marvel wasn't even there, except to promote their new video games. A&E, ABC Family, G4, and HBO were promoting shows that had nothing to do with comic books. Dark Horse seems more interest in shilling their hardware than their printed matter. Dexter, Knight Rider, The Big Bang Theory, Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles, Pushing Daisies, Chuck, It's Always Sunny (or as I call it, It's Never Funny) in Philadelphia...the list of TV shows being hyped goes on and on...none of them having to do with comic books. You get the idea.
The San Diego Comic-Con has become too big, too crowded, and too Hollywood. This will be my last one, barring any segmentation, which I don't see happening any time soon. I will try to take in WonderCon this winter, and I have discovered a convention that is on the grow in Phoenix, which I will look into. San Diego's, though, has lost its way, and I won't buy into this new way any more.
