Comicscape: The Ever-Expanding Comic-Con

Friends that attended last year told me that the lines are ridiculous for some panels, 2+ hours wait on some. You'd get in a line so long that you can't tell where it's going to. This is the stuff that makes me have second thoughts about going myself.

I think the Con needs to split up. Have one weekend for comics only and the following weekend for all other media. I think this would satisfy most folk and especially me because I hate huge crowds.

Kurt, kudos on that review by Moore. I just finished placing my order, I'd forgotten, glad you mentioned it again. But the site had no shirts listed.

You're kidding me, right? If you wrote this article 15 years ago, I would have bought it. While I haven't been going to the comic-con for 15 years, I have been going since '99 and it's always been the same: 20% comics, 80% other; it's ALWAYS been crowded and there are ALWAYS huge lines for the popular panels.
This year, in order to make the panel I wanted to see, I tried something new: I squatted. You may not want to see the panel previous to your about LOTR Stamps hosted by the USPS, but you can get in. So get in, turn on your DS for an hour and have guaranteed seating for your chosen panel.
The biggest problem have always been the crowds, even since the convention center grew by 50%. I remember 3 years ago, there was a line 2 miles long to get in. I wish I was joking, I really do. At least year, the con created a solution by making online registration manditory and it was limited. This past con was much better than the few previous years in regards to crowding.
And I'm not certain about some individuals or groups getting pushed out, most of the booths there are fixtures at the Con. Frankly, the only thing that I saw this year that felt out of place was the NBC booth. Yeah sure, there's BSG, but what did you really see when you saw the booth? A giant 30 Rock and The Office living commercial, with a smatering of BSG and Heroes merchandise.
If anything needs to be changed about the San Diego Comic-Con, it's the name. The way it's been and the way it is now, it really should be called the San Diego Pop-Culture-Con.

Finances forced me to skip this year’s Con, but I attended the last three.

I actually like the fact Comic-Con has such a diverse amount of material available. There’s comics of all stripes (big publishers to small-press), gaming, movies, TV, toys etc etc. If it is even tangentially related to the genre you can find it at Comic-Con. There is always something interesting going on. That’s what makes it fun. I can spend the morning on a panel talking about a TV show then go to panel with Paul Dini discussing his upcoming projects and spend the evening watching a movie all in the same building.

You also get to meet and talk with fans of all stripes. I had great conservation with a guy whose been going to Comic-Con since 1974. I spoke with a video game geek on the tram in once, got some good suggestions for games I could try and lots of other interesting people.

You lose that diversity if you split the Con up.

I think many of the frustrations are less about the lack of ‘focus’ on Comics and more about the shear volume of people. Lines for the three biggest rooms (Hall H, Ballroom 20 and ABCD) can run 30 minutes to 2 hours. There are tricks to limiting your amount of time in line; if its going to a popular panel, go to the one before, since they don’t clear rooms just stay (I usually do one day in Hall H where the big movie panels are done, just carry some snacks and drinks), always have a backup panel to attend if your first choice is full (again, there is ALWAYS something interesting going on) and just accept the fact that there is NO WAY to see everything, that’s kind of the point.

There are a lot of proposals for how to ‘fix’ Comic-Con. One that gets bantered around quite a bit is moving the Con to a bigger venue better able to handle the size of event. I don’t know about this one. San Diego has been VERY good to Comic-Con. It’s a big fish in a small pond and brings in a TON of revenue. Move it to LA (the most common alternate sit mentioned) and it becomes ‘just another big convention’. Getting back and forth from the convention center to hotels will be lot harder in LA. Quite frankly I find San Diego to be much nicer city than LA (YMMV).

The other place bantered around is Las Vegas which I think will destroy much of Comic-Con’s character. Again, it becomes ‘just another big convention’. A lot of families won’t attend. And all of the other attractions in Vegas will bleed people away from the Con (not to mention people gambling away money they would have spent at the booths, hurting a lot of the exhibitors).

The third option is to try to satellite out some of the events to surrounding hotels. Do the gaming tournaments at a separate hotel, have the film festival stuff offsite etc etc. But yet again, part of the fun of Comic-Con is having everything under one roof. Moving elements of the Con offsite, takes away from that feeling.

Limiting the convention to just comics is not an answer. And quite frankly, if that is your interest there are dozens of other conventions out there, some comic-book only. Just skip San Diego and attend on of those.

I just don't even get the point of attending a convention like this. Seriously, I just don't get it. Why attend? 'Splain it to me.

Having attended the con as both a fan in previous years, and this year working in a booth I'd have to say that Comic Con has gotten out of hand. I can actually look back at pictures of the floor that I took in 2003, and see an exponential difference in the crowds (both in the type of people attending, and the amount of people attending) between then and now.

The movie and television industry uses Comic Con almost like a test marketing experiment to see how their product is received. And as such, fans are exposed to more 'exclusive' clips than in years past just as a test to see if the reaction is favorable or marginal.

A friend of mine and I were talking about the ridiculously long lines, and we think we hit upon a solution. Lottery tickets. You sign up online the week before Con for the panels you want to see. When you arrive to pick up your pass, you're given your ticket(s) to the panels you've won access to. Each ticket admits two people. It cuts down on lines, and it actually gives the fan back some time to see other things that they might have missed while waiting in line for 4 hours to see that Heroes panel, only to be turned away from the door.

This would also benefit panels that were shoved into smaller rooms, but have a really enormous fanbase (like the Venture Bros.).

The lines alone is the reason why Comic Con sucks. Eliminate that problem, and then you may be getting somewhere.

Lister, think of everything from your childhood (and even things from adulthood) crammed into the length and width of two football fields. Add to that freebies, celebrities, costumes, more freebies, scantily clad women, more freebies, free movies, parties at night with more freebies and scantily clad women, and you'll get what all the hubbub is about.

A Lottery is an interesting idea. I like it better than charging extra for certain panels, which I’ve heard mentioned a few times. I like the fact that once you pay the registration fee you can attend any panel at the Con for free.

I do agree that the ‘vibe’ of Comic-Con has shifted a bit. I noticed a marked difference between my first con in 2005 and 2007 in both size and ‘Hollywood’ presence. But honestly once a person gets away from some of the big panel stuff (the stuff in Hall H, Ballroom 20 and CDEF) and does a few of less ‘big media’ panels it can be a lot of fun. I attended a panel on political cartooning in 2007 because Ballroom 20 was full and honestly had a great time. My advice is take some chances on obscure stuff or things your not familiar with, there is very good chance you’ll be presently surprise.

As for the putting panels in the correct sized room, that’s always been something of a crapshoot. The organizers for the most part do a good job trying to funnel popular stuff to the larger rooms but, like Hollywood itself, you just can’t predict what’s going to hit some years. My first year at the Con I went to a panel for the Dark Crystal, the organizers put it in one of the smaller rooms and it ended up filling to capacity and they were turning people away at the door. Another year they had a panel n CDEF and barely filled half the room.

And lister, speaking as someone who HATES crowds and HATES (with a passion) long lines; I’ve had a great time all three years I’ve attended Comic-Con. As daforce said, it’s every genre experience you’ve ever had under one roof. Just come at it with a good attitude. I’ve met some great people standing in line for a panel. Its one of the few places on Earth where being able to quote dialog from “Space 1999” is actually considered a GOOD thing.

This was my 5th Comic-Con and yes it has gotten way bigger, imo its cuz of the stars and movies attending.
I hated waking up at 6 or 7 am to get in line for panels other years i could almost walk in or be there at 10 and get in within 15minutes with no problem, but i still had fun and while standing in line i met alot of people i could talk about almost everything.

I was all 3 days i attended this year in hall H and to tell you the truth if u come with someone just say sorry but we have to part ways, that way u both can get as close as possible with no problems.
I had this guy walk towards me when we were on our way into the hall and i thought he wanted to get accross and then he started walking with me, smiled and said "thanks for saving me my spot" i was like "WTF" then he said "here i got u this" and gave me a special editon box for the season 2 dvd for Heroes and $50, I just laughed and said No problem.
I mention this cuz theres ppl that do anything they can to get in and not be there early it was almost like he paid mi badge.

Even thou i was in Hall H and just spent a couple of hours in the exibit hall i had a blast and much fun meeting ppl. So even if its like this next year just organize yourself and u can avoid getting annoyed cuz u didnt get in to a hall, theres always gonna be some other intresting thing going on in another hall or u could just go to the exibit hall and get more freebies and check out the costume and boothbabes :D.

daforce:

Still not getting it. Maybe I just never fetishized my childhood playthings (and I don't say that disparagingly), or perhaps I find the content of my fictional fantasies to be more important than a free miniature plastic totem of said content. Dunno. But the partying and scantily clad women you mention (although I shudder to think of some of them at Comic-Con, based on their male counterparts) can be had without the rigamarole of this event. But hey, more power to ya! Or the force or whatever...

Attending a SDCC is, imo, as stressful as it is enjoyable. I've gone a couple of times and will probably be going again next year, and I pretty much like things the way they are.

Yeah, it sucks that I'll never get into Hall H, but with more and more footage hitting the web every year, you don't need to be to the biggest panels unless you desperately need to see that brand spankin' new teaser trailer. Last year, I wanted to get into the Futurama panel, but the line was Hall H-esque. When I got home, the whole damn thing was up for watching on Sci-Fi.com. So, I didn't miss anything anyways.

So, I tend to pick out the stuff involving writers/creators I enjoy, such as the Marvel panels, or last year the Star Trek panel (which included IDW, Tokyopop, and Pocket Books). It was at SDCC last year that news first broke that IDW would be doing Doctor Who comics, so why would you pass on that attention? If you're not at SDCC, nobody is looking your way.

I try and get to all the booths, not for freebies, but to see if there's anything out there that might catch my eye. Also, you'll never know who you get to meet on the floor, as there are often as many autograph and photo sessions there as there is upstairs in the main signing area.

What I do wonder though is how so many of these small, independent publishers can afford a booth. Because there are tons of 'em, which is a good thing. But it just makes me wonder. :)

I live in San Diego and I've been going since '92. Back then, which was before the SD Convention Center was expanded, it was 90 percent comics. I remember Hollywood having little or no presence there, with Marvel and DC dominating the convention floor.

Kurt, you're wrong about the "market" demanding more non-comics related content at the con. This is not the comic enthusiast market. The con now is filled with spectators, casual lookers and people just wanting to be at the "happening" place to be now. 15 years ago, I don't remember ANY casual fans attending. No celebrities, cool kids, video game afficianados, etc. When I told people I was going to the con, it was always always ALWAYS met with an awkward stare and a "you like THAT stuff?" comment. Now it's so effing cool to attend the con. The comic book-buying "market," the one that lives and sweats and dies for comics and didn't give a s#it that people made fun of them for loving this artform so much, doesnt CARE about "The Day the Earth Stood Still" panels or "The Office" booths. Those things are put there to appease the non-comic audience, the ones who have been invading this place for years. The real "market" doesn't want or need this stuff.

The Con DOES need to get back to its roots. My fondest memories of the Con are of me and my brother pouring through back-issue bins to get old issues of Spider-Man and getting autographs from Stan Lee and Tom DeFalco. The new Con attendees are just intruders and the sooner the con can go back to what it was, and dissuade the new crowd from coming back, the better.