Comicscape: The Ever-Expanding Comic-Con - Aug 06, 2008 - 02:19pm
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.

---

Comicscape: The Ever-Expanding Comic-Con - Aug 06, 2008 - 09:24am
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.

---

The Manic Maniac: The Comic Book is Dead - Jun 27, 2008 - 11:24am
It’s called cross-pollination and it’s been with us for decades. Comics influence the movies, which in turn influence the comics. There is no doubt in my mind that Byrne’s re-boot of the Superman following ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’ was heavily influenced by the 70s Superman movie (he pretty much admits it). Particularly the look of Kypton, which went from very Earth like in the comics to cold and sterile much more like the movie. What’s killing the comic book industry is not movies, it’s a number of factors. 1 - A poor distribution model focused on specialty retailers. 2 - Lack of broad products targeted to multiple demographic groups (as opposed to Europe an Asia where the market still thrives). 3 - Failure to bring in new readership (this is related to the previous two points). 4 - Failure to capitalize on large ‘events’ like movie and TV tie-ins (first 50 people in line get an Iron Man comic). Link the ad campaigns for the movies to the comic book (ads on TV should say ‘see the movie then read the comics. Available at your local bookstore or on-line and Marvel.com’). 5 - For that matter advertise on TV (remember how GI Joe sales went through the roof in the early 80s when they promoted the comic book simultaneous with the toy line, lessons to be re-learned).

---