As mentioned, I spent last weekend down at the San Diego Comic Fest and had a very good time. Mike Towry and his crew promised a small, low-key convention and they delivered. I don't think any attendees were disappointed; not unless they walked in and expected an exact replica of one of those great cons of the seventies at the El Cortez Hotel. The El Cortez has since gone condo and so has the comic book field.
So this wasn't that, nor could it have been. The major difference? Those Great Old Cons were mainly about comics and this con was mainly about Those Great Old Cons. I told more stories about Shel Dorf than about Jack Kirby and there's nothing wrong with that. The crowds did not crowd and they were mostly older. In the video below, note how empty the place feels and how many people you see walking with canes.
A number of attendees told me they felt more of a sense of belonging at this con than they get at The Big One. I long ago realized that the following is true of the annual Comic-Con International: No one matters much. That's not a criticism of it…just simple reality when you're dealing with something of that magnitude. The thing is just too damned huge for anyone to matter much. When people say to me, "Oh, you do four thousand panels…they can't have Comic-Con without you," I think these folks are being nice but utterly wrong. Put me on a list with a hundred other industry professionals and program participants. If none of us showed up, the con would still be every bit as crowded and for most attendees, the exact same experience. Biggest difference? It might take the con an entire half-hour to sell out instead of twenty minutes.
I accept that and I enjoy myself in spite of it. I just carve out a little place for myself and love the con on those terms. It's like going to Disneyland. You can't matter. You can't even feel particularly in control of your environment. You can just use some of what's there to construct a very good time for yourself.
The San Diego Comic Fest offered us something Comic-Con hasn't offered San Diego con-goers for a long time: The chance to be at least a medium-sized fish in a small pond. Depending on what you want to get out of a convention, that may or may not satisfy you but it satisfied me. If you wanted to buy lots of old comics and new books, that wasn't really there. If you wanted to get work, that wasn't there. If you wanted to fraternize with folks who create comics…well, I was there and Murphy Anderson was there and Scott Shaw! and Stan Sakai and George Gladir and Don Glut and Bill Morrison and Batton Lash and Jim Hudnall and just a few others. I personally wouldn't feel insulted if you felt we were insufficient.
A few weeks before, considering the failing health of my mother, I was wondering if I shouldn't cancel or maybe limit my presence to driving down one morning and driving back the same evening. Not that I'm glad in any way to have lost her but the timing worked out for me. I needed the vacation just then. And being behind on my work, I needed a con where I could go up to the room now and then, gain some yardage on my laptop and then just hang out with friends. So for me, it was the right convention at the right time. There's much to be said for small conventions, starting with the fact that they're less about the business than they are about the people.
This CNN video may give you a better idea of what it was all about…