Okay, I'm up now, getting ready to head back for another day of WonderConning. At 12:30, I'm giving a talk on How to Write Animation so I have a little more than three hours in which to learn.
One thing that struck me about the convention here is this: Folks often complain the comic book conventions these days don't have enough comics for sale. That's not the fault of the convention operators who are presumably not refusing to sell space to dealers who want to sell comics. Some of those dealers have simply found eBay and other outlets to be better ways to sell their wares.
Something I don't think many people have ever realized about the folks who haul long boxes of old comics to conventions is how hard it is. I mean, how physically demanding and exhausting it is to load one's truck, drive it to the con, unload it, set up in the exhibit hall, tend the booth throughout the convention, then reverse the entire process at the end of the last day. Often, they do all this for non-vast amounts of money…and sometimes, they lose because buyers think, "Oh, that's a buck cheaper on eBay." On eBay, you're not paying for quite as much labor.
Anyway, what I've noted is that such exhibitors at WonderCon are not being replaced so much by the dread Big Hollywood but by individual artisans — people who've designed delightful (often) dolls or jewelry or art prints. There are two or three dealers down there selling superb, homemade Henson-style hand puppets. And there are of course some fine small-press self-published comics. A lot of them. There's nothing wrong with people selling comics and books that others made but there's something a bit special about people selling unique items that they themselves made.
I don't recall if I've mentioned this but a few Comic-Cons ago, some friends of Carolyn's attended — friends who didn't strike me as all that interested in comic books or even most of the movies and videogames and such being hawked. They loved it and when I asked them what they found of such interest, the reply was, "It's so exciting to be around all these creative people…all these people who've drawn something or made something." One said, "It makes me want to run home and write or draw something." Everywhere they looked, they saw that.
That's a lot of what I'm seeing here at WonderCon…creative folks creating. There's a beauty to that even if you don't particularly want to buy any one person's wares. I loitered a while at one table where someone — I think it may have been a small-team effort — had these wonderful, funny stuffed animal toys. They were small creatures with the most wonderful silly, organic expressions and if I had room in my home to display one more thing larger than a Rice Krispie, I would have purchased several. As it was, I watched one convention attendee spot them, fall in love and instantly buy all the ones I would have bought.
I like that about conventions. In my youth, I always used to cringe at the use of the term, "contact high," which I guess denoted some sort of osmosis-related transfer of the effects of some drug. It came to mean any sort of sharing of good feelings and I guess it's applicable to this. It is exciting to be around talented, enterprising people. Perhaps it evokes some jealousy or resentment but when it has the opposite effect, it can make you feel awfully good. I'm not sure I could ever make an adorable hand-sewn frog like the ones I saw at that booth but I sure admire the people who did. And I sure like being in a convention hall full of them.
And now if you'll excuse me, I have to pack my gear, stow it in my car, grab something to eat, get to the con and figure out how to write cartoons. I think it has something to do with finding reasons for characters to say, "Let's get out of here!" I'll talk to you more tonight when I get back to L.A. It oughta be an easy drive. How could the freeways around Disneyland possibly be crowded on Easter Sunday?