Dale Herbest asked me this question over on Facebook and I felt like answering it here…
I'm sure you've been asked this before but here goes. With Comic-Con right around the corner, do you ever get distressed or upset that the event has become a mecca for all geek things, not just comic books. You know TV, movies, and video games? Personally, I love it as it celebrates all things and appeals to many different factions. Since you've been around since the event was launched, how do you sum-up its evolution?
I love Comic-Con. I wouldn't want every convention to be like that but…well, sometimes the complaints I hear about it sound like the person is saying, "I wish Disneyland was a tiny little place with just a couple of merry-go-rounds and one roller coaster." The kind of thing some folks wish Comic-Con was either (a) exists elsewhere in sufficient quantity or (b) cannot possibly exist anywhere. A few weeks ago, I got a message from someone who — and I'm not exaggerating by much here — wishes we could return to those days at the El Cortez where the convention was sitting by the pool and talking with Jack Kirby. Yeah, and I wish Johnny Carson was still hosting The Tonight Show and comics were still twelve cents.
I do not mind the presence of TV and movies and video games because, like it or not, that's the current comic book industry. That's what Marvel and DC are all about now: TV and movies and video games. Superman and Spider-Man stopped being comic book characters a long time ago. Now they're characters that exist in every possible medium, one of which happens to be comic books. Tomorrow, if all comic books ceased publication, it would not affect Superman and Spider-Man and other such properties very much.
Now, you can complain that Comic-Con is about all that stuff. It seems more logical to me to lament what the comic book business has become — and oh, by the way, all the complaining in the world isn't going to change either.
So the question comes down to this: Are you going to just look at what it isn't (and have a lousy time or better still, not attend) or are you going to hop on for the ride and find all the things about it that you can enjoy?
For me, Comic-Con is 4.5 solid days of Stuff To Do. My calendar is absolutely jammed with events I like hosting, events I like attending, meetings, people to see, people to eat with, etc. When there's a moment open between items on my schedule, it's fun to just walk around and look at things…and I always run into folks I enjoy seeing. Wouldn't miss it for the world.
I am off today — leaving in less than an hour so I have to type fast — for the Phoenix Comicon. In the last few years, I largely gave up conventions that weren't Comic-Con or WonderCon because I was finding myself bored (or occasionally, not treated all that well) at conventions that weren't Comic-Con or WonderCon. I decided it was time to try another one…and lots of folks told me this was a good one.
If I don't like it, I suspect it will be because of me and not the convention. When people tell me they don't like Comic-Con in San Diego, I usually think that's the problem.
Gotta pack.