Another article on the upcoming 50th Comic-Con in San Diego. I've been interviewed for a whole bunch o' these and I have six interviews scheduled at the con. I hope it always comes across that I enjoy the convention tremendously and think the folks who run it do the best job humanly possible.
"How do you think it's changed?" is the inevitable question. I think it's changed as the world has changed, as the comic book industry has changed, as we all have changed. Yes, there are elements of cons past that I miss but some of them — like sitting by the pool and talking comics with Will Eisner or Jack Kirby — were not endless and were going to disappear on us, no matter what. And some of the smaller, intimate experiences can be had simply by getting one's self to smaller conventions, of which there are plenty.
A friend unloaded on me the other day why he's not going to the con this year, just as he hasn't done for many years, past and future. He had a golden time at them in the eighties and it's not going to be like that again, in large part because he's not going to be 27 again.
At one con back then, he got an exciting job offer and he met Joe Kubert, who was his all-time favorite maker of comics. Not only that but he struck up a conversation with one of several attractive ladies then cosplaying (we didn't use that word then) as Red Sonja and that led to them sharing a mattress and each other that night. "You can't tell me all that's going to happen again if I go this year," he said…and he's right. I can't, especially since we lost Joe Kubert and since the Red Sonja ladies all started dressing like Harley Quinn.
But good things always happen at that convention. That's why I never miss it.