Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Comic Books Need Not Apply...

The San Diego International Comic Convention is one of the largest and well known comic book conventions on the planet. I have been a few times over the last few years and I think I got out just in time.

No longer is it about the art of the comic book and filling holes in collections built over many years unfortunately. Comic books have taken a back seat to what the con has ultimately become and that is a soap box for every Hollywood production company to shop their goods. Movies and television shows that have nothing at all to do with the world of the comic geek take up most of the space and time that used to be filled with the major and minor publishing companies.

I am not a fan.

The last year I was there I had to deal with hoards of Twilight fans filling up the biggest convention hall so they could save seats for the Twilight panel in the middle of the day. They rolled their eyes at the panels they didn't care about and joked at how lame everything was while fans of certain franchised sat outside and missed things they wanted to see.

While there is no Twilight panel this year the place is still over run with Hollywood pushing any and all films they may have coming up in an attempt to woo one of the most critical groups of viewers to enter a theater. The Fanboy.

They figure that if they get the people who manage to get a Spider-Man and Batman movie a few billion dollars to commit to come seeing their movie about two hard luck police detectives then they will be able to make some "comic book money" on a flick they paid 10 million to make. It's a little ridiculous and doesn't really work but they do it any way and that means time and floor space is taken from a comic book property to make room for a studio movie that has nothing to do with the genre.

This doesn't mean I don't wish I could be there each and every year with all the other geeks though. I want to be there. I want to be walking down the street and run into a celeb of the comic or film world. I want to see some of the upcoming toys and books I'm going to want to buy. I want to be able to ask questions of the guys who create the heroes of my youth and today. But I don't have a giant urge to be crushed in the massive crowd of sweaty fanboys all out for themselves. I don't want to have to sit in line and wait for a panel I'll never be able to get into.

So I'll stay home and remember fondly of the times I went to SDCC when it wasn't sold out within weeks of tickets going on sale.

But I hear WonderCon is a cool place to hang out...