Total Number of Ratings: 8
Talk Amongst Ourselves: What Are You Going to Miss at San Diego Comic-Con?
Thursday, July 23, 2009 1:49 PM
Unless you count female barbershop competitions, I have only been to two conventions. Both were local, and both were attended more for the spectacle of the True Fans than for the actual event. I like Star Trek and Anime just fine, mind you, but I will never have the enthusiasm required to enjoy such events with the abandon I see there. The real geeky conventions, the ones that get national media coverage like E3, PAX, and the ComiCons, have always felt like mythical things that "real people" don't go to. This year, everything has changed.
The bulk of the murmur/iFanboy staff is going, including the only one I can confirm is is a really-real person. Thanks to twitter, those of us who are left behind are getting a play-by-play of their adventures. It's great, because it almost feels like we're there, but it's also a bit crummy. Suddenly, real people are there, and if they can go, why didn't I? I would have waited in an over-long line to get what looks like one of the tastiest-looking burgers ever. I would have stressed over my iPhone making the cross-country trip with enough battery left to document everything. I would have worn my favorite t-shirt and taunted the twi-hards from a safe distance. I would have saved and shelled out the cash for the plane tickets, hotel rooms, and the extra suitcase for all the things I'd buy that I don't need.
I had been consoling myself with the fact that I'm not into comics so most of the SDCC would be over my head and be relatively boring. There's only so much time you can spend in the vendor room(s) until you've seen it all and have run out of cash, really. Cosplay offers only so much spectacle before you go blind from the pleather and ducktape. I had intentionally forgotten about all the other geekdom that would be on display. Jim tried to point out that those of us who aren't going will have a better opportunity to see it all, thanks to the broadcasting from all the fans there, but there's something about being in the thick of it, feeding of the fan-frenzy that twitters and press releases can't replicate, and the internet will be there when they get back.
So I'm bummed I'm missing it. I'll miss checking out the faces behind my favorite webcomics even if I never walk up and say hi to them. I'll miss getting starstruck by Jossverse folks (and Neil Gaiman!). I'll miss the previews for upcoming movies I'm already excited about. I'll miss laughing at the cosplayers while not-so-secretly wishing I was one. I'll miss being sleep deprived and having absurd amounts of fun and crashing on the plane ride back home.
How about you? Are you completely disinterested in going? Do you wish you were there? What would you be sure to see?
(photo taken without express permission, but since he's at SDCC, he might not even notice)
I could see locals not loving it, but think of those tourism dollars. I'm sure the local government and businesses don't mind too much. Also, once a week every year, there's an offhand chance they'll see Mark Hamill walking down the street! How could you not enjoy that time of year?
to be fair, when the NRA had their national convention in my backyard, i wasn't exactly pleased with the effect it had on the neighborhood, tourism or not.
i wish i would have remembered that last night.
@JefR: The locals LOVE San Diego Comic-Con. We always make a point of talking to them about it when we are out and about. They love the money that gets dumped on the city by 125,000 visitors, but they always say that the con-goers are so nice. And as one guy told us at a bar, it's the only time of the year that you can run into Boba Fett at Starbucks.
I'm playing devil's advocate here, but I could see a local who has to commute into downtown San Diego for work not loving the huge increase in traffic during that week.
Still, when I went there a few years ago, I know that all the restaurants we went to said that we were among the nicest conventioners they get. A few looked wistfully at our bags and said they wished they could go too.
I want to go one of these days, but it costs money, takes preparation and suffering - staying in line or in the same seat for several panels to see the latest one sounds bad.
I would love if they made video or at least audio recordings of the convention. It's such an organized convention that it seems stupid not to - and to sell them (or maybe they do?).
2600 is big in that kind of thing. I know I have no chance of attending any of the type of cons they have but I know I can buy DVDs of the panels one of these days.
There needs to be a pirate SDCC radio station.
There is a law that more people need to be aware of: No one is allowed to have fun without me! You hear me people at SDCC? Of course you don't. You're busy having fun. *sigh*
I'm most sad about missing the Doctor Who panel with Russel T. Davies and David Tennant, both of whom are leaving the show soon. So I know that even if I do make it to San Diego next year, I'll never be there to see that panel :(
*And* there's a Torchwood panel with John Barrowman. I saw we hijack the TARDIS and get our butts to San Diego :)
sigh. i'm not sure my husband would let me go anymore. he thinks my crush on captain jack is a bit too serious ;)
The last time I went was '05 with my folks. That place is amazing. I would go every year, if I could. For me, the most fun of it was just to see the cosplay and get tons of graphic novels dirt cheap. And hey, I saw Natalie Portman in person, which was kinda cool. And Bruce Campbell. Honestly, I loved it the entire time I was there and am super jealous of everyone who is there right now.
Sure would love to make it to SDCC some year, although it seems like it would be a madhouse. Alhough Twitter, sure would make it easy to catch up with all the interesting people you meet here on the internet.
Respond
i went to dinner last night with a group of friends from high school (that i mostly haven't seen in years). one of them recently moved home from san diego and went on a mini-rant about how annoying comicon is and how it's gotten so much "worse" in the last few years and she's so glad she's not there with all those weirdos.
it was an interesting evening ;)