So much happened at the Comic-Con International in San Diego that folks are still reporting on it. Here's Jim MacQuarrie with a report on the annual Jack Kirby Tribute Panel hosted by Guess Who. And here he is reporting on a panel I hosted called That 70's Panel.
By the way: In the latter, it says that Jim Starlin told a story about a certain art job that George Tuska did once. That was actually me who told that story. (No criticism of MacQuarrie, by the way. Transcripts of convention panels are frequently, like 90% of the time, filled with misquotes and misattributions. He's better than almost anyone else.)
While we're on the subject of the con, I have this from Dave Gordon…
I wonder whether your view of the convention is coloured by the fact that you spend so much of your time on panels, in a nice comfy seat, and not walking around in the heaving crowds. It has gotten a lot bigger in the last few years, and while the convention centre has expanded to try and accomodate it, the crowds have grown even more.
I guess this wouldn't really be a complaint, more a comment on the reality of it. One shouldn't criticise the Con for being popular, but I can understand how you don't have the same experience as the average attendee, and especially don't see the huge event it now is, as worse than it used to be.
Yes, it's true that as a Guest of Honor and the moderator of eight zillion panels, I don't have quite the same experience as the average attendee but, first of all, there are certainly times when I'm wandering around that hall, coping with the same crowds as anyone else…and they don't bother me.
Now, to that someone might say, "Yeah, but they might if you were walking around in those crowds for four solid days." And if someone said that, I'd answer, "Then don't spend four solid days doing that."
Remember the stellar advice of Henny Youngman — "Doctor, it hurts when I do this." "Then don't do that!" Go to panels and sit down. Find a booth where you know someone and they'll let you sit for a while so the convention can come to you. Or only go to the con for a day. I will also add that the average attendee doesn't have to deal with the schedule problems I have, running from meetings down on the floor, up to do panels for which I dare not be late. I'm not asking for sympathy…just noting that sometimes I have to navigate through that maze of people in Klingon suits in one helluva hurry and I always make it.
Ultimately though, I think the answer is not to be "the average attendee," whatever that is. I keep telling people that the convention they want to attend is probably in there somewhere…they just have to go out and find it. I don't know how many people told me they longed for the days when the con was all about creating comics and not about promoting new products…and then when I ask them if they made it down to the Artists' Alley section, they say no and/or ask what the heck that is. (What the heck it is is a large part of the exhibit hall where artists, young and old, sit around and show their wares and talk comics.)
Matter of fact, yesterday I dropped by a mini-con downtown and a friend of mine was bitching about the San Diego soiree, complaining about being surrounded by videogame promotions when what he was really interested in was the grand and glorious heritage of the classic comic book. What I asked him was what the hell he was doing down there in the videogaming moshpit when I was upstairs interviewing Al Feldstein and Al Jaffee and Jerry Robinson and Len Wein and…well, you get my point.
Come on, people. Do a little planning. Next year, study the program guide in advance. Examine the floor plan and figure out the whereabouts of the portions of the con that interest you. If it's all too overwhelming for four days, go for one or two. Or if that's still excessive, maybe you just plain need to go to smaller conventions. In a way, I think of the Comic-Con International as a whole bunch of smaller conventions — a comic con, an s-f con, an animation con, a gaming con, etc. — all being held simultaneously in one big building. It's like almost everything else that's good in life. It's there but you have to go look for it. It won't come to you.