Comic-Con 2008 Review by Amy Welker
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
I have wanted to go to this convention for some time; thank goodness I have a pop culture mole that planned on going this year to give me the scoop. There’s been a lot in the news about this years festivities but my good friend and pop culture reporter Amy Welker is here to set the record straight (so to speak)…
(Not Amy)
Even before I got to Comic-Con (http://comic-con.org) I was comparing it to Burning Man. Both are huge events, both draw an esoteric crowd, along with main stream people and both events are what you make of it. As a first time participant at Comic-con I was completely unprepared. As a person who knows little of the comic genre, I had a great time and an adventure. Just to be there with the fans, at an event like that was a great experience. I would love to see a survival guide that has all the tips from the experst about maneuvering through the event. I felt like a newbie at Burning Man.
I’m lucky enough to know someone who knows someone who got us comp tickets. While there are many things that would draw me to Comic-Con, I don’t really know enough about comics, their storytellers or artists to get the most of what Comic-Con has to offer. TV was my draw, that and the possibility of seeing Joss Whedon. People thing that I am a Joss Whedon fanatic but after experiencing this even I think I can now convince people that I am merely an enthusiast.
The lines for the panels were insane. I could have spent the entire weekend waiting in line to see the panels for Lost, Heroes, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog, Pushing Daisies, or Bones, but there was a lot to see without those so I chose to explore.
The art spanned the whimsical and fantastical (is that a word) to the down right scary. If you like fairies and dragons this place is your Mecca. The area I spent the most time in was the small press area. In this space you could speak directly with the artists. One of my favorite things to do is talk to people about what they are interested in and I got my fill here. I got to speak to several artists in detail. One told me the story of his book, which is about a brother and sister, one good and one evil, who don’t realize they are each others nemesis. His 10 year-old son even wrote a story that was available at the booth. Click here to see more: http://supersiblingscomics.com/.
Of course, through all of this you have to move through throngs of people, many in crazy customs that are repeatedly stopped to have their picture taken. This is another Burning Man similarity. The San Diego Convention Center is 2.6 million square feet and the con has out-grown it, so that’s a lot of people (see below):
I did get a close up glimpse of Joss Whedon at the Dark Horse booth. I actually got a little flustered at the site of him, giddy even. He was there promoting Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long blog (http://drhorrible.com/) and Dollhouse (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2008/07/comic-con-joss.html).
The event was an experience. Everywhere you walk people are handing you something. Before entering I had set the intention to not collect schwag, but getting caught up in the frenzy, that plan didn’t last long and I ended up with postcards, stickers, and five full-length novels. This place is not a friend of the environment. Money moves fast through this place and like accumulating schwag, you get excited about what is there and start buying.
While I’m slightly bummed I wasn’t able to get into the panels I had an andventure and that’s ultimately what I was looking for.
