Category: comics

I haven’t gotten around to blogging from San Diego at all this year. It’s just been too busy. I’ve had a lot of thoughts bouncing around in my head, though. The con is over now, and I’m back in my hotel room with not much to do, so I thought I’d write a long rambling blog post on a few things that came up during the con.

A lot of people have blogged about how the city of San Diego doesn’t think that the con contributes as much to the local economy as other, smaller, cons that are, shall we say, a bit more upscale. I got into a discussion with a cab driver today, and I can tell you that the cab drivers have loved the past few days. This guy said that the cabbies were making $300 to $500 a day over the last few days, which is apparently a lot more than they usually make. He said things had slowed down today (Sunday), but he was still doing pretty well. And I can say that, just walking around the Gaslamp and Horton Plaza, I’m seeing a heck of a lot of con folks moving around and (presumably) spending money.

The combination of my iPod Touch and having free wifi at the convention center turned out to be a very good thing. There’s always a lot of empty time to fill at the con, sitting in a panel room between panels, or waiting in line for something. I got in the habit of bringing out my iPod Touch at these times, and browsing through a few comics-related newsfeeds through Google Reader. This allowed me to keep up with stuff that was going on elsewhere at the con during the day, rather than having to wait until I got back to the hotel room and my laptop. Very useful, and kind of fun.

Due to the huge size of the con now, I had pretty low expectations about how many panels I would actually be able to get into. I was pleasantly surprised about my success rate in that area. I got into the Fringe preview on Wednesday night, no problem. I got into the Doctor Who and Torchwood panels on Thursday and the Stargate Continuum and Atlantis panels on Friday. The only big problem I had was on Friday afternoon and evening, when they closed off the line for room 6B, so I didn’t see the Venture Bros panel or the MST3K 20th anniversary panel. I wound up leaving the con earlier than I’d really wanted to on Friday, just because I couldn’t really get into any of the nighttime stuff that I was interested in. I spent a little time in one of the anime rooms watching Gurren Lagann, then just took off around 7pm, I think.

I did pretty well on Saturday, though. Saturday is traditionally the most crowded day at the con, but I think the dynamic may have changed a bit on that. Or maybe it’s just me. I plunked myself down in one panel room around 10am, and basically stayed there all day, until around 4:30pm.

Saturday night I went to a live Rifftrax event outside the convention center, at the Balboa Theater downtown. It was a live “riff” on Plan 9 From Outer Space. Not that it’s at all hard to make fun of that movie, but the guys (Nelson, Murphy, and Corbett) did a great job. Very funny.

Today, Sunday, I again went to a bunch of panels, but this time I actually had to get up and switch rooms a few times. I never really had to wait in line for a panel, nor did I fail to get into any panel, though.

I stayed at the Sheraton on Harbor Island this year, which is the farthest I’ve ever been from the convention center. I can’t say I’m happy about that, and it has been a bit of an inconvenience, but it was manageable. The shuttle bus situation was a little problematic. There are two separate towers to the Sheraton, and they’re about a five-minute walk apart from each other. I’m staying in the “Bay Tower” which is basically the secondary one. On the first day of the con, a bunch of us waited in front of our building for the shuttle bus for about an hour. It turned out that the bus was filling up at the main tower, and just wasn’t bothering to come by our tower at all. I wound up taking a cab to the con that day, and I’ve just walked over to the main tower every day since and caught the shuttle there. No big problem, but it just seems like something they could have figured out, maybe by having every other bus (or every third bus) stop at the Bay Tower first.

And I’ve found myself taking cabs on a few other occasions, to get from downtown back to the hotel or vice versa. There’s really no viable mass transit option to get off Harbor Island, as far as I can tell. I’m definitely hoping to get into a downtown hotel next year, assuming I go back.

Overall, a great con. I’ve definitely had a good time, learned a few things, seen some interesting people, had a few good laughs, and discovered a few comics, movies, and books that I hadn’t previously heard of. I’ve got a bunch more stuff I could blog about, but this post is already too long, and I need to pack, so I’ll just save that stuff up for another day.

I’m off to San Diego tomorrow. I noticed today that Variety has a Comic-Con news page up at http://www.variety.com/comiccon. I guess the con is really in the big leagues now. It still seems kind of weird to be seeing articles about the con in Variety and the New York Times.

I stumbled across a couple of semi-interesting con articles on the web today. SanDiego.com has a short article on “how to enjoy comic-con.” Mostly common sense stuff there.

The Huffington Post has an article titled “Obama at Comic Con.” The article is basically making the case for an Obama appearance at the con. There was some talk about this elsewhere a couple of months back. It’s not going to happen, but it’s an interesting idea. Heck, Obama was thinking about doing a NASCAR sponsorship; if you’re going to go after the NASCAR crowd, why not the geeks too?

Here’s an article about the San Diego con that ran in the NY Times a few weeks ago. It’s nice to see the con getting mainstream attention, but it’s a bit annoying to see them calling out stuff like this advice from the con magazine: “Please don’t smell bad.” Well, yeah, it does seem like some people at the con need to be told that. But it’s really not a defining characteristic of the average con-goer.

And the Times calls the con “decidedly low-rent.” I think that anyone who can afford a hotel room in San Diego during the con is *not* low-rent. Sure, there are a lot of people who would rather spend their money on comics and related merchandise at the con than spend it in an overpriced hotel restaurant, but regardless, the con has to be pumping a lot of money into San Diego each year. Heck, I’m pretty sure I drop about $200 each con, just at Starbucks!

(Here’s a blog post on this article that I mostly agree with.)

The Thursday and Sunday schedules are up at the comic-con site. As usual, plenty of interesting stuff.

Some Thursday highlights: a Paul Gulacy spotlight, Doctor Who and Torchwood panels (both with Russell T Davies), an Eddie Campbell spotlight, the Mark and Sergio panel, DC Nation, and, at night, the annual Ric Meyers’ Kung-Fu Extravaganza.

And Sunday: The Jack Kirby tribute panel, a Kyle Baker spotlight, a second DC Nation panel, the Art of the Cover panel, Cartoon Voices, Dave Gibbons, and Buffy the Musical!

There’s a great post over at The Beat on the San Diego con. It includes a short interview with David Glanzer. Some of the comments are worth reading too. As expected, four-day badges are sold out, and one-day badges will likely sell out too.

I think the con experience will be a little different for me this year, since I’m staying at a hotel that’s not in a reasonable walking distance of either the con or downtown. Since it won’t be easy for me to pop back and forth to the hotel during the day, I’ll probably wind up spending either more time in the convention center, or more time in the hotel. (I get the feeling that once I’m back in the hotel at night, I probably won’t want to bother making the trip back out to the convention center again for any late-night activities.)

Given the size to which the con has grown, I’m probably going to try to concentrate on stuff that’s outside the mainstream, and maybe look for some interesting off-site events, like the Rifftrax event I blogged about previously.

I’m actually wondering if there will be a lot of no-shows for the con this year, given the cost of gas, and the general state of the economy. Anyone who waited until just recently to book air travel may be having second thoughts, for instance. And I can imagine some local California folks who would normally drive to the con from, say, the LA area, skipping it this year.

Well, either way, I’m sure it will be interesting, and (as usual) a great change of pace from NJ in July!