ComicCon Impressions

On Monday I wrote about how my time was spent at ComicCon this past week-end. Today I want to elaborate a bit on some of my impressions on how the Con was run and things I heard or observed while there.

At first I liked how the Con was all within the same huge room and how things were laid out in sections, I realized partway through the first day that it is not necessarily the best set-up. This was apparent while Marv Wolfman was trying to conduct a Q & A session about writing comics. I was one of a handful of people taking the workshop, and we could barely hear anything Marv had to say, and vice versa. We were put in an area directly next to the Main Stage area, where Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca from Star Wars) was holding a Q & A session. While I don't begrudge Chewie getting his panel time, the problem was he had a microphone and Marv didn't. Add in the noise from the Arena area (a Norse fighting demo was going on at the time) and I could tell that Marv was very frustrated that we couldn't hear him.

I don't know that it's own room is necessary (though it would be preferable), but when holding a smaller workshop like that I think it would be better to put it in another area of the room. Marv commented that we could probably hear him better if we were at his table in Artists' Alley; I think he was right.

On the topic of Marv Wolfman, I just want to say what a joy it was to listen to him talking about how important it is to put the characters before the plot. He made it very clear that rather than picking a plot and trying to shoe-horn characters into it, pick the characters first and see what plot develops. He is a man who is all about the story before the commercialism, and it really showed in his descriptions of how to write.

I mentioned in my Monday post that I did not attend the Adam West panel. I had planned on it at the beginning of the week-end, but had no desire to by Sunday afternoon. I think the reason was I didn't like how the comic professionals were not getting the attention they deserved. There was a special "Autograph Alley" for special guests at the Con; the top notch comic guys like Marv Wolfman weren't in that area! Some broken-down old WWF wrestlers, the man inside the Chewbacca suit, a guy from the A-Team...these guys outrank the comic talent at a comic convention? There were constant reminders over the PA to go and get the "celebrity" autographs, but no reminders to go see Marv Wolfman, Bob Layton, or Gordon Purcell?

The World of Comics panel had at best 30 people in the audience, and when it started the creators were worried they were going to outnumber the audience. I guess that means that a lot of the people at the Con aren't there for the comics aspect (which would explain why there were more women at the Con then I expected), which I found disappointing.

Audience numbers aside, I really enjoyed listening to the World of Comics panel discussion. I was a little disappointed that when I asked a question I really wanted Marv Wolfman to answer only Gordon Purcell did, but that's okay, he gave a good answer. I really liked Marv's answer to a question about the future of big "event" comics; his answer was big events are good when you have a great story to tell, they aren't so good when they are created strictly to be an "event" to sell comics. Bob Layton came back on that topic with the business end of it, saying the bean-counters don't care if a comic is an event or not, they're just worried about how many units are sold. It was interesting to see the two kind of disagree on the subject.

Something that I really enjoyed about the Con was how friendly and helpful most people were to each other. I spent a few hours digging through boxes at a booth for back issues (they weren't organized AT ALL, but that's why they were so cheap), and the whole time everyone would help each other out while digging. For example, I overheard a kid and his dad talking about looking for Fantastic Four comics. I think three different people, myself included, started tossing Fantastic Four books to them as we dug through whenever we found them. If someone had just been through a box, they might ask what you're looking for and tell you if they saw any of it or not to save you time. There is a community feel at the Con because of the shared love of the hobby that is really nice.

On the whole I enjoyed my experience, and I would like to go back again. Who the special guests are would help determine if I'd go for the whole week-end again or just for a day. And by special guests I mean the comic pros that are present; the celebrities really didn't interest me this year (I was also turned off of Adam West I think because of his $40 charge for his autograph). If you're looking for something fun to take the family too, I'd say check out the Con; there was trick-or-treating throughout the Con on Saturday as a safe alternative to doing so on the street, which was a nice touch.