Why Comic-Con Made Me Sad
Comic-Con, mecca for all things hyper-geek. Jerusalem for nerds. We met last week for the first time, and you wowed me with web-swingers and light-saber slashers. I loved your movie trailers and TV-show panels. Then I realized something: Comic-Con isn’t about the comics, and that made me sad.
Without a doubt, the CON is a blast, and those who attend won’t regret it, but the event seems to have lost a lot of what made it sparkle back in the day. It used to be, at least from what I could gather from this year’s 40th anniversary guide, a place that was all about the comics and all about the art.
Now it’s just a place a bunch of people come to get sneak-peeks at the latest in pop-culture. Comic-Con has fundamentally changed from a show for the geeks, ran by the geeks, into this buzz-building festival for big-media. Sure, the CON still had its comic-book panels, though scattered, and signings prominent on the floor. Still, while I am unfamiliar with many of the inner-workings of the CON, I have heard whispers that big-media companies, with their fat wallets, have an easier time of snatching one of the floor’s coveted booths. And that makes me sad.
If I’m wrong, and my impressions are off base, feel free to comment.
***A little factoid: the first committee for Comic-Con 0 was mostly ran by teenagers.***
