To me, posting all of the photos from Comic-Con is what officially makes Comic-Con a thing of the past now. Memories and faces, old and new are all viewable to all eight of my regular visitors and the rest of the would-be inquiring internet. I’ve shared most of my thoughts about the experience as a whole, and people I’ve photographed may or may not be pleased with the pictures of them that I took.
But before I shift my focus towards back to what lies ahead, I had a few more sporadic thoughts, opinions and words I’d like to get out before I officially close the book on the whole SDCC Experience and try to get back to somewhat of a regular schedule.
Favorite Photos of the Weekend
Sterling Archer, #1 ISIS Field Agent
A very special thanks goes out to Amy Beth Christenson, for allowing us to use her lovely child Ellie, to be the star of this particular set of photographs demonstrating just how competent and responsible Sterling Archer is at his job.
Hello Nurse, Animaniacs
I walked past her, only being aware of the shapely blonde dressed in white, but then I noticed the Yakko and Wakko dolls in her hand, and then it dawned on me really fast.
Red Ranger, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Proof that palm trees in the background make a good backdrop for all sorts of subjects, including Power Rangers.
Crisis on Infinite Earth
This was just hilarious to me. Iconic Superman cover, reproduced and made parody of, with use of a blowup doll.
Lonely Virgil
When I saw that Virgil was going to be at Comic-Con, I knew I had to make an effort to take a good, high-quality picture myself of a Lonely Virgil picture. It was actually a little more difficult to make happen than I thought it would, because there wasn’t a whole lot of space for me to shoot from, and there were constantly people walking through my line of sight, not to mention trying not to be too obvious to the man himself at what I was doing. But mission accomplished, I guess.
Comic-Con vs. Dragon Con
I know it’s kind of silly to try and compare the two, considering their vast difference in size, but when it boils down to it, they’re both still kind of the same kind of convention, with the difference being location and size. Regardless, the comparisons floated through my head often throughout my trip, so I guess it’s worth bringing up.
Obviously, Comic-Con is bigger. Way bigger. Probably to the tune of three times larger, in attendance. I think the biggest thing Comic-Con has going for it is its great location, proximity to Hollywood, and the fact that their event is pretty much unopposed by anything else. Dragon Con on the other hand, is in a very constricted area, located in the state of Georgia. Those who live here understand how it is here, but to the vast majority of the United States, Georgia is still seen as this backwater country red state, that can’t really be taken seriously in the “cool nerds” world.
Furthermore Dragon Con is just one event throughout the city, every Labor Day weekend. It coincides with the kickoff of college football, to where anywhere from 1-3 major games are played less than a mile from convention territory, often times overlapping attendees much to the dismay of DC’ers. Often times, a mile away is where the black gay pride conglomeration takes place at Piedmont Park, bringing a substantial number to the city for that event. And seemingly every other year, the Braves are home during Labor Day weekend, and often times slated against a popular opponent, which brings more tourists in for that as well.
At the very worst, Comic Con might have to coincide with perhaps a Padres series, but as I’ve learned in my baseball travels, they don’t have a lot of fans to begin with. The mentality would be if they know they’re going to run into traffic, they’d probably not go in the first place.
Although Comic-Con definitely has a size advantage over Dragon Con, I will say that at the core of things, Dragon Con hasn’t really changed that much. It’s no secret that Comic-Con has transformed throughout the last decade from “just another nerdy convention” to this Hollywood, corporate, pop-culture festival that’s widely accepted by the mainstream press. Felicia Day sits behind a velvet rope, being feebly taught how to play Magic the Gathering. Trailers and limousines are parked all around the convention center for the vast number of A-list celebrities that played comic book characters in a movie but really don’t know about them. And despite having the name “Comic” in its name, there’s really not a whole lot that actually has to do with comics at Comic-Con.
Dragon Con simply put feels a whole lot more relaxed, as hard as it is to say, considering the mass chaos of people that go to it and cram the Marriott every year. Stephen Yuen or Ellen Muth can walk down to Starbucks by themselves, and maybe they’ll get stopped for a photo or a shoutout, but are still relatively capable on their own. Stan Lee is known to simply wander around by himself taking in the sights and sounds of the convention, and I’ve witnessed this behavior myself. And there just aren’t as many corporate events and exclusive parties to create that feeling of the high school caste system all over again. They really can’t either, due to the fact that there simply is nothing to takeover in the surrounding areas to have such soirees and events.
Dragon Con also has a way nerdier crowd than Comic-Con does, hands down. Out of the 130,000 people that were at Comic-Con, probably half of them were there because it’s the cool thing to do, or they were just rabid swag collectors. Seriously, people would go bonkers over something because it was free, and not because they were interested in it, and couldn’t care less if it were the Book of the Dead or a fucking pin from PBS, as long as it was free and being handed out.
There are far less scenesters and a vastly higher ratio of nerds with at least one massive reason to be at Dragon Con on a yearly basis. Whether it’s people wanting to meet Stan Lee, William Shatner, or meet cast members from The Walking Dead, or if they’re like me, and like costumes or do costumes, and just like taking pictures.
Speaking of costumes, there’s real no contest in costuming talent at these two events. I guess I was naïve to expect that there would be some fantastic costumes at Comic-Con because it was like the first west coast convention I’d been to since cosplay in general had gotten so major. The vast majority of costumes seen at Comic-Con couldn’t hold a candle to the quality of costumes that parade around Dragon Con. Even the overly done Storm Troopers at Comic-Con pale in comparison to ones that raid Dragon Con. This random person I was chatting with in a line was talking about this “dead on” Predator costumer he saw, and the Predator actually came back around at one point. It was okay, but wasn’t even close to the quality of what’s seen at every Dragon Con.
The funny thing in regards to costumes was whenever I saw something that I thought was pretty articulate and well-crafted, it was almost always someone that I know of, or actually knew already, and like me, had traveled to San Diego. But the overall quality of talent of costumers at Comic-Con is pretty much an embarrassment compared to what can be seen at Dragon Con.
I think when it comes down to it, I have to say that I prefer Dragon Con over Comic-Con. Not to say I wouldn’t go to Comic-Con because of that sentiment, but if both events theoretically happened at the same time, the same distance away from my present state, I would likely pick going to Dragon Con over Comic-Con. It’s simply a more sociable event, and when the weekend is over, I look fondly back at good times shared with other people rather than the food I’ve eaten, the sights I’ve seen, and which big name parties I’d gotten into.
Comic-Con to Las Vegas?
At least four different times, from four separate conversations, the subject of Comic-Con moving to Las Vegas emerged. The long and short of it is the fact that Comic-Con is evidently getting to the point where the city of San Diego simply cannot hold the sheer, increasing numbers of attendees with each passing year, and the fact that the city of Las Vegas really wants to bring Comic-Con over to their city.
Most people seemed capable of seeing both sides of the debate. There are valid arguments for and against each city, which leads to the conclusion is that it really is still kind of up in the air to whether or not this might actually happen in the future. Only the people in charge really have any inkling of an idea of this.
PRO: Attendance
The obvious fact is attendance. Simply put, Las Vegas is a city that was built to house hundreds of thousands of visitors on a daily basis, whereas San Diego can’t really compare. From the concern of growing attendance, Las Vegas is very much an ideal city to move to, since it’s a place with numerous hotels and lodging options and a gigantic convention center to base out of.
Frankly, it’s the factor of the highest priority, but when it boils down to a lot of the smaller arguments and intangibles, I begin to think that just because they can accommodate Comic-Con, doesn’t necessarily make it the ideal place to do such.
PRO: Drawing power
The appeal of Las Vegas is probably good enough to really reel in any celebrity that may have had any trepidations in the past about coming to Comic-Con. Make an appearance, and then vanish into the Vegas nightlife away from the nerds, and get paid just the same as if it were in San Diego, and probably have some posh villa at the Wynn or Venetian.
CON: Logistics
Since I’m obviously a veteran of Comic-Con after my one trip out there, but it’s pretty apparent that the convention was extremely reliant on an actual convention center, as their general base of operations, and massive, massive exhibitor’s hall. Las Vegas certainly has a gigantic convention center, but it’s really not in the most ideal location to house an event like Comic-Con, in my opinion.
The hotel it’s closest to is the Las Vegas Hilton; it’s a perfectly fine hotel in its own right, and way glitzier than any ordinary Hilton in the country, and has a massive casino on its floor level to boot, but when the day is over, it’s still a Hilton. Tourists come to Vegas so they can brag about having stayed at the MGM, New York-New York, Bellagio, Treasure Island, the Mirage, etc. None of the popular Strip hotels are remotely close to the convention center. The closest of the “luxury” class hotels to the convention center are the Wynn/Encore, Palazzo and Venetian, which also happen to be amongst the most expensive in the entire city. While this is great news for the numerous celebrity guests of Comic-Con, this really isn’t ideal for the Average Joe attendees, who probably will still be thinking of getting 2-4 people to a room to split the costs.
Las Vegas has a monorail system, but it doesn’t necessarily have the reputation of being one that’s reliable, nor do any of the hotels its actually connected to put much effort in trying to get people to actually use it. Furthermore, it’s kind of a system designed for hotel guests, which pretty much tells locals to fuck off and to use their own cars or use public transportation. AND it doesn’t run nearly as frequently as the San Diego trolleys do. The taxi business would definitely love the reliance on them that would take place, but I’m sure attendees will quickly tire of having to decide between walking a mile or two in Nevada summer desert heat or shelling out $20+ each way to their destinations.
CON: Children
As much of a pain in the ass it might be to surly grown-ups like myself, but kids do make up a very large chunk of the 130,000+ attendees at Comic-Con. Did you know that it’s against the law for minors to be walking around a casino floor without holding onto a guardian’s hand? Sure, it’s a loosely enforced rule, but at an event where there would be some expectation for plenty of minors to be running around, I’m sure the last thing that little 16-year old Hunter or 15-year old Chloe want to be legally forced to do is holding their parents’ hands while they’re crossing through the Hilton casino floor on their way to the convention center.
Or the more negligent parents who don’t actually parent their children will lose track of their kids, and they’ll sneak into a casino and “accidentally” win a major progressive jackpot like that one episode of Full House where Stephanie Tanner did. Or they wander too far off of convention grounds onto Paradise, where drunk ornery homeless bums and occasional hookers are known to walk down, and they get into an obviously illegal, but violent and/or STD riddled altercation? That’ll be some great stories, but probably a bigger pain in the ass for the city as well as the convention than it’s probably worth.
Not to mention the presence of line campers, I’d love to see people try and sleep outdoors in sleeping bags in Las Vegas. Hot weather plus bums and hookers, talk about a recipe for train wrecks, if it’s even legally allowed in the first place.
CON: It’s not San Diego
Las Vegas is a great place. I enjoy going to Las Vegas every year or so, and I rarely don’t have a good time when I do go. But let’s not sugar coat it, it’s a place that’s blazing hot in the summer, you’re walking miles worth of steps to get from point A to point B to point C and then back to A in said blazing hot, and it’s not exactly the safest place on the planet. Although I’ve never gotten into any altercations, there’s no denying the presence of bums, hookers, and drunk drivers all around the Strip. Downtown is an even sketchier region, especially at night and off of Fremont.
But it’s no San Diego. Beautiful, paradise-like San Diego. With its ocean breezes, tamer temperatures, and beautiful waterfront views all around. Where the bums are quiet hippie vegans who instantly vanish upon hearing rejection. Sure, it’s crowded, and there’s just not enough sidewalk for 130,000+ attendees. There aren’t enough hotels, there aren’t enough restaurants, people have to drive and ride taxis and trolleys to get there from their temporary crash spaces.
But it’s still San Diego, a city that has opened its arms and embraced Comic-Con. Allowed Comic-Con to take over pretty much all of its downtown area, and numerous corporations to buy out and takeover businesses left and right for the rights to be a part of the whole event. From pedicabs, food trucks to entire restaurants and buildings, all the way to Petco Park itself, it’s a city that allowed Comic-Con to essentially take it over.
There is no way on earth that Comic-Con takes over Las Vegas in the same fashion it takes over San Diego. It just can’t happen. No major hotel that’s a part of the MGM or Harrah’s group is going to let a bunch of nerds rename their entire hotel for five days, and there simply aren’t enough small local businesses surrounding the convention center area that could be really called upon to be eligible for takeover. Las Vegas takes Comic-Con over, for sure. Chintz, glitz, lights and tacky, Comic-Con loses its identity (even more so) simply becomes just another event on the calendar to fill hotels and get people to blow their cash, to a city like Las Vegas.
Not to mention that aside from not being able to take over the city, Comic-Con will have tons of competition to keep people at the convention. Sporting events, MMA fights, stage shows, comedy acts, the casinos themselves, etc. Sure, it can be argued that with exclusively pre-paid admissions, it’s none of the con’s concern to what the people do once they arrive, but if it turns out that people liked Vegas more than Comic-Con, what’s to make them decide to just forego Comic-Con in favor of a Vegas weekend instead in the future? As opposed to being really the only show in town in San Diego, that is.
Obviously, these are all just my opinions and conjectures, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s a lot of cons for just the pursuit of more capacity and the potential to draw celebrities. The writing may already be on the wall, based on the simple fact that SDCC went from officially being known as “San Diego Comic-Con,” to “Comic-Con International,” and has really put the comics aspect of their focus kind of in the backseat for pop-culture, celebrities, movies and television. Ultimately, if Las Vegas really wants Comic-Con, they’ll get Comic-Con by egregiously overpaying the right people to bring the ship to Nevada, but personally I don’t think it’s really a great idea.
I get that they want to expand and grow, and yes San Diego does appear to have a finite amount of operating space, but I can’t really feel that Las Vegas is really the best place to move it to. Or maybe it’s just my reluctance to accept change to something that I’d hope to see more of in its “native” location, instead of a place I’ve been a bunch of times.
