Broken Frontier

The San Diego Comic-Con has been around for 38 years. It has grown from a small gathering of comic fans to a cultural phenomenon. It has grown in ways that the original organizers could have never imagined.  For decades, I have heard legends of the convention, from the early fanzines to today’s internet. This year, for the first time, I was able to attend the historic event.

If I had to sum up the 2008 San Diego Con in one word, it would be “lines”. The line for entry on Preview night stretched all the way around to the back of the building by the time I got there (it took me an hour to get in). People started lining up for the Watchmen panel at 4AM. Many booths had lines of fans wrapping around them to get an autograph off of a hot creator or a piece of free swag.

They had to. San Diego is bigger than any other convention I have ever been to. New York is big and getting bigger, but optimistically, it is only half the size of San Diego. There simply aren’t words to describe the size of it. It is just humongous.

The major complaint about today’s San Diego Comic-Con is that it isn’t really about comics anymore. I have heard more than one dealer on the floor bemoan the fact that the influx of Hollywood studios using floor space to promote their films has caused the area allotted to comic book sellers to shrink year after year.

They have a point. Hollywood movie and TV studios take up over a fourth of the convention floor.  But this area was one of the most highly populated areas of the entire convention. Could this be because comic fans were interested in what the studios were promoting? Or more interested in the cool swag the studios were offering? Judging by the amount of Warner Brothers bags that the fans were carrying, I would judge the latter.

The San Diego Comic-Con is not a place to buy your rare back issue comics. Searching for back issues is one of my favorite parts of my personal convention going experience. But the dealers were few and far between. They were out numbered by toy dealers and T-shirt vendors. However, if you are a collector of original art or some of the rarer comic obscurities, then San Diego is for you. I’ve seen more original art there than anywhere else.

One of the best things about Comic-Con is the sense of community you find, not only at the convention center, but also in San Diego itself. The city is filled with comic book fans, toy collectors and role playing gamers. It has the air of a gathering of the tribes. You are among those like you. You can dress up as your favorite hero and no one will think ill of you. And if you dedicated weeks to making said costume, you will not receive mockery, but accolades.

If one type of comic was the leader in costume fodder, it was Manga. The people dressed up as Manga characters seemed to outnumber the fans dressed up as Batman and his ilk by about two to one. If you are looking for the impact Manga has on the comic fandom, look no further than the 2008 Comic-Con. Bleach creator Tite Kubo’s autograph was as big a prize—if not bigger—than Jim Lee’s or Grant Morrison’s.

Meeting your favorite creator at San Diego is easier than at any other convention. I got to meet The Goon’s Eric Powell at his booth, and Strangers in Paradise and Echo creator Terry Moore at the Abstract booth. Both occasions I was able to just walk up, get the autograph and have a small conversation. I didn’t feel rushed or pressured to move along.  

San Diego Comic-Con is a study in contrasts. It can be frustrating and yet exhilarating. It is about comics yet not about comics alone. It’s a convention unlike any other, yet similar to all that have come before. The San Diego experience is different for everyone. The only way to truly understand it is experience it for yourself.