“IT’S KIND OF A NERD THING:

A LOOK BACK AT COMIC CON 2014

By Barry Dutter

“I can die now!”
These are the words that I overheard spoken by a teenage fan in a Supergirl costume as she excitedly set foot in the San Diego Comic Con for the very first time.
My first thought was, “My, how times have changed!” When I first started going to cons in the early 1980s, you rarely saw any girls at Comic Cons (or, for that matter, any girls reading comics, anywhere!)
And you certainly never heard a female fan enthuse so rapturously over her arrival at said con.
Think about her statement. “I can die now.” Basically she was saying that if her life ended right there, at that moment, she would be fine with that, because she knew that one of her biggest dreams in life had just come true.

Why can't Marvel & DC heroes just get along?

That’s right -- the greatest fantasy of this young girl was to put on a  costume and attend the largest gathering of pop culture enthusiasts ever assembled under one roof.
That’s how big Comic Con has become. It’s not just a back-issue marketplace any more. It’s a life-altering event. It’s every movie-TV show- comic book-video game-book-etc. coming together in the same place at the same time. It’s not just a place you go; it’s something you aspire to.
In fact, Comic Con is now so hard to get into, simply acquiring a ticket to is like a rite of passage for young people. The ticket-buying process for Comic Con is now so convoluted, I’m not even sure how to go about getting one.
Used to be you just ordered a ticket online or on the phone, and that was it. But now, the Con has gotten so big, traditional methods don’t seem to work any more.
I suppose that is part of the appeal of Comic Con -- the fact that it’s so hard to get into. For all the lucky  fans who get in, there are millions of people across the country who wish they could attend, but cannot.
Those left behind are filled with envy at what they are missing.
I’m fortunate that as a former Marvel Comics employee, I still have some connections in the industry. Last year, a writer friend of mine got me in for free. But my con experience was such disaster, I decided I would never go to Comic Con again.
Basically, everything went wrong for me in 2013. I live only two hours from San Diego, in North Hollywood. But I chose to drive the most popular highway into San Diego, and so my two-hour ride turned into 4 hours. Finding a parking spot took another hour. And I was there on Saturday, generally the busiest day of any con.

This gal nailed her ZATANNA costume!

The place was so crowded, I found myself getting pushed and shoved as I tried to move from one end of the convention hall to another.
The ride home, later that same night, took another 4 hours on the crazy-busy Interstate 5 highway. In short, it was the worst con experience I’ve ever had.
Needless to say, I decided that Comic Con 2013 would be my last. It was just too big and it simply wasn’t any fun.

A really big BATMAN!

And so I was done with the SDCC. Or so I thought!
Then, in late June of 2014, I received an email from a Facebook friend who offered me a free ticket to all 4 days of the next con.
As fate would have it, I had several days free around that time. But having a  four-day pass gave me the chance to do it differently this time. For one thing, I could go early and avoid Saturday altogether. I could book a hotel, stay for a  night, get a good night’s rest instead of making that crazy commute twice in one day.

This year it was all about the GUARDIANS!

The more I thought about it, the more it made sense to try Comic Con one more time -- and this time, I would do it right!  A coworker even recommended an alternate driving route, where I could avoid that crazy-busy highway.
So it was decided, then. I would attend Comic Con 2014. 

I woke up early Thursday morning and  drove that alternate route and made great time. I found a cheap parking lot about a  mile away from the con. (I didn’t mind walking to save $50.00 per day on parking!)

The first thing I saw when I arrived in San Diego!

And my first full day of the con, Thursday, was not very crowded at all. In fact, I found I could easily walk from one end of the exhibition hall to the other. Artists and booths were easy to find. And best of all, lines were fairly short.

The FROZEN gang performed a few songs!

It was completely they opposite of my experience the year before. If you ever have the chance to go to Comic Con on a Thursday, you should go for it. Many people have to work on Thursday and can’t make it to the con. This means the lucky ones who do show up get to enjoy short lines and wide open aisles. It’s a whole different con experience than going on an over-crowded Saturday.

Hands down, my favorite costume from SDCC 2014!

In my three days at the con this year, I encountered people from all walks of life. A young man with a severe stuttering problem. Another twenty-something fan with a skin condition so bad, it changed the color of his face to a purplish hue (and no, he was not a cosplayer.)
There were people in wheelchairs. Old people. Young people. Fat people. Skinny people. Blacks. Whites. Latinos. Asians. Straight people. Gay people.

That's' top model ADRIENNE CURRY in the Catwoman suit!

There were fans and pros of every stripe. And they were all treated as equals. Nobody at Comic Con judges anyone else. It’s a place where people who are looked down on, people who are shunned or mocked in everyday life, can all come together and be united in their love of all things geeky.
And they all came for different reasons.
Some came to meet their favorite celebrities. Others came to catch panels on upcoming movies and TV shows. One Facebook friend of mine camped out for many hours outside the infamous Hall H to ensure that she would get a seat for a panel on an upcoming movie.
A few people actually come to buy comic books! After walking the exhibition hall of Comic Con this year, and seeing displays from all the major movie studios, TV studios and toy companies, I must say it actually came as a bit of a shock to find some old-fashioned comic dealers selling comic books. (Remember them?)

Girl Spy Vs. Girl Spy

It’s unfortunate that comics play such a marginal role at Comic Con these days, but the fact is, all the major publishers were there, with awesome displays, special edition comics, and chances to meet their most popular writers and artists. So if you want to focus all your time on just comic book stuff (as I tend to do) at the con, you can spend your days doing just that and still not have enough time to do it all.

Batman collage at the DC booth

In fact, one of my biggest frustrations about Comic Con is that so mnay of the comic pros there are not listed on the Web site or in the Artists Alley section in the Comic Con program book. (Examples: Walt Simonson, Tony Moore, Grant Morrison, etc.)
But I was thrilled with the all-star line-upo of talent that was there. It was like a Who’s Who of comic greats: Neal Adams. Steranko. Rob Liefeld. Adam Hughes. J. Scott Campbell. Kevin Eastman. Sergio Aragones (who I spent 3 days looking for and never did find). Stan Sakai. Brian Bendis. Amanda Conner. Jim Lee. Scott Snyder.  And so on.

Lego Rocket Raccoon & Lego Groot!

Stan Sakai sketches YOSAGI YOJIMBO!

When I go to Comic Con, I’m just there to get signatures and sketches from comic book writers and artists. I really don’t care about meeting the casts of movies or TV shows. I’m not willing to brave the crowds of Hall H. (Although I will admit, it was kind of neat when the support staff started blocking off a path because, “the cast of the Expendables is about to come through.”) That is just one of things you can only hear at Comic Con!
Some people came just to cosplay. Out of 130,000 attendees this year, I have no idea how many were in costume, but I’m sure it numbered in the hundreds, if not the thousands. And the costumes did not disappoint. Fans in Southern California are very skilled in the art of creating inspired costumes.

Batman movie costumes at the DC booth

I remember when I first started going to cons back in the early 1980s. The number of cosplayers was also quite small in those days. You might see a small handful of guys dressed as Batman or Spider-Man, but they were definitely in the minority.

Comic book superstar J. Scott Campbell

What a difference a few decades makes!
Many longtime comics fans and pros express bitterness at the amount of attention fawned on the cosplayers in place of actual comic book writers and artists.
But let’s face it, the cosplayers are more colorful that the average comic book creator and they are more fun to photograph. They do add a whole other layer to an event that would otherwise not be that different from any other type of fan gathering around the world.
Essentially, what the cosplayers do is give the mainstream press an easy hook to hang their story on. So as much as some comic fans might piss and moan about the cosplayers, the fact is, they do bring more attention to the cons from the outside world.

Magneto and his 2 daughters

Excuse me, do you know the way to Comic Con?

Overall my experience at Comic Con 2014 was a very positive one. I was there for the first three days of the con. (Yes, I did stay for Saturday, despite my best instincts!) It did get very crowded on Saturday, to the point where there were large areas where the flow of people stopped in both directions. It began to get more and more frustrating to try to navigate through the crowd. I really began to miss how easy and sparse things had been only two days before.
For me, the low point of the con came on Saturday, when I stopped to take a picture of a cosplayer and a passerby brushed past me so fast, they accidentally knocked my cell phone out of my hands and on to the floor (and they kept on moving).  At that moment, I knew that Saturdays were not for me.

The view from the DC hospitality suite

The high point came that same day when my old pal, Superman writer Scott Lobdell, got me into the DC Comics hospitality suite, where they had delicious sandwiches and snacks, and an awesome view of the convention floor. It was fun seeing the con from this unique perspective.
Later, as I was wandering through the crowd, I overheard a nerd talking on his cell phone to another nerd. He was discussing some nerdy movie or TV show and he said, “It’s kind of a nerdy thing.”

Hot girls + Hot car

Hmm. “Kind of a nerdy thing.” That could sum up just about any of the exhibits at Comic Con. They’re all nerdy things, but they’re our nerdy things. And for four days every year, we get together and immerse ourselves in all things nerdy.
For the past few years, people have been saying that the geeks have inherited the Earth, but I figured that was just a catch phrase for the mainstream media to latch onto.  As a guy who grew up with nerd culture and who has been part of it for over 40 years, I guess I didn’t realize how deeply immersed in nerd culture the world has become until I went to Comic Con 2014 and saw it with my own eyes.

Artist ADAM HUGHES sketches VAMPIRELLA

For me, the biggest change over the past 30 years is the fact that girls at cons are now embracing geek culture just as passionately as guys. These days, girls make up about half of the attendees at the average big con. I’ve even heard reports of some huge cons having more females than males, which really makes me wonder, “Where were all these female comics fans when I was in high school?”                                                             
Girls aren’t just dressing up in sexy costumes at Comic Con. They are proudly calling themselves comic book fans. They are showing up on opening weekend of all the new super-hero movies. I guess it was the Twilight franchise that really got women to start attending Comic Con a few years back, but the studios, networks and comic book companies have figured out a way to keep the ladies around, even after the sparkly vampires have gone.
Which is a good thing. Because having real girls at Comic Cons -- not just super girls drawn on paper-- makes it better for all of us. It takes a hobby that has traditionally been associated with lonely, awkward males, and makes it more socially acceptable.

Your beloved blogger meets his twin!

In some ways, I’m very different from the stereotypical Comic Con attendee. I don’t cosplay. I don’t wait in long lines for anything. I’ve never watched Game of Thrones or True Blood. I skipped the last 2 Hobbit movies. I don’t play video games (not since Ms. Pac-Man in 1983!) I never cared for Buffy the Vampire Slayer or The Dark Knight movies.
But in the end, it doesn’t matter. As noted above, everyone goes to Comic Con for different reasons. I go there to interact with comic book writers and artists and I get great enjoyment out of doing so.
The two biggest news stories to come out of Comic Con this year were 1) model Adrienne Curry in her Catwoman costume beating up a pervy fan who had just molested one of her friends, and 2) a bunch of cosplayers dressed as zombies attacking the car of a  deaf family after the driver panicked and accidentally ran over a ghoul during the annual "Zombie Walk."
A super-villain slugfest? An actual zombie attack on the streets of San Diego? Once, stories like this were the stuff of fantasy. Now they're happening for real. Truly there can be no doubt: the geeks have taken over the world!

San Diego --a beautiful setting for a Comic Con!