Comic-Con: 27th time is the charm!

With the monster show of them all, Comic-Con International: San Diego, just days away, here are some reflections about my experiences there and how things will be very different for me for the looming 2012 event.

As a comics fan since 1967, I was a late-comer to the convention scene. Sure, I attended a few small shows, like San Jose's Ameri-Con in maybe '82 or '83, Stockton's Heroes Con in '85 and '86... but the first San Diego Convention I attended was in 1986. Even then, San Diego Comic-Con was known as the BIG show for comics. In '86, an estimated 6500 fans were there. 

So much has changed over the years. San Diego's downtown was pretty shabby in the '80s when the con was at the downtown Convention and Performing Arts Center. The gentrification of the Gaslamp District was still just a civic dream, rather than its current reality. Comic-Con and its attendees were often derided by local media. The news crews covering Comic-Con usually brought out their best "look at these freaks!" type of reports.  Civic leaders doubted that Comic-Con did much if anything for the local economy, despite thousands of visitors to the city spending money on  hotels, food and entertainment.

These days, Comic-Con International: San Diego has 125,000 attendees, along with probably another 25, 000 exhibitors, dealers, professionals and other industry types.The Con has the backing of civic leaders, the media and the entertainment world.

Comic-Con really should be Comic-Cannes because it is the launch site for so much mass entertainment, including movies, TV shows, video games, etc.

Next week--- really, next Friday the 13th--- I'll be a part of two public events that all fans at Comic-Con are welcome to attend:

Friday July 13

1:30-2:30 Comic Book Entrepreneurs

Get a rare look behind the scenes as the comic book industry's leading entrepreneurs share their secrets of building successful businesses around the love of comic books. Author and futurist Rob Salkowitz (Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture), CEO and co-founder David Steinberger of ComiXology, Dark Horse Comics publisher Mike Richardson, Peter Levin of Nerdist Industries, and comics retailer Joe Field of Flying Colors Comics, offer a unique view of the business side of comics. Room 8

4:00-5:30 So You Want to Be a Comics Retailer?

ComicsPRO presents an opportunity for those exploring opening their very own comic book specialty store. This panel of veteran retailers know you have questions, and they can give you the answers! ComicsPRO president Joe Field of Flying Colors Comics & Other Cool Stuff (Concord, CA), ComicsPRO executive director Amanda Emmert (Muse Comics + Games, Colorado Springs, CO), Brian Peets (A-1 Comics, Sacramento and Roseville, CA), and Calum Johnston (Strange Adventures, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada), along with Dave Hawksworth (Diamond Comic Distributors' outside sales manager) offer a fun and informative peek behind the curtain of the magic of comic book retailing! Room 32AB 

After 26 years straight of attending Comic-Con, usually for the entire week--- a day or two longer in the days of the old retailer-centric Comic Book Expo --- I am cutting back my time this year to what  seems to me to be the retailer version of 24Hour Comics Day. That event challenges cartoonists to create a full 24-page comic in 24 consecutive hours. 

My "30HourRetailerDay" consists of challenging myself to cram as much business (and fun) as I can into a roughly 30 hour period from the time my flight out of Oakland departs at 6am on Friday 7/13 to the time I land back in Oakland at about 1:30pm Saturday 7/14.  


In addition to the two public panels I promoted above, I'll be involved in a business breakfast Friday talking about plans for Free Comic Book Day 2013 and another breakfast Saturday with DC Comics Senior VP of Sales (and also my friend) Bob Wayne. 


In between those two early morning meal-meetings, I'll be fully-engaged with a slate of retailer-oriented programming under the auspices of ComicsPRO, the retailer trade and advocacy association of which I am currently serving as president. That will take me through 5:30 and the close of the "So You Want to Be Comics Retailer?" program. 


From 5:30-7:00, I hope to see a bit of the convention floor and visit with some friends in the business, maybe even buy some old comics. I will also try to make quick stops to visit with key suppliers and hopefully set up some cool things to come for Flying Colors. 


At 7:00pm, I'll be joined by the very talented Viktor Kalvachev and other friends at my co-sponsor table at the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards.  Viktor is nominated for two Eisner Awards for his work on Blue Estate.  (If that isn't another great invitation to check out Blue Estate, I don't know what is!)


The Eisner Awards ceremony is always a lot of fun and moves have been made in the last couple of years to streamline the event so it doesn't run too far into the night. As it is, I expect that between the length of the Awards' ceremony and the after-party, that I'll be finished with those duties sometime around midnight. 


Being Friday night in San Diego, there is no shortage of choices for other parties to attend after the Eisners. But since I'll be working on no sleep and taking my Friday into the early light of Saturday, my partying will consist mostly of bottled water and some food. No alcohol or caffeine for me. 

So if anyone wants to schedule some meeting time with me while I'm in San Diego, how about we meet after midnight at Brians24, the Gaslamp District's 24 hour restaurant?   I'll be the one dozing in my waffles. 

Peace 'n' Comics! 

Joe "FlyoJoe" Field

Post-San Diego Post

Time has really slipped away from me since returning from Comic-Con International: San Diego, the lovable behemoth of comic book conventions.

I've been asked for my thoughts about the con dozens of times since I returned to Flying Colors. Truth is, I didn't see much of the craziness of the convention this year.

I was so jammed with meetings with publishers and other retailers, Libby and I wound up having only about three measly hours to see the 500,000 square feet of exhibit hall space. No way we could we even make a dent in all the pop culture eye candy that awaits at every turn in the convention center.

When we walked by the DC Comics set-up, though, I took the photo you see here of some cos-players doing their renditions of mostly recognizable characters. Although, as I told NPR's "Marketplace" host Kai Ryssdal, costumers only make up a very small percentage of con-goers, they are a very visible minority. I think it's great these folks have an outlet for their costuming skills, if not their acting abilities.

Friday at the San Diego Con was one long day! It started with a meeting at 7:45AM, which melted into retailer programming that lasted until 6PM, which was followed by the Eisner Awards ceremony at 7PM and we didn't get out of there until 1:30AM (there was short after-party). At the Eisners, I gave a tribute speech for my fallen friend, Rory Root of Berkeley's Comic Relief .

Make no mistake about it, the job done by the San Diego Comic-Con organizers is nothing short of herculean. Take 125,000 fans, add something along the number of 20,000 "professional guests", another 3000 media reps, maybe 2000 total "exhibitors" and you've got a recipe for one huge log-jam. That said, I had no troubles getting to where i wanted, other than the pleasant diversions created along the way by running into friends and colleagues I see only once or twice a year.

As for all the talk about Comic-Con moving to another city, don't believe it. San Diego is the only city in the U.S. that could host this convention as well as it does.
Sure, there's the possibility of having more events away from the main convention center, like last year's viewing of the "300" movie at the Padres' Petco Park. And there are lots of meeting spaces in nearby hotels that could work for some programming. But to think of moving this great event to ---where? Vegas? In late July? Anaheim? During Disneyland's busiest time of the year? Los Angeles? To that less than adequate convention center with stifling traffic all around?

No, no, no, no, no.

It's San Diego for the long term. And that's really how it should be. Temperate weather, nice people, a Comic-Con staff that is mostly from San Diego, a very good facility (even if it needs even more expansion!), proximity to Hollywood.

Look, the bottom line is that there have been comic-cons grow into pop culture media cons all over the country, but none have ever come close to all that San Diego delivers.

Congratulations to the Comic-Con staff on another stellar year!

Peace!

FlyCoJoe