By Tom Spurgeon
* I still very much enjoy going to San Diego's Comic-Con International, which kicks off later today with its Preview Night. I still think Comic-Con a great comics show, too, and that it's a very good one for me. You get a lot of debate on this from certain camps that are perhaps no longer specifically served by the way Comic-Con has developed -- or that feel they're better served elsewhere. Some of those are honest differences of orientation. If you can't stand the waves of junk culture that are a part of that show, or the rabid fandom from other media that have little to do with comics, you're not going to like Comic-Con. I also think that some of it is structural. The emerging publishers of the last ten years are for the most part super-resource light, and their models have never depended on them ramping up to a point where they can boast resources of a certain kind. That's made it very hard for a lot of them to even attempt Comic-Con at this point in that show's development, or to find a way to use it to their advantage once they're there. I also suspect, as I do with a lot of things, that a bit of criticism of Comic-Con International comes from folks that feel more valued elsewhere and project their personal experience on the show entire.
* I like it, though. I find it very useful. There's a lot of things I enjoy about it. The core comics show is solid. There are a ton of creators and industry folk from the mainstream and independent comics world, many of whom do work I value. There's a pretty good hardcore alt/indy crew, although it's downsized a bit over the last few years. It's a big enough group you won't see everybody, but a small enough group that there's a thrown-together feel, a kind of forced interaction with most of the other people in that little camp that may not have been there in past years. You're glad to see certain people when they walk into your panel room. There are people who almost always show up -- Los Bros, Johnny Ryan -- and people that are this-year-only, like Ellen Forney and Lisa Hanawalt and David Lasky. Those are all interesting cartoonists and smart, nice people. Well, except maybe Hanawalt.
* there are more people in the panel rooms for alt/indy material, by the way, at least that's been my overwhelming anecdotal experience. I did panels 15 years ago with two, three people in them and panels that maxed out at 40 or 50 for artists I'm pretty sure could pull 200-300 under the current set-up. I don't know if that's just the math of it, or if an audience of genre fans more generally is kinder to certain expressions of comics than an audience of hardcore superhero comic book fans maybe used to be. I honestly haven't a clue.
* the Comic-Con people are comics people at heart, or at least that's always been my impression. Between their efforts and some of the bigger companies with an interest in bringing people in, the Comic-Con guest list usually yields one or two truly want-to-meet folks from Europe, and some older cartoonists that I might not see otherwise. It will be fun to see programming with Kazuo Koike if that happens. I'm fascinated by Jack Katz, the old-time mainstream cartoonist turned wild fantasy comic pioneer. I look forward to seeing Tom Gauld and what he's up to.
* Comic-Con is also an industry show, and I like industries. I think there's a structure and a shorthand and a solidity to industries that can be very useful for art and creative types. I know that some people find industries to be exploitative by nature, and they certainly have been and can be. And yet I suspect that's an impulse that doesn't necessarily need a structure to run rampant. In fact, I'm sure there are businessmen that would love it if they could pay hobby amounts of money for everything that people make. There's an assumed commonality of interest when you're in the same industry -- a common ground in which direction a lot of people make a yuck face, but usually comes down to people being treated fairly in pursuit of the best possible work they can do. I think that's a start to something good rather than something bad, and I like seeing and interacting with tons of people I'd never, ever see with their forearms covered in paint at an experimental festival.
* another thing I like about Comic-Con is that there are shitloads of people there that freakin' love Comic-Con. One gigantic fallacy that informs a lot of industry-publication writing about comics shows is they forget that 90 percent of a show takes place in the hearts and mind of attendees rather than the shared social calendar and mutual admiration society of professionals. I don't know that I love anything not a family member enough to wait in line for four hours to get closer to it, and a lot of these folks do. It's the nice part about being around Comic-Con people. Thousands of those people there that feel that way about comics, too, men and women that just melt the fuck down if you point out that the person that just walked past the both of you is Ed Brubaker or Teddy Kristiansen or Cathy Malkasian.
* Comic-Con is also a very good webcomics show, and given the fact that comics aren't really movies or TV and prose at all, the mostly-print-comics people are likely to feel as close to the webcomics folk at Comic-Con as there any place on earth. The thing is, they don't need anyone's approbation at this point. It's a great place to check in on a lot of what those folks are doing, and their presence is a message to other forms of comics that there is a chance to connect at shows like this one to readers in a major way.
* I like looking at old comics art of all kinds and I like buying $1 comics, and as much as the commercial aspect of that convention has changed a ton in the last several years that stuff is all still there to be had. There is something deeply pleasurable about the act of sifting gems from the sea of forgettable commercial pap that really can't be duplicated in any other kind of setting, including that of small press, creator-sells-to-you-directly shows.
* speaking of which there aren't a ton of exclusive products for sale comics- and art-wise except in the variations of a project sense. In other words, it's much easier to find a comic book with a special cover than a comic book special to Comic-Con. However, the image up top comes from a Geof Darrow art book described here and there are definitely some gems like that to be had. That's before you get into original and custom art, where unique purchases abound. I like making those kinds of purchases when I can afford to make them.
* so I'm looking forward to the next few days. I hope to get a lot of work done, and lay the groundwork for a lot of things this site can do better. I hope to see a lot of friends and laugh a lot. I hope to learn a bunch of things each day. And I'm holding out for an entire weekend free of people in costumes blocking my aisle. I don't think I'll get that last one.
* back in the 1990s, people of my generation used to describe Comic-Con as a reward for a year's worth of work -- there weren't many shows worth attending, that one was potentially the most fun and your employer helped you get there. You get older you realize that working in a great arts industry is its own reward, and that going to a goofy comics show every now and then can a reminder of that and perhaps a useful experience in and of itself, too.
* come say hi to me if you see me. I'm a little more stout than I was last year, about 30 pounds right now (28 this morning, but I'm hitting Las Cuatro Milpas for lunch today, so that's not going to last) but my health is pretty great and I feel fantastic. Don't be afraid to make fun of me for my chub; I deserve it. If you're reading this and see me, I'd like to see you. If you have no plans for dinner or one of the 18 billion cocktail parties that are happening at that time, I'm moderating Heidi MacDonald's comics blogging panel at 7 PM Thursday. In whatever way you'll be nearby this next half-week, I hope you have a good time.
* I'm going to concentrate on comics news this weekend, with some really fun publishing announcements covered, a daily round-up of what I can find out on the floor, and an ongoing post connecting to comics-related news in brief. Regular features are suspended for a little while: no Assembled; no CR Week In Review; no Five For Friday. Most of the site will be up as early in the morning as I can stand it to give full-day coverage to certain stories. There will be a Eisner results post with links and with winners placed in the context of the other nominees early Saturday if not Friday late, an interview with a key-to-comics-right-now figure on Sunday, and a Collective Memory starting next week. I hope you find some of the coverage I'm able to provide useful. I wish I could do more. Thank you so much for any time you spend here.
* one last thing, and the most important if you're going: stay safe. San Diego is a city; there are city-type dangers. There are creeps in any group of human beings that numbers in the six figures, and thus creep-type dangers. A poor lady from New York named Gisela Gagliardi lost her life last year, and I'm sure she arrived in San Diego as hopeful for a great time as any one of us that's ever gone or ever will go. She was struck by a car. There is very little that will happen the next five days that is worth being miserable over, and nothing worth risking or losing one's life. Keep your wits about you. Have fun.
*****
*****