Coast-to-Coast Comicdom: The Loser at the Nerd Prom
Editor's Note: Arlington-based comic book editor Jason Rodriguez is sending us his dispatches from a cross-country trip investigating the comics scene around the country. Read Part I, Part II, Part III and Part IV.
Let’s just get it out of the way: I lost. I lost to a fantastic book, 5, an independently produced anthology with a lot of love and creator support on its side. The book had some gorgeous work from twin brothers Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba, Becky Cloonan, Vasilis Lolos, and Rafael Grampa. It deserved to win, all of the books nominated deserved to win (well, except Best American Comics 2007 since it was a reprint collection). I just didn’t think it would win. Since the awards are done and I can be honest, I thought Mome would have taken it home. I saw it getting overwhelming indie-creator support and a healthy dose of retailer support. I actively tried to garner some creator support for my own book, sending out hard-and-digital copies of the books to whoever wanted one so they could vote with confidence, but I didn’t think that would be enough to turn the tide on Mome. And then 5 came along and spanked us both. I also want to give some love to the fantastic 24Seven Volume 2, the fifth book nominated for Best Anthology. Ivan Brandon did a great job putting the Robots-in-NYC anthology together and it deserved the nom.
The whole thing happened so fast. Paul Dini read off the nominees and a second later I realized I had lost. In retrospect, I’m kind of happy that the anthology that beat me only had one syllable in its title; it made the whole experience quick and painless. Well, the beers made it painless. Now I’m up for two Harvey Awards in September. Best Anthology and Special Award for Excellence in Presentation. With the former, I’m up against Mome again and I doubt it’ll be knocked back twice. With the latter, I’m up against Diary Of A Wimpy Kid, which proved to have a tremendous following by picking up eight Harvey Nominations. So I’m not expecting much at the Harvey’s this year. Just a free meal, really.
I should point out that if I lose both Harvey awards, the books I’ve edited will be 0-for-10 at major award ceremonies, making me a contender for the Susan Lucci Of Comics Award.
Anyway – there’s more to San Diego than the Eisner Awards.
There’s registration, for starters. After 10 days and 3300 miles of driving I had to deal with lines winding up and down the strip as tens-of-thousands of Early Bird Convention-Goers wait for hours to get their badges and get onto the floor. Thankfully the pro-reg line is considerably shorter, and it’s usually 10 minutes from the time you show up to the time you get on the floor. When the doors open, you hear constant reminders not to run as some people get their only exercise for the year, tripping over their rolling carts as they try to snatch up one of the 150 con-exclusive Dr. Who toys. Some call Wednesday night Preview Night, I call it a stampede.
Then there’s the con floor. The heavy traffic tends to linger around the G4 booth. It doesn’t help that G4 is surrounded by all of the major movie studio booths. People grab their free Spirit posters or Dexter pins and then try to swing by G4 for a glimpse at the sexiest faux-nerds interviewing the sexiest too-cool-for-Comic-Con celebrities. The game and toy studios tend to get the second biggest glut of traffic. People wanting to preview 1000-points-of-articulation well-endowed dolls that are coming out next year and try demos of the latest Best Game Ever. The major comic studios (Marvel, DC, Viz, Dark Horse, and Tokyopop) probably come in third, with the second-tier studios (Image, Oni, Drawn & Quarterly, Fantagraphics, etc.) getting a steady-stream of people. Sadly, Small Press and Artist Alley only tend to get the open-minded comic fans and some ancillary traffic from people returning from the snack bar.
And then there are the panels. I went to several panels this year. My favorite was undoubtedly "Mad in the '60s". Al Feldstein, Sergio Aragones, Al Jaffee, and Arnie Kogen. I love those guys, I love Mad Magazine. Sergio got choked up twice, once reminiscing over a party his mother threw for the Mad crew and once reminiscing about Spy vs. Spy creator (and the guy that helped Sergio get into Mad) Antonio Prohias. I love Sergio; every time I see him I have the uncontrollable urge to hug him. The panel for Image’s Tori Amos-inspired Comic Book Tattoo was also a good time. The book features 50 stories based on Tori Amos songs, and Tori Amos herself was on the panel. There was a lot of love on that stage and it makes me excited to read the monstrous 400+ page book. The Hamlet 2 panel passed the time before Harold and Kumar came on out and talked up the upcoming DVD release with an awesome Choose Your Own Adventure feature.
Socializing! That’s why I go to the Con. Every year you find your way to various parties before ending up at the Hyatt. This year there was talk of boycotting the Hyatt, since hotel owner Doug Manchester donated $125,000 towards an initiative to amend the California constitution to undo the state Supreme Court’s legalization of same-sex marriages. The boycott was poorly organized, with no real alternative presented, and by Friday night I was back at the Hyatt with everyone else since that’s the number one place to set up business for next year. Without the Hyatt, Comic-Con becomes a humongous waste of money. I take comfort in the fact that I didn’t buy any drinks at the Hyatt, getting sociably wasted at parties or the Star Bar before heading out, but I’ll also ‘fess up and admit I didn’t turn down any drinks offered to me.
At any rate, I got to catch up with old friends and make some new one. “How was the road trip?” and “what’re you working on next?” Those were the two questions I was asked this weekend. I can talk extensively about the road trip. I brought a lot of ideas, issues, and questions that came out of the trip to the pros and retailers I met at the Con. It’s all going toward my central thesis of the creator-retailer-fan-community relationship in this new comic boom. The “what’re you working on next” question, well… that was usually met with a pause and a declaration that I have “stuff cooking.” I do, I really do, but that half-year psycho-sexual bender mentioned in the intro article really affected my ability to get some new work set up. I feel like I was put on notice: if I don’t come back to Comic-Con with some new work next year, I might as well never come back. Fun!
And then there’s San Diego itself. I love that city. Coronado, La Jolla, Gaslamp (particularly Nicky Rottens and Star Bar), In-N-Out, Balboa Park… it’s like a little slice of heaven tucked between Tijuana and Los Angeles. The city treats Comic-Con like the spectacle it is, finding every way imaginable to sap dollars from the 125,000+ people who pour into the city for the show. Pedicabs blasting the Mario Bros. theme song and local bars swapping the Padres game for the Sci-Fi channel. They’re still trying to figure us out, thinking only one breed of nerd shows up to the prom every year.
Comic-Con is the melting pot of nerds. Comic fans, Star Wars enthusiasts, Trekkies, brown coats, anime fiends, cosplayers, furries, gamers, toy collectors, Goths, vampires, movie buffs, hipsters, Tolkien fans, Potter fans, renfair fanatics, and steampunk aficionados. Even the creators, retailers, and movie execs are breeds of nerd; we just like to believe we’re above it all.
The community is amazing. We like to make fun of the little cliques but, at the end of the day, we’re all part of this massive family. I tried to ignore that fact, but this road trip made it all-too-clear. What other profession exists were you can call or email complete strangers in 17 different cities and say, “Hey, we like/do/buy/sell the same thing. Let’s hang out.” Do you think a truck driver from Sioux City can call a truck driver from Tallahassee and just invite him out for a drink to talk about trucking? Do you even think a doctor or a lawyer or an engineer can do that? I seriously doubt it – I seriously doubt that there’s anything out there with such a tight-knit community like comics. And Comic-Con extends that community out to Pop Culture as a whole. There are 125,000 people packed into a smelly, sweaty convention hall, competing for hotels and dinner reservations and convention exclusives and passes to the Lost panel. And I’ve never seen a fight. I’ve hardly seen an argument or a shoving match. I’ve seen strangers bonding over a shared hobby. I’ve seen Romulans sharing beers with Jedi Knights. Hell, I’ve even seen a Batman fan concede that Captain America could win in a fight provided that the Bats had no prep-time.
Community. Social outcasts and misfit sympathizers. Video store clerks and nurses. Sports fans and Magic the Gathering players. In this Comic-Con world, in comics, it doesn’t matter what tags you subscribe to on your own time. We all come together. At the show and when a lone-traveler is trekking 3300 miles cross-country. We’re family, and I’m starting to see how all the pieces fit together. The fan, the retailer, the creator, and the community that surrounds them all. This is a great time for comics. The movies, the mainstream recognition of literary comics, and the bookstore and comic shop growth. I’m starting to see a way we can all come together and demand the most from our comics and, in turn, help the comics that deserve the support move to the top. I’m starting to see ways to bring new people in; because there’s something in comics for everyone. The past two weeks were fantastic, enlightening, and full of discovery. I’m sitting at the airport now. The plane’s getting ready to board. And all I want to do is hit the road again.
-Jason Rodriguez