Embracing the Inner Geek at Comic-Con 2011
August 02, 2011, By Jason Avant 0 comments
I’m walking along 5th Avenue, downtown San Diego, behind two Klingon Warriors. The Klingons are engaged in a heated discussion, and for a second I’m convinced that one of them is going clock the other with his Bat’leth. Honor is at stake here, and a Klingon would rather die than admit he’s wrong. “No, the Flash is faster than Superman. He’s the Fastest Man Alive. That’s the thing with the Justice League, dude. Checks and balances. Batman? The World’s Greatest Detective. Smarter than Superman. That makes him a valuable member of the team. Otherwise? He’s just a dude in a costume with gadgets.”
This is typical of the conversations you hear—and find yourself enmeshed in—while at Comic-Con. Officially, the title is Comic-Con International (San Diego), but to attendees and genre geeks around the world, it’s just Comic-Con. The Con isn’t just for comic book fans: Hollywood, the toy and gaming industry and publishing houses are heavily represented. And it’s certainly not just for fans: artists, writers, actors, producers, directors and their various representatives are there in force, pushing their latest offerings or looking to secure their next deal. Thousands upon thousands flock to San Diego every summer for Comic-Con, and it’s become one of the city’s largest and best-know events. (An aside: comics fans also know San Diego as “Sub Diego”—at one point in the Aquaman comic series, an earthquake submerged most of the city and its inhabitants, who became mer-people, and Aquaman became their king.)
The Gaslight District, downtown San Diego’s hub of hotels, nightclubs and restaurants, is packed with throngs of visiting geeks, weighed down with “swag bags” full of posters, games, toys and, of course, comic books. The Convention Center is where most of the action takes place (in the form of a massive showroom featuring displays from the aforementioned industries, and the various celebrity and industry panels held in the center’s meeting and ballrooms). The scale is dizzying. There are lots of other comic book, sci-fi, fantasy and gaming conventions, but this is the big one, the epicenter of Geek Culture, a combination of Woodstock, Burning Man, SXSW, Sundance and the Cantina scene in "Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope."
Epic Lines
The first thing you realize is that being with thousands of geeks means that you’ll be waiting in some truly epic lines. The line I’m currently in is for the "Falling Skies" panel. "Falling Skies" is a new show, from executive producer Steven Spielberg, about a band of resistance fighters battling hostile aliens in the aftermath of a planetary invasion. I’m standing outside, baking in the hot sun, along with some 2,000 other people, more than a few of whom are in costume. (And 2,000 people is nothing; a Comic-Con staffer tells me that the line for the "True Blood" panel was some 7,000 people long.) I’ve been waiting here for an hour; a few diehards have been here for two. The air is think with the smell of latex, greasepaint and sweat. There’s a guy in full Imperial Stormtrooper regalia—the real deal, movie prop quality—who’s teetering back and forth, and I’m worried he’s going to keel over. There’s a rumor circulating that attendees will get a t-shirt, and maybe that’s what’s keeping the trooper on his (or her, impossible to tell, behind that white armor and helmet) feet. “No reward is worth this,” I mumble to myself. A balding, mustachioed guy in a Han Solo costume hears me and chuckles in appreciation.
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