Notes From The 2013 Comic-Con International In San Diego Floor



By Tom Spurgeon

The following are notes and observations gathered on the floor of Comic-Con International 2013 in San Diego, California. For immediate reactions to what's going on from hundreds of people, I recommend an appropriate search or multiple such searches on Twitter. For mainstream comics and panel coverage in general -- this being a key event for publishing news announcements -- I recommend Comic Book Resources ComicsAlliance and The Beat.

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* Friday I heard a lot of talk about the show itself. While no one reported dismaying levels of traffic, and a few vendors told me they were doing very well, the perception from a lot of folks to whom I spoke on hand to do at least some business was that things thus far had been slightly down. Further, I talked to some individuals who spoke openly of not seeing a book or element of comics that excited them. This made a lot of my conversations "state of Comic-Con" ruminative.

* as I think perceptions may change over the weekend, I don't want to get into my own hunches on what they're saying and what I'm seeing, but I think I heard every standard theory as to what's going on, from the over-sophistication of comics fans in terms of purchasing elsewhere over time what used to be an experience for which they saved up to the lack of sophistication from said fans when it came to engaging with comics at all. I want to see how things play out Saturday and Sunday for sure because I had the sense that Friday was different than Thursday.

* it does seem reasonably easy to negotiate the comics section of the show, and particularly so in comparison to the other parts of the show. Gilbert Hernandez also noted something that I saw the first two days of the show: people left more easily near the end of the day. I wonder if that's not a legacy of the stuff surrounding the convention center, in that maybe a group or a few individuals plan on hitting some of those things at the end of the day.

* I haven't really heard back about the superiority of any single choice among the on-the-street things to do, but it does seem this was the first year where what I saw out in the various parking lots and spaces next to hotels sort of attracted a general traffic of people standing and sitting around near the things. They no longer seemed solely like something someone might do on their way to something else.

* I'm still hearing about security at times limiting where people can walk into the show, non-exhibitors in particular. That seems odd to me, and I'm not quite sure what's going on there. I mean, it's not a big deal in any way but that there has to be a confrontation at all between a security person and anyone just trying to walk into the show for which they're badged up seems like a psychic drain on the place. Seems like a hiccup somewhere. Like I wrote before, security seems much more engaged person-to-person.

* had breakfast with Charles Hatfield and Douglas Wolk, who are near-same-age peers and thus had similar con experiences. Douglas spoke about switching to a limited time-wise interaction with the show, which is something I am seeing a lot more of: just coming in Friday and leaving Saturday evening, or something similar, to reduce costs and the potentially exhausting exposure to all that is going on. We all talked about the rapid decline in freelancing rates, and discussed the perspective of academics like Hatfield on the kind of alternative accruing of cultural or professional capital in which their kind of writing may sometimes trade.

* talked to Team Fanfare/Ponent Mon; they have a new Taniguchi out (the latest Botchan volume) and another one squarely in the works. They also had some small-press I think British comic student material that looked interest. One comic made use of die cuts page to page to use visual elements of preceding pages as parts of new images, which was sort of fascinating to process.

* they're having a good show, incidentally, and cite a move away from one of the more obscure portions of the floor to a more standard post in the small-publishers section as a big positive. Makes sense. Anyway, if you're at the show and looking for a few comics that you maybe haven't seen discussed to death, head over to that booth.

* so apparently there's a multiple-hundreds-of-pages Farel Dalrymple book coming from First Second?

* First Second seemed to have very solid signings from what I could tell, and are nice enough like most of the veteran publishers to wrap their traffic around their booth first. Signings seem super-weird at this show: some signings from people that usually attract a pretty big crowd ended with very little or even no traffic. I honestly couldn't tell you if that's just a thing where a capricious and changing audience matches some artists' profiles better than others, or if there's maybe even a relative lack of sophistication in how others get the word out about this kind of thing.

* the Love & Rockets covers book is gorgeous-looking; Fantagraphics apparently actually used a ton of preexisting productions piece that were still in the office to put the issue together, including stuff for that iconic first L&R cover.

* here's a question that came up twice in completely different contexts: does anyone know why original comics art isn't subject to laws about the value and re-sell of paintings? Granted, this is the first time I've heard of such a thing, so I may be describing it poorly.

* I'm not hearing any specific buzz from the showbiz section of the show but I'm not in any position to hear such buzz. Usually something penetrates in a "did you hear?" fashion, but not this time around, not yet.

* caught the bulk of Ellen Forney's Marbles presentation. Many of the questions seemed to come out of a place of deep personal connection to the issues raised in her treatment of her bi-polar diagnosis.

* one of San Diego's natural advantages has been on display all weekend: 65 to 75 degree weather in a week where much of the country is 30 degrees hotter. I have never seen the back-porch area of the convention center stuffed with so many folks.

* one aspect of Comic-Con I suspect still thrives is the hands-on meetings portion of what Comic-Con does. I talked to multiple people with ambitious retailer meet-and-greets, for example.

* got to catch up a bit with Chris Staros at Top Shelf, asking him if he was willing to release print-run figures on the first volume of March. The congressman John Lewis is signing later today and Staros would love to see folks turn out -- that would be a great gift purchase for a lot of folks back home if not yourself, and it would be nice to see a book like that have a real-world expression that reflects overall interest.

* my afternoon panel schedule was humor in comics, Kim Thompson and Jeffrey Brown. The humor in comics panel with Lisa Hanawalt, Ellen Forney, Jeffrey Brown and Tom Gauld talked a lot about creative issues in making that kind of work, from the perception from others that making funny comics is an unending source of delighted guffaws at the drawing board to the comics-makers' influences (such as Lisa Hanawalt's affection for B. Kliban's work). The Kim Thompson panel featured more than a few anecdotes I hadn't heard yet about the late art-comics industry prime mover, and an absolutely hysterical postcard from Thompson to Ware on the eve of Jimmy Corrigan's serial publication. That was very well-attended: I saw Charles Brownstein, R. Fiore and Charles Hatfield in the audience. One person even pointed that one thing he admired about Thompson was the care and attention he paid to Fantagraphics' admitted money-maker Eros Comics. Gary Groth also pointed out something I hadn't thought about: Thompson's mysterious relationship to reading prose. The Jeffrey Brown spotlight featured the announcement -- not sure if it's the first one or a subsequent -- of a Jedi Academy comics-and-prose book featuring a rough take on the approach used by Brown to good effect on his Leia and Luke with Daddy Darth Vader books. Brown is a thoughtful, articulate cartoonist.

* Peter Birkemoe had the coolest-looking Sunny t-shirt on underneath a suit.

* so apparently Mario Hernandez has a prose book coming out featuring a Latina teenage crime-solver? I want to see that.

* I still detect a relative slack level of business in any restaurant that requires sit-down service more than 400 yards from the railroad tracks.

* one difference in this year's Eisners as opposed to previous versions of recent vintage is that instead of a large crowd that diminished by the ceremony's end, there was a modest crowd that stayed around pretty much the whole time. I mean, there was bleed, but not the "Whoa!" of previous years' events.

* I thought that was a solid show: no more overlong than any typical show (people are always going to find awards shows long), a lot of funny people getting awards (Chip Kidd, for one) and giving them (Jonathan Ross/Neil Gaiman; Michael Davis), a video sketch in the middle of the retailing award where such a break is sorely needed pacing-wise; a lot of happy awards winners. Grateful for this site's win. Happy to see Milestone acknowledged via presenter.

* I was also happy to see so many people give shout-outs to Kim Thompson from the podium.

* I'm not sure anything was super-surprising; I don't think I predicted Michael Kupperman would win, but it's not like it wasn't deserving. It's good to see a wider awareness of Michael Kupperman mainstreamed a bit back into comics' wider talks about who's good and funny and why.

* was honored to accept Sean Howe's award for Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, and read his lovely statement:

Thank you for this tremendous honor.

I'd like to thank the dedicated scholars of the past and present, for ensuring that the historical details of the comic-book medium, and its attendant industry, are never forgotten. There's still a wealth of information about our heritage that resides exclusively in dusty old files, curling mimeographed fanzines, and shoeboxes filled with photos, many of which are hopelessly neglected in garages or hoarded in basements. If you feel a shudder of recognition at that description, there are bright-eyed staffers at comic research libraries that would love to hear from you.

I'd also like to express my gratitude to those generous souls who shared their memories with me, who entrusted me with their stories and opened my eyes. It's always been my hope that this book would serve as a reminder that credit should always rest with the men and women behind the comic books. No company has ever created a comic book, or a character, on its own -- for that you need the creativity of individuals. I know you know this, but... sometimes we forget. Sometimes there are very enthusiastic consumers who will excitedly name the holder of a trademark but have no idea who sat behind a desk or a drawing table in 1966 and just let their imagination wander.

Maybe it's not too late to change that. Thanks.

* it was a nice evening for that awards program. I mean, just Mort Meskin and Spain Rodriguez getting into a Hall Of Fame is nice.

* more if I can get back here.

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