Go, Read: Heidi MacDonald’s Massive, Always-Entertaining CCI Report

Veteran comics reporter Heidi MacDonald has her massive post-CCI essay up at her site, which is always a great read. Heidi's experience is very different than my own, both in the specifics (I had no problems with security this year even though I heard stories, and her article is the first time I even thought about the oppressiveness of giveaway bags) and in the general orientation. I feel there's a good comic-con to be had at San Diego that has nothing to do with whatever people who like that one vampire movie that didn't make as much money as Kung Fu Panda made. Or whatever the next version of that thing will be. Just literally nothing to do with that stuff. It's possible to ignore 99 percent of the bullshit that's down there if you want, or even to dabble in it without anything sticking to you if that's your thing. I'm sure there are tons of Hollywood douchebags roaming the halls, but few if any of them are in the Darwyn Cooke spotlight panel or in line to meet Pat Oliphant, you know? I'm glad there are increasingly exclusive parties and glamorous suites to entertain those people and keep them away from me.

I think the core problem -- problem being "how could this be a better comics show," which isn't all that big a problem in the wider picture -- is that comics companies don't know quite what to do with Comic-Con anymore. Heidi cites USA Today blogger Whitney Matheson's meet-up as a successful event, which is worth noting because it's a simple event. Matheson has carved out a little space for herself using the resources on hand, arranged it in smart fashion, and it works. Ditto Boom! and their Hyatt drink-up. Most entities in comics don't even try to do this much, and although there are plenty of parties and traditions and dinners, there could be way, way more. I've been arguing for the possibility of aggressive off-site retrenchment for years now, but I'm convinced now that unless it's officially endorsed this kind of thing has zero chance of happening just because there's no money or desire to do much of anything outside of trying to ride the basic model. This happens on the smaller scale, too. There's no reason at all the younger indie cartoonists of today couldn't have their own version of the late-night beach party, they just don't. The older generation can't even find a bar they like. More and more varied nighttime programming -- a trend that I personally haven't seen anyone discuss, although I'm sure folks have -- is actually a positive step here, but mostly I think we're talking about a lot of opportunity that will either be seized or left alone.

CCI as a sales opportunity is going to be in flux as the industry changes -- fewer people go to a comic-con because they couldn't find stuff otherwise the way they did 20 years ago, Chuck Rozanski himself runs an aggressive Internet sale offer during the show, the make-up of the show's attendees is changing -- and that should eventually settle. CCI as a PR platform is an intriguing topic. I hold out no hopes that Eric Reynolds being made Associate Publisher at Fantagraphics is going to knock the Iron Man 2 presentation out of top slot at Yahoo news, but I would imagine a first step is that the comics news sources do a stronger job of covering this stuff thoroughly and with passion. It would be nice if Richard Thompson -- who just announced he's been diagnosed with Parkinson's, making him a walking feature story in addition to his being the best strip cartoonist working -- could make as many comics industry generated articles as Lost or whatever. I could do a much better job, too, with the show, and I have some ideas about next year.

I think of CCI the same way I do a lot of comics-related things with a life on the Internet in that it has a number of hooks that make it interesting, that make it a spinning ball of topic generation, but in the end I'm not sure it's as important as it feels. Still, that doesn't mean the experience can't be improved, and I look forward to everyone involved outside-in doing something to make the event a better one. Because they can.
 
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