New York Comic-Con Wraps

A few notes to help wrap up the New York Comic-Con coverage.

* Chris Mautner has provided this site a news report and photos about his Friday visit, and what he saw was a fine show with a lot of potential for the future. Thanks, Chris!

* Go here for an ongoing Collective Memory entry that puts together all the worthwhile links I could find yesterday evening. I would say the belles of this particular ball, at least so far, are the Comics Foundry photo slideshow, Newsarama's interview with the convention director about the crowd situation on Saturday, the very detailed anonymous industry member's letter to this site, and Christopher Butcher in general but particularly the one on the State of the Industry panel.

* My opinion about the con's weekend difficulties hasn't really changed since yesterday. What happened at the show is not a "but" situation but an "and" situation. A lot of people were frustrated and disappointed Saturday and a lot of people had a great time overall and enjoyed the energy and focus of the show. One doesn't really have anything to do with the other; the negative doesn't invalidate the positive and the positive sure as heck doesn't make the negative dismissable.

* I'm happy that it looks like there's going to be a big industry show in New York from now on.

* It may just be the Monday morning grumpies, but I'm leery of this attitude that comics people seem to have where if it doesn't affect them directly, it didn't happen or was no big deal -- if my contract is good, someone else's unfair contract is their problem; if I have a cool store at which to shop in my big city, the blinking out of comics outlets in smaller towns is too bad for the dopes living in red states; and so on.

In this case, just because some pros and press were removed from the hassles or were able to sneak in where they wanted to and overall weren't personally affected shouldn't keep us from feeling sorry to hear about some poor schlub who brought his family and was sent home or people who came from out of town and had a horrible time dealing with confusion, long lines and having only security to ask for explanations. A "Who cares! Big Show! Whoo Whoo!" attitude is part of the reason I've always looked suspiciously at Team Comics community-building as little more than empty I've-got-mine boosterism. If you're going to talk about the positives of the community showcase provided by New York, you have to engage the negatives, too.

* Not only is a bigger space needed for their next show, but it like they could use more attentive staff on the front-lines level, better-designed passes, and an ability to identify problems and divert energy into solving them early. For a start. Sounds like design of the floorspace could be improved, too.

* I'm kind of disappointed by the shortening of the trade show aspect and the lack of compelling story I'm getting from the panels overall. A dedicated comics show with a trade show aspect should hopefully reveal something in the way of a new idea or a potential new way of looking at things.

Please note: New York Comic-Con has been a paid advertiser on this site, expiring tomorrow.
 
posted 9:00 pm PST | Permalink
 

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