It’s hard to sum up the experience of Comic Con in a single article, let alone mere words. Comic Con is a great, undulating beast feeding upon pop culture and breathing out huge sighs of information. The convention hall is a kind of Oroborous: you enter one side of the building and merge into the throng, only to be shocked to find yourself back where you started, your own tail firmly gripped in your teeth, unable to fully process all you’ve seen. I liken Comic Con to the days of my drug addled youth, a constant acid trip without the accompanying collateral damage. The insane amount of people and experiences there is almost staggering.
I think for myself, Comic Con International has taken on a different meaning, being by far the most vetern of the Re:Generator staff when it comes to CCI. I remember a different time for Comic Con, before televisions shows like Entourage made “nerd prom” acceptable. These days, sheer volume of both attendees and exhibitors have changed the convention into something else entirely. That’s not to say that all change has been for the worse. Legitimacy has brought things to Comic Con that would never have been possible before. It’s almost unfair to call it Comic Con (though at heart it still truly is about comic book culture). “Pop Culture Con” would be more appropriate. Nowhere else will you see Hollywood rubbing shoulders with video game developers, toy companies, authors, artists, porn stars and mouth-breathing geeks.
The hardest realization for me was that this culture was no longer outsider culture. Those who profess a love of all things “geeky” are no longer the paraiah they once were. Special no more, the things we love are now pop culture, and our annual meeting fully reflects that. It has taken a very long time but the very thing that used to seperate us from the mainstream is now what draws us all ever closer to it. If you have any doubt of that, buy a ticket next year so that you and your closest 100,000 friends can experience what I am talking about.
In closing, I have one important piece of information for you that I gleaned while lurking around the loading docks (as I am prone to do) and talking with those who maintain the convention center itself: they plan to double the size of the convention center to accomodate a bigger Comic Con International.
This is how much we have changed things. Bravo, fellow nerds!
