Take a stroll through the nerdfest of old with this mesmerizing Flickr photoset of the 1982 San Diego Comic-Con. You know, before Hollywood discovered it and turned it into America’s pop-culture mecca.
Photo by Alan Light
Now that the furious hype of this year’s San Diego Comic Con has died down, it’s time to shine a spotlight on something that’s becoming more and more obvious with each passing year: geeks will have a convention about anything.
It used to be pretty straightforward, right? Star Trek, comic books, science fiction/fantasy, and gaming. The four building blocks of geek culture. But as the nerdiverse expands exponentially every year — LIKE MY WAISTLINE. ZING. — on top of those we’ve now got a bunch of specialized cons: Transformers, GI Joe figures, Star Wars, anime/manga, classic video games, anthropomorphic animal porn, and probably eightyhundred more that we have no idea exist.
Yes, the enthusiasm and determination and love is endearing. Who doesn’t like hanging out with people of similar interests? Isn’t that one of the points of life pretty much? Also, cons take some real gumption and organization to pull off. People. Making the effort.
But see, the thing is, we can see the whole trend getting out of hand pretty soon, and we’ve decided that there are some specific things we hope geeks never exercise their right to an assembly for.
So, we’d very much like to present to you The Top 12 Conventions We Hope To Never See. Ever..
SECTAURS
Duncan: One of the more awesomely bizarre and short-lived attempts at a Masters of the Universe-esque toy and cartoon franchise, the extremely doofy Sectaurs were a bunch of outer space dudes based on insects and involved pun-er-iffic names like “Trancula” and “Hyve.” Yes, it was unintentionally funny even back then — especially the Marvel comics. But I’m willing to bet there are a bunch of dudes out there who are still carrying the Sectaur torch and taking the whole thing much too seriously. Here’s a message to those people: it’s not worth it. Ok, the Hyve toy was pretty dope, though.
Steve: Since they’re insect-based creatures, Sectaurs don’t quite fit under the auspices of the Furry Phenomenon. Which is good because grown men and women dressing up like bug-people and having sex with each other is something we don’t even want to know about.
GHOSTBUSTERS
Steve: Quite frankly, of all the conventions we hope never to see, it surprises us most of all that there’s not been a Ghostbusters con. And we’re quite happy with that, really. The second movie aside, Ghostbusters has managed to survive all these years and several different incarnations relatively intact as a genuinely creative, intelligent and fun franchise. Let’s not sully that with 300-pound Venkmens walking around with dustbusters mounted on their backs.
Duncan: Remember how much fun/genuinely cool Star Wars used to be before people started obsessing over it all day every day? That’s kind of how Ghostbusters – one of the great film comedies and a high-water mark of the Golden Age of Blockbusters – is right now. Let’s leave it alone.
SMURFS
Steve: Picture 2500 people running around in blue body paint and white pants. This is the stuff nightmares are made of, so we’re pleasantly surprised to realize that nobody’s done it to date. Not that I think this concept could last beyond one convention if it were to ever pass. I mean, how many times could a hotel worker handle having someone ask them questions about “smurf this” or “smurf that” before snapping and beating the smurf out of someone?
Duncan: I’m going to play my “Furry” card here: imagine those 2500 sweetly insecure social retards having an after hours in-costume orgy. Shudder. That said, I’m mildly surprised there hasn’t been a big nostalgia resurgence of the Smurfs. Those little blue commies were so weird and so popular. Jellies-level popular!
Just thought I’d wrap the post-con week up with a final piece to showcase the remaining miscellaneous photos I took during the show. Despite selling out ever single day, this year’s SDCC was actually much smoother run and better thought out than the last few, or at least that’s how it seemed on the floor. Yes, it was crowded as hell, but we didn’t have to deal with the waves of people flooding the pathways at regular intervals whenever all the panels let out at the same time, picking up our passes was easier than ever, and the “security” people were all pleasant and not as dickish as they’ve had a tendency to be in the past.
The city of San Diego, on the other hand, really needs to do something about getting a few pedestrian walkways built so that people can walk over the street in front of the convention center rather than back up and get stuck on the train tracks. Here’s a shot of what that clusterfunk looked like.
Keep in mind, that photo was taken on Saturday morning, before the crowd was insanely massive. I didn’t get a shot off of the outside area as the show let out in the evening, but that was an even worse scene.
Click the “more” link for some more SDCC tidbits.
This year, off-site events took a big leap forward with this Yaris promotion that was, as far as I know, not officially associated with the convention, but still completely aimed at con-goers. Udon was recruited to provide the artwork for the customized Yaris’ (Yarii?) on display, creating some sweet super-deformed Street Fighter artwork as well as a pair of evil rabbit demon creatures, a pair of Japanese wrestlers and what looked like a white smurf with a speaker for a head. They also had a table inside the display room where you could buy posters and other Udonware if you so desired.
If you didn’t want to buy anything, you could still plop down in front of any number of Xboxes and just play a random game or enter their tournament play. Whatever you wanted to do, the showroom was a welcome pit-stop halfway between our parking garage and the convention proper. With the addition of two more hotels with meeting room space coming this winter, I’d be surprised if the con’s influences don’t continue to spread further and further from the actual show to the surrounding area.
Enough jibber jabber - on with the photos!
Thank god for technology. It’s the only way someone like me who lives on the East Coast can get the goods on something that is “exclusively” revealed in a convention panel in San Diego. So it is with the aforementioned Iron Man clip presented by Jon Favreau. You can view the clip right here. Although the image quality from the phone cam is about fair in some parts to downright unwatchable in others (as the following screen caps can attest), I did go over it a couple dozen times. From what was presented, the movie looks pretty freakin’ great. The action was well framed and definitely included some gratuitous Marvel moneyshots. The dialogue did snap quite well and dare I say it, Downey owns the part of spoiled rich guy Tony Stark. Who would’ve thunk it back when he was crapping the bed a few years ago that his theatrical renaissance would include the hard drinking Shellhead? Not this fanboy right here. Here’s the first screen cap.
If you want to see others, that’s going to cost you (meaning you have to see them after the jump).
As always, the convention floor was littered with costumes galore, some good, some abysmal and some amazing. I’ve stuck with taking pics of the ones that interested me the most, for one reason or another, and I’ve slipped a shot of a celebrity in the mix as well. One thing I noticed - Klingons are out, pirates are in. We walked the floor for two days and didn’t see a single Star Trek themed outfit, which is odd since Klingons have been a costuming mainstay of the show for just about ever. Pirates, on the other hand, were everywhere, often traveling in packs, singing and otherwise putting on performances. And no, I didn’t bother photographing any of them.
But enough of that! Time for photos (with captions!)
The best of the lot, IMO - Adam Strange was chilling on his cel phone (tucked neatly in his mask like some communicator) and chomping on a banana lunch. He was still kind enough to pose for a pic, which is awesome because the costume is the balls.
For the longest time, I kept seeing girls dressed in psuedo-sailor outfits and was confused as to why the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man was such a popular costume choice this year. Eventually I realized that they were dressing as various sailorish anime characters. These two were the least Stay-Puft looking I could find.
Just a couple of Aquabats walking by. This isn’t the promised celebrity photo, though. At least, I don’t think so. I’m not sure I’d be able to tell a real Aquabat from a fan in costume if they stood 2 feet away from me.
More, even more awesome costumes after the jump, including Cherry from “Planet Terror”, some robot dude, Power Girl and the world’s tallest Batman!
Quite possibly the most convincing argument in favor of a 5 day Star Wars convention - a sea of Leias (plus Stormtrooper Elvis).
Full photo, pls a few more, here.
There’s not a whole lot in the way of details, but according to Publisher’s Weekly, the first annual Kid’s Comic Con in NYC last week was a big success. I first met the con organizer, Alex Simmons, nearly a decade ago, and while I haven’t kept in touch with him as closely as I’d have liked, I’m ecstatic to hear that his event went over so well.
Held on Saturday, April 28, at Bronx Community College, the daylong affair saw kids of all ages checking out a variety of comic books, meeting comics professionals and attending workshops on how to create their own comics.
Organizer Alex Simmons—educational outreach director at New York’s Museum for Comic and Cartoon Art and a comics scribe in his own right—said he was very pleased with how the day turned out. “Everything we did seemed really successful in a lot of ways and appreciated by the people who came,” he said.
The rest of the piece can be read here, and here’s another article on the con.
