Is Five Days at San Diego ComicCon Too Much?

If you've never heard of San Diego Comic Con, then none of what follows will make much sense.  In fact, if you've never been to San Diego Comic Con, then you're almost certainly much brighter than me and I applaud your willpower in avoiding the sheer lunacy that descends on the city every July.  But, if you do know about Comic Con or (GASP!) you've actually attended the behemoth celebration of the "popular arts" (as San Diego likes to frame it), then you'll understand why I have to ask myself every year whether or not spending five days at Comic Con is just too much.

I first attended Comic Con in the summer of 1986 while my wife and I were attending the nearby University of San Diego.  We read about it In the local paper and, on a bit of a lark, decided to head downtown to the old convention center see what all the fuss was about.  We discovered it was all about boxes and boxes of comic books and the people who loved them.  We didn't return to Comic Con until thirteen years later when we had small children.

By 1999, Comic Con had moved to the new, much larger Convention Center on the San Diego waterfront across from the newly-revitalized Gas Lamp District (an area that was so seedy in 1986 that only brave sailors on leave even thought to go there).  We found an event that had grown to tens of thousands of people and was beginning to draw the attention of studio heads and marketing departments in Hollywood.  The comic book fans were still in attendance, but the influence they would wield over America's televisions and the world's movie screens was still a few years away.

Since then, my wife and daughter have regained their sanity and refuse to set foot inside the maelstrom that has become the San Diego Convention Center.  They are satisfied to visits downtown for an hour or two to see the Star Wars stormtroopers and Wonder Womans (is that how to pluralize Wonder Woman?) and various other cosplayers decked out to look like their favorite comic book or on screen characters.

But my son and I (he's now 19 and a student at the University of Texas) still insist on going.  And, we don't just go, we go for all five days.  Granted, I do meet with clients and refresh old friendships, but I can't help enjoying the endless movie panels and trying to spot media personalities in the crowds.  Some have figured out they can best enjoy the main hall (and avoid the attention of adoring fans) by dressing in costume and keeping their headgear in place, but others, like Seth Green and Stephen Root, have an interest in the guts that make Comic Con what it is, the comic books, the action figures, the collectible card games, the finely crafted statutes, and, of course, the t-shirts.

Arguably, San Diego Comic Con is the greatest assemblage of intellectual property in the world and all that IP adds up to some impressive sales numbers for the vendors and tax revenues for the City of San Diego.  And, by virtue of its own success, there are innumerable imitators that have cropped up across the U.S. and in every industrialized country of the world.  Heck, there's even a version that is held every year in the Middle East.

But when Monday rolls around and the parties are all over and the exhibitors have taken down their booths and wares and the attendees have all headed home, the question remains, why bother, especially for all five days?  And every year I answer my own question by remembering the wackiness and the weirdness and the sheer joy of a 14 year old trapped in a father's body who now gets to enjoy the convention with his son and to build on the memories of previous years.  In the future, if you want to find me in mid July, the first place to look will be in San Diego.

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