Intimate or Overbearing?

Did you see this article at: http://comicimpact.com/2009/10/sdcc-10-sold-out/

San Diego Comic Con 2010 Sold Out

by Simon Daoudi on October 8th, 2009

In nine months you can make a baby, be married and divorced, get cured of cancer, watch every episode of Dr. Who ever aired (Trust me, I’ve done the last two). All these things and more in the time from now until San Diego Comic Con 2010. The one thing you can’t do is buy your pass for preview night. That’s right folks, preview night is sold out NINE MONTHS in advance.

Comic Con International has decided to make a limited number of preview night tickets available for those who plan their trips a year in advance. And for those of us who live in a world that does not allow us to do that, we are screwed out of what used to be a fun night of a couple hundred people being able to meet the industry professionals they admire. Sadly Preview Night is now about how much “SWAG” you can get and put up on ebay for lots of people. It makes me think SDCC has forgotten a key word in their name… COMICS. [Article continues]

Are you kidding me? Preview night is sold out… now!?! Good god, last year was a freaking nightmare for a lot of reasons and now we are selling out 9 months in advance?

First off, San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) or Comic-Con International is a logistical nightmare.  If you are a Pro it’s hella expensive to get a table much less a booth & every year they make it a little harder to get in.

You do realize that there is a tier system for Pro’s.  Depending on your status in our little world, you get anywhere from the royal treatment to a badge–if you lucky.  The biggest & brightest pay nothing to attend Cons.  Absolutely, nothing.  The next lower level might get a free booth space and a hotel room but still have to pay their airfare.  The tiers keep working their way down until all you get is free entry if you can prove you’ve worked on published art.

Now, anyone who has attended SDCC as a fan, knows that it is killer to get a hotel room.  There is a magic day when the rooms “open” and within 20 minutes the site has crashed and the rooms are all booked.  And that, by the way, is ALL rooms in San Diego practically.  The hotels on the list go up to 20 miles away.  Also, for fans tickets sell out in advance as well.  So you have to pay up front and plan a year out.

For Pro’s, let me tell you, it isn’t any better.  If you are a lucky one who gets invited they hold a room for you.  (Sometimes you pay sometimes you don’t depends on your tier-level that year.)  Most Pro’s book for the following year before they leave the current Con.  If you are a lower level you have to wait and hope just like the fans.

Side note here: There are VERY few colorists who fit into the top tier and most of those are contracted with a major publisher & even then they rarely get everything comp’ed.

Back to the article, he mentions that Preview Night used to be an intimate deal with a few hundred people and the Pro’s.  Did anyone happen to attend this year?  They had 60,000 people–a new record.  How intimate is that?  I remember when we first went to SDCC, Preview Night was low-key and really enjoyable.  Now, anyone with a booth has to have something to give away (swag) that you have to pay to have made so that you can give it away free.

So, the question becomes, do we love or hate huge con’s?  If you’ve attended a small to medium size Con you know that you can actually meet and speak to the artists.  At SDCC you are likely to stand in a line to get a ticket to stand in a line to get to see someone but if you don’t stand in line soon enough you won’t make the cut-off anyway.

Alright, talk amongst yourselves… intimate or overbearing Con what do you want?

Kristy Miller

VP, Development

Hi-Fi Design