The San Diego Comic Convention has long been the preeminent event of the comic book industry, an annual pop-culture phenomenon that attracts more than 100,000 fans and grows larger and more prominent in the general culture every year. Much of the recent mainstream attention comes courtesy of the convention's significant Hollywood presence that has drawn both the event and the medium further into the mainstream spotlight, to both the delight and dismay of fans and comics professionals.
The biggest problems facing the convention now are the consequences of its own success—the show has become so large and so popular that is has reached the limits of both attendance and physical space. Last year, the convention sold out of all 125,000 available badges, the maximum number that the San Diego Convention Center can safely accommodate, according to Comic-Con PR director David Glanzer, who expects a similar situation this year.
Unsurprisingly, both the four-day and Saturday passes, which can be purchased online, sold out months ago. Comic-Con International is a nonprofit entity, and ticket prices—single-day passes run $20—$35 and the four-day pass is $75—are affordable. “Raising [ticket] prices is not what we go for first,” says Glanzer, although he adds that several price discounts for early purchasers were eliminated over the last year.
The real challenge is not finding a ticket, but rather a place to stay. Housing has become a serious concern for both fans and professionals, who instantly snapped up the limited block of hotel rooms released by Comic-Con in February. “One of the long-term problems with San Diego has always been the housing issue,” says Glanzer. “We've never really had as many hotels as we'd like.”
Although a new Hilton, under construction at the foot of the convention center, will add 1,000 more rooms to the immediate convention area, it's still a drop in the bucket. But with a tidal wave of fans on the way, Glanzer says, “this would be true almost no matter what city we're in.”
Exhibitors are also feeling the pinch as they compete for limited space on the convention floor. At the recommendation of fire marshals, aisles in the giant halls D and E were widened, meaning there's even less available acreage overall. As a result, many professionals and publishers, including book publishing giant HarperCollins, are still on a waiting list for a booth only weeks before the show opens—and unlikely to come off of it.
Some comics professionals and fans attribute the dearth of exhibition and hotel space to the increasing presence of non-comics media at the convention, particularly the film industry, whose free-spending presence seems to grow more extravagant every year. “I'm watching [the small press area] Artist's Alley get smaller year by year, and I'm talking to publishers who say their space keeps shrinking to make room for Hollywood,” says comics writer Steve Niles, best known for both his 30 Days of Night graphic series as well as the film.
Despite some complaints that comics are now getting short shrift at their own convention, Glanzer says that these concerns are “blown out of proportion. Long-time attendees of the show know that our focus has always been comics, but [also] that there has always been a film presence,” says Glanzer. “The film aspect is responsible for only about 22% of our programming.”
But Niles insists that numbers like that don't tell the whole story: “Sure, most of the programming is small press, but that 22% are the ones bringing giant-size X-Wing fighters and filling up the [big] halls.”
And even if movie-related content isn't actually stealing space from comics, it has certainly focused the convention buzz on the Hollywood presence at Comic-Con even within the world of comics publishing. Indeed, the dilettante celebrity comic book creator has become fairly common in recent years, as numerous actors, directors and musicians have tried their hand at making comics, often in hopes that their original properties will later make the leap to film.
Companies like Virgin Comics have devoted entire imprints to celebrity creators like Nicholas Cage, Ed Burns and even porn star Jenna Jameson (though actual comics writers do the real scripting), and the trend shows no sign of slowing down in San Diego. Milo Ventimiglia, star of the NBC superhero series Heroes, will be appearing on a panel with Devil's Due Publishing, where he is producing a comic called Rest that will debut in August.
Even bigger is the news that rap star and former Wu-Tang Clan member Method Man will be attending the convention to promote his upcoming eponymous comic book from the Hachette Book Group. He is scheduled to appear on “The Black Panel” (along with BET president and comics writer Reggie Hudlin), followed by a signing.
Although these creative cameos may bring star power to the creative end of comics—an industry not noted for its glamour—they tend to attract more publicity than actual sales.
Still, Niles acknowledges that Comic-Con is “crawling with producers now, which means some of the up-and-comers have a chance to get someone to notice their book.”
Niles, whose 30 Days of Night hit the big screen last year, adds, “I think we have a permanent exchange between Hollywood and comics now. I've benefited from it hugely, but I think we have to call this a multimedia convention.”
This multimedia reality also extends to video games, which have drawn stronger interest in the convention as well. Consider Prince of Persia, an October graphic novel from First Second based on a popular videogame. While First Second holds a signing with advance copies for Jordan Mechner, the game's developer and the book's co-writer, game producer Ubisoft will also be at Con to promote the new Prince of Persia videogame. There's even A Prince of Persia movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal and scripted by Mechner that's slated to debut next year.
Gerard Way, frontman of the band My Chemical Romance, was another of the rare stars who not only wrote his Dark Horse book, The Umbrella Academy, but managed to garner both positive critical reviews and relative commercial success. Way will be appearing with comics superstar writer Grant Morrison on a Saturday panel with Dark Horse titled “Born Under a Black Sun.”
This year's programming includes several doses of Morrison, one of the most popular and well-respected writers in comics and the creative mind behind Final Crisis, DC Comics' ongoing mega-crossover series. Morrison will appear on the DC Nation panel as well as two Virgin Comics panels, with the inimitable Stan Lee and spiritual guru Deepak Chopra.
Manga—Japanese comics that continue to dominate bookstore sales in the U.S.—will be out in full force with a number of high-profile manga-ka, or manga creators, flying in from Japan to meet American fans. Most notably, Tite Kubo, superstar creator of Viz's bestselling Bleach series, will make his first appearance at Comic-Con, signing, participating in the Shonen Jump panel and introducing a screening of the new Bleach animated movie.
Random House's Del Rey Manga imprint is bringing Hiro Mashima, creator of the Fairy Tail series, for his first U.S. appearance, and Radical Publishers will have Vampire Hunter D illustrator Yoshitaka Amano on hand to sign his upcoming Mateki: The Magic Flute, a full-color hardcover book based on the Mozart opera.
Notably absent from the manga publishers exhibiting at Comic-Con is Tokyopop, the second-biggest U.S. manga publisher and a former fixture at San Diego, which recently laid off almost 40 employees and cut its releases by 50%. The company will not have a booth or any panels at Comic-Con, a sign that perhaps the meteoric rise of manga may have some limits.
Nevertheless, Glanzer says, manga has helped the show evolve past many of its stereotypes. “In the past the show was pretty male dominated, but in the last 10 years we've seen a huge increase in female attendance, and a lot of that's due to anime and manga. Right now it's about 70/30 [male/female], and it may be as high as 65/35.”
Unlike manga companies, who must often work up to a year in advance to coordinate appearances by overseas creators, many U.S. publishers remained uncertain of convention plans at press time, a common problem at Comic-Con, where plans are often unsettled even within the last month. “Programming is one of the last things that gets finalized at our event,” admits Glanzer. “It would be great if we could plan earlier.”
