Life On Mars Part 1: Prologue (My Week At San Diego Comic Con in 5 Parts)
A few months ago before I screened The Avengers in NYC, I was speaking with a critic who has come to Comic Con before, asking him for some sort of example on what the event is like, he told me “It’s a lot like mars, you walk in the first time and you say to yourself there is no possible way this is still planet earth”. In March of this year, a sibling and I made an executive decision to go to San Diego Comic Con. At first I treated the idea as a funny joke, a dream vacation that had no real chance of occurring. Well I was wrong, and quickly found myself with a 4 day pass, a hotel room and a flight to San Diego, California. Flying in Wednesday morning from Newark International Airport to San Diego, we found that almost 90% of the people on our flight were coming for the same reason as we were. To get this yearly event in some form of context for those of you who do not know, San Diego comic con is the largest Pilgrimage of nerds to any area in the United States. Since 2008 the Convention has been sold out and ever since that point the convention has expanded.
At one point just literally a Comic convention, over time it turned into a place for wannabe artists to get tips from the pros, as well as a place where artists and companies can buy, and show off whats new within their own industry. It now handles almost every part of pop culture, from comics to blockbuster films to television programming .Comic Con has now become the place to give fans, critics, and professionals a sneak peak. For example on Wednesday some of the networks premiered Pilots for shows including the CW’s new superhero show Arrow, and ABC’s 666 Park Avenue, both were seen by fans and the reviews by fans after the pilots are the reviews that will recieve attention from people prior to the actual premiers. Comic Con is the one true place where word of mouth means everything and a good panel at Comic Con can raise awareness and gain shows, films, books, comics, anime, etc the proper attention and get everyone else to take notice.
Over the next 4 days I will try my best to inform the general public about the panels, the premieres, as well as what this other worldly place in the heart of downtown San Diego looks like, the people that inhabit it, and maybe put the 4 days of chaos in better context. My next post I get the chance to explore the Twilight phenomenon at comic con and also post a number of the amazing, astounding and unbelievable costumes that represent the comic con faithful.