Well, it’s been a few weeks now since the San Diego Comic-Con (or, technically, “Comic-Con International: San Diego”) and I guess it’s finally time for me to quit procrastinating and write up my report on the show. (Note: This is a slightly modified version of the report I also posted to the CCAS social network, and to my ‘trib in the Alpha-Omega APA.)
Sorry for the delay! In addition to the usual sleep deprivation and sensory overload that accompanies the convention (making the “Walking Dead” banners throughout the convention center very appropriate), I also managed to catch a nasty cold on the last day of the show so by the time I got back home, I was feverish and coughing and was pretty much wiped out for the next two weeks. By the time I was back on my feet, so much other work had piled up while I was sick that my intended convention report got pushed back yet again. So… before anything else can go awry, I’m getting this report written up and posted!
BACKGROUND
For those who might not know, the annual “Comic-Con International: San Diego” is a world-famous comic book convention that has grown to encompass all areas of pop culture. From Wednesday evening to Sunday afternoon, the event regularly draws over 120,000 attendees to the San Diego Convention Center, offering panels, workshops, and a massive exhibit hall that combines the enthusiasm of costumed fans, the innovation of entrepreneurial self-publishers, and the promotional glitz of big media studios. The entire city gets in on the act, to the point where even the public transportation system turns Klingon…
I have been attending the convention for well over a decade now, not just as a fan or as an independent publisher, but also as part of an outreach ministry of the Christian Comic Arts Society. Our group’s involvement with the show was more important than ever this year, as the infamous Westboro Baptist protesters tried to stir up publicity by picketing the convention. Sadly, the media coverage of their protests tended to overlook the other side of the story, which is that the real “True Believers” were not outside the convention as angry picketers, but rather were inside, as Christians who are comic book readers, creators, aspiring amateurs and established professionals. We come from all corners of the industry and represent a growing movement to encourage Christian involvement in the arts, and a vision for using the art of comics to promote the cause of Christ.
The CCAS has been actively participating at the San Diego convention for almost 15 years. Our convention activities include hosting tables at the exhibitor hall and organizing panel discussions and workshops. We had roughly a dozen volunteers helping us in our ministries this year, and had resources sponsored by religious publisher David C. Cook to help promote their upcoming Action Bible with art by award-winning artist Sergio Cariello.
PERSONAL THOUGHTS
The convention itself has my usual complaints: it’s simply grown too large. It often took me over an hour to move from one end of the hall to the other, or to travel from one panel discussion and back to our table. As a result, I spent much less time at our table than I had planned to, because most of my time was spent trapped inching my through crowds trying to even reach our table. The size of the crowds, the noise, the claustrophobic gridlock in the aisles… it’s all too much for me. I keep coming back each year as an exhibitor as part of this volunteer outreach ministry, but there’s no way it would be worth it for me to come as a “fan” anymore. Not unless I was coming just to camp out to grab exclusive movie studio swag.
On the other hand, the “feel” of the show was not as oppressive as in previous years. I remember just one or two years ago when almost every table in the small press aisle seemed to be offering some sort of blood-soaked vampire or zombie book. Entire aisles would be nothing but a sea of gloomy black and red banners. This year’s offerings were much more diverse, with everything from funny animals to mystery to historical drama to comics for girls. Not that I have anything against the horror comic genre per se, I just like seeing more variety in such a big show as San Diego.
But overall? It was a good convention for the Christian Comic Arts Society ministry. Our panels went well, our table sales were exceptional (considering the circumstances), we met a lot of new Christian friends, and we gave away many tracts as well as all of the Action Bible samplers we had brought. (We grabbed a few extra from Sergio so we could have enough between us to last through the end of the show on Sunday.)
THE TABLE
Table space was more cramped than usual this year. The consensus of the other vendors is that the tables shrunk in comparison to previous years. Still 6 feet long as promised, but they seem narrower, and more tightly packed against the aisles. In previous years, we had room for the display rack, a half-table full of giveaway tracts, and still space for table signs, a candy bowl, and a clipboard for a sign-up sheet. This year… it was more cramped.
The CCAS convention events are first and foremost intended as an outreach ministry, not a fundraising tool, but we still do offer Christian comics for sale so as to offset the costs of the table. We usually end up making at least enough to cover the costs of the table itself, while the hotel and travel costs are just considered out-of-pocket expenses that we volunteers pay as part of our ministry.
This year, God blessed us with enough to cover the cost of the table and still had enough left over to cover a hefty chunk of a downpayment for next year’s convention season. In fact, the sales of books were surprisingly good, considering the fact that access to half our table was blocked by a trash can which the convention placed directly in front of us to catch water dripping from a leaky pipe overhead. (We tried to make light of this by posting a sign offering “free baptisms”, but after four days of being unable to have the leak repaired, that had gotten old.)
We got many positive responses from other Christians who were discovering us for the first time, as well as expressions of relief that there were Christians here representing something other than the angry Westboro protesters. Leading up to the show, the attention given to the protesters was wildly disproportionate to their actual impact there. There was just a small handful of them, they protested outside the convention center from behind a police barricade with no direct contact with anyone, and they were there for less than an hour on Thursday afternoon before departing to go picket their next scheduled target. (We had prepared some possible signs to hang at our table as a “disclaimer” in case the protestors outside began to sour the attendees against the rest of us Christians at the show, but thankfully that hostility never materialized.)
Our table was next to a fellow Christian artist, and across from several other small publishers with whom we struck up friendships and apparently made a very positive impression. The result was that if someone did make a rare complaint about how “awful” it was that “those Christians” had a table at the convention, our neighboring non-religious exhibitors would actually defend us and praise how friendly and helpful we had been to them.
As always, the CCAS table featured a wide variety of comic-style tracts that we gave away for free to all who would take them. Our tracts included everything from the Street Comix (mini-comics with art produced by CCAS members and published by the Foursquare Missions Press for a street ministry outreach for gang members, prostitutes and the homeless) to classic Jack Chick tracts (but only the ones offering clear Gospel messages, not anti-Catholic conspiracy rants, FYI), as well as free sample booklets showing preview pages from the soon-to-be-released Action Bible.
We carried a very wide mix of comics this year, actually more than we had room to display on our table. Most of it was new: Ralph Miley and I had just produced two new titles through the New Creation Now imprint (Ragged Capes and the New Visions Anthology); Kingstone Media was offering childrens’ titles focusing on Bible stories of Moses, Noah and others; Kurt Kolka brought new copies of The Cardinal; Clint Johnson had a limited edition ashcan preview of Matthew Cross: Faithwalker; Headpress Publishers had released a new installment of the Eyewitness series; and the Voice of the Martyrs had produced a new comic book on overseas persecution, Hope Amid Horror. We also carried older, evergreen titles such as Buzz Dixon’s Serenity manga series, the Proverbs & Parables anthology, and the various “Z” Graphic Novels by Zondervan and Lamp Post Publishing.
THE PANELS
The Saturday morning panel focused on “Spiritual Themes in Comics” and had the following writeup in the convention guide:
11:00-12:00 Spirituality in Comics— How can comics help communicate timeless truths through new media to new audiences? Discuss the latest trends of spiritual themes in comics with moderator Scott Shuford of the Christian Comic Arts Society and panelists Holly Golightly (School Bites), K. J. Kolka (Cardinal Adventures), and Clint Johnson (Faithwalker).
The panel wasn’t bad, but was also smaller than previous years. Scott and the panelists did well, but as for the attendance and audience enthusiasm, those seemed only average. A large part of this was due to our change in venue. Last year, our panel was held inside the convention center, and our room was packed to overflowing. This year, in a smaller room, we had plenty of open seats left. The lights in the room that morning were also so dim as to prevent video recording (although we were able to record the audio of the panel and hope to post it online as a podcast soon.)
Our panel almost got a late start because the previous panelists (a Twilight fan-fiction author fan group?) were slow in ending their session, and their crowds simply moved directly outside the door of the room where their loud continuing conversations in the hallway threatened to drown out our own panelists inside the room. Let’s just say the acoustics of the room were somewhat lacking at that point.
Our scheduled non-Christian panelist (Holly Golightly) was not able to attend the panel; she had told me earlier that there might be a scheduling conflict with events going on at her own booth, and I believe she told Scott that the fact that it was being held outside the convention center also played a factor. We were able to replace her spot on the panel with Brett Burner of Lamp Post Publishing at the last minute. As a result, our Saturday panel lacked the back-and-forth diversity of viewpoints we normally have. Our panelists did great, but having the subject of “Spirituality in Comics” discussed only from a Christian perspective felt like it was lacking something. Personally, I think the Christian POV on the Saturday panel is showcased better when it can be compared and contrasted with other viewpoints. Still, our roster of available panelists are often outside of our control, so we work with whomever God brings us and we trust Him for the results. We’ll see what we can try arranging for next year
The Sunday morning panel with Buzz Dixon, Eric Jansen and Sergio Cariello went better. The convention had fixed the lighting by then, so I was able to record the panel with video as well as audio. (Again, postcasts will be forthcoming, Lord willing.) Also, there was a gap in the scheduling between our panel and the next, which allowed our panel to go long and take up to half an hour of extra time for questions and answers. Here was our official writeup in the guide:
10:00-11:00 Christian Comics: The Word in Pictures— From Andre LeBlanc’s classic Picture Bible to Robert Crumb’s recent adaptation of Genesis, there is a long tradition of Bible-based comics. Moderator Buzz Dixon (Snokie Stories) and panelists Sergio Cariello (The Action Bible) and Eric Jansen (The Christ of Prophecy) discuss the challenges involved in adapting the words of scripture into visual media. A short devotional message will precede the panel discussion, put on by the Christian Comic Arts Society.
Sergio provided an opening devotional about the impact our lives make upon one another, and how even seemingly unimportant artistic efforts (like his freebie contribution to the Proverbs & Parables anthology a decade ago) cause ripples and rebound in unexpected ways (in Sergio’s example, he explained how the art he did for that old anthology ended up putting him in a position where he was chosen to illustrate the new David C. Cook Action Bible, which has been an extensive multi-year project and labor of love for him.)
The panel discussion started off with Sergio’s experience with the Action Bible, and Eric’s experience with his Christ of Prophecy comic produced and distributed worldwide through Foursquare Missions Press. The discussion then widened to include a discussion about the Genesis adaptation of Robert Crumb and other examples of non-Christians creating art based on the Scriptures. We had a very interactive audience, with even staffers from the convention getting involved in the Q&A.
Out of the many other events at the convention that went very well for us, the only event that did not go so well for us was the “After-Hours Mixer”:
7:30-8:30 After Hours with the Christian Comic Arts Society— Creators and fans alike are invited to attend an open meeting of the Christian Comic Arts Society for an informal time of Christian fellowship, networking, laughter and prayer. (Think of it as the social hour after church…just with comic books instead of coffee, cookies and punch.) Room 24ABC
I think there were several reasons this event fizzled. One was the setting: In previous years, we had a relatively small room, but we were free to rearrange the chairs and microphones, which provided a cozy atmosphere of fellowship. This year, we were in a large hall where all the chairs were firmly anchored in rows and even the microphones were bolted down to the floor. We were hoping for the feel of an after-church fellowship hall, and we got a lecture podium with pews instead.
The other problem was the timing. In previous years, our after-hours meeting was relatively ignored by the convention: they gave us an unused room and because there were no further events scheduled, they allowed us to just “hang out” without a set end time. However, with this year’s meeting down the hall from some larger events (the Masquerade, a Kevin Smith panel, etc.), the convention enforced a strict one hour time limit, at the end of which we were ejected and the room locked up tight. End result: we had just enough time for people to make introductions and say “Hi, my name is ___ and I’m a Christian and a comics fan” and… that’s about it. There just wasn’t enough time for much “mixing” to go on at our mixer.
Still, I shouldn’t complain. We had a decent sized turnout for the event, and the fellowship was good even if it was brief. Also, at least now we know better for next year to be more specific with our requests of the convention as to what kind of room we need and how much time to expect. (“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” – Romans 8:28)
As always, please note that the views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author only and do not necessarily represent those of the Christian Comic Arts Society or the other volunteers attending the San Diego Comic-Con.
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Aug.23,2010
A few years back, I splurged to purchase a set of the Marvel DVD-ROM collections featuring complete runs of various series in PDF format. The Fantastic Four, Avengers, X-Men, Captain America, Spider-Man, the Hulk… I think the only sets I missed were Iron Man and Ghost Rider. I’m not particularly a fan of reading comics on the computer screen; I think ink on paper is much easier on the eyes. Also, I think the visual storytelling of the comics (in terms of panel layouts, pacing of page turns, etc) suffers when the onscreen display dimensions don’t match the original format the comics were designed for. On the other hand, these scanned collections have their advantages: $50 for a DVD collection equaled out to perhaps 10 cents per issue on a collected print run of a title, and it’s much easier to store all these series of comics on disc, as opposed to having them bagged, boarded, and boxed in the closet. These scanned PDF versions gave me an easy way to read hundreds of comics that I would never otherwise be able to afford, providing “reading copies” of entire series that I had always heard about but never actively collected.
The X-Men #1 (link to GCD index page.)
What worked in this story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby together, that’s what worked! If viewed in the abstract, this could be considered a fairly generic “new heroes fight powerful villain” story with melodramatic stock characters if anybody else had written or drawn this. Yet the dynamism of Jack Kirby’s art, and the sheer enthusiastic energy of Stan Lee’s scripting make me willing to accept the characters and the concept. The combination of their art and writing just grabs me as a reader and pulls me along for the ride so fast that I never have a chance to stop to notice any of the odd story quirks along the way.
I had to stop and read this panel three or four times: “As the… missiles are attracted by heat, so are the Iceman’s ice grenades attracted by the missiles’ speed…” This sounds as if it’s being offered as some sort of scientific explanation, and yet… huh? Coldness is drawn to speed? Really? I don’t understand, and yet… I see it happening right there on the page, so I guess it must be true. Who am I going to believe, common sense or my own two eyes?
Tags : X-Men
