The Comic Con Phenomenon

New York Comic Con (NYCC) tickets went on sale last Wednesday. Much like its sister convention, San Diego Comic Con (SDCC), passes have become a very hot commodity. The servers were flooded by over-anxious nerds (yes, I was one of them; albeit I gave up within 45 minutes) of every genre desperately pining for the holy grail of tickets. The past few years, interest in NYCC (and especially in SDCC) has increased exponentially. Tickets were easy to come by in the beginning; no extra servers needed, no queue screen, no pulling out your own hair in frustration, and no hitting that damn refresh button like it was giving you money.

One of the main reasons it’s “blown up” is because it’s no longer a comic book convention. That’s fine; great, even. Though, some of us might not think so (again, I was one of them). Some of us get butt-hurt that we weren’t fortunate enough to procure tickets for such a wonderful event. We blame the scalpers, mostly, but there’s also blame towards the people that are just there for that rare, glorified chance to meet a celebrity. We need to take a step back, though, and evaluate the situation. More people in attendance means more people having the chance of picking up a beloved comic book, and falling in love. Which would mean sales increase, and a chance of getting something new delivered to our grubby, little hands. Comic book elitists can gripe all they want, but it’s a good thing that anyone, whatever their reason for attending, is walking through the aisles of Comic Con.

Nerds (or geeks, I never know which is proper) flock to this holy land of Nerdom because of the plethora of various nerd-like mediums calling to us like a moth to flame. If you’ve attended, you know it’s true. Anything from the biggest facets of Sci-Fi, Anime, Comic Books, Manga, Video Games, TV, and Movies are in abundance filling up the Javitz Center.   Every aisle is jam-packed with just a little something for everyone. Every medium is booming with material for us to tell them to, “Shut up and take my money!”

We need not fret, however, as more and more conventions are popping up. This medium is growing, and we are accommodating. There’s plenty of conventions coming on to the scene that are just for the comic book enthusiast; conventions where comic books and their creators are the sole focus. This June in NYC is one such example: Special Edition: NYC. It’s in its second year, and it’s looking to be pretty big in terms of creators. It still has tons of vendors, panels, and an artists alley. It’s a lot of fun, and worth checking out if you’re in the area. There’s some other honorable mentions, as well: Emerald City Comic Con (Seattle) and Heroes Con (North Carolina).

One thing that we can all agree on, and is abundantly clear: it’s a damn great time to be a nerd (or geek). All of our collective nerdom is sliding it’s way into the mainstream. Some of it great, and some of it very ill-fated, but at least it’s out there. Embrace it and enjoy it, my friends.