Comic-Condemnation, by Arthur Tebbel – Pop Art #86

July 28, 2010 Arthur Tebbel 2 Comments

Dear Art,

Another year of Comic-Con International is in the books.  We had another banner year with huge crowds and some of the hottest content in comics, television and movies.  We know you were there and we hope you had a great time.  There was a bit of an incident on Saturday that we want some advice on.  After a dispute in Hall H over a seat one attendee took a pen and stabbed another attendee in the face.  Will this reflect badly on our city?  What about on the very profitable show?

-William Lansdowne, Chief, San Diego Police Department

William,

I don’t know what’s more shocking; that someone was stabbed at Comic-Con or that I wasn’t the one that did it.  I really hate being at Comic-Con.  The huge crowds, the long lines, being treated like cattle by security personnel and volunteers.  I think the only difference between me and this guy is that I don’t care about seeing movie trailers.  And I don’t carry a pen.  Maybe next year.

The convention has become an increasingly more cynical venture as the years have gone on.  Most people are probably spending, between badges lodging and airfare, thousands of dollars to come to San Diego.  Once there they will wait in interminable lines for the privilege of being advertised to.  The days of being able to meet and communicate with comics professionals has been replaced with brief photo-ops and autographs from mid-level entertainment personalities.  Digging through long boxes for old comics is still very possible but it’s taking a back seat these days to CGC-graded copies of newer books.

You guys did an excellent job of containing the story.  KTLA had a story up within a couple hours talking about how it was a minor incident between friends and that there would be no charges filed.  It wasn’t until late Sunday that that turned out to be total bullshit.  After everyone had decided whether or not they would be attending Sunday’s Family Day programming.  I guess when your city stands to make $70 million from the convention your department will issue any kind of statement you want.

The biggest asset you have policing this show is that the target audience is people who will take an awful lot of crap.  These are people who have largely been outcasts in their lives.  They don’t seem to demand excellent treatment and neither you nor the show organizers give it to them.  Camping out overnight is now the only sure way to see programming in Hall H.  It isn’t much better in the rooms dedicated to TV shows.  I don’t think there are other conventions that get away with this kind of crap.  That someone finally lost his cool is no real surprise.  While it isn’t ok to get violent over things like this it’s pretty hard to spend a weekend at your crappy convention and not feel at least a little bit of empathy.  None of the people I know who had been going to Comic-Con for several years was truly surprised it finally got this far.  Normally I would expect this to be a call to arms to change the fundamental flaws in your operation.  I’m sure the show will just hire a couple extra security guards and call it a day.  Maybe we’ll see a few more cops in the area.  Next year I hope there’s a riot.