Long Con Dept.

Comic-Con is this coming weekend. For me, it's partly a vacation, partly a job (I'm covering the whole thing for AMN), partly a family event (since I stay with my folks for the duration of the whole thing), partly a city outing (any excuse to go into NYC is a good one), and partly a way to connect with friends old and new.

In a discussion elsewhere, someone was grousing about how after a while all conventions seem the same. I suppose it all depends on what you bring to the table, because for me it's not about which vendors are there or what demos are being run. It's about the other people, and there's always going to be something about connecting with people face-to-face — whether total strangers or old buddies — that you can't get any other way.

Mailing lists and websites and all the rest don't displace the thrill of being with dozens, hundreds or thousands of other people under one roof at one time — and, frankly, I don't want anything to replace that thrill. It gives me that much more of an excuse to get out there beyond my four walls.

I didn't get a chance to get a vending table at Comic-Con this year; the price was still way the hell out of my league. I'm hoping NYAF will be a little more affordable, and there is a table waiting for me at AnimeFest come hell or high magma.

Side note: One of the first cons I went to was an SF-related con in the area, one which clearly felt like it was on the decline. The SF cons all seemed to be slumping, while the anime and comic-related cons were perking up. That provoked a theory: the reason those were on the expansion wasn't just because anime or comics themselves were on the rise, but because they were about media rather than genre. The former is always broader than the latter.