Have comic book conventions become too commercial?

When I began attending convention in 2000 they weren’t as big business as they are today. Sure there were celebrities there, but not as many and not as many big stars. Also this was before the boon of comic book movies. The Batman movies came and went, but the hype around them disappeared with bat nipples and the bat credit card.

So when you would attend a convention back in 2000 and prior it was about the comic books. There were a mired of artists and writers that were working in the business today and bunch of retailers that mainly sold comic books. And a handful of t-shirt venders that sold super hero related clothing. That’s about it. And when you did get a bigger star (like when Kevin Smith showed up) It wasn’t because he was in a comic book movie, it was because he himself is a huge comic book fan. In a nut shell the cons were comic book nerds being comic book nerds and we loved it.

Now flash forward a decade and what happened? Well first we had an explosion of good super hero movies. Spider-Man 1 and 2, The Fantastic Four, Hellboy and Smallville was a big hit on TV. Comic books had became pop culture, and thus became big business. In an industry that hurt itself in the 90’s with the concept of the instant collectable this was a welcome change. There was a realization that not only can the make money off of the books, but off of the movies and with that more merchandizing.

Now I’m not condemning the comic book companies. They are businesses and they need to make money, or they go out of business and Batman and Spider-Man no longer get published. And that would break a lot of our hearts.

But along with the surge of comic book characters becoming popular and a pop culture phenomenon,  also comic book conventions became bigger and they themselves became big business. At first it was more people that liked the movies went to the conventions to see what they were about. Also the media began covering convections, in particular San Diego Comi-Con which. And with this coverage we learned that the movie companies and the comic book companies were revealing information about upcoming projects at the cons. So people wanting to be part of this pop culture excitement began attending the cons in droves.

No longer just a place for comic book fans to hang out together and talk about the latest exploits of Batman or Spider-Man with their favorite creator. They are now big, they are huge media events and gigantic money makers for the organizers.  I feel that this is to the detriment of people like me, the true comic book fan. This is for many reasons.

The first and most obvious is pop culture changes about every decade. What is hot now will not be hot tomorrow. Anyone over the age of 20 understands this. And though the loyal fans will continue to attend and enjoy the shows, the band wagon fans will stop going. And thus the cons will lose money and instead of scaling back will end up canceling shows. This of course no true fan wants.

One of the other issue with cons today is how much control the organizers want in all aspects. When I first started going you could get a pic with a celeb at the table and a lot didn’t even charge. Now all the cons have a professional photographer there and tell the celebrities to not allow people to take pics at the tables. And why? Because if you can get  a pic at the table why would you buy a photo from the con? Any one that has been at a con lately knows how much of a hassle this can be. Yes it might be nice to have a professional pic from a con, but I’d rather just have it on my phone so I can easily post it online.

This also ties I with how expensive they’ve become. Autographs, pictures and tickets to the cons have become very pricy and will eventually drive fans away.

But I digress. Cons have gotten big, and noisy and some cases aren’t as fun as they use to be. But I still love being part of them. I hope that this train ride goes on for a long time to come, but I fear the future may be bleak for cons.