Fan Rant: The Post Comic Con Bitching
Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy, Fandom, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, ComicCon, Fan Rant
The dust has barely settled in San Diego (they're probably still trying to clean up that convention center as we speak), and already, the bitching begins. The Hollywood Reporter has written a delightful piece of snark in which the big studios whine that they're spending too much time and money on us geeks. Apparently, it just doesn't pay to court us because the movies cheered in Hall H (Grindhouse, Snakes on a Plane, and Speed Racer to name a few) just don't do all that well. What a waste of free t-shirts and pins!I'm not going to sit here and insist that ComicCon can make or break a movie. I think we all know there are movies that have benefited from the buzz that begins in San Diego -- people wouldn't be whispering ominously about Star Trek skipping it otherwise. Look at X-Men Origins: Wolverine -- a film that people had been pretty skeptical about is now being raved about from one corner of the Internet to the other. Look at The Spirit. The bad buzz that began at con will stick to the film until its Christmas release. But I also know that those of us who live and work on the Internet can become deluded as to what the offline world is buzzing about. I will fully expect people to comment on my "Who watches the Watchmen?" shirt when I wear it around Colorado, and no one will, because it's so far off the radar for most people.
No, it isn't that San Diego's importance is being questioned. That's a valid point, and I think the studios could scale it back, if only to save a few trees and carbon emissions. I take issue with the barely veiled annoyance directed at "the nerd-herd strategy." Let's face it, the popular people aren't happy that geeks are trendy and cool. They're being forced to talk to us, and find out what we like. And they don't enjoy it one bit. You sense it at ComicCon sometimes, you pick up on the mockery when it's covered in the mainstream media, and it's confirmed in con autopsy pieces like these. And I don't like it. It's especially galling to hear it when Hollywood has come to dominate the convention, driving out the comic book vendors and industry panels. (Regardless of what Variety's Peter Bart thinks, attendees really do mean every one of those complaints. Especially the crowd one. I don't like shoving around hundreds of thousands of people! Really!)
I think, perhaps, the industry is starting to get tired of us. They want to marginalize us again, and pretend that nerds are a pathetic minority who don't really matter in the grand scheme of entertainment. We're just losers who live in our parent's basement, and therefore didn't go see The Dark Knight or Iron Man, which succeeded thanks to normal people buying tickets. Yes, I'm engaging in hyperbole, but much is made in this article of 25% of The Dark Knight's opening audience being women over 25, "not exactly the core ComicCon audience." There's a load of sexism there I can't get into, but you have to love that they won't mention the other 75%, enough to make the film a resounding box-office success, which could very well be all geek. We're responsible for the failures, not the successes. The fact that movies touted at ComicCon could fail because they aren't very good or were given negative reviews by those same "normal" people isn't mentioned at all. Nope. It's just that geeks are being undeservedly courted to.
It's just so very sad. I thought we were past the bullying and snide comments. I thought we were all liking this trend of mainstream geekdom. I still firmly believe that we're not small and insignificant, and that it's more than a trend. It's people just finally being open about who they are, and what they like, because they don't want to be the kid hiding behind the gym with his Star Wars collection. (I knew that kid.)
But hey -- if Hollywood doesn't want to come to ComicCon anymore, that's fine by a lot of people. Frankly, if it means I don't have to be trampled by 1,000 people wanting studio swag, and can actually buy t-shirts and comic books without resorting to body-checks, count me among them. But I'm not going to lie -- I love the movie panels, and a huge part of geekdom is movies and television. There's no closing that door now that it's opened. There are still going to be directors and actors who want to come and talk to us, and will value our opinion. The Jon Favreaus, the Zack Snyders, the Joss Whedons, they'll always like us. And we'll welcome them, because they're truly of our number. The "nerd herd" isn't going anywhere.
Reader Comments
(Page 1)2. Well, if what you write is true than Hollywood is the biggest geek of them all. In some ways they're below the line of "geekdom".
In all Honesty (I live and work in Hollywood) the studios are run by geeks, but not the fun-loving art-loving fans of Comicon. They're the pocket protector, cynical types who get off ripping cash from patron's pockets. I prefer the fun loving geeks...
Posted at 5:46PM on Aug 2nd 2008 by flowers
3. It's a shame. Because "internet fervor" does not equate to "box office". Conferences like E3 and Comic-Con, while the most high-profile of any industry gathering...(The national sociological society just had their convention here in Boston. Respectable turn-out, I'm sure, but there were no TV crews or high-profile "bloggers" covering the event. Why? There's no money in it.)
And studios are now realizing that, as game developers realized, why throw money at the geeks when they need EVERYONE'S money to make a product successful.
You pointed out the movies that had buzz up and down and through the internet and yet tanked abysmally at the box office.
Why waste the money?
Most of us who aren't "in the know" and don't get flown to Comic-Con look upon the unlimited coverage and photos and video with equal parts "huh" and "wow, they look like they had fun", but what does it really mean to all of us outside the convention?
No matter how much the bloggers rave about Wolverine now, it still doesn't change my view when I see a fuzzy boot-legged trailer showing Ryan Reynolds in a sleeveless t-shirt as Deadpool. This movie turned me off more with that.
Not sure where I'm going here, but my love of games has not waned because those in the know can no longer go to a huge E3.
These conferences are large, 800 pound gorillas. And the conglomerates don't really need them.
Have your conferences, enjoy them, but to look at them as the "World Series" of anything just doesn't make any sense.
It's an insular, industry-type event and while I'm sure there are a lot of nice Sociologists in the convention here, I don't want to see every moment of what they do at their convention on every website I read.
Let me get my geek news as I normally do.
That being said, I appreciate your article, but what, exactly, did you mean by it?
I'm curious....
Posted at 6:12PM on Aug 2nd 2008 by filmman
4. Was my meaning that unclear? Having just spent a week attending panels in San Diego, I'm a bit disgusted with the industry deciding that geeks are an icky minority, not worth respecting or talking to. Especially since their directors, producers, actors, and writers just spent a week saying "We read the blogs and message boards, so we know this decision isn't popular..." They know that geeky fandom can be a pretty potent machine, they know it HAS been successful more often than not, but they're going to try and laugh at us as a bunch of unwashed losers again. I don't like that, especially when we've got a few "unwashed losers" like Zack Snyder and Jon Favreau responsible for some of the biggest comic book movies.
No, ComicCon ISN'T important in the grand scheme -- and I said so. But there is some valuable buzz that begins there and carries over. Ultimately, though, it's insulting to co-opt an event, encourage a whole new crowd, and then dismiss it as a waste of time and money. Quite possibly, if they want bigger and better buzz, they would treat the press better. We can't even get into the big panels without being invited by the studio -- that means our "Twilight" fans here didn't get coverage of the panel, because I couldn't get in.
And no -- they didn't fly us out, house us, or wine and dine us. It was all at our own expense. All the panel coverage was brought by us waiting in long lines, going without food, and sitting for hours in Hall H so we'd have a seat for a big panel like "Watchmen" or "Terminator Salvation." I don't like to think that the work we put in is meaningless, to our readers OR to the industry.
Posted at 1:20AM on Aug 4th 2008 by Elisabeth
5. I think the average genre FAN is a minuscule amount of the total number of people that end up seeing a movie. Checking out some BoxOfficeMojo.com numbers, I see that the opening weekend numbers for both the new X-Files movie and the Serenity movie were almost exactly the same, 10 million. Those are two fandoms that are absolutely passionate about their shows and despite that, those films could only muster up 10 million each (on the way to very low final tallies).
This indicates to me that the fervent segment of fandom is really not THAT significant. To court these fans is to court only a tiny portion of the audience.
While Batman is a much more widely known character, I still contend that the net contribution of comic book fans on the success of The Dark Knight is maybe $20-$30 million. The rest I think is coming from the average movie fan.
Posted at 7:12PM on Aug 2nd 2008 by Victor
6. Let's see here...I just attended my first comic con. I'm over the age of 25 and female. I saw many many women of the same age as me at Comic Con. We are the original fan girls, who hearken back to the days before Star Wars, when the Trekkies had formed their own fan group and were beginning the first fan conventions. I'd say it could be highly likely lots of female geeks were at that Dark Knight premiere by themselves are bringing along their geekling children. Were they their because of the viral marketing campaign that started way back at con 2007? Maybe, maybe not.
I love the movie and television panels, I love the sneak peeks. I don't care about swag (but thanks for the cool t-shirt Dark Castle) and no amount of free gifts or ass kissing is going to make me love a movie. As an avid film watcher I am wise enough to know that trailers themselves can make or break a film. A well cut trailer can drag fans in, but if the films best bits were in the trailer, that first weekend might be good, but word gets around and movie will flop of its own accord. While the Spirit bits I saw at ComicCon were disappointing, this is a film that I need to see more of to judge fairly. I don't think we geek attendees will make or break the film, but I think we generate lots of buzz.
That's one thing every studio must admit, that good or bad, Con does generate a lot of talking, and that talk goes all around the world via the internet.
To blame Comic Con attendees for what happened to Snakes on a Plane is ludicrous. That was a runaway freight train of jokes from the minute it hit con. The giant snake, the great one liner that spread from Samuel L. Jackson, over the internet like wildfire... I think every actor in that film knew exactly what kind of film they had made, and they were hoping the media blitz and zany hilarity that started at con would be enough to carry a very heavy snake at the box office.
To say however, that the internet, is only a few hundred thousand people who don't amount to much at the box office is a load of crap. I appreciate it when a director like Zach Snyder or a writer like Hart Hanson says they do read what fans write about on the internet and do take it into consideration. Like it or not, fans are what make the movie world go around. To say they don't have power, especially in this world of instant news is ridiculous. I'll agree that those120,000 attendees a day are small potatoes in the world of marketing. But their friends and families, the people they will reach on their blogs, and son on, that reaches many many more.
If the studios don't want to come to Comic Con. Fine. Personally, my biggest gripe with Con was the studios crazy swag blitzing. It's what causes all the problems. Today's WB giant bag is next weeks homeless guys treasure. I for one would prefer you spend the money on good programming and films and save the earth.
And, as a note to Con, you guys really need to go green.
True film and comic fans come to share with others, to hear those tidbits from the sets that make us feel we are part of movie making. To share in the excitement of a group of actors who have had a great time doing that what they love and want to share it. To see the costumes and the set pieces. To meet the writers and artists who make our heroes tick. And I truly appreciate every studio that shares these things with us geeks.
Give me the panels, the autograph sessions. Keep your buttons, and bags and insanity. We never said we should be looked upon as oracles.
Posted at 8:08PM on Aug 2nd 2008 by Julie
7. Side note: Filmman, don't know if you've ever been to a comic con, but there's an atmosphere there that can only be compared with doing euphoric drugs! While yes, it has gotten a bit out of hand, its still an event that people are going to be talking about for weeks and now, sadly, most of the entertainment world fixates on Con as there's a massive amount of NEWS that comes out of it.
And as a press guy myself, I can tell you that Con no longer treats Press with any kind of favor unless you're with the big guys like EW. So we attend Con like all the NORMIEs and get the same experiences, and if people want to share that, let them. You don't want to enjoy it, then fuck off and go read something else until you feel like you want to come back.
Posted at 10:04PM on Aug 2nd 2008 by CHRIS
8. Kudos! Kudos all around on this piece. In the 15 years I've attended Con, this one just seemed to fall flat, and I blame Con's steady decline on the Studio's presence, and the gang of people who come out for just the Star gazing..
I'd love to see Con scale back the Studio stuff and get back to their comic roots a bit more. Each year it seems that Artist Ally and the Dealers shrink in order for the stupid MEGA BOOTHS to hawk their wears.. and its killing the enthusiasm for the show.
Heres hoping that next year will be better than this year.
Posted at 10:04PM on Aug 2nd 2008 by Chris
9. Elisabeth,
To put it as succinct as possible, main stream media is not enjoying that we 'bloggers' are able to not only cover these kind of events but have competitive coverage that threatens their once presumed grip in the entertainment industry
Bruce
Posted at 11:16PM on Aug 2nd 2008 by Bruce
10. Great article.
The thing about cons in general is...isn't that the whole point? It is a celebration for true fans, who love their films and shows DESPITE the hollywood hype/box office/Nielsen ratings rat race.
It isn't for Hollywood's bean counters. They just started coming because they thought they wanted to cash in-is it any wonder they are bitching about money again?
Posted at 3:09PM on Aug 3rd 2008 by totoro
11. The simple reason they hate us is we're forcing them to make BETTER entertainment. And we have been SUCCEEDING at it.
If it weren't for the so-called ' geeks ', who have been wisely exercising the better democracy that internet has put up, they would be neither bothered by adhering to source material, much less expecting it. If it weren't for these ' petulant nerds in mom's basement ' filibustering them studios and calling them out on their stupefying marketing bullshit, they wouldn't have been compelled to provide proper plots, or actual storytelling, or sophisticated intelligence in mainstream work that has only improved things for everybody else ( I mean, whatever , Ted Bundy lived off a basement for a time or something like it, killing all the kewl chicks and shit, & so did the ' normal pleasant Ed Gein ' so what the hell ? ).
Every other pandering casting decisions, or more self-aggrandizing stunts for plots to suffer to, and empty corporate commercialist creative gimmick would have permitted with zero scrutiny if it weren't for these ' geeks '. And ' geek ' is such an equally empty, lame-ass, aimless, arbitrary word, it's stupid. Anybody else who geniunely loves comic books, or venerates sci-fi, and is reverent towards the medium is the ' geek '.
In other words, people who actually inspects the stuff they're being sold to, made to rather " mind their own bussiness , and ' get laid ' somewhere, & pray to Jesus " into passively taking it like everybody else." Or any other ' dork ', ' pinko ', ' faggot ', ' wierdo ', ' freak ', ' raghead ', ' nigger ',' Feminazi ' or ' liberal ' they could possibly name in their dated bully rulebook. Might as well call you a ' terrorist ' in equal measure.
Yep, they want to get rid of us ( whoever we are suppose to constitute, maybe the ' smart audience '). You can see them seething with it in their gritted teeth, and the writing on the wall in that dreadful banality of the PG-13. They'd rather want to do away with all the grunt work of mapping out intricate plots, or toying with sophisticated themes, or dealing with things like ' pathos ' , or the rigors of challenging a very complex medium; much less moving it forward. They probably don't want think of the cinema AT ALL; much less care.
They just want to come up with the easy, pedestrian, slap-happy shit where they could blow things up, make people screw, & hack with effects, & let the beautiful people churn out their pretty little faces and shine, and bask in each other's successes, and make us all gush-wow repeatedly at the abscess - so they could cash it to the bank, now. Far as their myopia can take them. They want to keep it the souless hackwork the four-quadrant, unsophisitcated Don Simpson model made it out to be, one which could be conveniently churned out in the assembly line, & no further wories.
They want to bring cinema back to the blockbuster '90s - and ad-hominem attacks are the only things they can lazily come up with as defense. Why even bother attacking the argument if you can just ATTACK THE PERSON ?!? It's cheaper.
Sad thing is, for the large part, this is still the way its at. Maybe not as blatant, but it still does. ' Midnight Meat Train ' couldn't even come out in theaters. Horror itself is being eviscerated not just through the populars getting top billing, but the genre itself being retrofitted to their plasticized purposes. And then , there's still the Fantastic Four stuff; hell, Hancock. They're still onto their bullshit.
They just want to take EVEN FUCKING MORE, and stomp on the weasels that stand in their path.
They hate us because they hate our guts. They despise our intelect, & the fact we routinely use it, and scoff at our demands for taste. Most of all they hate us because we COMPLAIN. And that is the problem - we are nothing but COMPLAINT to them. We look dominant now, because we are only being made to look like that. It looks like they're giving us audience, but its really PR damage control - ANYTHING to quell the COMPLAINT we represent to them. That's why all of Hollywood is all over the Comicon - pure pandering means of stifling the opposition most likely to get in on their case. Those are a bunch of noisy, petulant, savvy kids out there who would not take their vitamins, and wouldn't do as their told; even DEMAND BETTER FOOD. So they bring in the toys to pacify them.
And that is the state of the media today. Even in the news. Forced infantilization, little joe moviegoer made to suckle in media mommy's teat. Shabby, pathetic treatment for an audience that happens loves and adores the media forms well to gladly suffer the fools - obfuscating the fact that what they do with it or how they choose to live their lives with those is NONE OF ANYBODY'S DAMN CONCERN !!!! We don't get in the way of your coke binge, or your orgies with the underaged, or dirty deals with the criminals, so back off our fucking comics. Don't take out your degenerate delinquency onto US, who simply want to watch something good !!! When will these fuckers ever learn, huh ?!? Or grow up even.
Sure, we're being heard, because we are NOISY. And we apparently still to keep that up. But there have been some small, monumental victories - and far better progress.
" Titanic ". Now THAT is meandering FILTH of the populars. It is EXACTLY HOW WRONG American cinema, or cinema entire could possibly get. Very reprehensible, and hateful towards your very soul. It is all about the pretty sons-of-bitches canoodling in front of the camera, supplanted with a whole damn ship blowing up its $ 200 million budget in a blandest boy-meets-girl kinda way ; it's almost a parody. The nadir of pure grating '90s era mainstream hubris.
Currently, it is sitting at the no.1 blockbuster of all time. In a few weeks or so, the goddamn Batman is going to come near it, and tear it into fucking pieces, and we're all the better for it. We're ACTUALLY rewarding great cinema, nowadays. When was the last time something marvelous like that happened ? It's as if Steven Spielberg and George Lucas' killing of New Hollywood had never happened. Who would have thought, right?
It's what clever people have been at all along.
Hollywood would have had neither ' The Dark Knight ', nor ' Iron Man ', and the gazillion billion bucks it earned, if it weren't for the knowledgeable , intelligent , ' geeks '.
Else, these meatheads would as well dump all them glamorous celebrity assholes for no reason with the selling of toys and merchandize, and spit out another " Batman & Robin " again. Which were suppose to make us subhumans glad because the famous jerk stud gets to be the ' Batman ' we're supposedly wasting our lives with . Boo hoo ! See George Clooney cry : ' I ruined the Bat-franchise '.
Kids these days.
Posted at 3:23PM on Aug 3rd 2008 by monstermac
12. Honestly?
The sooner the Mainstream is no longer paying attention to the geek culture, the sooner we can go back to being interesting.
The problem with being a "target demographic" is that everyone starts pandering to you- not producing worthwhile material, but pandering.
Exhibit A: Chuck.
The current trend of "geek=cool" is going to burn out soon enough and the Mainstream will be back to caring what the cast of "The Hills" has to say.
Oddly enough, the quality of "geek material' will stay the same. The latest entries of Batman and IronMan are anomalies. We'll be back to the non-quality level of Transformers soon enough.
Which, is the standard. Whine and complain all you want but that level of crap is what gets all the money. And none of you have done anything to stop it.
If you had, Spider-Man 3, X-Men 3, and Ghost Rider would have died the ignominious deaths they deserved.
But since none of you could stop talking about how kewl Transformers was... that's the future.
And it will infect everything from here on out. Be happy. It's what you paid for.
I remember when you could get beaten up for liking Watchmen. It meant you could produce a work like Watchmen. Or Animal Man. Or Love and Rockets. Or Maus.
We produced works out of rage and anger and a collective "F--- You!" to our betters. Now, we're happy to be loved.
So excuse me, I'm going to cut off my ear and do something worthwhile. You have fun with Transformers 2.
Posted at 4:00PM on Aug 3rd 2008 by November
1. Thank you, Elisabeth, for writing such a lovely, defiant piece. This year was my first Comic Con experience, and while I do not enjoy being nearly trampled because the Paramount booth is handing out free "Cloverfield" DVDs, I felt emboldened by those aound me, by the infectious spirit of people who have traveled across the country, across the world because they give a damn about comics, or because, like myself, they lost it at the movies, all those years ago. Thanks.
Posted at 5:25PM on Aug 2nd 2008 by Mike De Luca