As if I didn’t have enough to try to get my head around this month…Aside from just the obvious vexing crisis as it relates to me as a U.S. citizen and human being, there’s my specific relationship to the comic book industry which has Comic book stores shut down, One distributor shutting down, two others starting, publishers in a general state of malaise or ruin, a comic ordering app that could revolutionize things and might help pick up the pieces and seventeen other things popping off on any given hour.
I could send out a blog every day that was 10 pages long…and it would be the writings of a madman. It would be a Ted Kaczynski manifesto with several segments pertaining to comic books, and others about the New World Order stockpiling art supplies, and nefarious microchipping of ink brushes to track creative thinkers…
“like…just chip me and get it over with, what kind of moron plants a microchip in the fcking seat of the bristles of a brush?! I get it, you use glue to attach the bristles, you use glue to attach the micro chip, might as well smoosh them all together and save a few pennies. WELL…if the bristles won’t keep a point because there’s a fkcing microchip in at the bottom, I ain’t gonna use it and you won’t know where I am..will ya? You can infiltrate the highest levels of governments and usurp their authority but you can’t f*cking microchip a brush at the bottom of the handle? Just stick it in my forehead, it’ll be less aggravating…or just transfer me to the salt mine and find someone else to entertain the nich market of trouble makers that I unwittingly placate for you.”
…what the f*ck am I talking about?
Ted Kasynski? Ha, Remember him …living all alone in solitude until he went nuts.
….yeash…isolation did a number on that guy, and I didn’t start this anywhere near as well kept as him. I look more like his mug shot on a normal day. This can’t end well.
Anyways. Comic-Con International has announced that their 2020 convention has been cancelled.
The link to their page of information about it is here
PLEASE…DO NOT DELUGE THEM NOW, YOU HAVE SOME TIME TO SORT OUT YOUR OWN SITUATION. AND BE POLITE AND UNDERSTANDING WHEN YOU DO TALK TO THEM. THESE ARE HUMAN BEINGS WHO GOT JUST AS BLINDSIDED AS YOU.
AND MAKE SURE YOU’VE READ AND UNDERSTAND THE INFO THEY HAVE PROVIDED SO YOU ARE NOT WASTING EVERYONE’S TIME, ASKING THINGS THAT HAVE ALREADY BEEN EXPLAINED.
KAPEESH? Good.
Now then, this is not a big surprise…health concerns…timing…international travelers…largest convention crowd of any given year… blah blah blah blah…
There’s really only one insight I can give you on this that you might not get from a thousand other places, and that’s this- This has got to be hell for the team that puts on this show. And let me tell you why, specifically.
If laid it out before, but putting on this show is a massive undertaking. Imagine the four largest shopping malls you;ve even been in, now imagine every store and all of it’s inventory and staff and customers…all converging onto one convention center…and imagine YOU are in charge of making that happen.
130,000 to 160,000 people, semi trailers of product and displays, massive competing egos of the exhibitors, publishers, pros…all need to be wrangled into a cohesive event.
seven city blocks long, two blocks wide of out and out construction…
All the work and planning and aggravation…it all gets a climax, an apex, a moment when it’s over when they can stop and say ” I was part of that, I helped make that happen. People are going to remember going to this for the rest of their lives and that is thanks to my efforts”. It’s a rewarding thing to see a project come to fruition, as many of you know.
The effort that goes into it does not start in May…it starts a few hours before the previous year’s show even ends. A large part of the effort has already been put forward, but they’ll get no apex this year, they’ll not get that moment. Instead they’ll get a period of chaos where they pick up the pieces that are still usable and assemble things for 2021.
Imagine a locomotive going full steam, that has to come to a screeching halt. The train cars twist and flop, some break off, some turn over. And they have to jump out and clean up the mess, and reattach everything and then get it running again as though nothing happened.
Good…lord.
What happens between now and the run up to CCI2021 as far as the industry is an open question. Which makes the chaos even more complicated for them.
There is also the effects on the city of San Diego itself as this con brings in upwards of 200 million dollars to that area in a 7 day span. That’s a lot of money even for a good sized city like that…consider this though, “The overall “peripheral” income generated in the US economy from comic-cons is now about $4 Billion.”
Those are figures culled by Josh Blaylock of Devil’s Due publishing, and he’s a guy who’s well on top of things like that.
That is a lot of revenue that wasn’t just being used for mad money. That’s money spent on hotels, restaurants, travel, and on and on and on…meaning these cons help a lot of local businesses stay in the black. and help a lot of publishers, artists, and exhibitors of all kind keep their lights on.
This of course, is to one degree or another happening in every industry, in every business, in every family. Quite a mess. Quite a lot of damaged moral and entities trying to get back to their feet before the referee counts to ten.
If anyone can do it ( well, besides me of course) it’d be Comic-Con International’s Team.
As for the rest of the industry, best thing we can do right now is post about comics…and often. And support each other’s efforts every chance that presents itself.
speaking of that, and because my time to search things out is limited…stores or pros who have things going on worth plugging, live feeds, podcasts, videos, sales, blogs, what have you…that want a plug. Just send me a link, I’ll spread the word a bit.
anyways…
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