Comic-Con Bloggin'

{I wrote this piece for a column for John Gallagher's National Board of Review Column, Between Action and Cut. If you havent been there and are a film buff, definitely check it OUT.}

Many of us saw, and enjoyed the carnally humorous “The 40 Year Old Virgin.” It was sexually raucous and some of the scenes (especially, for me, the waxing man-o-lantern bit) were unforgettable. Judd Apatow cemented his status as one of the current kings of comedy with that piece.

A subplot of the movie has Steve Carell's character, Andy, selling his collectible collection on Ebay. His character has an enormous collection of ephemera from popular TV shows, comic books and other American "culture."

Well, I just visited Comic-Con in San Diego. For those of you who cannot imagine an enormous, Jacob Javits sized-convention center housing 125,000 Andy's in search of their next Steve Austin action figure, let me tell you, it does exist. Its in San Diego, its an enormous collection of collectibles, movies, tv shows, comic books, video games, and the people who love all of the foregoing, and much more. And Hollywood definitely is paying attention, more than ever.

I was down at Comic-Con for the weekend, doing research for the upcoming marketing that will be necessary for the two horror movies I have shooting this fall (including your own John Gallagher's “Digger”). I had heard that horror films had made their presence felt at Comic-Con, and because I wanted to see and understand what a fellow producer labeled the “End Game” in getting a project out in the market, I ventured down to the “Con” to see what it was all about.

And what its about is everything that is nerdy. The nerds rule.

You approach the football stadium sized building on waterfront property, overlooking part of the gorgeous San Diego harborfront. The Andys don’t look at the harbor, they are way too focused on getting inside and sampling the goodies. As you approach, hawkers (except they aren’t selling anything) lob T-shirts for upcoming shows in your direction – I got tees for the “Bionic Woman” show and some show called “Chuck.” The masses congregate and cross, in groups, into the convention center where you present your badge (security is very light and there is much badge-sharing going on) and venture inside.

That’s when the smell hits you (one producer termed it “Nerdstink”).

Think back a bit to high school. To the guys and girls who spent a little too much time in the arcade, or playing video games, or drawing skulls on their forearms. And a little less time than average on personal hygiene. This is their domain, and trust me, they do mark their territory.

Add the adrenaline rush and accompanying smell of perspiration from an Andy, maybe in his mid-twenties or mid-thirties or mid-forties, who is for the first time seeing, close up, the “Iron Man” artwork, while listening to Robert Downey, Jr., in person, discuss what it was like to strap into Marvel Comic’s favorite super-hero suit. It’s a rush for Andy. And there are perhaps thirty thousand of him and his brethren at any one time inside the convention center. Add the availability of cheap high carb food, caffeine and few visible restrooms. Well, you understand.


Many of the folks who attend come in full costume. Literally, hundreds of storm troopers roam the floor, in full gear, with their laser guns. Only a fraction of them are hired “guns,” most are there freelancing for fun. (An aside – a friend told me that at Con 2006, Mark Hamill attended and as he walked up an aisle he came upon a few dozen storm troopers. They spotted him and began to run towards him, at which point he turned and broke into a full Luke Skywalker sprint in the other direction. Must have been quite a site). There are Vaders and Trekkies, and Heroes and Spidermen and Wonderwomen and all sorts of other dressed up folks, some in outfits which are interesting yet entirely unrecognizable (to me at least).


This is not to take away from the overall grandeur of the event, which can, in limited doses, bring out the Andy in almost anyone. Comic-Con is literally everything for which a genre fan could hope. It goes way beyond the usual suspects from the Studios and major comic book companies (although the studios and major comics companies are in prime position and are the most conspicuous). There are lesser known comics, unknown comics, straight-to-DVD movies, memorabilia and collectibles of every type, including no shortage of weapons fashioned after those found in movies like the Lord of the Rings trilogy. There is also original artwork, in many variations and much that has a certain, shall we say, Boris Vallejo quality to it. Buxom, scantily clad women seem to be on the mind of your average Andy and a central them in much of the original art and in many comics too. That’s OK. Lucy Lawless was in the house to let everyone know that this artwork has its basis in fact.

As for the horror I was seeking, it was pretty limited. I’d read that Comic-Con had refashioned itself as a family-friendly event (there isn’t much they can do about the scantily clad women walking around all day and evening, whether working to attract attention to a particular booth or just their as guests), and other than Lions Gate and Picturehouse (yes, Picturehouse has a horror film), there were few displays for upcoming horror films. There were posters for a few more, but for the most part, Comic-Con has minimized the horror film element in favor of films like “Spiderwick Chronicles” and the dozen or so others trying to be the next Harry Potter.

I don’t mean to say its limited to action-adventure, sorcery and sci-fi (oh, my). As I said, Jenna Jamison was there promoting her bio-pic and comic-book. And plenty of comedies, including Apatow’s upcoming “Superbad” and the new Dane Cook vehicle “Good Luck Chuck,” were both the subject of significant promotions. A shirtless Dane Cook impersonator covered in red lipstick kisses held court next to the Lions Gate booth for most of Saturday.

One change from recent years is that the biggest draws, panel-wise, are some of the TV shows. Apparently the “Heroes” panel drew the biggest crowds of the Con, with 4000 people jamming a panel room within minutes of it opening. Other shows like “Lost” also drew huge crowds at previous Cons. (Incidentally, I spent most of my time at the Con with Louis Lombardi, who played Edgar the computer programmer on “24,” until his character was killed off. Louis also played the FBI agent who flipped Vinnie Pastore on the first two seasons of The Sopranos. We didn’t go five minutes without Louis cordially posing for a picture or signing an autograph.)

I don’t know what to take away from the whole Con experience. Some things about it are a little bit, shall we say, strange. The level of detail and investment of people in the minutia of these shows, movies, games and comics is, to me, startling. But it is axiomatic that the audience is never wrong. And this is the Audience. For the studio marketers and the other companies at the Con, it’s the litmus test of fan approval.

William Goldman opined in Adventures in the Screen Trade, a book that he wrote in 1983, that movies were either comic books or not comic books, not literally, but as a metaphor for the type of story that was told. He said that Hollywood mostly only was making comic books (twenty three years ago). He seemed to lament this as a loss.

I wonder if The Princess Bride was a popular panel at Comic-Con.