My First Comic Con

After a lifetime of avoiding true geekdom, I attended my first comic book convention yesterday, the FallCon put on by the fine folks at the Midwest Comic Book Association. Since I'm generally not allowed to go to such events alone (and because they're a lot of fun), I brought the family 5- and 6-year-olds along for the ride.

Brushing over the remembered anxieties of a pre-teen kid, I explained to them on the way to the Minnesota State Fairgrounds how I was always afraid to go to a comic book convention back at ages 10-16. I always thought it would be "weird" or somehow "too much."

Part of it, too, at that time, was that I'd never wanted to be a comic book "collector". I bought comics because I liked the stories. I wasn't comfortable being around people gauging the value of each comic, or buying up multiple issues of the same comic so that they could save them for resale some day -- mind you, this was in 1980-81 or so, before the I dropped out of comics and well before what I understand was the great comic boom of the late 80s and 90s, which I pretty much missed out on. This was around the time that my best friend beat me to 7-11 and bought up all the copies of the Uncanny X-Men issue where Kitty Pryde fights the demon alone in the mansion, and I had to shame him into letting me buy it off of him. Back then, you just didn't want to miss an issue of X-Men -- we thrilled to Alpha Flight, cringed at the depredations of the Hellfire Club and cried our way through the Dark Phoenix saga ... and we knew we were in on something special -- not valuable -- special.

Back to the present. To my everlasting delight, my oldest son says that he'd never feel too weird to go to a comic convention, because he loves this stuff...this and I still won't let him read a modern comic. Funny how such freedom from what others see as strange or embarrassing is available only to the very young and the very old -- or those of us who are old enough to decide for ourselves. Like me ... nearing 40 and dammit, I was going to a comic convention!

FallCon was a modest affair. Call it about 8 rows of artists and dealers. Not much of the weirdness in the aisles associated with some of the bigger cons that I've read about. My five year old was apparently cute enough to merit a couple of door prizes -- a giant bag of about 50 recent comics, a ton of licorice and assorted candies, and about 20 of dice of varying denominations (I told my wife they were "D&D dice" -- I'd given up role playing games about the time I gave up comics, so I have no idea if they're used for anything else...). Then, I'm pretty sure the guys doing the raffle ticket prizes overheard our numbers and made sure the little one was a winner -- he chose a Spawn action figure, which in a five-year-old's hands was pretty disturbing. But it was his call.

The kids made sure that we made a beeline for "The Batcave" to see the Batmobile and Bat Cycle, and where an aging, pot-bellied Batman, a wavy-haired puffy-chested Superman, and a chubby red-haired Robin milled about, along with a Wonder Woman who I admired for her confidence to be willing to don the costume. And she pulled it off pretty darn well.

Then, on to the artists. FallCon is a place for collectors to find lost issues and old toys, creators to meet and network, and fans to meet local talent and get good deals. Me? I just wanted to soak it all in, and maybe see bit of what it's like to be a creator.

What did I learn?

1. It's hard to strike up a conversation with a 6 and 5 year old in tow. No problem, because they had a great time, and so did I, but let's just say that "short attention span theater" was the order of the day.

2. The FallCon was filled with really nice people. Besides giving us free stuff, we chatted with the creator of Frontier (no link -- looks like good-comics.com has gone down the tubes), who showed my kids how to draw Spider-Man. I bought a copy of Issue #0.

Also chatted with another creator whose name escapes about "getting back into comics" and how to connect with artists, since I have a script I'm helplessly trying to finish for what will be no good reason if I don't seek an artist. He let me tell him about it, and thought I should look into a manga style for the art ... not something I'd thought of given my old school experience.

3. Even the toy guys were pretty nice -- one guy was happy to "downsell" me to a cheaper item so he could make a sale of a Spider-Man figure to my kid. I can appreciate that. By the way....

4. ...there are a lot of toys at these things. Hold onto your wallet if you bring your kids!

5. There are a lot of people out here just trying to get into the field ... and the combination of the web and on-demand printing is making it easier to get in. I'll talk about the Web in a second, but, it's heartening (and a little unnerving) that so many have such passion for a medium that they'll give over so much of their lives to drawing out their stories because they've been thinking about it and just want to get back into comics.


6. There is no reason in the world why a creator can't build a large audience via the web and make a little money at it...if they're able to deliver quality and work hard at self promotion. Moreover, I'm pretty convinced that the big guys could make some money online as well if they'd put some effort into it.

7. FallCon is really for the serious comic fan -- you almost need a plan coming in -- to see certain people, or search for certain comics and toys. If they thought about it, they could draw in a wider crowd. You could set up workshops that help kids make their own comics, or invent a character. You could have someone giving comic art lessons throughout the day. You could give people rides on the Batmobile. Do a kids/teens self-made costume contest. Put together a "readers panel" ... Hold a "new creators" or "under 18" contest -- say, for scripts and art -- and let visitors vote.

Might have to volunteer next year...

Anyway, thanks to FallCon and the MNCBA -- the kids said, enthusiastically, that they'd do this again, and a good time was had by all.