April 3, 2018 • 43 mins
In the pilot episode, Dani and Ify explore the world of comic conventions. They discuss what a comic convention is, the history of comic conventions, the first recorded "official" comic book convention, the history of San Diego's Comic Con, the specialization of conventions, the change of vibe over the years, their own personal experiences with conventions, & more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Alrighty, hello everybody. Welcome, Welcome, welcome, Welcome to the pilot
episode of Nerdificent. I'm if I am Danny Fernandez. Thank
you for joining us. Yes, yes, and we're here to
talk about how one thing that is synonymous with the
word nerd. I feel like nerd and this is going
(00:30):
hand in hand and this is kind of what skyrocketed
nerd culture to the mainstream. Yeah, and that's what this
show is kinda going to be about. You guys are
gonna be tackling different things in nerd culture that some
of you might be aware of and some of you
might not be. Yeah, And whether you're a old school
vet rolland Dice down in the basement or a new
fan who just saw the hit movie I'm calling it
(00:51):
now smash box office hit Black Panther, Let's find some more.
And now they're like, I want to be a nerd
Now we'll have it all here, So dissecting everything a
nerd um that we grew up with and more maybe
some of them, some of that new nerd hotness, you know. Yeah,
although I have a feeling you and I are going
to trend towards a lot of anime as well. Oh, Yeah,
(01:12):
that's then, so I feel like somety it's going to
make its away. But yeah, So today's subject is probably
one of the biggest, most popular mainstays within nerd culture,
and that is the comic book convention. But if we're
being super specific, we're talking about comic con and the
(01:33):
comic con as most people know it, which is the
annual San Diego Comic Con. And that's usually what people
are referring to when they because it is the international
comic con, which means people from all over the world
are flying to go to this specific comic con. But
before we get into that, let's break it down. What
(01:53):
is a comic con or what is it? Well, we
all know comic con or we may not. Don't want
to judge anyone. Short for comic book convention. Yes, yeah,
a gathering of nerds and now it's grown to hundreds
of thousands of people that flocked to San Diego. But
the original actually, let's go back to one of the
(02:16):
oldest sci fi conventions ever. This was on record, So
the oldest, the first recorded inner city meetup of science
fiction fans was phil Con and that was in nineteen
thirty six. It was a small party of science fiction
fans in New York. So that was the first one
on record, that's according to Geeks Media. So all the
way back in nineteen there were nerds. Yeah, I'd like
(02:36):
to imagine that it was like just a party, like
where it was like, yeah, we all nerds were coming
in our in our sci fi gear and we're gonna
turn up they're like War of the World soever. And
so then we move on to the first recorded official
comic book convention. So that was nineteen sixty four in
New York. Yeah, known as the New York Comic Con.
(02:57):
It was held in July nineteen sixty four at the
Workmen's Circle Building. It was a one day convention organized
by sixteen year old Bernie Bubbus. It was organized by
six year that's when you're in your peak nerdiness. Yeah,
that's when you're your peak comic book collector. Yeah, that's
when you have gumption to like do a whole convention.
(03:20):
But it wasn't just him. It was also a fellow enthusiast,
Rod Fratkin. Official guests of the tri state con included
Steve Ditko, Flow Steinberg, and Tom Gill and there the
reports have over one h attendees. That's good for back
then for sixteen year old as well. I wonder if
they charge people at the door. I mean, do you
think little Bernie bubb Nous would think that he'd be
(03:42):
able to add three zeros behind that? So moving on,
we have what we know as which is the San
Diego Comic Con. So that was originally called San Diego's
Golden State Comic Con. It was a mini con, So
the first everone was in Mark one of nineteen seventy
(04:03):
and the men that had put that together include Shell
doorf Ken Krueger, and Richard alf so they were the
original ones. They then later had another mini con in
August of that same year, so they're doing that. They
were doing like nice little mini conventions, kind of testing
it out before they went big. Yeah, it was actually interesting.
So the second con that they had, the one that
(04:23):
was in August, they actually got Jack Kirby as a guest,
and he's the man who created basically every notable Marvel
superhero from Captain America to X Men. But they also
had Fahrenheit four fifty one author Ray Bradberry, and this
is a really interesting way that they got him there.
So he actually gave a speech at San Diego State University,
(04:43):
and Dorf and Alf, two of the guys that had
put the mini cons together, they attended and then they
waited for him after his speech, and they asked him
if he would speak at their comic con, and he said, yeah,
sure for his normal speaking fee, which was five thousand dollars,
which was roughly adds up to about thirty thousand today.
So yeah, I'll do it thirty kids. And so they
(05:05):
were like, we can't do that. They came up with
a plan. They essentially lied to him and said it
was a nonprofit to educate the public about comics, and
Bradberry was like, sure, I'll do it. So that's kind
of how the first original San Diego Comic Con came
to be. Again, they were calling it the Golden State
Comic Con, and then eventually in nineteen seventy three when
(05:26):
they settled on San Diego Comic Con. That's nice STCC
that we know, Buil. I think they was reading about
this story which was in the Rolling Stone, by the way,
and I think that they had said, now they had
to think of a way to make it nonprofit. Yeah,
and there there are technically nonprofit till this day. They're
nonprofit organizations. So that that is what was the original
(05:48):
San Diego Comic Con. And again when as If he said,
when people say comic con, that is what they're referring to. However,
we have kind of moved on to a specialization of cons.
Conventions have spread throughout the country, throughout I mean internationally
as well, but here in America. Cut you off, but yeah,
on the seats there's like lots of cruise cons too.
(06:10):
And I think it's that the fact that happens when
you have something grow to a certain point, it'll fork
off and have its own genres within that genre. So
you have like Doctor who Comes, You have like you know,
anime conventions specifically for anime, which I have to stop
you right there because Anime Expo, which you and I
have both have so many stories from the Anime Expo
(06:33):
is the largest North American anime convention. It is It's insane.
I you and I have been like the last couple
of years. I go, I think, I go for like
an hour and have to give my badual. It's like
walking through I've never been amongst that many people. Because
the difference with so anime Expo actually takes place in
Los Angeles, where San Diego Comic Con is a larger
(06:54):
acred sprawling. What it's grown to now is it's a
lot of outdoor restaurants and bars and interactive things as
well as inside the convention center. Whereas Anime Expo in
l A. Here is a lot of just everyone on
top of each other in one singular area. Well, that's
been the biggest thing, which if you aren't aware, there's
a big argument within the congoers of moving comic Con
(07:17):
to l A versus having it in San Diego, and
San Diego just hands down has more space. The reason
this is is if you haven't been to San Diego
Comic Con, the convention center is downtown right next to
it's like downtown the Harbor Gas Lamp District, which is
downtown San Diego. Yes, and it's also right next to
the Petco Stadium. So comic Con has had the ability
(07:40):
to spread its wings and expand out into those spaces,
and a lot of the people who show up at
comic Con don't feel the need to have to be
within the con because a lot of them are taking over.
Like Adult Swim always has a huge area outside near
Petco Park. You always have a lot of like Assassin's
Creed ubis Off would have like a whole obstacle course
(08:03):
right outside of the con And then all of the
bars and restaurants are branded, so there's room to breathe
that's not on top where's l A. L A is
l A And there's always so much going on. So
you have the convention Center and then there's probably a
marathon going on. They did that one year where it
was like an actual con and then also the l
(08:23):
A Marathon. Also, the area just doesn't have much, like
it's really just a whole bunch of like want to
be New York style buildings in downtown l A who
don't give a damn about the con. And then you
have the Staples Center area, which if they don't have
a game kind of tries to take that place. But
I remember one year there was Anime Expo and across
(08:45):
from the Anime Exposed where the X games and I
can't think of tumors, fandoms to put in, well, you
and I I think we're texting each other because just
to kind of put this into perspective, the line to
pick up your badge was four to five hours to
pick up your badge to get in. It was insane. Yeah.
(09:09):
So this just to top off this, Anime Expo seventeen
numbers over a hundred seven thousand warm and three hundred
fifty seven thousand turnstyle, so like coming in now, Yeah,
I mean it was everyone was on top of each other.
And Anime Expo also, if we're just talking about specializations
and cons, they go all out. So I would say
(09:29):
the difference between them and say, maybe San Diego Comic
Con is I think it's like fifty fifty percent of
people are dressed up, of people are just normal people
enjoying it. Anime Expo it's like nine people are dressed
up and that takes a lot of time to also
go through security with like swords and helmets and all
of this stuff. So and just to put that whole
(09:51):
like bringing Comic Con to l a argument to bed
the numbers that you just said for Anime Expo, just
remember that. Well, so what were the numbers again? You
said over a hundred and seven thousand and then three
fifty seven thousand turnstile. Yeah, so Comic Con they were
saying that their last year numbers was a hundred and
(10:11):
thirty five thousand. So if we can't even handle a
hundred and seven thousands without just having huge congestion, it
just because I don't know if you saw the picture
of last year, but you can't see carpet overhead view.
You just person on top of person. So if we
can't even handle a hundred seven thousand, there's no way
(10:31):
we'll be able to handle the amount of people. And
that's people getting into the con, not to mention people
who just go to San Diego Comic Con just to
hang out. So it's I do want to say that.
You know, two years ago they did that pole in
San Diego and it was like, what would you rather
keep San Diego Comic Con or the Chargers? And we
saw how that went because San Diego does not want
to give up its con. It's the one way they're
(10:53):
making money. You know. The blackfish killed off the whole
Sea World thing. They lost that, you know, And soon
we're coming. We're coming for the zoo. You know. I'm
working on Good Monkey, you know, and look working title
Good Monkey. It's about the way the San Diego Zoo
is abusing monkeys and other animals. Working time, continuing on
(11:15):
with our our our specialization of cons. We also have
Star Wars Celebration, which is in Orlando in D twenty three,
which is the Disney Expo that's in l A. Now,
something that's interesting with both of these is that what
we've seen so for the longest time, Sandy Go Comic
Con was kind of the premiere for trailers, so so
(11:35):
Marvel trailers that would drop d C trailers that would
drop these huge superhero comic book films. And what we've
seen the last couple of years is Disney is like,
you know what, we have our own convention, So we're
gonna air Infinity War at our own convention instead of
at Comic Con. And I think that's really balls and
also just shows you know, how much money a lot
(11:56):
of these other cons are making as well, where they
kind of have spiraled off into something that's happening in
Orlando or here in l A. Well, that's just kind
of like the endgame of the cons. That and I
feel like one of the biggest problem with cons now
because we started from this, you know, this small con
put together of enthusiasts by you know, our boy Bernie
(12:16):
bubb Nous, and you know, like we it was just
for the passion of it. It was just just trying
to find like minded individuals who want to come together.
And now it's just a hub for consumerism. It's a
hub to get people who basically want to sell you things.
And we'll get more into that after the break and
(12:45):
we're back. So we left off on the note talking
about the history of comic Con San Diego comic Con specifically,
which is the comic con. I want to remind people
just in case people are wanting I mean, legally, we'll
get into that, but legally, just just wait for us
to get to that. But yeah, it wasn't always as
big as it was, and I kind of came into
(13:07):
the world of comic con when I was an adult.
I was able to afford to drive down to San
Diego myself, buy a ticket and do that because there
was no way I was going to convince my Nigerian
father to ever spend money on anything that was in
me trying to become a doctor. Lloyd. But Danny, you
you actually had a childhood. Uh, well, my family's from
(13:28):
San Diego. So when I was like nine or ten,
got super into anime, specifically Dragon ball Z and convinced
my mom when I was about eleven to take me
to Comic Con, me and my brother's and a girlfriend
of mine because I was obsessed with the voice actors
for Dragon ball Z, which is a very popular anime.
I was obsessed with the English voice actors that those
(13:50):
were the ones that I saw in television and that
they had at Comic Con that were signing, and so
I had convinced her to take me. I can tell
you a couple of things. One probably not as expensive
or else my mom would not have taken my brothers
and I as well. And two it was definitely not
as packed like I just remember parts of the convention
being kind of empty. There was a section where a
(14:13):
lot of the boots were that had the voice actors,
and I got them to sign like DVDs. So we
can talk about parts of what the convention actually is.
There's an area known as Artists Alley. That's where a
lot of independent artists and also artists that you will
see that have worked on Nickelodeon projects, Marvel comic book artists.
A lot of them will do commissions on the floor
(14:35):
that you can pay for. They'll sign their artwork. They
have a lot of fan art there as well. Even
in the comic book world. If you buy comic books
near Comic Con, you'll have comic book covers that are
just blank so that you can take it to Comic
Con and get your own custom covered done. So like,
there's lots of like love for artists, Alley, what was
(14:55):
that like back then? Was was it easier to navigate?
I don't necessarily remember artists, Ali. I do remember the
major companies still being there though, So Funimation is the
one that owns Dragon ball Z. So I remember their
booth and they had VHS tapes back then. That was
the thing to buy was animal VHS tapes and get
the voice actors to sign it. But yeah, I believe
(15:16):
that they still had PlayStation and you know, I don't
even know if Nickelodeon was there. Now Nickelodeon has so
if you go to comic Con now, yeah, Nickelodeon has
a huge presence. They normally have an interactive like house
that you can walk through. I think this past year
it was Hey Arnold, I know that they had people
taking pictures with but the year years prior they've had
like SpongeBob's Pineapple that you can walk through and take
(15:37):
pictures with adult swim as if he said earlier. Normally
has an area set up right outside of the con
and they'll have remember they had like an aquitine hunger
Force interactive things, so they have a lot of these
companies have interactive type of homes or whatever. You might say. Yeah,
and that's and that's what's so crazy, is like to
hear back to yesteryear a comic con where it was
(15:59):
just boo in signing the comics you'll ever get to.
That are the newer cons that startup that can't really
afford or garner the attention of these huge media companies.
Like I remember the first I went to the first
Long Beach comic con. Now it's it's insane, but like before,
it was literally just you went into a convention hall
(16:21):
and there was a booth that was damn near a
combination of artists alley and smaller comic bookshops that were
reselling comics and just like other like smaller indie publishers.
But now if you walk the floor of comic con,
what you're gonna see is it's almost gonna look like
an amusement part because you've got Fox WB like Walking
(16:42):
Dead takes up a huge part of it, which is
normally some interactive thing. Again, this is inside the convention,
so you'll you'll end up walking through some type of
interactive zombie maze or something that's set up inside the convention,
unless you're me, I don't do that. I don't go
in it, like I see the outside. The outside is nice,
but you have DC will have obviously a huge present.
(17:02):
Last year was Wonder Woman seventy five anniversary, so they
had a huge Wonder Woman exhibit. Marvel will have an
entire Marvel stage where sometimes they will bring the actors
onto the Marvel stage. They'll also bring Marvel Voice actors
onto this stage. This is all within the convention, so
it's kind of everything's happening at once, so it's kind
of loud. It's very if you have claustrophobia and like reception,
(17:27):
I wanna I want to if this is the first
year that you're going to a con, you somehow snack tickets.
You're going to Common Sandyo com Con, don't bother bringing
your phone. You will have no reception. There are too
many people in one place trying to use the cell service,
and it's trash. You you can only call. Don't think
you're gonna be updating your instant all that you gotta
save it to your phone. You might as well bring
(17:49):
one of those old school cameras. I guess I could
have called it a disposable camera, but freaking free. I
feel like I would be doing everyone a disservice if
I didn't mention that the huge thing that's known as
Hall H and Hall H is a six hundred seat
showcase essentially for big projects. So when if he was
(18:13):
mentioning that this is kind of consumerism, Hall H is
a section of comic Con that is very hard to
get into. You either have to sleep overnight in order
to get into it, like literally, people will line up
two days before or a day before. You'll get a ticket.
If you're wondering of how this works while you're in
line so that you can leave to go the bathroom,
or if you are pressed, and if you're special press,
(18:36):
you have to have a password. I know because I
got to go in last year. You have a password,
so you not even with a press badge can you
get in. It's a press badge plus a password, plus
you're on the list to get in and Hall H
is where they showcase everything. When you see the Justice
League lineup of Gal and Ben Affleck and as Run,
Jason Momo and all of them standing up there, that
(18:57):
is at Hall H. Yeah, whenever they have the cast
of Logan or whatever that's happening in Hall Age. Also,
if you want here, I feel like a lot of
people use podcasts to experience things that they feel like
they might never experience. So here, close your eyes, if
you're listening, I'm gonna give you the hall Age experience. So,
so imagine you just saved up all your money all
(19:18):
year and you and you actually were able to get
a Comic Con ticket, you and one other person, or
you're flying to San Diego. You get down to San Diego,
can get down to your hotel that you're spending way
too much money on. You might see stan Lee in
the in the lobby. It's real, it's real good. And
then you're like, I gotta get to Hall Age. So
you instead of going around Comic Con and seeing the sites,
(19:41):
you stand outside this door all day and all night,
and you wake up, you go in and you watch
a trailer and then it's released thirty seconds and so
listen last year they had released the Wonder Woman trailer
in hall Age. It was a very big deal. I
could not be in hall Age at the time. I
was in my hotel room and I literally watched at
(20:02):
the same time as everyone in hall Age. I will
say though, that it is exciting to be amongst your
fellow nerds when even when I got to go in
and I felt bad because people had spent the night there,
But watching those people walk in, they were so excited,
like that they win the Latto because they made it in.
They were like jumping and dancing on their way in there.
So now then my version was the cynical one. But
there is something like I've for example, been to a
(20:26):
bar that was showing an E sports match and watching
it with nerds and cheering for teams together. It does
add a whole another layer of excitement to it. And
also not only do you get to see the trailer,
you get to be in the same room with some
of the hugest celebrities that you've ever seen. So yeah,
so that is a phenomenon known as hall age. If
you ever hear someone referred to it, Yeah, that is
(20:47):
whole age. And there's many other halls but hall age
is the one you want to be in, and if
you're a host, is the one you want to be
hosting in. If Chris Hardwick in, yeah, I was gonna
say he is, He's probably the designated hall h hose.
He's the king. But we touched on artists Alley, but
I don't think we kind of explained it. But I
I feel like a lot of people might not know.
(21:08):
Like you're hearing about all these different brands and all
these cool things, like well, all those things sound cool.
Why is it a problem? Why is artists Alley being
brought up? And I think the problem is is as
you're hearing us describe these huge attractions and these huge
like different booths and set pieces on the floor at
Comic Con, the thing you have to imagine is that
(21:30):
takes up a lot of space, and as it gets bigger,
the space for artists Alley gets smaller, and it gets
pushed back further and further to the darkest corners of
the con. It's actually, if you're not looking for it,
it's hard to find artists Alley. And that's a problem
because if you're able to find artists Alley, because you're
able to find our artists, Alley, You're gonna go there
no matter what what that means for people who might
(21:52):
discover artists Alley might purchase some of something from these
indie creatives. That means that you're not getting that much
foot traffic, not getting enough people who are gonna just
be like, oh, this is a guy who does the
art for a comic. I like, let me buy something
from him instead. You're stuck in a cold it's like
right under the air conditioner. It's and like it really
(22:14):
feels like you're next to the party because since it's
there next to the bathroom. Yeah, they're next to the party.
I mean they're next to the bathrooms. And also like
you hear the booming, distant sounds of like the exciting installations,
and it really feels like you are indeed at the
less cool part of comic con, and so you get
out of their real fast. Well that makes a good point. So, yeah,
(22:36):
a lot of these companies are taking over the con
where it's not so much they call it comic con,
but it's not really about comics anymore. In fact, this
was a huge story this past year is that Mile
High Comics, one of the US largest comic book retailers
dropped out of Comic Con. Okay, I dropped out of
(22:56):
San Diego Comic Con after forty four years of being there.
That was huge. Again, Comic Con started to buy and
sell comics, which you can still technically do. You can
bring comics, and a lot of times they do do
trades on the floor. So this was per Mile High
President Chuck Razinski. He said, after forty or four years
of my supporting them through good times and bad, that
(23:18):
was just too much indifference to endure. What he is
referring to was a big mishap that happened between Mile
High and Comic Con when a Comic Con contractor failed
to deliver Mile High's comics. So a lot of these
vendors have to have things shipped in and they have
to go through a comic Con contractor a lot of
the times to get these things on the floor. So
(23:40):
a Comic Con contractor failed to deliver Mile Highs comics
on time and left them embarrassed and unable to assemble
their booth. They were actually missing huge portions of their comics. So,
and this is not you guys, Comic Con floor space
is expensive. Booths are expensive. Especially now that you have
companies like Fox, Marvel, Disney that can buy up the
(24:03):
floor space. So a lot of these comic book companies
are just not making the same amount of money. Also,
a lot of people aren't going there to buy comics anymore,
which was an issue. It just wasn't adding up for them,
So he said, when you are in a relationship out
of love and passion, but the other party could care
less whether you live or die, you have to realize
that it's time to move on. So Rosinski also noted
(24:25):
that shifting demographics and the increased size of the convention
had created an environment where he was paying for this
large amount of money for essentially seventy ft of floor space,
but he wasn't getting the same amount of foot traffic.
So people aren't going there essentially for comics anymore. So
he so it was it was a big dent for
them to be putting in the money when when people
(24:45):
aren't buying comics, and then when they don't even have
their supplies showing up here. It is so are you
ready for some of these prices for an exhibit space
at Comic Con tin by tin Booth is two thousand,
six hundred dollars that for of the weekend or four
that's for the weekend. And by the way, this is
for two thousand thirteen Comic Con. So these are these
(25:06):
prices are four years old now. And the corner premium
booth is seven hundred dollars, and an island premium booth
was eighteen hundred dollars. A comic Con table, uh, into
which I'm guessing is even smaller, is uh nine hundred dollars,
and so pressed table was four hundred. Yeah. So on
here it says that for mile High they wanted eighteen
(25:27):
thousand dollars, which they're not making again, you guys, so
you have to look at it. Are they making that
back in sales of comics? Yeah, no, no way. Yeah.
But speaking of like adding up money and numbers and
all this, we want to I want to talk about
this because we we are talking. Like I pointed out
before earlier in the episode, comic Con is a registered nonprofit.
(25:49):
David Glanzer, who he is actually the chief Communication Strategy
Officer for Comic Con International, got real defensive when he
was having an interview with Forbes where they're they're asking, uh,
how most major conventions in North America run as commercial businesses,
Comic Con International is actually a nonprofit even though it's
(26:10):
the most successful. Yeah yeah, And it says that they
reported over seventeen million in revenues reported in two thousand fourteen.
And so then he goes and he goes, well, actually,
this is a quote from it. He goes, you didn't
mention how much it costs to produce both Comic Con
and wonder Con. And it's the reported expenses, which actually,
(26:31):
in this math that I did, I only treated it
as if these were expenses for Comic Con. But these
are expenses for two cons. The administration costs are seven
hundred and twenty eight thousand. That's how much they report
they are. Now, I went and did the math, and
this year for a four day pass it costs two
d and thirty one dollars. It cost two hundred and
(26:51):
thirty one dollars for four day pass, and they say
they get about a hundred and thirty five thousand individual attendees.
So if you do the math of that, that's thirty
one million dollars that they stand and make prices, and
just ticket prices. This isn't counting, this isn't counting the
exhibitor passes. This isn't accounting how much booth. Yeah, how
(27:13):
much all of the vendors have to pay them exactly,
It doesn't count any of that. That's how much they're making.
So they make enough money to pay for two comic
cons and they're still charging the fans two hundred and
thirty one dollars for four days. Yeah. Yeah, I don't
know why. I thought it was like it's four dollars
(27:34):
every time I go. But he went on to say
in the same interview, but we're not in the business
to make money. We're an educational organization with the mission
of promoting comics and popular art. But they're pushing artists
alley to the back corner. They're giving these huge corporations
large spaces on the floor, they're giving them prime space.
(27:57):
They're free advertising, and we know the money and advertising,
and then on top of that, they're charging the attending
two This is kind of funny to me that you
know when you lie about something and then you have
to live with that lie the rest of your live.
That they were like, hey, it's a it's a nonprofit,
Ray Bradberry, and then now it's like they're still holding
(28:18):
out that it's a nonprofit to educate people about comics.
And then I only kept that off with one final question.
If you are indeed an educational organization with a mission
of promoting comics and popular art, why did you copyright
comic con? I think that they wanted to. I don't
know why I waited for an answer. Yeah, I wanted
(28:39):
him to burst through the doors, like listen here, Mr
wad Way. But that is a strong move. That's kind
of so Stanley's comic causey was the original name that
started inven He then changed it to l A Comic
Con for that specific reason, so that no one could
come and make an l A Comic Con. And however,
(29:01):
like if he said san Diego trademark the term comic con, Yeah,
they just got into a suit about it. And it
actually didn't have to do with Los Angeles Comic Con,
because that would be a bold move coming after Stanley
actually did it for the whole what was do you
remember when the Fine Brothers did a trademark on reaction videos?
So like no one else could use that term. This
(29:25):
reminds me of So the ruling was handed down in
Southern California, which also that was The shitty thing was
the case was actually against Salt Lake City Comic Con,
but that was it was handled in San Diego. Like
of course San Diego is going to make sure that
their cash cow wins that case. They have everything, like
it just wasn't That was not a fair trial. It
(29:46):
needs to obviously. Look, I'm not a lawyer, I'm not
going to pretend to be one, but I think you
take it to the next court and that's that's that's
and I think that's the legal term is when you
don't like a like a judgment, you look at the
judge and go, let's take it to the next court.
But yeah, no, they were going to lose that in
no way, there was no way that that judge was
going to toss that. They're saying it's to protect their brand,
(30:07):
but really what is their brand? If your brand is
based on the passion of fans, is that really your brand? Well,
and what we're seeing, like we were talking about with
the specializations of different cons, Now there's Emerald City Con,
there's Dragon Con. There's just so many cons that are
popping up. Probably you could just look up wherever you're listening.
You can literally type in your city and Con, and
(30:28):
there's probably a convention, some type of nerd convention that
is now taking place there. But all in all, through
its ups and downs, I feel like Comic Con is
the one place that people still will flock to no
matter how bad it gets, because it's the one place
nerds get to be nerds and be around nerds. I
(30:49):
might disagree with you on that if you because I
feel like Star Wars fans, if you add to choose,
because not everyone has the amount of money to fly
to California and get almost three or Badge. Also probably
for your there's a lot of families. We see a
lot of families at comic Con, so it's not just you,
it's your family that you're traveling with, or a partner
or spouse. I truly feel like if you're given the choice,
(31:11):
a lot of Star Wars fans are gonna go to
Star Wars Celebration. Star Wars Celebration has the cast, it
drops a lot of news typically there or trailers. I
think that they're moving on. I think people are I
think Comic Con San Diego Comic Con will always be huge,
but I think some of these other cons are catching up,
and Disney is smart. Disney is capitalizing on that. They're like,
(31:33):
you know what, we actually don't need a fly cast
out for the We're gonna put our cast. We're gonna
put all of our money into this and and promote
our movies. We're gonna promote our people and have exclusives here.
So that's another thing, is exclusives that take place not
only just trailers that are dropped or scenes from movies
that they'll show there, but they also have exclusive toys
(31:54):
and merchandise that you can't get anywhere else. So I
do think that that's UH might be taking if you had. However,
I will say I don't like the precedent it sets.
When you get to boguard your footage and your stuff
so that you can get people to pay for your thing.
You run into the problem that we're having right now
with net neutrality. A lot of people are against Netflix
(32:15):
because they want you to use their shitty version of Netflix.
They want you to use whatever this what what did
they put that Star Trek Discovery on CBS? Bullshit? You know, Like,
I find that instinct not being the idea of, oh,
let's do this better. The instinct is like, let's cut
out the mentalman, so we can get all the money,
and when something's built on that precedent, we get left
(32:38):
with worse products. And now that they're able to use
their strength as copyright owners to block off other entities
from using it, you don't get a better product. You
get what you get. I do want to say that
Star Wars celebration is taking a break this year. What, Yeah,
it's not happening after reconsecutive years. This is the most
(33:01):
Star Wars and think, well, I think it could be.
We haven't seen as much promotion for the Han solo movie, right,
I think that the last three years we had movie
movie movie. We had Force Awakens, we had Rogue One,
we had Last Jedi, we have the Han solo film.
So I don't really know what's going on there, but
(33:23):
I do know that they're taking a break in that
it will take place again in twenty nineteen, So so
that is an issue. So yeah, so those so Star
Wars fans are going to probably flock back to San
Diego Comic Con and or D twenty three since Disney
and Star Wars and Marvel are heavily linked. So D
twenty three, which I was saying, is Disney's official expo.
That's for a lot of Disney movie news, so they'll
(33:45):
drop a Laddin exclusive things like that. Well, yeah, that's
very interesting, especially about Star Wars celebrations. We'll see what
the future holds, and after this break, we'll talk about
what the future holds for cons and wrap this whole
thing up. What do you think? All right, and we're back.
(34:13):
I hope you like those messages. We worked really hard
on them, or maybe we just were lazy and played
Jack and Miles, and I think that's what we'll do.
So if we are talking about the future, we're going
to predict the future of comic Con. Here's my thing
that if you have been going to Comic Con the
last couple of years, you have realized that some of
(34:34):
the things being promoted there have nothing to do with
nerd Dumb. They're just some CBS show that's airing there. Literally,
it's so funny. Now they'll have like procedurals or like
Kevin Can Wait, or like promote they're like passing out
flyers or some interactive thing where I'm like, you guys
aren't even trying anymore. This has nothing to do with
nerd dumb. But they know. But that's the thing is
(34:57):
you were right. It is consumerism. Where where are capitalizing?
These are hundreds of thousands of eyes are going to
be there, So why not have some type of interactive
NBC whatever for their upcoming show? They do have that,
and it's not Have you really have you been noticing that?
It's like this has nothing to do with anything with
anything nerd. Really, it's I think it's gonna be even
(35:21):
more commercial than it already is. I agree with the
fact that the companies are buying up space. Not only
our companies weeding out independent artists inside of the actual
con itself, but they are also renting out restaurants and
bars in gas Lamp District, which is downtown San Diego,
so that you don't even need a badge to go inside.
For them to get your money and eyeballs, they'll have
(35:42):
an interactive show, some type of VR simulation or something
where you can take pictures with your friends. You can
get tattoos, temporary tattoos, or something done that a lot
of these brands are doing. I think that's exactly what's
gonna happen. I think it's gonna go because every year
I noticed more and more people who aren't necessarily into
nerd culture but one another there about the next movie
(36:03):
and then what's because also like you are getting a
headstart on like the blockbusters of next year when you go, so,
I think that wave is gonna go where it is
going to be a media con. It's going to be
almost a TV con, a TV and movie It is
a TV and movie con. That's so correct exactly, and
that is going to finally lean into that. And then
there's gonna be the great great great great great great
(36:25):
great great great grandson of Bernie bubb Nous and Ron Fradkin,
who goes, we need a space for us, But they
weren't the comic book fans. I think you mean Dorff
alf and Bernie bub I'm talking about my man, Bernie
bubb Nous and Rob Frecken. Their kids, Krueger and Alfa
are the ones that started the San Diego Con. Yeah,
(36:47):
and and killed it and started We're talking about my
man Bernie and Rod Fradkin. Yeah. I completely agree with that. Yeah,
and maybe we don't care. I don't know. It seems
like people are still showing up. Maybe people are exciting
mean Conan took over part of the cone. Conan always does.
(37:07):
Conan O'Brien does like live from Comic con Um, and
he had an interactive con where I think he could
put on like a Conan head and that was inside
the convention. So there are I mean, he is a
nerdy dude, but it's definitely masked in a lot of consumerism,
as like a big commercial for a lot of these
television shows that aren't necessarily sci fi fantasy. Also, I
(37:28):
think it's just the simple fact that things that were
considered child's play, like video games reading comic books, are
more and more being found out to be just for
everyone and now everyone can go and I think shows
like Conan are displaying that, which is going to lead
to people being more more comfortable being nerdy about things
in general, not just watching something because they it's on,
(37:51):
but really being passionate about the things they watched. And
that's why it becomes a TV movie con. And then
the great great great great great great grandson of Bernie
Bufness and Rod for At can start their own just
for Comics con and that's gonna be the new thing.
J J J com I would love it. There are
still a couple of those out there, but I would
love if someone personally brands themselves as literally nothing but comics,
(38:14):
just comics here, nothing else, and I feel like they
would probably sell out to have given the money. So
we're going to wrap it up here with some of
our personal experience, especially as of late now that we
are adults that get to get invited to cons. If
you do you have any particular advice for people going
to comic Con or your you know, experiences, well, my
(38:34):
my biggest advice is just bring brain water. You're definitely
gonna need it to go July and and you're just
gonna if you're paying for water at the con, that's
that's a new move, and you're going to spend way
too much money. But I think my favorite comic Con
moment has to be when I was going through my
BRONI phase. I thought I was a brownie. I just
(38:55):
like going against the grain. But you gotta tell people
what a brownie is. Oh yeah, a brownie is an
adult male fan of my little Ponium. And when I
when I had this phase, I want to say, it
was way before it got to where people are like
these guys, something's wrong with them. It's yeah, yeah, So
I got there was a pinky Pie, which is the
pink my Little Pony crown that I got from the kind.
(39:17):
It was one of the freebees. And I went to
an Andrew w K show and my buddy was like, hey,
I heard Andrew w K is a broken and so
I gave it to him at the show and he
was like, I'm gonna put this somewhere special tucked it
in his page. He's a nice guy. Yeah, and he
tucked it in his pants. It was a great moment,
and I was like, Wow, this is cool. We're all
being nerdy. I'm an Andrew w K party and hard
(39:40):
show being nerdy. I love comic coup. I love Andrew
w K. He follows me. He also follows like thousands
of people. My um, what fault. He'll probably follow you back.
I don't know mine. Oh god. I got to be
on a panel the last two years, and that to
me was so surreal because as someone who used to
go to the panels and like get the voice actors
(40:02):
to sign, you know, my VHS tapes, I got to
actually be on a panel and arguing about comics and
representation and comics. That was really cool for me. The
parties also I just want to say it has become
very Hollywood. I don't know if you feel that way, Iffy,
I feel like everyone does. Um, it's very who's who,
who gets into what. There's a lot of after parties,
(40:23):
like Nerdus has an after party of famous after Playboy
Playboy has an after party where I went to the
after party very hard to get into Who's party Boy
from Jackass? Do you know what I'm talking about? Okay,
So I had an Assassin's Creed metallic risks wrap from
doing the Assassin's Creed Obstacle course, which to get into
(40:44):
the Playboy party you needed a metallic risk wrap, and
so I just kind of flashed it. But like also
that party boy guy whatever was with like a bunch
of hot chicks and one had a puppy, and I
was like, oh my god, the puppy and I was
like talking and as a scooch along to get in.
I like scooched along with them and had my little
metallica wristband that was my earlier days of sneaking into
parties before I was invited. Yeah, and when I got
(41:08):
into the Playboy party, I was like, Wow, a lot
of you weren't at the con because you can tell
when people are at the con because they are sweaty.
You are gross. You you haven't showered all day. You know,
you probably still have your badge around your neck. And
then you had people that you know, look like they
were angels, and that was a sweaty mess. So that's
(41:29):
my sneaking and my advice. You don't have to have
a badge to get into the corn I mean to
actually get into the convention center, but you don't have
to have a badge to explore the whole town, which
is totally common conduct. And then also if you are
a young person trying to get in, you can normally
reach out to a lot of these companies that are
going to be there and ask if they need volunteers,
(41:50):
because a lot of times, like the people that hand
out T shirts outside of the con stuff like that,
or hand out flyers promoting a lot of times they're volunteers.
And then you get a free pass. You get a
free pass there you go, yeah and yeah, I think
once again Danny makes a great point of yeah, you
don't need a badge. So if you're local, if you're
local and you want to go down to Comic con
(42:11):
just drive down to day parking is going to be expensive,
so be ready for that or take the train. Yeah,
and just hang out down and you'll be able to
get swag. You'll be able to hang out, take pictures
of cost players, just being in downtown San Diego, which
is I think kind of cool. I do too, And
it's all it's all done up at night as well,
so it's a big party scene and a lot of
those bars and stuff have like nerdy drinks and whatnot,
(42:34):
nerdy thing drinks and the whole bar. I mean, the
one that if he and I were at this past
year was all dragon ball Z style and we got
to take a shot out of an ice sculpture of Scheenron,
the dragon from dragon ball Z. So yeah, live your
adult wild fantasies. It's it's amazing, but we gotta get
out of here. So you know, I'll let you know
where you can catch me. You can catch me at
if you wady way I f y in w A
(42:55):
d I w E. You can catch me on Instagram
and Twitter at those handles, and you can catch me
here and sometimes on the daily sye guys, go ahead
and give those guys a subscribe to with us. Don't
don't be too busy subscribing, then let you forget to subscribe.
I'm at MS Danny Fernandez. It's m S. Danny Day
and I and then F E R N A N
(43:17):
D e z on both Twitter and Instagram. All right, well,
this has been nerdificent and we hope you learned something
nerdy today. The bye
Alrighty, hello everybody. Welcome, Welcome, welcome, Welcome to the pilot
episode of Nerdificent. I'm if I am Danny Fernandez. Thank
you for joining us. Yes, yes, and we're here to
talk about how one thing that is synonymous with the
word nerd. I feel like nerd and this is going
(00:30):
hand in hand and this is kind of what skyrocketed
nerd culture to the mainstream. Yeah, and that's what this
show is kinda going to be about. You guys are
gonna be tackling different things in nerd culture that some
of you might be aware of and some of you
might not be. Yeah, And whether you're a old school
vet rolland Dice down in the basement or a new
fan who just saw the hit movie I'm calling it
(00:51):
now smash box office hit Black Panther, Let's find some more.
And now they're like, I want to be a nerd
Now we'll have it all here, So dissecting everything a
nerd um that we grew up with and more maybe
some of them, some of that new nerd hotness, you know. Yeah,
although I have a feeling you and I are going
to trend towards a lot of anime as well. Oh, Yeah,
(01:12):
that's then, so I feel like somety it's going to
make its away. But yeah, So today's subject is probably
one of the biggest, most popular mainstays within nerd culture,
and that is the comic book convention. But if we're
being super specific, we're talking about comic con and the
(01:33):
comic con as most people know it, which is the
annual San Diego Comic Con. And that's usually what people
are referring to when they because it is the international
comic con, which means people from all over the world
are flying to go to this specific comic con. But
before we get into that, let's break it down. What
(01:53):
is a comic con or what is it? Well, we
all know comic con or we may not. Don't want
to judge anyone. Short for comic book convention. Yes, yeah,
a gathering of nerds and now it's grown to hundreds
of thousands of people that flocked to San Diego. But
the original actually, let's go back to one of the
(02:16):
oldest sci fi conventions ever. This was on record, So
the oldest, the first recorded inner city meetup of science
fiction fans was phil Con and that was in nineteen
thirty six. It was a small party of science fiction
fans in New York. So that was the first one
on record, that's according to Geeks Media. So all the
way back in nineteen there were nerds. Yeah, I'd like
(02:36):
to imagine that it was like just a party, like
where it was like, yeah, we all nerds were coming
in our in our sci fi gear and we're gonna
turn up they're like War of the World soever. And
so then we move on to the first recorded official
comic book convention. So that was nineteen sixty four in
New York. Yeah, known as the New York Comic Con.
(02:57):
It was held in July nineteen sixty four at the
Workmen's Circle Building. It was a one day convention organized
by sixteen year old Bernie Bubbus. It was organized by
six year that's when you're in your peak nerdiness. Yeah,
that's when you're your peak comic book collector. Yeah, that's
when you have gumption to like do a whole convention.
(03:20):
But it wasn't just him. It was also a fellow enthusiast,
Rod Fratkin. Official guests of the tri state con included
Steve Ditko, Flow Steinberg, and Tom Gill and there the
reports have over one h attendees. That's good for back
then for sixteen year old as well. I wonder if
they charge people at the door. I mean, do you
think little Bernie bubb Nous would think that he'd be
(03:42):
able to add three zeros behind that? So moving on,
we have what we know as which is the San
Diego Comic Con. So that was originally called San Diego's
Golden State Comic Con. It was a mini con, So
the first everone was in Mark one of nineteen seventy
(04:03):
and the men that had put that together include Shell
doorf Ken Krueger, and Richard alf so they were the
original ones. They then later had another mini con in
August of that same year, so they're doing that. They
were doing like nice little mini conventions, kind of testing
it out before they went big. Yeah, it was actually interesting.
So the second con that they had, the one that
(04:23):
was in August, they actually got Jack Kirby as a guest,
and he's the man who created basically every notable Marvel
superhero from Captain America to X Men. But they also
had Fahrenheit four fifty one author Ray Bradberry, and this
is a really interesting way that they got him there.
So he actually gave a speech at San Diego State University,
(04:43):
and Dorf and Alf, two of the guys that had
put the mini cons together, they attended and then they
waited for him after his speech, and they asked him
if he would speak at their comic con, and he said, yeah,
sure for his normal speaking fee, which was five thousand dollars,
which was roughly adds up to about thirty thousand today.
So yeah, I'll do it thirty kids. And so they
(05:05):
were like, we can't do that. They came up with
a plan. They essentially lied to him and said it
was a nonprofit to educate the public about comics, and
Bradberry was like, sure, I'll do it. So that's kind
of how the first original San Diego Comic Con came
to be. Again, they were calling it the Golden State
Comic Con, and then eventually in nineteen seventy three when
(05:26):
they settled on San Diego Comic Con. That's nice STCC
that we know, Buil. I think they was reading about
this story which was in the Rolling Stone, by the way,
and I think that they had said, now they had
to think of a way to make it nonprofit. Yeah,
and there there are technically nonprofit till this day. They're
nonprofit organizations. So that that is what was the original
(05:48):
San Diego Comic Con. And again when as If he said,
when people say comic con, that is what they're referring to. However,
we have kind of moved on to a specialization of cons.
Conventions have spread throughout the country, throughout I mean internationally
as well, but here in America. Cut you off, but yeah,
on the seats there's like lots of cruise cons too.
(06:10):
And I think it's that the fact that happens when
you have something grow to a certain point, it'll fork
off and have its own genres within that genre. So
you have like Doctor who Comes, You have like you know,
anime conventions specifically for anime, which I have to stop
you right there because Anime Expo, which you and I
have both have so many stories from the Anime Expo
(06:33):
is the largest North American anime convention. It is It's insane.
I you and I have been like the last couple
of years. I go, I think, I go for like
an hour and have to give my badual. It's like
walking through I've never been amongst that many people. Because
the difference with so anime Expo actually takes place in
Los Angeles, where San Diego Comic Con is a larger
(06:54):
acred sprawling. What it's grown to now is it's a
lot of outdoor restaurants and bars and interactive things as
well as inside the convention center. Whereas Anime Expo in
l A. Here is a lot of just everyone on
top of each other in one singular area. Well, that's
been the biggest thing, which if you aren't aware, there's
a big argument within the congoers of moving comic Con
(07:17):
to l A versus having it in San Diego, and
San Diego just hands down has more space. The reason
this is is if you haven't been to San Diego
Comic Con, the convention center is downtown right next to
it's like downtown the Harbor Gas Lamp District, which is
downtown San Diego. Yes, and it's also right next to
the Petco Stadium. So comic Con has had the ability
(07:40):
to spread its wings and expand out into those spaces,
and a lot of the people who show up at
comic Con don't feel the need to have to be
within the con because a lot of them are taking over.
Like Adult Swim always has a huge area outside near
Petco Park. You always have a lot of like Assassin's
Creed ubis Off would have like a whole obstacle course
(08:03):
right outside of the con And then all of the
bars and restaurants are branded, so there's room to breathe
that's not on top where's l A. L A is
l A And there's always so much going on. So
you have the convention Center and then there's probably a
marathon going on. They did that one year where it
was like an actual con and then also the l
(08:23):
A Marathon. Also, the area just doesn't have much, like
it's really just a whole bunch of like want to
be New York style buildings in downtown l A who
don't give a damn about the con. And then you
have the Staples Center area, which if they don't have
a game kind of tries to take that place. But
I remember one year there was Anime Expo and across
(08:45):
from the Anime Exposed where the X games and I
can't think of tumors, fandoms to put in, well, you
and I I think we're texting each other because just
to kind of put this into perspective, the line to
pick up your badge was four to five hours to
pick up your badge to get in. It was insane. Yeah.
(09:09):
So this just to top off this, Anime Expo seventeen
numbers over a hundred seven thousand warm and three hundred
fifty seven thousand turnstyle, so like coming in now, Yeah,
I mean it was everyone was on top of each other.
And Anime Expo also, if we're just talking about specializations
and cons, they go all out. So I would say
(09:29):
the difference between them and say, maybe San Diego Comic
Con is I think it's like fifty fifty percent of
people are dressed up, of people are just normal people
enjoying it. Anime Expo it's like nine people are dressed
up and that takes a lot of time to also
go through security with like swords and helmets and all
of this stuff. So and just to put that whole
(09:51):
like bringing Comic Con to l a argument to bed
the numbers that you just said for Anime Expo, just
remember that. Well, so what were the numbers again? You
said over a hundred and seven thousand and then three
fifty seven thousand turnstile. Yeah, so Comic Con they were
saying that their last year numbers was a hundred and
(10:11):
thirty five thousand. So if we can't even handle a
hundred and seven thousands without just having huge congestion, it
just because I don't know if you saw the picture
of last year, but you can't see carpet overhead view.
You just person on top of person. So if we
can't even handle a hundred seven thousand, there's no way
(10:31):
we'll be able to handle the amount of people. And
that's people getting into the con, not to mention people
who just go to San Diego Comic Con just to
hang out. So it's I do want to say that.
You know, two years ago they did that pole in
San Diego and it was like, what would you rather
keep San Diego Comic Con or the Chargers? And we
saw how that went because San Diego does not want
to give up its con. It's the one way they're
(10:53):
making money. You know. The blackfish killed off the whole
Sea World thing. They lost that, you know, And soon
we're coming. We're coming for the zoo. You know. I'm
working on Good Monkey, you know, and look working title
Good Monkey. It's about the way the San Diego Zoo
is abusing monkeys and other animals. Working time, continuing on
(11:15):
with our our our specialization of cons. We also have
Star Wars Celebration, which is in Orlando in D twenty three,
which is the Disney Expo that's in l A. Now,
something that's interesting with both of these is that what
we've seen so for the longest time, Sandy Go Comic
Con was kind of the premiere for trailers, so so
(11:35):
Marvel trailers that would drop d C trailers that would
drop these huge superhero comic book films. And what we've
seen the last couple of years is Disney is like,
you know what, we have our own convention, So we're
gonna air Infinity War at our own convention instead of
at Comic Con. And I think that's really balls and
also just shows you know, how much money a lot
(11:56):
of these other cons are making as well, where they
kind of have spiraled off into something that's happening in
Orlando or here in l A. Well, that's just kind
of like the endgame of the cons. That and I
feel like one of the biggest problem with cons now
because we started from this, you know, this small con
put together of enthusiasts by you know, our boy Bernie
(12:16):
bubb Nous, and you know, like we it was just
for the passion of it. It was just just trying
to find like minded individuals who want to come together.
And now it's just a hub for consumerism. It's a
hub to get people who basically want to sell you things.
And we'll get more into that after the break and
(12:45):
we're back. So we left off on the note talking
about the history of comic Con San Diego comic Con specifically,
which is the comic con. I want to remind people
just in case people are wanting I mean, legally, we'll
get into that, but legally, just just wait for us
to get to that. But yeah, it wasn't always as
big as it was, and I kind of came into
(13:07):
the world of comic con when I was an adult.
I was able to afford to drive down to San
Diego myself, buy a ticket and do that because there
was no way I was going to convince my Nigerian
father to ever spend money on anything that was in
me trying to become a doctor. Lloyd. But Danny, you
you actually had a childhood. Uh, well, my family's from
(13:28):
San Diego. So when I was like nine or ten,
got super into anime, specifically Dragon ball Z and convinced
my mom when I was about eleven to take me
to Comic Con, me and my brother's and a girlfriend
of mine because I was obsessed with the voice actors
for Dragon ball Z, which is a very popular anime.
I was obsessed with the English voice actors that those
(13:50):
were the ones that I saw in television and that
they had at Comic Con that were signing, and so
I had convinced her to take me. I can tell
you a couple of things. One probably not as expensive
or else my mom would not have taken my brothers
and I as well. And two it was definitely not
as packed like I just remember parts of the convention
being kind of empty. There was a section where a
(14:13):
lot of the boots were that had the voice actors,
and I got them to sign like DVDs. So we
can talk about parts of what the convention actually is.
There's an area known as Artists Alley. That's where a
lot of independent artists and also artists that you will
see that have worked on Nickelodeon projects, Marvel comic book artists.
A lot of them will do commissions on the floor
(14:35):
that you can pay for. They'll sign their artwork. They
have a lot of fan art there as well. Even
in the comic book world. If you buy comic books
near Comic Con, you'll have comic book covers that are
just blank so that you can take it to Comic
Con and get your own custom covered done. So like,
there's lots of like love for artists, Alley, what was
(14:55):
that like back then? Was was it easier to navigate?
I don't necessarily remember artists, Ali. I do remember the
major companies still being there though, So Funimation is the
one that owns Dragon ball Z. So I remember their
booth and they had VHS tapes back then. That was
the thing to buy was animal VHS tapes and get
the voice actors to sign it. But yeah, I believe
(15:16):
that they still had PlayStation and you know, I don't
even know if Nickelodeon was there. Now Nickelodeon has so
if you go to comic Con now, yeah, Nickelodeon has
a huge presence. They normally have an interactive like house
that you can walk through. I think this past year
it was Hey Arnold, I know that they had people
taking pictures with but the year years prior they've had
like SpongeBob's Pineapple that you can walk through and take
(15:37):
pictures with adult swim as if he said earlier. Normally
has an area set up right outside of the con
and they'll have remember they had like an aquitine hunger
Force interactive things, so they have a lot of these
companies have interactive type of homes or whatever. You might say. Yeah,
and that's and that's what's so crazy, is like to
hear back to yesteryear a comic con where it was
(15:59):
just boo in signing the comics you'll ever get to.
That are the newer cons that startup that can't really
afford or garner the attention of these huge media companies.
Like I remember the first I went to the first
Long Beach comic con. Now it's it's insane, but like before,
it was literally just you went into a convention hall
(16:21):
and there was a booth that was damn near a
combination of artists alley and smaller comic bookshops that were
reselling comics and just like other like smaller indie publishers.
But now if you walk the floor of comic con,
what you're gonna see is it's almost gonna look like
an amusement part because you've got Fox WB like Walking
(16:42):
Dead takes up a huge part of it, which is
normally some interactive thing. Again, this is inside the convention,
so you'll you'll end up walking through some type of
interactive zombie maze or something that's set up inside the convention,
unless you're me, I don't do that. I don't go
in it, like I see the outside. The outside is nice,
but you have DC will have obviously a huge present.
(17:02):
Last year was Wonder Woman seventy five anniversary, so they
had a huge Wonder Woman exhibit. Marvel will have an
entire Marvel stage where sometimes they will bring the actors
onto the Marvel stage. They'll also bring Marvel Voice actors
onto this stage. This is all within the convention, so
it's kind of everything's happening at once, so it's kind
of loud. It's very if you have claustrophobia and like reception,
(17:27):
I wanna I want to if this is the first
year that you're going to a con, you somehow snack tickets.
You're going to Common Sandyo com Con, don't bother bringing
your phone. You will have no reception. There are too
many people in one place trying to use the cell service,
and it's trash. You you can only call. Don't think
you're gonna be updating your instant all that you gotta
save it to your phone. You might as well bring
(17:49):
one of those old school cameras. I guess I could
have called it a disposable camera, but freaking free. I
feel like I would be doing everyone a disservice if
I didn't mention that the huge thing that's known as
Hall H and Hall H is a six hundred seat
showcase essentially for big projects. So when if he was
(18:13):
mentioning that this is kind of consumerism, Hall H is
a section of comic Con that is very hard to
get into. You either have to sleep overnight in order
to get into it, like literally, people will line up
two days before or a day before. You'll get a ticket.
If you're wondering of how this works while you're in
line so that you can leave to go the bathroom,
or if you are pressed, and if you're special press,
(18:36):
you have to have a password. I know because I
got to go in last year. You have a password,
so you not even with a press badge can you
get in. It's a press badge plus a password, plus
you're on the list to get in and Hall H
is where they showcase everything. When you see the Justice
League lineup of Gal and Ben Affleck and as Run,
Jason Momo and all of them standing up there, that
(18:57):
is at Hall H. Yeah, whenever they have the cast
of Logan or whatever that's happening in Hall Age. Also,
if you want here, I feel like a lot of
people use podcasts to experience things that they feel like
they might never experience. So here, close your eyes, if
you're listening, I'm gonna give you the hall Age experience. So,
so imagine you just saved up all your money all
(19:18):
year and you and you actually were able to get
a Comic Con ticket, you and one other person, or
you're flying to San Diego. You get down to San Diego,
can get down to your hotel that you're spending way
too much money on. You might see stan Lee in
the in the lobby. It's real, it's real good. And
then you're like, I gotta get to Hall Age. So
you instead of going around Comic Con and seeing the sites,
(19:41):
you stand outside this door all day and all night,
and you wake up, you go in and you watch
a trailer and then it's released thirty seconds and so
listen last year they had released the Wonder Woman trailer
in hall Age. It was a very big deal. I
could not be in hall Age at the time. I
was in my hotel room and I literally watched at
(20:02):
the same time as everyone in hall Age. I will
say though, that it is exciting to be amongst your
fellow nerds when even when I got to go in
and I felt bad because people had spent the night there,
But watching those people walk in, they were so excited,
like that they win the Latto because they made it in.
They were like jumping and dancing on their way in there.
So now then my version was the cynical one. But
there is something like I've for example, been to a
(20:26):
bar that was showing an E sports match and watching
it with nerds and cheering for teams together. It does
add a whole another layer of excitement to it. And
also not only do you get to see the trailer,
you get to be in the same room with some
of the hugest celebrities that you've ever seen. So yeah,
so that is a phenomenon known as hall age. If
you ever hear someone referred to it, Yeah, that is
(20:47):
whole age. And there's many other halls but hall age
is the one you want to be in, and if
you're a host, is the one you want to be
hosting in. If Chris Hardwick in, yeah, I was gonna
say he is, He's probably the designated hall h hose.
He's the king. But we touched on artists Alley, but
I don't think we kind of explained it. But I
I feel like a lot of people might not know.
(21:08):
Like you're hearing about all these different brands and all
these cool things, like well, all those things sound cool.
Why is it a problem? Why is artists Alley being
brought up? And I think the problem is is as
you're hearing us describe these huge attractions and these huge
like different booths and set pieces on the floor at
Comic Con, the thing you have to imagine is that
(21:30):
takes up a lot of space, and as it gets bigger,
the space for artists Alley gets smaller, and it gets
pushed back further and further to the darkest corners of
the con. It's actually, if you're not looking for it,
it's hard to find artists Alley. And that's a problem
because if you're able to find artists Alley, because you're
able to find our artists, Alley, You're gonna go there
no matter what what that means for people who might
(21:52):
discover artists Alley might purchase some of something from these
indie creatives. That means that you're not getting that much
foot traffic, not getting enough people who are gonna just
be like, oh, this is a guy who does the
art for a comic. I like, let me buy something
from him instead. You're stuck in a cold it's like
right under the air conditioner. It's and like it really
(22:14):
feels like you're next to the party because since it's
there next to the bathroom. Yeah, they're next to the party.
I mean they're next to the bathrooms. And also like
you hear the booming, distant sounds of like the exciting installations,
and it really feels like you are indeed at the
less cool part of comic con, and so you get
out of their real fast. Well that makes a good point. So, yeah,
(22:36):
a lot of these companies are taking over the con
where it's not so much they call it comic con,
but it's not really about comics anymore. In fact, this
was a huge story this past year is that Mile
High Comics, one of the US largest comic book retailers
dropped out of Comic Con. Okay, I dropped out of
(22:56):
San Diego Comic Con after forty four years of being there.
That was huge. Again, Comic Con started to buy and
sell comics, which you can still technically do. You can
bring comics, and a lot of times they do do
trades on the floor. So this was per Mile High
President Chuck Razinski. He said, after forty or four years
of my supporting them through good times and bad, that
(23:18):
was just too much indifference to endure. What he is
referring to was a big mishap that happened between Mile
High and Comic Con when a Comic Con contractor failed
to deliver Mile High's comics. So a lot of these
vendors have to have things shipped in and they have
to go through a comic Con contractor a lot of
the times to get these things on the floor. So
(23:40):
a Comic Con contractor failed to deliver Mile Highs comics
on time and left them embarrassed and unable to assemble
their booth. They were actually missing huge portions of their comics. So,
and this is not you guys, Comic Con floor space
is expensive. Booths are expensive. Especially now that you have
companies like Fox, Marvel, Disney that can buy up the
(24:03):
floor space. So a lot of these comic book companies
are just not making the same amount of money. Also,
a lot of people aren't going there to buy comics anymore,
which was an issue. It just wasn't adding up for them,
So he said, when you are in a relationship out
of love and passion, but the other party could care
less whether you live or die, you have to realize
that it's time to move on. So Rosinski also noted
(24:25):
that shifting demographics and the increased size of the convention
had created an environment where he was paying for this
large amount of money for essentially seventy ft of floor space,
but he wasn't getting the same amount of foot traffic.
So people aren't going there essentially for comics anymore. So
he so it was it was a big dent for
them to be putting in the money when when people
(24:45):
aren't buying comics, and then when they don't even have
their supplies showing up here. It is so are you
ready for some of these prices for an exhibit space
at Comic Con tin by tin Booth is two thousand,
six hundred dollars that for of the weekend or four
that's for the weekend. And by the way, this is
for two thousand thirteen Comic Con. So these are these
(25:06):
prices are four years old now. And the corner premium
booth is seven hundred dollars, and an island premium booth
was eighteen hundred dollars. A comic Con table, uh, into
which I'm guessing is even smaller, is uh nine hundred dollars,
and so pressed table was four hundred. Yeah. So on
here it says that for mile High they wanted eighteen
(25:27):
thousand dollars, which they're not making again, you guys, so
you have to look at it. Are they making that
back in sales of comics? Yeah, no, no way. Yeah.
But speaking of like adding up money and numbers and
all this, we want to I want to talk about
this because we we are talking. Like I pointed out
before earlier in the episode, comic Con is a registered nonprofit.
(25:49):
David Glanzer, who he is actually the chief Communication Strategy
Officer for Comic Con International, got real defensive when he
was having an interview with Forbes where they're they're asking, uh,
how most major conventions in North America run as commercial businesses,
Comic Con International is actually a nonprofit even though it's
(26:10):
the most successful. Yeah yeah, And it says that they
reported over seventeen million in revenues reported in two thousand fourteen.
And so then he goes and he goes, well, actually,
this is a quote from it. He goes, you didn't
mention how much it costs to produce both Comic Con
and wonder Con. And it's the reported expenses, which actually,
(26:31):
in this math that I did, I only treated it
as if these were expenses for Comic Con. But these
are expenses for two cons. The administration costs are seven
hundred and twenty eight thousand. That's how much they report
they are. Now, I went and did the math, and
this year for a four day pass it costs two
d and thirty one dollars. It cost two hundred and
(26:51):
thirty one dollars for four day pass, and they say
they get about a hundred and thirty five thousand individual attendees.
So if you do the math of that, that's thirty
one million dollars that they stand and make prices, and
just ticket prices. This isn't counting, this isn't counting the
exhibitor passes. This isn't accounting how much booth. Yeah, how
(27:13):
much all of the vendors have to pay them exactly,
It doesn't count any of that. That's how much they're making.
So they make enough money to pay for two comic
cons and they're still charging the fans two hundred and
thirty one dollars for four days. Yeah. Yeah, I don't
know why. I thought it was like it's four dollars
(27:34):
every time I go. But he went on to say
in the same interview, but we're not in the business
to make money. We're an educational organization with the mission
of promoting comics and popular art. But they're pushing artists
alley to the back corner. They're giving these huge corporations
large spaces on the floor, they're giving them prime space.
(27:57):
They're free advertising, and we know the money and advertising,
and then on top of that, they're charging the attending
two This is kind of funny to me that you
know when you lie about something and then you have
to live with that lie the rest of your live.
That they were like, hey, it's a it's a nonprofit,
Ray Bradberry, and then now it's like they're still holding
(28:18):
out that it's a nonprofit to educate people about comics.
And then I only kept that off with one final question.
If you are indeed an educational organization with a mission
of promoting comics and popular art, why did you copyright
comic con? I think that they wanted to. I don't
know why I waited for an answer. Yeah, I wanted
(28:39):
him to burst through the doors, like listen here, Mr
wad Way. But that is a strong move. That's kind
of so Stanley's comic causey was the original name that
started inven He then changed it to l A Comic
Con for that specific reason, so that no one could
come and make an l A Comic Con. And however,
(29:01):
like if he said san Diego trademark the term comic con, Yeah,
they just got into a suit about it. And it
actually didn't have to do with Los Angeles Comic Con,
because that would be a bold move coming after Stanley
actually did it for the whole what was do you
remember when the Fine Brothers did a trademark on reaction videos?
So like no one else could use that term. This
(29:25):
reminds me of So the ruling was handed down in
Southern California, which also that was The shitty thing was
the case was actually against Salt Lake City Comic Con,
but that was it was handled in San Diego. Like
of course San Diego is going to make sure that
their cash cow wins that case. They have everything, like
it just wasn't That was not a fair trial. It
(29:46):
needs to obviously. Look, I'm not a lawyer, I'm not
going to pretend to be one, but I think you
take it to the next court and that's that's that's
and I think that's the legal term is when you
don't like a like a judgment, you look at the
judge and go, let's take it to the next court.
But yeah, no, they were going to lose that in
no way, there was no way that that judge was
going to toss that. They're saying it's to protect their brand,
(30:07):
but really what is their brand? If your brand is
based on the passion of fans, is that really your brand? Well,
and what we're seeing, like we were talking about with
the specializations of different cons, Now there's Emerald City Con,
there's Dragon Con. There's just so many cons that are
popping up. Probably you could just look up wherever you're listening.
You can literally type in your city and Con, and
(30:28):
there's probably a convention, some type of nerd convention that
is now taking place there. But all in all, through
its ups and downs, I feel like Comic Con is
the one place that people still will flock to no
matter how bad it gets, because it's the one place
nerds get to be nerds and be around nerds. I
(30:49):
might disagree with you on that if you because I
feel like Star Wars fans, if you add to choose,
because not everyone has the amount of money to fly
to California and get almost three or Badge. Also probably
for your there's a lot of families. We see a
lot of families at comic Con, so it's not just you,
it's your family that you're traveling with, or a partner
or spouse. I truly feel like if you're given the choice,
(31:11):
a lot of Star Wars fans are gonna go to
Star Wars Celebration. Star Wars Celebration has the cast, it
drops a lot of news typically there or trailers. I
think that they're moving on. I think people are I
think Comic Con San Diego Comic Con will always be huge,
but I think some of these other cons are catching up,
and Disney is smart. Disney is capitalizing on that. They're like,
(31:33):
you know what, we actually don't need a fly cast
out for the We're gonna put our cast. We're gonna
put all of our money into this and and promote
our movies. We're gonna promote our people and have exclusives here.
So that's another thing, is exclusives that take place not
only just trailers that are dropped or scenes from movies
that they'll show there, but they also have exclusive toys
(31:54):
and merchandise that you can't get anywhere else. So I
do think that that's UH might be taking if you had. However,
I will say I don't like the precedent it sets.
When you get to boguard your footage and your stuff
so that you can get people to pay for your thing.
You run into the problem that we're having right now
with net neutrality. A lot of people are against Netflix
(32:15):
because they want you to use their shitty version of Netflix.
They want you to use whatever this what what did
they put that Star Trek Discovery on CBS? Bullshit? You know, Like,
I find that instinct not being the idea of, oh,
let's do this better. The instinct is like, let's cut
out the mentalman, so we can get all the money,
and when something's built on that precedent, we get left
(32:38):
with worse products. And now that they're able to use
their strength as copyright owners to block off other entities
from using it, you don't get a better product. You
get what you get. I do want to say that
Star Wars celebration is taking a break this year. What, Yeah,
it's not happening after reconsecutive years. This is the most
(33:01):
Star Wars and think, well, I think it could be.
We haven't seen as much promotion for the Han solo movie, right,
I think that the last three years we had movie
movie movie. We had Force Awakens, we had Rogue One,
we had Last Jedi, we have the Han solo film.
So I don't really know what's going on there, but
(33:23):
I do know that they're taking a break in that
it will take place again in twenty nineteen, So so
that is an issue. So yeah, so those so Star
Wars fans are going to probably flock back to San
Diego Comic Con and or D twenty three since Disney
and Star Wars and Marvel are heavily linked. So D
twenty three, which I was saying, is Disney's official expo.
That's for a lot of Disney movie news, so they'll
(33:45):
drop a Laddin exclusive things like that. Well, yeah, that's
very interesting, especially about Star Wars celebrations. We'll see what
the future holds, and after this break, we'll talk about
what the future holds for cons and wrap this whole
thing up. What do you think? All right, and we're back.
(34:13):
I hope you like those messages. We worked really hard
on them, or maybe we just were lazy and played
Jack and Miles, and I think that's what we'll do.
So if we are talking about the future, we're going
to predict the future of comic Con. Here's my thing
that if you have been going to Comic Con the
last couple of years, you have realized that some of
(34:34):
the things being promoted there have nothing to do with
nerd Dumb. They're just some CBS show that's airing there. Literally,
it's so funny. Now they'll have like procedurals or like
Kevin Can Wait, or like promote they're like passing out
flyers or some interactive thing where I'm like, you guys
aren't even trying anymore. This has nothing to do with
nerd dumb. But they know. But that's the thing is
(34:57):
you were right. It is consumerism. Where where are capitalizing?
These are hundreds of thousands of eyes are going to
be there, So why not have some type of interactive
NBC whatever for their upcoming show? They do have that,
and it's not Have you really have you been noticing that?
It's like this has nothing to do with anything with
anything nerd. Really, it's I think it's gonna be even
(35:21):
more commercial than it already is. I agree with the
fact that the companies are buying up space. Not only
our companies weeding out independent artists inside of the actual
con itself, but they are also renting out restaurants and
bars in gas Lamp District, which is downtown San Diego,
so that you don't even need a badge to go inside.
For them to get your money and eyeballs, they'll have
(35:42):
an interactive show, some type of VR simulation or something
where you can take pictures with your friends. You can
get tattoos, temporary tattoos, or something done that a lot
of these brands are doing. I think that's exactly what's
gonna happen. I think it's gonna go because every year
I noticed more and more people who aren't necessarily into
nerd culture but one another there about the next movie
(36:03):
and then what's because also like you are getting a
headstart on like the blockbusters of next year when you go, so,
I think that wave is gonna go where it is
going to be a media con. It's going to be
almost a TV con, a TV and movie It is
a TV and movie con. That's so correct exactly, and
that is going to finally lean into that. And then
there's gonna be the great great great great great great
(36:25):
great great great grandson of Bernie bubb Nous and Ron Fradkin,
who goes, we need a space for us, But they
weren't the comic book fans. I think you mean Dorff
alf and Bernie bub I'm talking about my man, Bernie
bubb Nous and Rob Frecken. Their kids, Krueger and Alfa
are the ones that started the San Diego Con. Yeah,
(36:47):
and and killed it and started We're talking about my
man Bernie and Rod Fradkin. Yeah. I completely agree with that. Yeah,
and maybe we don't care. I don't know. It seems
like people are still showing up. Maybe people are exciting
mean Conan took over part of the cone. Conan always does.
(37:07):
Conan O'Brien does like live from Comic con Um, and
he had an interactive con where I think he could
put on like a Conan head and that was inside
the convention. So there are I mean, he is a
nerdy dude, but it's definitely masked in a lot of consumerism,
as like a big commercial for a lot of these
television shows that aren't necessarily sci fi fantasy. Also, I
(37:28):
think it's just the simple fact that things that were
considered child's play, like video games reading comic books, are
more and more being found out to be just for
everyone and now everyone can go and I think shows
like Conan are displaying that, which is going to lead
to people being more more comfortable being nerdy about things
in general, not just watching something because they it's on,
(37:51):
but really being passionate about the things they watched. And
that's why it becomes a TV movie con. And then
the great great great great great great grandson of Bernie
Bufness and Rod for At can start their own just
for Comics con and that's gonna be the new thing.
J J J com I would love it. There are
still a couple of those out there, but I would
love if someone personally brands themselves as literally nothing but comics,
(38:14):
just comics here, nothing else, and I feel like they
would probably sell out to have given the money. So
we're going to wrap it up here with some of
our personal experience, especially as of late now that we
are adults that get to get invited to cons. If
you do you have any particular advice for people going
to comic Con or your you know, experiences, well, my
(38:34):
my biggest advice is just bring brain water. You're definitely
gonna need it to go July and and you're just
gonna if you're paying for water at the con, that's
that's a new move, and you're going to spend way
too much money. But I think my favorite comic Con
moment has to be when I was going through my
BRONI phase. I thought I was a brownie. I just
(38:55):
like going against the grain. But you gotta tell people
what a brownie is. Oh yeah, a brownie is an
adult male fan of my little Ponium. And when I
when I had this phase, I want to say, it
was way before it got to where people are like
these guys, something's wrong with them. It's yeah, yeah, So
I got there was a pinky Pie, which is the
pink my Little Pony crown that I got from the kind.
(39:17):
It was one of the freebees. And I went to
an Andrew w K show and my buddy was like, hey,
I heard Andrew w K is a broken and so
I gave it to him at the show and he
was like, I'm gonna put this somewhere special tucked it
in his page. He's a nice guy. Yeah, and he
tucked it in his pants. It was a great moment,
and I was like, Wow, this is cool. We're all
being nerdy. I'm an Andrew w K party and hard
(39:40):
show being nerdy. I love comic coup. I love Andrew
w K. He follows me. He also follows like thousands
of people. My um, what fault. He'll probably follow you back.
I don't know mine. Oh god. I got to be
on a panel the last two years, and that to
me was so surreal because as someone who used to
go to the panels and like get the voice actors
(40:02):
to sign, you know, my VHS tapes, I got to
actually be on a panel and arguing about comics and
representation and comics. That was really cool for me. The
parties also I just want to say it has become
very Hollywood. I don't know if you feel that way, Iffy,
I feel like everyone does. Um, it's very who's who,
who gets into what. There's a lot of after parties,
(40:23):
like Nerdus has an after party of famous after Playboy
Playboy has an after party where I went to the
after party very hard to get into Who's party Boy
from Jackass? Do you know what I'm talking about? Okay,
So I had an Assassin's Creed metallic risks wrap from
doing the Assassin's Creed Obstacle course, which to get into
(40:44):
the Playboy party you needed a metallic risk wrap, and
so I just kind of flashed it. But like also
that party boy guy whatever was with like a bunch
of hot chicks and one had a puppy, and I
was like, oh my god, the puppy and I was
like talking and as a scooch along to get in.
I like scooched along with them and had my little
metallica wristband that was my earlier days of sneaking into
parties before I was invited. Yeah, and when I got
(41:08):
into the Playboy party, I was like, Wow, a lot
of you weren't at the con because you can tell
when people are at the con because they are sweaty.
You are gross. You you haven't showered all day. You know,
you probably still have your badge around your neck. And
then you had people that you know, look like they
were angels, and that was a sweaty mess. So that's
(41:29):
my sneaking and my advice. You don't have to have
a badge to get into the corn I mean to
actually get into the convention center, but you don't have
to have a badge to explore the whole town, which
is totally common conduct. And then also if you are
a young person trying to get in, you can normally
reach out to a lot of these companies that are
going to be there and ask if they need volunteers,
(41:50):
because a lot of times, like the people that hand
out T shirts outside of the con stuff like that,
or hand out flyers promoting a lot of times they're volunteers.
And then you get a free pass. You get a
free pass there you go, yeah and yeah, I think
once again Danny makes a great point of yeah, you
don't need a badge. So if you're local, if you're
local and you want to go down to Comic con
(42:11):
just drive down to day parking is going to be expensive,
so be ready for that or take the train. Yeah,
and just hang out down and you'll be able to
get swag. You'll be able to hang out, take pictures
of cost players, just being in downtown San Diego, which
is I think kind of cool. I do too, And
it's all it's all done up at night as well,
so it's a big party scene and a lot of
those bars and stuff have like nerdy drinks and whatnot,
(42:34):
nerdy thing drinks and the whole bar. I mean, the
one that if he and I were at this past
year was all dragon ball Z style and we got
to take a shot out of an ice sculpture of Scheenron,
the dragon from dragon ball Z. So yeah, live your
adult wild fantasies. It's it's amazing, but we gotta get
out of here. So you know, I'll let you know
where you can catch me. You can catch me at
if you wady way I f y in w A
(42:55):
d I w E. You can catch me on Instagram
and Twitter at those handles, and you can catch me
here and sometimes on the daily sye guys, go ahead
and give those guys a subscribe to with us. Don't
don't be too busy subscribing, then let you forget to subscribe.
I'm at MS Danny Fernandez. It's m S. Danny Day
and I and then F E R N A N
(43:17):
D e z on both Twitter and Instagram. All right, well,
this has been nerdificent and we hope you learned something
nerdy today. The bye
Nerdificent News
Hosts And Creators
Dani Fernandez
Ify Nwadiwe
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