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Wizard World Report
Mar. 8th, 2015 04:35 pmI was going to do this Monday, but I find myself sitting in front of a computer with nothing else to do, so herewith is my report on Wizard World Chicago Comic Con. First, in fairness to the con, this event was a busted con - Bruce Campbell was at one point scheduled to be the headliner and he had to back out. Thus, per my conversations with exhibitors, attendance and exhibitors were down by at least fifty percent. I'll probably attend another comic-con, just to make sure I'm giving it a fair shot.
Having said that, not one (1) (one!!!) of the hundred or so exhibitors was selling conventional books. There weren't even any self-published or small press operations. As far as one could tell by looking at the exhibit space, books without pictures did not exist. Nor did any of the (sparse) programming talk about writing or publishing.
So what was on offer? Well, the heart of the convention was a large floor area full of vendors selling stuff. By large, I mean half of the main exhibit hall at the Rosemont Convention Center (or 125,000 sq. ft., if I'm reading the floor plan right) of dealers space. Lots of t-shirts, graphic novels, comic books, celebrity pictures, knickknacks, etc. two or three places selling swords. ($20 katanas were common.) No books.
Also in the main convention center were a row of booths. One could buy a ticket for an average cost of $20 and get an autograph from some celebrity or another. Most of the celebrities on offer were second-bananas from The Walking Dead. Oh, and a snack bar, and two largish game areas.
Now, the crowd did skew younger than a Worldcon. I would guess 20% of the attendees were too young to have driven themselves to the venue, and they were being followed around by their parents. There were some gray-beards like me, but not as many. Judging by the Bears and Bulls apparel worn by the parents, the crowd was highly local. I'm sure there was crossover fans into SF - I did see Star Trek, Star Wars, Harry Potter and Doctor Who costuming.
To be clear, a Star Trek or a Doctor Who fan is every bit as much of a science fiction "fan" as I am. However, the Hugos are a general science fiction award. If your interest is only in one SF/F universe, how much interest do you have in who wins a general award? (This by the way is probably why only a third of Worldcon attendees vote. A lot of them, to include me, who do vote don't vote the whole ballot.)
To be more crass, there were a lot of people at this convention who were so into The Walking Dead that they paid $20 for the autograph of an actor who was in five episodes of the show. What about that leads one to believe that that person gives a damn about the best science fiction novel of the year? It's not a "we're better than them" it's a "they appear to not care about what we do" sort of thing.
Having said that, not one (1) (one!!!) of the hundred or so exhibitors was selling conventional books. There weren't even any self-published or small press operations. As far as one could tell by looking at the exhibit space, books without pictures did not exist. Nor did any of the (sparse) programming talk about writing or publishing.
So what was on offer? Well, the heart of the convention was a large floor area full of vendors selling stuff. By large, I mean half of the main exhibit hall at the Rosemont Convention Center (or 125,000 sq. ft., if I'm reading the floor plan right) of dealers space. Lots of t-shirts, graphic novels, comic books, celebrity pictures, knickknacks, etc. two or three places selling swords. ($20 katanas were common.) No books.
Also in the main convention center were a row of booths. One could buy a ticket for an average cost of $20 and get an autograph from some celebrity or another. Most of the celebrities on offer were second-bananas from The Walking Dead. Oh, and a snack bar, and two largish game areas.
Now, the crowd did skew younger than a Worldcon. I would guess 20% of the attendees were too young to have driven themselves to the venue, and they were being followed around by their parents. There were some gray-beards like me, but not as many. Judging by the Bears and Bulls apparel worn by the parents, the crowd was highly local. I'm sure there was crossover fans into SF - I did see Star Trek, Star Wars, Harry Potter and Doctor Who costuming.
To be clear, a Star Trek or a Doctor Who fan is every bit as much of a science fiction "fan" as I am. However, the Hugos are a general science fiction award. If your interest is only in one SF/F universe, how much interest do you have in who wins a general award? (This by the way is probably why only a third of Worldcon attendees vote. A lot of them, to include me, who do vote don't vote the whole ballot.)
To be more crass, there were a lot of people at this convention who were so into The Walking Dead that they paid $20 for the autograph of an actor who was in five episodes of the show. What about that leads one to believe that that person gives a damn about the best science fiction novel of the year? It's not a "we're better than them" it's a "they appear to not care about what we do" sort of thing.
