Mia's Adventures at Comic-Con!

Mia’s Adventures at Comic-Con International

(in which Mia talks about Comic-Con in a weird stream of consciousness sort of way that possibly makes no sense, but go with it, OK? OK.)

As stated in my previous “Adventures at BEA” post, I love Comic-Con. I do. I love it as an exhibitor and as a … non-exhibitor (regular Joe?) And I also hate it. If you’ve been to Comic-Con (any Comic Convention really), you know what I mean. There’s just a little bit of hate in all that love. Either you hate the lines (lines to the bathroom, lines to get in a panel room, line to get stuff signed, lines to line up), the bumping up on sweaty people because there’s barely any room to move (imagine walking through Time Square on a daily basis with half the people there wearing costumes), the getting wacked in the face at least ten times a day by some dude’s poster tube (not a euphemism), the pain in your legs from standing all day… you get the idea.

 It’s perfectly normal to feel completely fatigued after just one day at Comic-Con. Yet, with all that, we love it don’t we? We wouldn’t put up with it if we didn’t.

Once again this year I attended Comic-Con as an exhibitor with Penguin books. What does it take to exhibit (and yes, being an exhibitor is VERY different than just attending) at the Con? Well, you definitely have to be a geek. No, really, planning Comic-Con is a very, VERY, long process. I start thinking about what authors/books/promotional material to bring at least 7-8 months before Comic-Con starts (while also planning New York Comic Con, because of course schedules overlap). Then there are the panel pitching, author wrangling, creating of promotional materials, finding hotel rooms, booking travel, training staff, handling schedules, freaking out about those things, catching typos in promotional materials, freaking out about that, working with publicity, labeling and shipping over 350 boxes of materials to the convention center… etc.

Then after I’m done with all the exhibitor stuff (which is never, really) I can finally look through the event guide and see what panels I’d like to attend! (Which is any panel not in Hall H or Ballroom 20, because who are we kidding, you aren’t getting in there unless you camp out days before.)

I think the only thing that kept me sane through all of it was, honestly, my love of the Con. My geekiness, if you will. It’s what got me the job in the first place and what’s gotten me through the craziness that is planning SDCC and NYCC (and soon C2E2) as well.

For example, my geekiness is what helps me get through 12-13 hour day at the booth (from set-up to take-down), standing on my feet, talking to person after person (rude and nice) about our books. About how much I love them, and how much they’ll love them, too. Which is amazing! Getting to talk to fellow geeks about the stuff that you love!

My geekiness is what convinces me that after these brutal shifts I should totally go Con after shows like W00stock (a geek music/comedy festival that goes to midnight), the Nerdist live podcast (where I saw Matt Smith) and a Nerd HQ panel with Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk. Because who needs sleep with all the geek stuff happening all around you? No one, that’s who. Certainly not me, I’ll sleep later.  And by later I mean after New York Comic Con (in October, and then it’s back to planning for C2E2 and Comic-Con International 2014!!)

 

Now we’ve gotten to the part of this blog post where I’m not sure what I’ve been talking about or where I’m going (has any of this made sense?) My fingers pause over the keys and my brain scurries to figure out what to write next. I can try to explain what it feels like to attend Comic-Con: the crowds, the pushing, the purchasing of anything  and everything (I totally needed those three issues of the Dark Phoenix saga – no, really, I did.), but I think I’ll fall short.

It’s awesome and intense and I’m quite happy it only happens once a year because you’ll need the rest of it to recuperate (and attend other Cons, of course). I will say this. You have to be a geek to enjoy it. You just do.