You mean “uninterested”, not “disinterested”. Disinterested means impartial. uninterested means not interested.

Unless you meant Twilight fans are “extremely impartial” to the rest of the ‘con, rather than “extremely not interested” ;)

I agree with geekyvixen that we should be glad mainstream is crossing over to us. Yeah, there’s always a trade-off. But I don’t think a trade-off threatens us. I mean, if what we love and believe in is truly awesome (it is!), then the good stuff will stay and the stuff that wasn’t really all that cool to begin with will eventually disappear. Cultures evolve, don’t they?

My number one geek thing is reading, but not comic books. I’ll totally admit it; I was one of those book snobs who looked down on comics because they have pictures, and pictures are “cheating.”

However, with the Hollywood “takeover,” I’m now more interested in actual comics. Two years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference between the Green Arrow, the Green Hornet, or the Green Lantern, but today I’ve gone out and sought the original material specifically *because* there are movies being made about the latter two. I would never have read the Scott Pilgrim series (which I ADORE) if the movie hadn’t shown me that something like that even exists.

The same thing is to be said about other things that exist in my geeky ways. I never would have fallen in love with one of my all-time favourite bands if a friend hadn’t shared them with me. Would have never known that the Neverending Story, a book that has been there for me for twenty-one years, was even a real book had I not watched the movie and read the credits. I wouldn’t have had Buffy the Vampire Slayer to lean on during our high school misadventures if I hadn’t watched the (admittedly bad and not-at-all-what-Joss-wanted) movie first.

My point is this — You have to be *introduced* to the things you love before you can love them. And sure, having Hollywood introduce you to something is certainly not as bonding as when a friend introduces you to something..but when you fall in love, the matchmaker doesn’t matter. It’s all about the match that was made.

All the big cons were cool once. Remember when Wizard Magazine was cool? (Just kidding). Their cons are considered pretty awful now, and others rise to the occasion (I’ve heard nothing but good things about the Chicago con Reed Elsevier did this year).

Change is part of the game — if Hollywood is going to take the biggest nerd con and continues to sodomize it, other things will develop/grow/mutate.

You’d think for an industry that’s forever identified by things like mutants (I started out as an X-men nerd at age 12) we sure seem afraid of change!

Now that these particular cons are gaining attention the sense of ownership for geeks has diminished, its kind of like losing a best friends basement. It was comfortable, you knew who would be there and what games you would play, and you knew that you’d get along with everyone. Now that these conventions have blown WAAY out of proportion and you start seeing mainstream media, Hollywood, and people there it seems like your friends basement got remodeled, perhaps their parent married a new spouse, and the basement now seems like a fraternity house or design studio…

Give us back the dark corners and nerd exchanges with people that want to discuss stories or experiences more than watching trailers to a movie, or listening to people blather and theorize about things you’re really not interested in.

Yes, the cosplayers and overweight druid types will be made fun of by mainstream media- and who cares?

Go to Dragon*Con in September and you’ll be treated like a star! Go to NYCCC and you’ll be fawned over. In fact, there are MANY conventions happening in hotel ballrooms in cities all over the world almost every weekend during the Spring and Summer of EVERY YEAR.

We may have lost SDCC to the pretty people, but it’s not like that’s your one chance to geek out quietly or loudly with fellow true fans of whatever it is you’re into. There are many many chances.

Let the Hollywood types pretend they have the courage and self awareness to be a real “nerd” for a few days a year. No big deal.

(“He who would fight dragons must beware he does not become a dragon?” Who guessed in some cases Nietzsche would be so … “literal.”)

So while it sucks having what used to be a safe haven be co-opted, it may also mean that some of those people who come for one thing may discover an awesome comic or graphic novel or webcomic they love. Or they may become the next comic artist/writer that you could enjoy.

It has upsides. A lot of them. I think they’re worth it.

I have no plans of going to sports events even if my town or neighboring town gets in the Big One. That’s for the real fans so same idea here, just ride out the wannabes and we’ll just keep going.

The one exception I’d make is for Twilight, because the fans are both so numerous and so disruptive to the con… not because they’re punching people, but because they don’t have the tiniest shred of interest in anything else at the convention, and they’re going to spend the majority of their time clogging up a conference hall (killing the buzz in any non-twilight presentation) as they wait for their chance to scream their heads off when the twilight presentation finally starts.

It’s easy to just not go to a panel I’m not interested in. (What does Glee have to do with the geek culture? Eh. Who cares… I’ll go to a different panel) It’s harder when a particular panel brings in an enormous influx of people who are entirely disinterested in the rest of convention.

And the reason was obvious: they’d devoted all their attention to San Diego at the expense of Chicago. Given how many of us geeks/nerds/fanboys/etc. don’t make it to Comic-Con annually (if at all), the industry cannot afford to sacrifice its presence throughout the rest of the country to court Hollywood. The Internet has done a great job offering the kind of community atmosphere that used to exist solely at cons, but it can’t replace the experience of attending one. For young fans, that first convention is a rite of passage, and I fear that there were attendees in Chicago in 2006 who walked away feeling cheated out of theirs.

Our culture resides within us. Nothing can take that away. We have the Internet, now- which has done more than anything- even ComicCon- to perpetuate Geek culure, even if the ‘mundanes’ want to plaster it with spam for fake watches.

My problem with ComicCon is that it has grown too large for very shy people like me to properly enjoy it. Crowds terrify me- even nerdy ones. If they can fix the problems with the crowds, I might be able to attend. ComicCon has replaced WorldCon as the go-to bucket-list convention for fans.

Wil, I appreciate your thoughtfulness, and really enjoyed your posts during the convention. Hearing fanboy-squee was lots of fun. Maybe next year, they’ll lay out some bandwidth and stream some stuff for those of us out here in Flyover Country.

If anything, I think it’s made us prouder to fly the geek flag. The rise of comics in pop culture means that the medium is not viewed as lowbrow when compared to traditional prose.The popularity of Comic-Con, while I’m sure it has its frustrations, means that the geek really shall inherit the earth.

That could happen again but it’s not like it will kill nerd culture. It will suffer, be knocked to a low point, and then start to build itself back up again. Once it does it will go back to being what it used to be. There are still interesting bands now and while it’s harder for them to make a living, they haven’t been erased.

But will that last? If we get a string of poorly performing Comic movies, will that drive away Hollywood?

There is a strong possibility that the movie industry will tire of the Cons and fade away.

In reality, Pop culture is merely a string of rising and falling fads. Maybe next year Lady Gaga styled movies will take over (granted I don’t know what that “lady gaga” movies are, but it sounded keen) and Hollywood will leave us alone. You never know.

According to evolutionary theory, the species that are best adapted to the CURRENT environment are the ones that will survive, thrive, and reproduce so they’ll be abundant in FUTURE environments. That same precept holds for institutions, cultures, and memes as well as for genes.