The Old School Otaku Lounge

This ginormous convention nearly escaped my attention. Apparently it's going on right now, and I think one of my coworkers slipped away to America to attend it (he did the same last year, too). A few years ago, I would've been jealous of anyone attending the SDCC. However, it just doesn't seem worth it anymore.

The venue has just gotten too big. I first attended in 1999, and then in 2000 and 2001. Back then, you could show up at the door, stand in line for a while for admission, get your 1-day badge, and you're done. I remember in '01, that was the year that celebrities started making surprise guest appearances: Arnold Schwarzenegger, the cast of Lord of the Rings, etc. Now, it's become standard, and Hollywood has certainly taken over. I remember for the first years I attended, there were vendors like Nikaku Animart and such. There were plenty of vendors selling comic books. No video games could be found, for the most part. I do remember one small booth had a Sega Dreamcast running Marvel vs Capcom 2 at SDCC2001, but it was just used as a contest for a prize. (At least the Marvel aspect of the game related to the con, anyway.)

I later attended in '07 and took lots of pictures. I was excited because in the 6 years I'd been away from the con, it had doubled in size. However, the focus wasn't really on comics, by that time, but on movies. I started seeing stuff that barely related to the whole comics/animation/SF/fantasy theme.

To make it all worse, the attendence was skyrocketing. My wife and I would stand in line for a panel for a long time, only to be turned away because of max headroom policies being strictly followed. Back in the old days, you could just toss your backpack on the floor and sit against the wall in the back of a room and wait for an empty seat. Or, just get up and move on to another panel if you got bored. Now, fire code is strictly enforced, so the informal atmosphere has been lost.

I used to watch G4's SDCC coverage, even though those supercillious, insulting cretins made me mad. They would put the microphone to talk to some con attendee to ask a question, and then they'd make some snide, condescending comment about body odor or "not having a life." Basically, embarrassing the person on national TV. Of course, if it was some slut dressed as Power Girl with her T&A on display, they'd fawn over her. But if some guy was dressed as Wolverine or whatever and maybe had a slight gut, they'd make fun of him. They completely failed to comprehend that the purpose of attending the con was just to have fun and proudly display your fandom. It's not a beauty contest or whatever. I remember watching G4's website coverage and Olivia Munn was snickering and laughing at some retarded guy. She was such an asshole to do that. If your stupid TV channel is aimed at geeks and nerds, and all you ever do is insult geeks and nerds, that's so uncool. Maybe that's part of why that channel isn't around anymore?

So I'm not really keen on the idea of ever going back to the SDCC. You stand around in line all day at Disneyland, but at least you'll eventually get to ride the rollercoaster or whatever. At the SDCC, you often have to choose between two or more interesting panels at a time, and if you pick the one that you get turned away from after standing in line forever for, you'll be SOL.

It seems that local comic cons are sprouting up, though. Watching videos from acquaintences on YouTube, it looks like things are getting more exciting. My local Phoenix Comicon was pretty fantastic, and it grew with the help of Wil Wheaton and Stan Lee. I really wanted to attend this year in May, especially with Bruce Boxleitner returning to lead both a Tron reunion panel and a big Babylon 5 reunion panel. Unfortunately, he had to cancel at the last minute, but there were still plenty of other celebrities to get excited over, especially with more and more Star Trek actors attending. If I could choose between the two next year, I would definitely go to the Phoenix Comicon.

I think my last SDCC was 1996 or 1997. I'm fuzzy on dates. It struck me as a huge show then and it's only gotten bigger. I think there was a period of about, I dunno, ten or 12 years in which I hadn't the resources or the time or the inclination to go; this year has been the one year when I'm reading the coverage and thinking "that would be kinda neat to go to". It would pretty much have to be our vacation for the year, though, and that's a committment that I don't know I'm on board with.

'96 might have been the last year that I could weasel my way into the show with a "pro" pass based entirely on having a tiny bit of work printed in a licensed-character comic some friends had published (the Studio Go Star Blazers comic). We put 8 people into a hotel room blocks from the convention center, we ate mostly junk food and cheap beer and basically lived the broke-teen convention-rat lifestyle for the weekend. I can't handle that sleeping-on-the-floor stuff any more, and the days when you could do SDCC on a whim are long gone.

The friends I know who go every year either live in the area, or have jobs or connections that make attendance easier for them than it is for the regular convention-goer. It's not worth it to me to pull those kinda strings or have to fulfill the kinds of committments I'd have to fulfill to enable me to get those kinds of perks. Doing big shows is a lot more enjoyable when you can take them at your own pace.

Yeah, living in AZ, it was just a matter of a 6-7 hour drive to get to San Diego. It's such a beautiful city though, with beautiful weather, even in the summertime. Phoenicians go there to escape the blast furnace of Phoenix summers. When visiting from Japan in '01, we spent a few days in LA, taking the subway to Universal Studios, then took the Amtrak down the coast to SD and got around town by trolley, which stops at the convention center. If you go, spend a whole week in SD since there is so much to see and do there.

That's what I like about SD, it's a great town to just be a tourist in. Easy to get around, lots of things to see and do by the convention center. Good restaurants, sightseeing, history, if you're feeling adventurous you can hop the trolley to Tijuana.

This was the first year I decided not to go. Otherwise I've been going for the last 5 years, 4 of them with professional badge passes because I've done some commercial work. So I never really had too much of a problem getting tickets.

I don't just go for the convention, I also go because I love San Diego and I have close friends who live there I get to see when the convention isn't going on, and after. I never had a problem with the lines, and most of the panels I attend are ones that usually aren't overcrowded and easy to get into. It's tiring, but I never regret it. Though this is the first year I'm sad I didn't go. Part of the reason was we couldn't get hotels though. I think that people with badges should get first dibs on hotels though, I'm not sure it went that way this year.

I tend to choose comic conventions over anime ones now because I find them more interesting and they still carry a nostalgia about them I don't find in anime conventions now the last several years.

Yeah, hotels fill up fast. My first pick is La Pensione in Little Italy, because that place is so fun to stay at and not even go anywhere. The last time we went to the SDCC, we stayed at Old Town Inn, in Old Town. Both places are close to trolley stations. As long as you can find a hotel close to a trolley station, it's not so bad commuting to the con by rail.