As I was walking back to my hotel after a long day at the Convention Center, I watched a small boy pushing his very young brother in a stroller. He was jerking his brother backwards and forwards, the child hitting the back of the chair just seconds after being slammed against the front of the stroller bar. The boy in the stroller plaintively cried out, "are you sure you're doing this right?" The older brother quickly and forcefully answered, "of course I am," and then continued to slam the toddler around in the seat.
The moment made me smirk.
Yet it resonated with me because I almost immediately thought, "I understand how you feel kid." Comic-Con this year has felt a bit more herky-jerky than the last one. With the tension ratcheted up a bit. Plus I think it broke my British friends!
Everyone heard about the crazy stabbing (details all rumor at the time of this writing) in Hall H purportedly over a seat. I would say that this was crazy but just an hour prior a man in the Eureka panel had attempted to bully me out of my seat near the stage because he wanted closer seats for his family -- he had to move for a man in a wheelchair. Event security came over and asked him to move to the back of the room and he then began swearing and gesticulating. He yelled that he and his son deserved to be close to the stage. It was awkward and uncomfortable -- and a horrible moment for his son. And a tiring moment for me. (I'm kind of a wimp about having attention drawn to my general vicinity.)
After leaving the SyFy panel, which was incredibly entertaining regardless of being marred by early oddity, I wandered into the Exhibit Hall. As I did some man in costume without a badge ran past the security guard and into the hall. He had to be chased down.
So as I watched the kid getting jerked around by his brother I started to wonder why it is that we subject ourselves to the Con, with the queues and the attitude and the cost -- and why I already bought my ticket for next year.
And I then thought about the fact that today I finally met @patmc4fun when we discovered we were sitting two rows apart in the same panel, tweeting messages to each other. This after having been in many of the same panels throughout the Con, just rows apart. Apparently we not only like the same content, but also the same parts of the room!
And then there was the glorious time with author China Mieville, as he eloquently talked about his books and the philosophy of writing, in addition to offering heartfelt and prolific answers to audience questions. I mean, how often do you get to hear an author jokingly say, "I am the Neil Armstrong of fantasy; look at my footprint!" (as an example of how he *doesn't* view either himself or his writing)
There's also the cute kid who shows up dressed as Boba Fett or a Stormtrooper, only taking his helmet off at the very last minute. Or even better, the child in a superhero costume so clearly made with tape and pajamas, but so proud that you want to smother him with praise and applause because he so clearly embodies the character he loves.
And, as I felt my spirits rise just a bit, I ran across three giddy teenage girls who were falling over themselves laughing as they unabashedly attempted to replicate the way Bill Compton says the name of his lover, Sookie, in True Blood.
In that moment I realized that for every person who comes to the Con with the entitled attitude of being the most "deserving" of having the best seat in a panel or knocks someone over to reach a free swag bag first, there are a thousand people there simply because they get to actually be themselves without fear of retribution.
Comic-Con allows us to converse with a group of strangers who have similar interests about topics that people in our own worlds might not understand or care about. It allows a group of men and women of all shapes and sizes to dress as Harley Quinn and the Joker from the Batman series and then congregate in a hallway for pictures and merriment. Even with the Hollywood presence that sometimes overshadows the comic book roots of the convention, it's still five days of being embraced by our geek brethren. And it can be a place where a conversation with a guy from Portugal and the guy vacationing with his dad about the degradation of the vampire in supernatural media -- including a quick discussion of who was better, Spike or Angel -- can be more memorable than the panel itself. This is why I come to Comic-Con.
(Oh, and The Event was an awesome pilot and we should all watch together in our respective homes. . . .)
@tahoewikander
