Why We Go to Comic Conventions
Doing all my post-Star Wars Celebration write-ups and the podcast, I took the time to think about why do we go to comic conventions. They can be expensive, frustrating, and exhausting experiences. Yet, we keep going and going.
Yes, we are collectors. We love collecting autographs. I know collecting signatures doesn’t make sense to some people, but I usually counter that argument by asking the person what they collect and point out why THAT is absurd. (When you really think about it, collecting is an absurd practice). We love meeting the celebrities and crew members of films. We want to show our appreciation for them. Both of our collections are extensive. But this isn’t the reason why we go to cons.
Yes, we like to fill our house with geek art and objects. I love our Batman in New Orleans prints. I love all the Zelda pieces my wife buys because she loves them. Our goal is to make one of our rooms, the Nola Nerd Couple Lounge. But this isn’t the reason why we go to cons.
We love collecting comic books. We collect all Star Wars comics. We love going to panels at cons where comic book creators are speaking and then searching out their books for them to sign. One of my most prized pieces is the issue of Iron Fist that marks the first appearance of Misty Knight. Misty’s creator, Tony Isabella, signed our copy. It is framed and hanging in our Nola Nerd Couple Lounge right next to our Stan Lee signed comic. But this isn’t the reason why we go to cons.
When we drove back from the con we, along with Mrs. Nola Nerd Couple’s sister, debriefed each other on our day. The part where we got the most excited was when we were talking about talking with people in lines.
The real reason we go to cons is that we love being around individuals who love the same things as us. It’s the fandoms that make cons enjoyable.
Finding Your Tribes at Cons
I waited for two and half hours for Hayden Christensen. While meeting him was fantastic, it also was a blur. However, the guy from the UK in front of me had, not surprisingly, the same interests as me. We talked about cons. We spoke about music. I didn’t feel like I waited for two hours. Mrs. Nola Nerd Couple had the same stories about people she met in line. She told me more about the guy she was in line with for Tiya Sircar, then she did about Mr. Sircar. Waiting for Phil Noto, the person in front of me chatted about comics books. Mrs. Nola Nerd Couple joined an online group of autograph collectors and did a meet up with them on Friday and had a great time.
If you check other write-ups and podcasts of Star Wars Celebration, you will notice that meeting other fans is the usually the number one reason why people do this. Being with other fans is where the real lasting memories are made.
In my very first blog about a con, I entitled it Nerds of the World Unite. I was just glib with the title. Now, I understand how correct I was in my title. The reason why we go to comic conventions is to feel united with other people like us. We do this the same way people go to football games, political rallies, or book clubs.
We go to be with our tribe.
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It’s like my photographing second lines. A lot about getting there is hard, but once you are there and involved, it is as a friend says, “like going to church.”
Lovely write up! I love Conventions because it’s like a ‘Safe Haven’. Despite how mainstream being a Geek/Nerd has become, how loved your average superhero is these days, these places have always been the pinnacle of a ‘coming home’.
I once went to a Con with a large group of people, rather than my normal, smaller, tight-nit group of friends and it amazed me how some of the group spent the Con by laughing at people around them (those who’s costume wasn’t A tier, for instance) and it really disgusted me that they brought that attitude into a Con. Cons can be many things, some of those things are negative (exhausting, frustrating, busy…) but what they are above everything else, to me at least, is a place of acceptance.
Great post, love the question it puts forward 🙂
Same here for us. Cons have become part of who we are. We have made friends from cons, and our family gets involved as well. My mom has even attended one, even though it wore her out!
I’m not quite at the stage to have my mom tag along, haha. My dad would go for memorabilia though!
She went with my sister to meet Chris Evans. She didn’t mind seeing him in person! 😂