<p>I don’t know what you mean by ‘invest’. I’d never heard of comic-con before, but last year my daughter (in the midwest) tried unsuccessfully to get tickets. If she tried again this year, she didn’t mention it. Hope your son has a good time!</p>
<p>Scalping in general has apparently become institutionalized these days.</p>
<p>My son has attended New York Comic Con for the past two years and will probably be going again in October. This weekend he was at ConnectiCon, which is a multi-genre convention, including comics. But his favorite is PAX East, a gaming convention in Boston, though I’m sure he would love to go to the original PAX in Seattle. Anime conventions are also big. Some of the cosplayers at these conventions are amazing.</p>
<p>I think the San Diego one is the “biggie”. It is on my bucket list to go someday. I also would love to go to TED (obiously a very different kind of conference!), but do not anticipate an invitation in my mailbox any time soon… So will settle for Comic Con instead someday.</p>
<p>D2 and I just watched a documentary on TED called TED: The Future We Will Create. Some pretty amazing stuff. D was particularly taken with Larry Brilliant and his talk on eliminating smallpox.</p>
<p>Mathmom, I will be one of those women at Comic Con. :)</p>
<p>I would love to go to a comi-con. There is an anime-con that comes to denver (though, i think its also part comi, not sure). Most major citys have them.</p>
<p>I attended Comic-Con this year (and the last 2 years). There’s lots of industry swag including t-shirts from movie studios, posters, buttons and the like. I saw lots of panels including new pilot TV shows (Elementary, Beauty and the Beast, Revolution) as well as continuing show panels (Fringe, Dr. Who, Supernatural, Person of Interest, Warehouse 13). It is quite a bit of fun; lots of costumes and fun people watching. Days start at 6am in order to get the best seats at the best panels. Lots of fun! But I’m very tired after spending 4 days (and Wed night) walking the convention center, enjoying the Con and dodging 30,000 people a day.</p>
<p>They’re a ton of fun. Don’t worry Shrinkrap, the market’s plenty saturated Between Comic-cons, Gaming events/conventions (MLG, Blizzcon, E3, etc), Anime-cons, and more, there’s never any shortage of them. There’s at least 2-3 a month, sometimes even 4.</p>
<p>I went to Comic Con for the first (and last) time last year. Many of my friends go. I’ve gone to several other pop culture conventions, so I know what they’re like, but this one was so poorly run that I’d never never go to it again.</p>
<p>All those wonderful panels – you have to stand on line for HOURS (this year, people slept on line overnight to get in – and that’s people with tickets). You are lucky if you get into the room, you are lucky if you see more than a couple a day. I’m talking about the big, popular ones, like Game of Thrones and Big Bang Theory. I learned my lesson – this year I searched on YouTube and I’m watching the panels online. </p>
<p>(One of the problems is that they don’t clear out the rooms after each panel. So people get in early and camp out the entire day, so latecomers don’t get in.)</p>
<p>There are lines everywhere. The crush of people is truly overwhelming. </p>
<p>Yes, the costumes are amazing. The event is a sensory experience that I’m glad I had – but never again.</p>
<p>If you are interested in the smaller panels, for more niche genre or esoteric sci fi stuff, or if you are an aspiring graphic novelist, your experience will be different. </p>
<p>And don’t get me started on the whole getting-a-ticket experience. What a nightmare. It’s so bad that many people wait on line for hours at the event just to buy their tickets for next year (at least, that happened last year, they keep changing things so it could be different now).</p>
<p>Sorry to sound so negative. Maybe my expectations were too high after hearing how wonderful it is.</p>
<p>“don’t get me started on the whole getting-a-ticket experience. What a nightmare. It’s so bad that many people wait on line for hours at the event just to buy their tickets for next year”</p>
<p>^ That is why my son has never gotten tickets before. This year, the process started several months ago, when you got a “badge” on line, which allowed you to log in in the middle of the night (here in California). and buy a ticket. I think they sold out within minutes. Son didn’t have his password, and so couldn’t buy one, but he and twelve friends had worked out a plan, so that whoever got through bought several tickets.</p>
<p>Morgan Spurlock has a new documentary, Comic-Con Episode 4: A Fan’s Hope. I saw it in a preview. It’s really good and brings Comic-Con to life through the various stories. These include participants in the costume show, a comic-book dealer, a guy wanting to buy a specific piece of memorabilia, etc. Very entertaining.</p>
<p>Well, the rest of you decided to finally join our universe; Earth-2, where we despised fans of comics have been living in seclusion since the late 1960s.</p>
<p>I may head to the Neal Adams bookstore discussion tonight in New York. If you don’t know Neal Adams, well why start now. LOL.</p>
I also would love to go to TED (obiously a very different kind of conference!), but do not anticipate an invitation in my mailbox any time soon… So will settle for Comic Con instead someday.</p>
Between Comic-cons, Gaming events/conventions (MLG, Blizzcon, E3, etc), Anime-cons, and more, there’s never any shortage of them. There’s at least 2-3 a month, sometimes even 4.</p>