As if I didn't have enough to try to get my head around this
month...Aside from just the obvious vexing crisis as a U.S. citizen and human being, there's my specific relationship to the comic book industry which has Comic book stores shut down, One distributor shutting down, two others starting, publishers in a general state of malaise or ruin, a comic ordering app that could revolutionize things and might help pick up the pieces and seventeen other things popping off on any given hour.
I could send out a blog every day that was 10 pages long...and it
would be the writings of a madman. It would be a Ted Kaczynski
manifesto with several segments pertaining to comic books, and others about the New World Order stockpiling art supplies, and nefarious microchipping of ink brushes to track creative thinkers...
"like...just chip me and get it over with, what kind of moron
plants a microchip in the fucking seat of the bristles of a brush?! I
get it, you use glue to attach the bristles, you use glue to attach the
micro chip, might as well smoosh them all together and save a few
pennies. WELL...if the bristles won't keep a point because there's a
fucking microchip in at the bottom, I ain't gonna use it and you won't
know where I am..will ya? You can infiltrate the highest levels of
governments and usurp their authority but you can't fucking microchip a brush at the bottom of the handle? Just stick it in my forehead, it'll be less aggravating...or just transfer me to the salt mine and find someone else to entertain the nitch market of trouble makers that I unwittingly placate for you."
...what the fuck am I talking about?
Ted Kasynski? Ha, Remember him ...living all alone in solitude until he went nuts.
...yeash...isolation did a number on that guy, and I didn't start
this anywhere near as well kept as him. I look more like his mug shot on a normal day.
Anyways. Comic-Con International has announced that their 2020 convention has been cancelled.
Not a big surprise...health concerns...timing...international
travelers...largest convention crowd of any given year... blah blah blah blah...
There's really only one insight I can give you on this that you might
not get from a thousand other places, and that's this- This has got to
be hell for the team that puts on this show. And let me tell you why,
specifically.
If laid it out before, but putting on this show is a massive
undertaking. Imagine the four largest shopping malls you;ve even been in, now imagine every store and all of it's inventory and staff and customers...all converging onto one convention center...and imagine YOU are in charge of making that happen.
130,000 to 160,000 people, semi trailers of product and displays,
massive competing egos of the exhibitors, publishers, pros...all need to be wrangled into a cohesive event.
seven city blocks long, two blocks wide of out and out construction...
All the work and planning and aggravation...it all gets a climax, an
apex, a moment when it's over when they can stop and say " I was part of that, I helped make that happen. People are going to remember going to this for the rest of their lives and that is thanks to my efforts". It's a rewarding thing to see a project come to fruition, as many of you know.
The effort that goes into it does not start in May...it starts a few
hours before the previous year's show even ends. A large part of the
effort had already been put forward for 2020, but they'll get no apex
this year, they'll not get that moment. Instead they'll get a period of
chaos where they pick up the pieces that are still usable and assemble things for 2021.
Imagine a locomotive going full steam, that has to come to a
screeching halt. The train cars twist and flop, some break off, some
turn over. And they have to jump out and clean up the mess, and
reattaching everything and then get it running again as though nothing happened.
Good...lord.
What happens between now and the run up to CCI2021 as far as the
industry is an open question. Which makes the chaos even more
complicated for them.
There is also the effects on the city of San Diego itself as this con
brings in upwards of 200 million dollars to that area in a 7 day span.
That's a lot of money even for a good sized city like that...consider
this though, "The overall "peripheral" income generated in the US
economy from comic-cons is now about $4 Billion."
*those are figures culled by Josh Blaylock of Devil's Due publishing,
and he's a guy who's well on top of things like that. That is a lot of
revenue that wasn't just being used for mad money. That's money spent on hotels, restaurants, travel, and on and on and on...meaning these cons help a lot of local businesses stay in the black.
This of course is to one degree or another happening in every
industry, in every business, in every family. Quite a mess. Quite a
lot of damaged moral and entities trying to get back to their feet
before the referee counts to ten.
Well if anyone can do it ( well, besides me of course) it'd be Comic-Con International's Team.
As for the rest of the industry, best thing we can do right now is
post about comics...and often. And support each other's efforts every chance that presents itself.
speaking of that, and because my time to search things out it
limited...stores or pros who have things going on worth plugging, live feeds, podcasts, videos, sales, blogs, what have you...that want a plug. Just send me a link, I'll spread the word a bit.
anyways...
My work can always be found at https://www.arseniclullabies.com
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