I just watched the documentary “Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope”. Loved it. I was going through con withdrawal since I got back home from SDCC last Sunday night so this was perfect. I might have to re-watch it in December as we are half way through the countdown clock to SDCC14!
It’s directed by Morgan Spurlock and written by him and Joss Whedon (and Jeremy Chilnick who I don’t know.)
It’s all real people. People who are regular attendees, the celebs who attend, real footage. It follows a handful of “characters” all attending SDCC – 2 artists who want to break into comic book illustration (1 is an Air Force guy!), an amateur costume designer who wants to showcase her work, a toy collector (I thought I had problems), a couple who met at SDCC the year prior and a comic book store owner. He happens to own Mike High Comics in Colorado who you always see there so it was interesting to follow his story.
In between showing you their 5 day adventure at SDCC (with a little back story thrown in in their hometowns first), they have clips of panels, the floor, costumed attendees, and comments by artists, actors, etc who are all part of nerd-dom :) Kevin Smith is hysterical is his clips. Joss Whedon, Seth Rogan and Seth Green show up a few times as they should but plenty more are throw in (Corey Feldman!!) Plus little blurb interviews with real attendees about why they go, what they like, what it means to them, etc.
The story about the couple is basically how he wants to propose at Comic Con. And the proposal is adorable (if you read any stories about 2011 SDCC you already knew this happened – so no spoiler!) but I was a little (lot) creeped out by how she would never let him out of her sight. I would have never given my approval for that footage if I were her. Or married her if I were him. But that’s their business.
The Mile High Comics owner has been going to comic con for 38 years (or was it 34?) and he was worried about his business and the expense of SDCC as it’s becoming less and less about comics (he is very right.) He has a very high value comic he might have to sell to pay off vendors, etc and stay in the green. Anyway, it’s an interesting story. I felt a little guilt since I now buy all my comics through my iPad. I just couldn’t store anymore :/
I think that to people that are not nerds or geeks, I am a giant nerd geek. But to real serious nerd geeks – I’m not at all. So that’s interesting (if only to me.) But I really liked this movie. And yes, I do read comics. But I’m not someone who can tell you what happened in issue 45 of Uncanny X-Men. Tell me the story, I’ll track with you though. But I do also love the movies, some shows, some collectibles and the just the fan experience. So it’s not just for comics for me. Never was. I started going because of Star Wars (my biggest nerd category for sure.) And it really is awesome to be in a place where everyone loves the same stuff. Just like going to your favorite’s team’s home game. You can’t beat that energy. And this has no drunken brawls up in the cheap seats.
They had some footage of Hall H for Kevin Smith’s panel. This is always the last panel on Saturday night. I left right before his panel that year (2011) which was right after the Cowboys & Aliens panel had Harrison Ford show up for his Con appearance EVER and the crazy Marvel panel where they brought out all of the Avengers cast (they show quick clips of both of these.) Anyway, it’s funny because I recognized several people (attendees and employees) who I see at the cons regularly. Like the woman is the traffic director at the top of the escalators going to Ball Room 20!! That made me chuckle. I actually had 3 people tell me they remembered me from last year :) It’s Chewie and the fluffy wolf ears I tell ya!
And Button Lady was there!!! In line with a question of course!! She is a woman whose costume is a long coat/dress thing that is covered head-to-toe/front and back in Con-subject related buttons. And Chris Hardwick called her Button Lady when she came up to the mic and that stuck :)
One of the comments is that Comic Con is no longer just about comics. But it’s about any really, crazy popular thing that has fans that flock to it. That’s exactly right. I’d prefer to keep it more geared to the subject matter of comics or related stuff like that. I don’t see how shows like Breaking Bad or Psych belong. But both have crazed fan bases so they do in that regard I suppose. But I never see any stupid reality TV crap there. I’ll trip Honey Boo-Boo if I have to.
Anyway, if anyone has ever been curious about Comic Con, I think this is a good way to see it. There is NO experience like going to a con for the full 4.5 days. But this is a good beak wetter :) And about all a lot of people could handle any way ;)
Here’s the official site and trailer: http://comicconmovie.com/
