Episode 1: Comic Conventions

show is kinda going to be about. You guys are gonna be tackling different things in nerd culture that some of you might be aware of and some of you might not be. Yeah, And whether you're a old school vet rolland Dice down in the basement or a new fan who just saw the hit movie I'm calling it now smash box office hit Black Panther, Let's find some more. And now they're like, I want to be a nerd Now we'll have it all here, So dissecting everything a nerd um that we grew up with and more maybe

some of them, some of that new nerd hotness, you know. Yeah, although I have a feeling you and I are going to trend towards a lot of anime as well. Oh, Yeah, that's then, so I feel like somety it's going to make its away. But yeah, So today's subject is probably one of the biggest, most popular mainstays within nerd culture, and that is the comic book convention. But if we're being super specific, we're talking about comic con and the comic con as most people know it, which is the

annual San Diego Comic Con. And that's usually what people are referring to when they because it is the international comic con, which means people from all over the world are flying to go to this specific comic con. But before we get into that, let's break it down. What is a comic con or what is it? Well, we all know comic con or we may not. Don't want to judge anyone. Short for comic book convention. Yes, yeah, a gathering of nerds and now it's grown to hundreds

of thousands of people that flocked to San Diego. But the original actually, let's go back to one of the oldest sci fi conventions ever. This was on record, So the oldest, the first recorded inner city meetup of science fiction fans was phil Con and that was in nineteen thirty six. It was a small party of science fiction fans in New York. So that was the first one on record, that's according to Geeks Media. So all the

way back in nineteen there were nerds. Yeah, I'd like to imagine that it was like just a party, like where it was like, yeah, we all nerds were coming in our in our sci fi gear and we're gonna turn up they're like War of the World soever. And so then we move on to the first recorded official comic book convention. So that was nineteen sixty four in New York. Yeah, known as the New York Comic Con. It was held in July nineteen sixty four at the

Workmen's Circle Building. It was a one day convention organized by sixteen year old Bernie Bubbus. It was organized by six year that's when you're in your peak nerdiness. Yeah, that's when you're your peak comic book collector. Yeah, that's when you have gumption to like do a whole convention. But it wasn't just him. It was also a fellow enthusiast, Rod Fratkin. Official guests of the tri state con included Steve Ditko, Flow Steinberg, and Tom Gill and there the

reports have over one h attendees. That's good for back then for sixteen year old as well. I wonder if they charge people at the door. I mean, do you think little Bernie bubb Nous would think that he'd be able to add three zeros behind that? So moving on, we have what we know as which is the San Diego Comic Con. So that was originally called San Diego's

Golden State Comic Con. It was a mini con, So the first everone was in Mark one of nineteen seventy and the men that had put that together include Shell doorf Ken Krueger, and Richard alf so they were the original ones. They then later had another mini con in August of that same year, so they're doing that. They were doing like nice little mini conventions, kind of testing it out before they went big. Yeah, it was actually interesting.

So the second con that they had, the one that was in August, they actually got Jack Kirby as a guest, and he's the man who created basically every notable Marvel superhero from Captain America to X Men. But they also had Fahrenheit four fifty one author Ray Bradberry, and this is a really interesting way that they got him there.

So he actually gave a speech at San Diego State University, and Dorf and Alf, two of the guys that had put the mini cons together, they attended and then they waited for him after his speech, and they asked him if he would speak at their comic con, and he said, yeah, sure for his normal speaking fee, which was five thousand dollars, which was roughly adds up to about thirty thousand today. So yeah, I'll do it thirty kids. And so they were like, we can't do that. They came up with

a plan. They essentially lied to him and said it was a nonprofit to educate the public about comics, and Bradberry was like, sure, I'll do it. So that's kind of how the first original San Diego Comic Con came to be. Again, they were calling it the Golden State Comic Con, and then eventually in nineteen seventy three when they settled on San Diego Comic Con. That's nice STCC

that we know, Buil. I think they was reading about this story which was in the Rolling Stone, by the way, and I think that they had said, now they had to think of a way to make it nonprofit. Yeah, and there there are technically nonprofit till this day. They're nonprofit organizations. So that that is what was the original San Diego Comic Con. And again when as If he said, when people say comic con, that is what they're referring to. However, we have kind of moved on to a specialization of cons.

Conventions have spread throughout the country, throughout I mean internationally as well, but here in America. Cut you off, but yeah, on the seats there's like lots of cruise cons too. And I think it's that the fact that happens when you have something grow to a certain point, it'll fork

off and have its own genres within that genre. So you have like Doctor who Comes, You have like you know, anime conventions specifically for anime, which I have to stop you right there because Anime Expo, which you and I have both have so many stories from the Anime Expo is the largest North American anime convention. It is It's insane. I you and I have been like the last couple of years. I go, I think, I go for like an hour and have to give my badual. It's like

walking through I've never been amongst that many people. Because the difference with so anime Expo actually takes place in Los Angeles, where San Diego Comic Con is a larger acred sprawling. What it's grown to now is it's a lot of outdoor restaurants and bars and interactive things as well as inside the convention center. Whereas Anime Expo in l A. Here is a lot of just everyone on

top of each other in one singular area. Well, that's been the biggest thing, which if you aren't aware, there's a big argument within the congoers of moving comic Con to l A versus having it in San Diego, and San Diego just hands down has more space. The reason this is is if you haven't been to San Diego Comic Con, the convention center is downtown right next to it's like downtown the Harbor Gas Lamp District, which is downtown San Diego. Yes, and it's also right next to

the Petco Stadium. So comic Con has had the ability to spread its wings and expand out into those spaces, and a lot of the people who show up at comic Con don't feel the need to have to be within the con because a lot of them are taking over. Like Adult Swim always has a huge area outside near

Petco Park. You always have a lot of like Assassin's Creed ubis Off would have like a whole obstacle course right outside of the con And then all of the bars and restaurants are branded, so there's room to breathe that's not on top where's l A. L A is l A And there's always so much going on. So you have the convention Center and then there's probably a marathon going on. They did that one year where it was like an actual con and then also the l

A Marathon. Also, the area just doesn't have much, like it's really just a whole bunch of like want to be New York style buildings in downtown l A who don't give a damn about the con. And then you have the Staples Center area, which if they don't have

a game kind of tries to take that place. But I remember one year there was Anime Expo and across from the Anime Exposed where the X games and I can't think of tumors, fandoms to put in, well, you and I I think we're texting each other because just to kind of put this into perspective, the line to pick up your badge was four to five hours to pick up your badge to get in. It was insane. Yeah.

So this just to top off this, Anime Expo seventeen numbers over a hundred seven thousand warm and three hundred fifty seven thousand turnstyle, so like coming in now, Yeah, I mean it was everyone was on top of each other. And Anime Expo also, if we're just talking about specializations and cons, they go all out. So I would say the difference between them and say, maybe San Diego Comic Con is I think it's like fifty fifty percent of people are dressed up, of people are just normal people

enjoying it. Anime Expo it's like nine people are dressed up and that takes a lot of time to also go through security with like swords and helmets and all of this stuff. So and just to put that whole like bringing Comic Con to l a argument to bed the numbers that you just said for Anime Expo, just remember that. Well, so what were the numbers again? You said over a hundred and seven thousand and then three

fifty seven thousand turnstile. Yeah, so Comic Con they were saying that their last year numbers was a hundred and thirty five thousand. So if we can't even handle a hundred and seven thousands without just having huge congestion, it just because I don't know if you saw the picture of last year, but you can't see carpet overhead view. You just person on top of person. So if we can't even handle a hundred seven thousand, there's no way

we'll be able to handle the amount of people. And that's people getting into the con, not to mention people who just go to San Diego Comic Con just to hang out. So it's I do want to say that. You know, two years ago they did that pole in San Diego and it was like, what would you rather keep San Diego Comic Con or the Chargers? And we saw how that went because San Diego does not want to give up its con. It's the one way they're making money. You know. The blackfish killed off the whole

Sea World thing. They lost that, you know, And soon we're coming. We're coming for the zoo. You know. I'm working on Good Monkey, you know, and look working title Good Monkey. It's about the way the San Diego Zoo is abusing monkeys and other animals. Working time, continuing on

with our our our specialization of cons. We also have Star Wars Celebration, which is in Orlando in D twenty three, which is the Disney Expo that's in l A. Now, something that's interesting with both of these is that what we've seen so for the longest time, Sandy Go Comic Con was kind of the premiere for trailers, so so Marvel trailers that would drop d C trailers that would

drop these huge superhero comic book films. And what we've seen the last couple of years is Disney is like, you know what, we have our own convention, So we're gonna air Infinity War at our own convention instead of at Comic Con. And I think that's really balls and also just shows you know, how much money a lot of these other cons are making as well, where they kind of have spiraled off into something that's happening in Orlando or here in l A. Well, that's just kind

of like the endgame of the cons. That and I feel like one of the biggest problem with cons now because we started from this, you know, this small con put together of enthusiasts by you know, our boy Bernie bubb Nous, and you know, like we it was just for the passion of it. It was just just trying to find like minded individuals who want to come together. And now it's just a hub for consumerism. It's a hub to get people who basically want to sell you things.

And we'll get more into that after the break and we're back. So we left off on the note talking about the history of comic Con San Diego comic Con specifically, which is the comic con. I want to remind people just in case people are wanting I mean, legally, we'll get into that, but legally, just just wait for us to get to that. But yeah, it wasn't always as big as it was, and I kind of came into the world of comic con when I was an adult.

I was able to afford to drive down to San Diego myself, buy a ticket and do that because there was no way I was going to convince my Nigerian father to ever spend money on anything that was in me trying to become a doctor. Lloyd. But Danny, you you actually had a childhood. Uh, well, my family's from

San Diego. So when I was like nine or ten, got super into anime, specifically Dragon ball Z and convinced my mom when I was about eleven to take me to Comic Con, me and my brother's and a girlfriend of mine because I was obsessed with the voice actors for Dragon ball Z, which is a very popular anime. I was obsessed with the English voice actors that those were the ones that I saw in television and that they had at Comic Con that were signing, and so I had convinced her to take me. I can tell

you a couple of things. One probably not as expensive or else my mom would not have taken my brothers and I as well. And two it was definitely not as packed like I just remember parts of the convention being kind of empty. There was a section where a lot of the boots were that had the voice actors, and I got them to sign like DVDs. So we can talk about parts of what the convention actually is.

There's an area known as Artists Alley. That's where a lot of independent artists and also artists that you will see that have worked on Nickelodeon projects, Marvel comic book artists. A lot of them will do commissions on the floor that you can pay for. They'll sign their artwork. They have a lot of fan art there as well. Even in the comic book world. If you buy comic books near Comic Con, you'll have comic book covers that are just blank so that you can take it to Comic

Con and get your own custom covered done. So like, there's lots of like love for artists, Alley, what was that like back then? Was was it easier to navigate? I don't necessarily remember artists, Ali. I do remember the major companies still being there though, So Funimation is the one that owns Dragon ball Z. So I remember their booth and they had VHS tapes back then. That was the thing to buy was animal VHS tapes and get

the voice actors to sign it. But yeah, I believe that they still had PlayStation and you know, I don't even know if Nickelodeon was there. Now Nickelodeon has so if you go to comic Con now, yeah, Nickelodeon has a huge presence. They normally have an interactive like house that you can walk through. I think this past year it was Hey Arnold, I know that they had people taking pictures with but the year years prior they've had like SpongeBob's Pineapple that you can walk through and take

pictures with adult swim as if he said earlier. Normally has an area set up right outside of the con and they'll have remember they had like an aquitine hunger Force interactive things, so they have a lot of these companies have interactive type of homes or whatever. You might say. Yeah, and that's and that's what's so crazy, is like to hear back to yesteryear a comic con where it was just boo in signing the comics you'll ever get to.

That are the newer cons that startup that can't really afford or garner the attention of these huge media companies. Like I remember the first I went to the first Long Beach comic con. Now it's it's insane, but like before, it was literally just you went into a convention hall and there was a booth that was damn near a combination of artists alley and smaller comic bookshops that were reselling comics and just like other like smaller indie publishers.

But now if you walk the floor of comic con, what you're gonna see is it's almost gonna look like an amusement part because you've got Fox WB like Walking Dead takes up a huge part of it, which is normally some interactive thing. Again, this is inside the convention, so you'll you'll end up walking through some type of interactive zombie maze or something that's set up inside the convention, unless you're me, I don't do that. I don't go

in it, like I see the outside. The outside is nice, but you have DC will have obviously a huge present. Last year was Wonder Woman seventy five anniversary, so they had a huge Wonder Woman exhibit. Marvel will have an entire Marvel stage where sometimes they will bring the actors onto the Marvel stage. They'll also bring Marvel Voice actors onto this stage. This is all within the convention, so it's kind of everything's happening at once, so it's kind

of loud. It's very if you have claustrophobia and like reception, I wanna I want to if this is the first year that you're going to a con, you somehow snack tickets. You're going to Common Sandyo com Con, don't bother bringing your phone. You will have no reception. There are too many people in one place trying to use the cell service, and it's trash. You you can only call. Don't think you're gonna be updating your instant all that you gotta save it to your phone. You might as well bring

one of those old school cameras. I guess I could have called it a disposable camera, but freaking free. I feel like I would be doing everyone a disservice if I didn't mention that the huge thing that's known as Hall H and Hall H is a six hundred seat showcase essentially for big projects. So when if he was mentioning that this is kind of consumerism, Hall H is a section of comic Con that is very hard to

get into. You either have to sleep overnight in order to get into it, like literally, people will line up two days before or a day before. You'll get a ticket. If you're wondering of how this works while you're in line so that you can leave to go the bathroom, or if you are pressed, and if you're special press, you have to have a password. I know because I got to go in last year. You have a password, so you not even with a press badge can you

get in. It's a press badge plus a password, plus you're on the list to get in and Hall H is where they showcase everything. When you see the Justice League lineup of Gal and Ben Affleck and as Run, Jason Momo and all of them standing up there, that is at Hall H. Yeah, whenever they have the cast of Logan or whatever that's happening in Hall Age. Also, if you want here, I feel like a lot of people use podcasts to experience things that they feel like

they might never experience. So here, close your eyes, if you're listening, I'm gonna give you the hall Age experience. So, so imagine you just saved up all your money all year and you and you actually were able to get a Comic Con ticket, you and one other person, or you're flying to San Diego. You get down to San Diego, can get down to your hotel that you're spending way too much money on. You might see stan Lee in the in the lobby. It's real, it's real good. And

then you're like, I gotta get to Hall Age. So you instead of going around Comic Con and seeing the sites, you stand outside this door all day and all night, and you wake up, you go in and you watch a trailer and then it's released thirty seconds and so listen last year they had released the Wonder Woman trailer in hall Age. It was a very big deal. I could not be in hall Age at the time. I was in my hotel room and I literally watched at

the same time as everyone in hall Age. I will say though, that it is exciting to be amongst your fellow nerds when even when I got to go in and I felt bad because people had spent the night there, But watching those people walk in, they were so excited, like that they win the Latto because they made it in. They were like jumping and dancing on their way in there.

So now then my version was the cynical one. But there is something like I've for example, been to a bar that was showing an E sports match and watching it with nerds and cheering for teams together. It does add a whole another layer of excitement to it. And also not only do you get to see the trailer, you get to be in the same room with some of the hugest celebrities that you've ever seen. So yeah, so that is a phenomenon known as hall age. If you ever hear someone referred to it, Yeah, that is

whole age. And there's many other halls but hall age is the one you want to be in, and if you're a host, is the one you want to be hosting in. If Chris Hardwick in, yeah, I was gonna say he is, He's probably the designated hall h hose. He's the king. But we touched on artists Alley, but I don't think we kind of explained it. But I I feel like a lot of people might not know. Like you're hearing about all these different brands and all these cool things, like well, all those things sound cool.

Why is it a problem? Why is artists Alley being brought up? And I think the problem is is as you're hearing us describe these huge attractions and these huge like different booths and set pieces on the floor at Comic Con, the thing you have to imagine is that takes up a lot of space, and as it gets bigger, the space for artists Alley gets smaller, and it gets pushed back further and further to the darkest corners of the con. It's actually, if you're not looking for it,

it's hard to find artists Alley. And that's a problem because if you're able to find artists Alley, because you're able to find our artists, Alley, You're gonna go there no matter what what that means for people who might discover artists Alley might purchase some of something from these indie creatives. That means that you're not getting that much foot traffic, not getting enough people who are gonna just be like, oh, this is a guy who does the art for a comic. I like, let me buy something

from him instead. You're stuck in a cold it's like right under the air conditioner. It's and like it really feels like you're next to the party because since it's there next to the bathroom. Yeah, they're next to the party. I mean they're next to the bathrooms. And also like you hear the booming, distant sounds of like the exciting installations, and it really feels like you are indeed at the less cool part of comic con, and so you get

out of their real fast. Well that makes a good point. So, yeah, a lot of these companies are taking over the con where it's not so much they call it comic con, but it's not really about comics anymore. In fact, this was a huge story this past year is that Mile High Comics, one of the US largest comic book retailers dropped out of Comic Con. Okay, I dropped out of San Diego Comic Con after forty four years of being there. That was huge. Again, Comic Con started to buy and

sell comics, which you can still technically do. You can bring comics, and a lot of times they do do trades on the floor. So this was per Mile High President Chuck Razinski. He said, after forty or four years of my supporting them through good times and bad, that was just too much indifference to endure. What he is referring to was a big mishap that happened between Mile High and Comic Con when a Comic Con contractor failed

to deliver Mile High's comics. So a lot of these vendors have to have things shipped in and they have to go through a comic Con contractor a lot of the times to get these things on the floor. So a Comic Con contractor failed to deliver Mile Highs comics on time and left them embarrassed and unable to assemble their booth. They were actually missing huge portions of their comics. So, and this is not you guys, Comic Con floor space

is expensive. Booths are expensive. Especially now that you have companies like Fox, Marvel, Disney that can buy up the floor space. So a lot of these comic book companies are just not making the same amount of money. Also, a lot of people aren't going there to buy comics anymore, which was an issue. It just wasn't adding up for them, So he said, when you are in a relationship out of love and passion, but the other party could care less whether you live or die, you have to realize

that it's time to move on. So Rosinski also noted that shifting demographics and the increased size of the convention had created an environment where he was paying for this large amount of money for essentially seventy ft of floor space, but he wasn't getting the same amount of foot traffic. So people aren't going there essentially for comics anymore. So he so it was it was a big dent for them to be putting in the money when when people aren't buying comics, and then when they don't even have

their supplies showing up here. It is so are you ready for some of these prices for an exhibit space at Comic Con tin by tin Booth is two thousand, six hundred dollars that for of the weekend or four that's for the weekend. And by the way, this is for two thousand thirteen Comic Con. So these are these prices are four years old now. And the corner premium booth is seven hundred dollars, and an island premium booth

was eighteen hundred dollars. A comic Con table, uh, into which I'm guessing is even smaller, is uh nine hundred dollars, and so pressed table was four hundred. Yeah. So on here it says that for mile High they wanted eighteen thousand dollars, which they're not making again, you guys, so you have to look at it. Are they making that back in sales of comics? Yeah, no, no way. Yeah. But speaking of like adding up money and numbers and all this, we want to I want to talk about

this because we we are talking. Like I pointed out before earlier in the episode, comic Con is a registered nonprofit. David Glanzer, who he is actually the chief Communication Strategy Officer for Comic Con International, got real defensive when he was having an interview with Forbes where they're they're asking, uh, how most major conventions in North America run as commercial businesses, Comic Con International is actually a nonprofit even though it's

the most successful. Yeah yeah, And it says that they reported over seventeen million in revenues reported in two thousand fourteen. And so then he goes and he goes, well, actually, this is a quote from it. He goes, you didn't mention how much it costs to produce both Comic Con and wonder Con. And it's the reported expenses, which actually, in this math that I did, I only treated it as if these were expenses for Comic Con. But these are expenses for two cons. The administration costs are seven

hundred and twenty eight thousand. That's how much they report they are. Now, I went and did the math, and this year for a four day pass it costs two d and thirty one dollars. It cost two hundred and thirty one dollars for four day pass, and they say they get about a hundred and thirty five thousand individual attendees. So if you do the math of that, that's thirty one million dollars that they stand and make prices, and just ticket prices. This isn't counting, this isn't counting the

exhibitor passes. This isn't accounting how much booth. Yeah, how much all of the vendors have to pay them exactly, It doesn't count any of that. That's how much they're making. So they make enough money to pay for two comic cons and they're still charging the fans two hundred and thirty one dollars for four days. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know why. I thought it was like it's four dollars every time I go. But he went on to say in the same interview, but we're not in the business

to make money. We're an educational organization with the mission of promoting comics and popular art. But they're pushing artists alley to the back corner. They're giving these huge corporations large spaces on the floor, they're giving them prime space.

They're free advertising, and we know the money and advertising, and then on top of that, they're charging the attending two This is kind of funny to me that you know when you lie about something and then you have to live with that lie the rest of your live. That they were like, hey, it's a it's a nonprofit, Ray Bradberry, and then now it's like they're still holding out that it's a nonprofit to educate people about comics. And then I only kept that off with one final question.

If you are indeed an educational organization with a mission of promoting comics and popular art, why did you copyright comic con? I think that they wanted to. I don't know why I waited for an answer. Yeah, I wanted him to burst through the doors, like listen here, Mr wad Way. But that is a strong move. That's kind of so Stanley's comic causey was the original name that started inven He then changed it to l A Comic Con for that specific reason, so that no one could

come and make an l A Comic Con. And however, like if he said san Diego trademark the term comic con, Yeah, they just got into a suit about it. And it actually didn't have to do with Los Angeles Comic Con, because that would be a bold move coming after Stanley actually did it for the whole what was do you remember when the Fine Brothers did a trademark on reaction videos?

So like no one else could use that term. This reminds me of So the ruling was handed down in Southern California, which also that was The shitty thing was the case was actually against Salt Lake City Comic Con, but that was it was handled in San Diego. Like of course San Diego is going to make sure that their cash cow wins that case. They have everything, like it just wasn't That was not a fair trial. It

needs to obviously. Look, I'm not a lawyer, I'm not going to pretend to be one, but I think you take it to the next court and that's that's that's and I think that's the legal term is when you don't like a like a judgment, you look at the judge and go, let's take it to the next court. But yeah, no, they were going to lose that in no way, there was no way that that judge was going to toss that. They're saying it's to protect their brand, but really what is their brand? If your brand is

based on the passion of fans, is that really your brand? Well, and what we're seeing, like we were talking about with the specializations of different cons, Now there's Emerald City Con, there's Dragon Con. There's just so many cons that are popping up. Probably you could just look up wherever you're listening. You can literally type in your city and Con, and there's probably a convention, some type of nerd convention that

is now taking place there. But all in all, through its ups and downs, I feel like Comic Con is the one place that people still will flock to no matter how bad it gets, because it's the one place nerds get to be nerds and be around nerds. I might disagree with you on that if you because I feel like Star Wars fans, if you add to choose, because not everyone has the amount of money to fly to California and get almost three or Badge. Also probably

for your there's a lot of families. We see a lot of families at comic Con, so it's not just you, it's your family that you're traveling with, or a partner or spouse. I truly feel like if you're given the choice, a lot of Star Wars fans are gonna go to Star Wars Celebration. Star Wars Celebration has the cast, it drops a lot of news typically there or trailers. I

think that they're moving on. I think people are I think Comic Con San Diego Comic Con will always be huge, but I think some of these other cons are catching up, and Disney is smart. Disney is capitalizing on that. They're like, you know what, we actually don't need a fly cast out for the We're gonna put our cast. We're gonna put all of our money into this and and promote our movies. We're gonna promote our people and have exclusives here.

So that's another thing, is exclusives that take place not only just trailers that are dropped or scenes from movies that they'll show there, but they also have exclusive toys and merchandise that you can't get anywhere else. So I do think that that's UH might be taking if you had. However, I will say I don't like the precedent it sets. When you get to boguard your footage and your stuff so that you can get people to pay for your thing. You run into the problem that we're having right now

with net neutrality. A lot of people are against Netflix because they want you to use their shitty version of Netflix. They want you to use whatever this what what did they put that Star Trek Discovery on CBS? Bullshit? You know, Like, I find that instinct not being the idea of, oh, let's do this better. The instinct is like, let's cut out the mentalman, so we can get all the money, and when something's built on that precedent, we get left

with worse products. And now that they're able to use their strength as copyright owners to block off other entities from using it, you don't get a better product. You get what you get. I do want to say that Star Wars celebration is taking a break this year. What, Yeah, it's not happening after reconsecutive years. This is the most Star Wars and think, well, I think it could be. We haven't seen as much promotion for the Han solo movie, right, I think that the last three years we had movie

movie movie. We had Force Awakens, we had Rogue One, we had Last Jedi, we have the Han solo film. So I don't really know what's going on there, but I do know that they're taking a break in that it will take place again in twenty nineteen, So so that is an issue. So yeah, so those so Star Wars fans are going to probably flock back to San Diego Comic Con and or D twenty three since Disney and Star Wars and Marvel are heavily linked. So D twenty three, which I was saying, is Disney's official expo.

That's for a lot of Disney movie news, so they'll drop a Laddin exclusive things like that. Well, yeah, that's very interesting, especially about Star Wars celebrations. We'll see what the future holds, and after this break, we'll talk about what the future holds for cons and wrap this whole thing up. What do you think? All right, and we're back. I hope you like those messages. We worked really hard on them, or maybe we just were lazy and played Jack and Miles, and I think that's what we'll do.

So if we are talking about the future, we're going to predict the future of comic Con. Here's my thing that if you have been going to Comic Con the last couple of years, you have realized that some of the things being promoted there have nothing to do with nerd Dumb. They're just some CBS show that's airing there. Literally, it's so funny. Now they'll have like procedurals or like Kevin Can Wait, or like promote they're like passing out flyers or some interactive thing where I'm like, you guys

aren't even trying anymore. This has nothing to do with nerd dumb. But they know. But that's the thing is you were right. It is consumerism. Where where are capitalizing? These are hundreds of thousands of eyes are going to be there, So why not have some type of interactive NBC whatever for their upcoming show? They do have that, and it's not Have you really have you been noticing that? It's like this has nothing to do with anything with anything nerd. Really, it's I think it's gonna be even

more commercial than it already is. I agree with the fact that the companies are buying up space. Not only our companies weeding out independent artists inside of the actual con itself, but they are also renting out restaurants and bars in gas Lamp District, which is downtown San Diego, so that you don't even need a badge to go inside. For them to get your money and eyeballs, they'll have an interactive show, some type of VR simulation or something

where you can take pictures with your friends. You can get tattoos, temporary tattoos, or something done that a lot of these brands are doing. I think that's exactly what's

gonna happen. I think it's gonna go because every year I noticed more and more people who aren't necessarily into nerd culture but one another there about the next movie and then what's because also like you are getting a headstart on like the blockbusters of next year when you go, so, I think that wave is gonna go where it is going to be a media con. It's going to be almost a TV con, a TV and movie It is a TV and movie con. That's so correct exactly, and

that is going to finally lean into that. And then there's gonna be the great great great great great great great great great grandson of Bernie bubb Nous and Ron Fradkin, who goes, we need a space for us, But they weren't the comic book fans. I think you mean Dorff alf and Bernie bub I'm talking about my man, Bernie bubb Nous and Rob Frecken. Their kids, Krueger and Alfa are the ones that started the San Diego Con. Yeah, and and killed it and started We're talking about my

man Bernie and Rod Fradkin. Yeah. I completely agree with that. Yeah, and maybe we don't care. I don't know. It seems like people are still showing up. Maybe people are exciting mean Conan took over part of the cone. Conan always does. Conan O'Brien does like live from Comic con Um, and he had an interactive con where I think he could put on like a Conan head and that was inside

the convention. So there are I mean, he is a nerdy dude, but it's definitely masked in a lot of consumerism, as like a big commercial for a lot of these

television shows that aren't necessarily sci fi fantasy. Also, I think it's just the simple fact that things that were considered child's play, like video games reading comic books, are more and more being found out to be just for everyone and now everyone can go and I think shows like Conan are displaying that, which is going to lead to people being more more comfortable being nerdy about things in general, not just watching something because they it's on,

but really being passionate about the things they watched. And that's why it becomes a TV movie con. And then the great great great great great great grandson of Bernie Bufness and Rod for At can start their own just for Comics con and that's gonna be the new thing. J J J com I would love it. There are still a couple of those out there, but I would love if someone personally brands themselves as literally nothing but comics, just comics here, nothing else, and I feel like they

would probably sell out to have given the money. So we're going to wrap it up here with some of our personal experience, especially as of late now that we are adults that get to get invited to cons. If you do you have any particular advice for people going to comic Con or your you know, experiences, well, my

my biggest advice is just bring brain water. You're definitely gonna need it to go July and and you're just gonna if you're paying for water at the con, that's that's a new move, and you're going to spend way too much money. But I think my favorite comic Con moment has to be when I was going through my BRONI phase. I thought I was a brownie. I just like going against the grain. But you gotta tell people what a brownie is. Oh yeah, a brownie is an

adult male fan of my little Ponium. And when I when I had this phase, I want to say, it was way before it got to where people are like these guys, something's wrong with them. It's yeah, yeah, So I got there was a pinky Pie, which is the pink my Little Pony crown that I got from the kind.

It was one of the freebees. And I went to an Andrew w K show and my buddy was like, hey, I heard Andrew w K is a broken and so I gave it to him at the show and he was like, I'm gonna put this somewhere special tucked it in his page. He's a nice guy. Yeah, and he tucked it in his pants. It was a great moment, and I was like, Wow, this is cool. We're all being nerdy. I'm an Andrew w K party and hard show being nerdy. I love comic coup. I love Andrew

w K. He follows me. He also follows like thousands of people. My um, what fault. He'll probably follow you back. I don't know mine. Oh god. I got to be on a panel the last two years, and that to me was so surreal because as someone who used to go to the panels and like get the voice actors to sign, you know, my VHS tapes, I got to actually be on a panel and arguing about comics and representation and comics. That was really cool for me. The parties also I just want to say it has become

very Hollywood. I don't know if you feel that way, Iffy, I feel like everyone does. Um, it's very who's who, who gets into what. There's a lot of after parties, like Nerdus has an after party of famous after Playboy Playboy has an after party where I went to the after party very hard to get into Who's party Boy

from Jackass? Do you know what I'm talking about? Okay, So I had an Assassin's Creed metallic risks wrap from doing the Assassin's Creed Obstacle course, which to get into the Playboy party you needed a metallic risk wrap, and so I just kind of flashed it. But like also that party boy guy whatever was with like a bunch of hot chicks and one had a puppy, and I was like, oh my god, the puppy and I was like talking and as a scooch along to get in.

I like scooched along with them and had my little metallica wristband that was my earlier days of sneaking into parties before I was invited. Yeah, and when I got into the Playboy party, I was like, Wow, a lot of you weren't at the con because you can tell when people are at the con because they are sweaty. You are gross. You you haven't showered all day. You know, you probably still have your badge around your neck. And then you had people that you know, look like they

were angels, and that was a sweaty mess. So that's my sneaking and my advice. You don't have to have a badge to get into the corn I mean to actually get into the convention center, but you don't have to have a badge to explore the whole town, which

is totally common conduct. And then also if you are a young person trying to get in, you can normally reach out to a lot of these companies that are going to be there and ask if they need volunteers, because a lot of times, like the people that hand out T shirts outside of the con stuff like that, or hand out flyers promoting a lot of times they're volunteers. And then you get a free pass. You get a free pass there you go, yeah and yeah, I think once again Danny makes a great point of yeah, you

don't need a badge. So if you're local, if you're local and you want to go down to Comic con just drive down to day parking is going to be expensive, so be ready for that or take the train. Yeah, and just hang out down and you'll be able to get swag. You'll be able to hang out, take pictures of cost players, just being in downtown San Diego, which

is I think kind of cool. I do too, And it's all it's all done up at night as well, so it's a big party scene and a lot of those bars and stuff have like nerdy drinks and whatnot, nerdy thing drinks and the whole bar. I mean, the one that if he and I were at this past year was all dragon ball Z style and we got to take a shot out of an ice sculpture of Scheenron, the dragon from dragon ball Z. So yeah, live your adult wild fantasies. It's it's amazing, but we gotta get

out of here. So you know, I'll let you know where you can catch me. You can catch me at if you wady way I f y in w A d I w E. You can catch me on Instagram and Twitter at those handles, and you can catch me here and sometimes on the daily sye guys, go ahead and give those guys a subscribe to with us. Don't don't be too busy subscribing, then let you forget to subscribe. I'm at MS Danny Fernandez. It's m S. Danny Day and I and then F E R N A N

D e z on both Twitter and Instagram. All right, well, this has been nerdificent and we hope you learned something nerdy today. The bye