Speaker 1: Alrighty, hello everybody. Welcome, Welcome, welcome, Welcome to the pilot
Speaker 1: episode of Nerdificent. I'm if I am Danny Fernandez. Thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us. Yes, yes, and we're here to
Speaker 1: talk about how one thing that is synonymous with the
Speaker 1: word nerd. I feel like nerd and this is going
Speaker 1: hand in hand and this is kind of what skyrocketed
Speaker 1: nerd culture to the mainstream. Yeah, and that's what this
Speaker 1: show is kinda going to be about. You guys are
Speaker 1: gonna be tackling different things in nerd culture that some
Speaker 1: of you might be aware of and some of you
Speaker 1: might not be. Yeah, And whether you're a old school
Speaker 1: vet rolland Dice down in the basement or a new
Speaker 1: fan who just saw the hit movie I'm calling it
Speaker 1: now smash box office hit Black Panther, Let's find some more.
Speaker 1: And now they're like, I want to be a nerd
Speaker 1: Now we'll have it all here, So dissecting everything a
Speaker 1: nerd um that we grew up with and more maybe
Speaker 1: some of them, some of that new nerd hotness, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: although I have a feeling you and I are going
Speaker 1: to trend towards a lot of anime as well. Oh, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's then, so I feel like somety it's going to
Speaker 1: make its away. But yeah, So today's subject is probably
Speaker 1: one of the biggest, most popular mainstays within nerd culture,
Speaker 1: and that is the comic book convention. But if we're
Speaker 1: being super specific, we're talking about comic con and the
Speaker 1: comic con as most people know it, which is the
Speaker 1: annual San Diego Comic Con. And that's usually what people
Speaker 1: are referring to when they because it is the international
Speaker 1: comic con, which means people from all over the world
Speaker 1: are flying to go to this specific comic con. But
Speaker 1: before we get into that, let's break it down. What
Speaker 1: is a comic con or what is it? Well, we
Speaker 1: all know comic con or we may not. Don't want
Speaker 1: to judge anyone. Short for comic book convention. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: a gathering of nerds and now it's grown to hundreds
Speaker 1: of thousands of people that flocked to San Diego. But
Speaker 1: the original actually, let's go back to one of the
Speaker 1: oldest sci fi conventions ever. This was on record, So
Speaker 1: the oldest, the first recorded inner city meetup of science
Speaker 1: fiction fans was phil Con and that was in nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty six. It was a small party of science fiction
Speaker 1: fans in New York. So that was the first one
Speaker 1: on record, that's according to Geeks Media. So all the
Speaker 1: way back in nineteen there were nerds. Yeah, I'd like
Speaker 1: to imagine that it was like just a party, like
Speaker 1: where it was like, yeah, we all nerds were coming
Speaker 1: in our in our sci fi gear and we're gonna
Speaker 1: turn up they're like War of the World soever. And
Speaker 1: so then we move on to the first recorded official
Speaker 1: comic book convention. So that was nineteen sixty four in
Speaker 1: New York. Yeah, known as the New York Comic Con.
Speaker 1: It was held in July nineteen sixty four at the
Speaker 1: Workmen's Circle Building. It was a one day convention organized
Speaker 1: by sixteen year old Bernie Bubbus. It was organized by
Speaker 1: six year that's when you're in your peak nerdiness. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's when you're your peak comic book collector. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: when you have gumption to like do a whole convention.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't just him. It was also a fellow enthusiast,
Speaker 1: Rod Fratkin. Official guests of the tri state con included
Speaker 1: Steve Ditko, Flow Steinberg, and Tom Gill and there the
Speaker 1: reports have over one h attendees. That's good for back
Speaker 1: then for sixteen year old as well. I wonder if
Speaker 1: they charge people at the door. I mean, do you
Speaker 1: think little Bernie bubb Nous would think that he'd be
Speaker 1: able to add three zeros behind that? So moving on,
Speaker 1: we have what we know as which is the San
Speaker 1: Diego Comic Con. So that was originally called San Diego's
Speaker 1: Golden State Comic Con. It was a mini con, So
Speaker 1: the first everone was in Mark one of nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: and the men that had put that together include Shell
Speaker 1: doorf Ken Krueger, and Richard alf so they were the
Speaker 1: original ones. They then later had another mini con in
Speaker 1: August of that same year, so they're doing that. They
Speaker 1: were doing like nice little mini conventions, kind of testing
Speaker 1: it out before they went big. Yeah, it was actually interesting.
Speaker 1: So the second con that they had, the one that
Speaker 1: was in August, they actually got Jack Kirby as a guest,
Speaker 1: and he's the man who created basically every notable Marvel
Speaker 1: superhero from Captain America to X Men. But they also
Speaker 1: had Fahrenheit four fifty one author Ray Bradberry, and this
Speaker 1: is a really interesting way that they got him there.
Speaker 1: So he actually gave a speech at San Diego State University,
Speaker 1: and Dorf and Alf, two of the guys that had
Speaker 1: put the mini cons together, they attended and then they
Speaker 1: waited for him after his speech, and they asked him
Speaker 1: if he would speak at their comic con, and he said, yeah,
Speaker 1: sure for his normal speaking fee, which was five thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: which was roughly adds up to about thirty thousand today.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'll do it thirty kids. And so they
Speaker 1: were like, we can't do that. They came up with
Speaker 1: a plan. They essentially lied to him and said it
Speaker 1: was a nonprofit to educate the public about comics, and
Speaker 1: Bradberry was like, sure, I'll do it. So that's kind
Speaker 1: of how the first original San Diego Comic Con came
Speaker 1: to be. Again, they were calling it the Golden State
Speaker 1: Comic Con, and then eventually in nineteen seventy three when
Speaker 1: they settled on San Diego Comic Con. That's nice STCC
Speaker 1: that we know, Buil. I think they was reading about
Speaker 1: this story which was in the Rolling Stone, by the way,
Speaker 1: and I think that they had said, now they had
Speaker 1: to think of a way to make it nonprofit. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and there there are technically nonprofit till this day. They're
Speaker 1: nonprofit organizations. So that that is what was the original
Speaker 1: San Diego Comic Con. And again when as If he said,
Speaker 1: when people say comic con, that is what they're referring to. However,
Speaker 1: we have kind of moved on to a specialization of cons.
Speaker 1: Conventions have spread throughout the country, throughout I mean internationally
Speaker 1: as well, but here in America. Cut you off, but yeah,
Speaker 1: on the seats there's like lots of cruise cons too.
Speaker 1: And I think it's that the fact that happens when
Speaker 1: you have something grow to a certain point, it'll fork
Speaker 1: off and have its own genres within that genre. So
Speaker 1: you have like Doctor who Comes, You have like you know,
Speaker 1: anime conventions specifically for anime, which I have to stop
Speaker 1: you right there because Anime Expo, which you and I
Speaker 1: have both have so many stories from the Anime Expo
Speaker 1: is the largest North American anime convention. It is It's insane.
Speaker 1: I you and I have been like the last couple
Speaker 1: of years. I go, I think, I go for like
Speaker 1: an hour and have to give my badual. It's like
Speaker 1: walking through I've never been amongst that many people. Because
Speaker 1: the difference with so anime Expo actually takes place in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, where San Diego Comic Con is a larger
Speaker 1: acred sprawling. What it's grown to now is it's a
Speaker 1: lot of outdoor restaurants and bars and interactive things as
Speaker 1: well as inside the convention center. Whereas Anime Expo in
Speaker 1: l A. Here is a lot of just everyone on
Speaker 1: top of each other in one singular area. Well, that's
Speaker 1: been the biggest thing, which if you aren't aware, there's
Speaker 1: a big argument within the congoers of moving comic Con
Speaker 1: to l A versus having it in San Diego, and
Speaker 1: San Diego just hands down has more space. The reason
Speaker 1: this is is if you haven't been to San Diego
Speaker 1: Comic Con, the convention center is downtown right next to
Speaker 1: it's like downtown the Harbor Gas Lamp District, which is
Speaker 1: downtown San Diego. Yes, and it's also right next to
Speaker 1: the Petco Stadium. So comic Con has had the ability
Speaker 1: to spread its wings and expand out into those spaces,
Speaker 1: and a lot of the people who show up at
Speaker 1: comic Con don't feel the need to have to be
Speaker 1: within the con because a lot of them are taking over.
Speaker 1: Like Adult Swim always has a huge area outside near
Speaker 1: Petco Park. You always have a lot of like Assassin's
Speaker 1: Creed ubis Off would have like a whole obstacle course
Speaker 1: right outside of the con And then all of the
Speaker 1: bars and restaurants are branded, so there's room to breathe
Speaker 1: that's not on top where's l A. L A is
Speaker 1: l A And there's always so much going on. So
Speaker 1: you have the convention Center and then there's probably a
Speaker 1: marathon going on. They did that one year where it
Speaker 1: was like an actual con and then also the l
Speaker 1: A Marathon. Also, the area just doesn't have much, like
Speaker 1: it's really just a whole bunch of like want to
Speaker 1: be New York style buildings in downtown l A who
Speaker 1: don't give a damn about the con. And then you
Speaker 1: have the Staples Center area, which if they don't have
Speaker 1: a game kind of tries to take that place. But
Speaker 1: I remember one year there was Anime Expo and across
Speaker 1: from the Anime Exposed where the X games and I
Speaker 1: can't think of tumors, fandoms to put in, well, you
Speaker 1: and I I think we're texting each other because just
Speaker 1: to kind of put this into perspective, the line to
Speaker 1: pick up your badge was four to five hours to
Speaker 1: pick up your badge to get in. It was insane. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So this just to top off this, Anime Expo seventeen
Speaker 1: numbers over a hundred seven thousand warm and three hundred
Speaker 1: fifty seven thousand turnstyle, so like coming in now, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it was everyone was on top of each other.
Speaker 1: And Anime Expo also, if we're just talking about specializations
Speaker 1: and cons, they go all out. So I would say
Speaker 1: the difference between them and say, maybe San Diego Comic
Speaker 1: Con is I think it's like fifty fifty percent of
Speaker 1: people are dressed up, of people are just normal people
Speaker 1: enjoying it. Anime Expo it's like nine people are dressed
Speaker 1: up and that takes a lot of time to also
Speaker 1: go through security with like swords and helmets and all
Speaker 1: of this stuff. So and just to put that whole
Speaker 1: like bringing Comic Con to l a argument to bed
Speaker 1: the numbers that you just said for Anime Expo, just
Speaker 1: remember that. Well, so what were the numbers again? You
Speaker 1: said over a hundred and seven thousand and then three
Speaker 1: fifty seven thousand turnstile. Yeah, so Comic Con they were
Speaker 1: saying that their last year numbers was a hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty five thousand. So if we can't even handle a
Speaker 1: hundred and seven thousands without just having huge congestion, it
Speaker 1: just because I don't know if you saw the picture
Speaker 1: of last year, but you can't see carpet overhead view.
Speaker 1: You just person on top of person. So if we
Speaker 1: can't even handle a hundred seven thousand, there's no way
Speaker 1: we'll be able to handle the amount of people. And
Speaker 1: that's people getting into the con, not to mention people
Speaker 1: who just go to San Diego Comic Con just to
Speaker 1: hang out. So it's I do want to say that.
Speaker 1: You know, two years ago they did that pole in
Speaker 1: San Diego and it was like, what would you rather
Speaker 1: keep San Diego Comic Con or the Chargers? And we
Speaker 1: saw how that went because San Diego does not want
Speaker 1: to give up its con. It's the one way they're
Speaker 1: making money. You know. The blackfish killed off the whole
Speaker 1: Sea World thing. They lost that, you know, And soon
Speaker 1: we're coming. We're coming for the zoo. You know. I'm
Speaker 1: working on Good Monkey, you know, and look working title
Speaker 1: Good Monkey. It's about the way the San Diego Zoo
Speaker 1: is abusing monkeys and other animals. Working time, continuing on
Speaker 1: with our our our specialization of cons. We also have
Speaker 1: Star Wars Celebration, which is in Orlando in D twenty three,
Speaker 1: which is the Disney Expo that's in l A. Now,
Speaker 1: something that's interesting with both of these is that what
Speaker 1: we've seen so for the longest time, Sandy Go Comic
Speaker 1: Con was kind of the premiere for trailers, so so
Speaker 1: Marvel trailers that would drop d C trailers that would
Speaker 1: drop these huge superhero comic book films. And what we've
Speaker 1: seen the last couple of years is Disney is like,
Speaker 1: you know what, we have our own convention, So we're
Speaker 1: gonna air Infinity War at our own convention instead of
Speaker 1: at Comic Con. And I think that's really balls and
Speaker 1: also just shows you know, how much money a lot
Speaker 1: of these other cons are making as well, where they
Speaker 1: kind of have spiraled off into something that's happening in
Speaker 1: Orlando or here in l A. Well, that's just kind
Speaker 1: of like the endgame of the cons. That and I
Speaker 1: feel like one of the biggest problem with cons now
Speaker 1: because we started from this, you know, this small con
Speaker 1: put together of enthusiasts by you know, our boy Bernie
Speaker 1: bubb Nous, and you know, like we it was just
Speaker 1: for the passion of it. It was just just trying
Speaker 1: to find like minded individuals who want to come together.
Speaker 1: And now it's just a hub for consumerism. It's a
Speaker 1: hub to get people who basically want to sell you things.
Speaker 1: And we'll get more into that after the break and
Speaker 1: we're back. So we left off on the note talking
Speaker 1: about the history of comic Con San Diego comic Con specifically,
Speaker 1: which is the comic con. I want to remind people
Speaker 1: just in case people are wanting I mean, legally, we'll
Speaker 1: get into that, but legally, just just wait for us
Speaker 1: to get to that. But yeah, it wasn't always as
Speaker 1: big as it was, and I kind of came into
Speaker 1: the world of comic con when I was an adult.
Speaker 1: I was able to afford to drive down to San
Speaker 1: Diego myself, buy a ticket and do that because there
Speaker 1: was no way I was going to convince my Nigerian
Speaker 1: father to ever spend money on anything that was in
Speaker 1: me trying to become a doctor. Lloyd. But Danny, you
Speaker 1: you actually had a childhood. Uh, well, my family's from
Speaker 1: San Diego. So when I was like nine or ten,
Speaker 1: got super into anime, specifically Dragon ball Z and convinced
Speaker 1: my mom when I was about eleven to take me
Speaker 1: to Comic Con, me and my brother's and a girlfriend
Speaker 1: of mine because I was obsessed with the voice actors
Speaker 1: for Dragon ball Z, which is a very popular anime.
Speaker 1: I was obsessed with the English voice actors that those
Speaker 1: were the ones that I saw in television and that
Speaker 1: they had at Comic Con that were signing, and so
Speaker 1: I had convinced her to take me. I can tell
Speaker 1: you a couple of things. One probably not as expensive
Speaker 1: or else my mom would not have taken my brothers
Speaker 1: and I as well. And two it was definitely not
Speaker 1: as packed like I just remember parts of the convention
Speaker 1: being kind of empty. There was a section where a
Speaker 1: lot of the boots were that had the voice actors,
Speaker 1: and I got them to sign like DVDs. So we
Speaker 1: can talk about parts of what the convention actually is.
Speaker 1: There's an area known as Artists Alley. That's where a
Speaker 1: lot of independent artists and also artists that you will
Speaker 1: see that have worked on Nickelodeon projects, Marvel comic book artists.
Speaker 1: A lot of them will do commissions on the floor
Speaker 1: that you can pay for. They'll sign their artwork. They
Speaker 1: have a lot of fan art there as well. Even
Speaker 1: in the comic book world. If you buy comic books
Speaker 1: near Comic Con, you'll have comic book covers that are
Speaker 1: just blank so that you can take it to Comic
Speaker 1: Con and get your own custom covered done. So like,
Speaker 1: there's lots of like love for artists, Alley, what was
Speaker 1: that like back then? Was was it easier to navigate?
Speaker 1: I don't necessarily remember artists, Ali. I do remember the
Speaker 1: major companies still being there though, So Funimation is the
Speaker 1: one that owns Dragon ball Z. So I remember their
Speaker 1: booth and they had VHS tapes back then. That was
Speaker 1: the thing to buy was animal VHS tapes and get
Speaker 1: the voice actors to sign it. But yeah, I believe
Speaker 1: that they still had PlayStation and you know, I don't
Speaker 1: even know if Nickelodeon was there. Now Nickelodeon has so
Speaker 1: if you go to comic Con now, yeah, Nickelodeon has
Speaker 1: a huge presence. They normally have an interactive like house
Speaker 1: that you can walk through. I think this past year
Speaker 1: it was Hey Arnold, I know that they had people
Speaker 1: taking pictures with but the year years prior they've had
Speaker 1: like SpongeBob's Pineapple that you can walk through and take
Speaker 1: pictures with adult swim as if he said earlier. Normally
Speaker 1: has an area set up right outside of the con
Speaker 1: and they'll have remember they had like an aquitine hunger
Speaker 1: Force interactive things, so they have a lot of these
Speaker 1: companies have interactive type of homes or whatever. You might say. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's and that's what's so crazy, is like to
Speaker 1: hear back to yesteryear a comic con where it was
Speaker 1: just boo in signing the comics you'll ever get to.
Speaker 1: That are the newer cons that startup that can't really
Speaker 1: afford or garner the attention of these huge media companies.
Speaker 1: Like I remember the first I went to the first
Speaker 1: Long Beach comic con. Now it's it's insane, but like before,
Speaker 1: it was literally just you went into a convention hall
Speaker 1: and there was a booth that was damn near a
Speaker 1: combination of artists alley and smaller comic bookshops that were
Speaker 1: reselling comics and just like other like smaller indie publishers.
Speaker 1: But now if you walk the floor of comic con,
Speaker 1: what you're gonna see is it's almost gonna look like
Speaker 1: an amusement part because you've got Fox WB like Walking
Speaker 1: Dead takes up a huge part of it, which is
Speaker 1: normally some interactive thing. Again, this is inside the convention,
Speaker 1: so you'll you'll end up walking through some type of
Speaker 1: interactive zombie maze or something that's set up inside the convention,
Speaker 1: unless you're me, I don't do that. I don't go
Speaker 1: in it, like I see the outside. The outside is nice,
Speaker 1: but you have DC will have obviously a huge present.
Speaker 1: Last year was Wonder Woman seventy five anniversary, so they
Speaker 1: had a huge Wonder Woman exhibit. Marvel will have an
Speaker 1: entire Marvel stage where sometimes they will bring the actors
Speaker 1: onto the Marvel stage. They'll also bring Marvel Voice actors
Speaker 1: onto this stage. This is all within the convention, so
Speaker 1: it's kind of everything's happening at once, so it's kind
Speaker 1: of loud. It's very if you have claustrophobia and like reception,
Speaker 1: I wanna I want to if this is the first
Speaker 1: year that you're going to a con, you somehow snack tickets.
Speaker 1: You're going to Common Sandyo com Con, don't bother bringing
Speaker 1: your phone. You will have no reception. There are too
Speaker 1: many people in one place trying to use the cell service,
Speaker 1: and it's trash. You you can only call. Don't think
Speaker 1: you're gonna be updating your instant all that you gotta
Speaker 1: save it to your phone. You might as well bring
Speaker 1: one of those old school cameras. I guess I could
Speaker 1: have called it a disposable camera, but freaking free. I
Speaker 1: feel like I would be doing everyone a disservice if
Speaker 1: I didn't mention that the huge thing that's known as
Speaker 1: Hall H and Hall H is a six hundred seat
Speaker 1: showcase essentially for big projects. So when if he was
Speaker 1: mentioning that this is kind of consumerism, Hall H is
Speaker 1: a section of comic Con that is very hard to
Speaker 1: get into. You either have to sleep overnight in order
Speaker 1: to get into it, like literally, people will line up
Speaker 1: two days before or a day before. You'll get a ticket.
Speaker 1: If you're wondering of how this works while you're in
Speaker 1: line so that you can leave to go the bathroom,
Speaker 1: or if you are pressed, and if you're special press,
Speaker 1: you have to have a password. I know because I
Speaker 1: got to go in last year. You have a password,
Speaker 1: so you not even with a press badge can you
Speaker 1: get in. It's a press badge plus a password, plus
Speaker 1: you're on the list to get in and Hall H
Speaker 1: is where they showcase everything. When you see the Justice
Speaker 1: League lineup of Gal and Ben Affleck and as Run,
Speaker 1: Jason Momo and all of them standing up there, that
Speaker 1: is at Hall H. Yeah, whenever they have the cast
Speaker 1: of Logan or whatever that's happening in Hall Age. Also,
Speaker 1: if you want here, I feel like a lot of
Speaker 1: people use podcasts to experience things that they feel like
Speaker 1: they might never experience. So here, close your eyes, if
Speaker 1: you're listening, I'm gonna give you the hall Age experience. So,
Speaker 1: so imagine you just saved up all your money all
Speaker 1: year and you and you actually were able to get
Speaker 1: a Comic Con ticket, you and one other person, or
Speaker 1: you're flying to San Diego. You get down to San Diego,
Speaker 1: can get down to your hotel that you're spending way
Speaker 1: too much money on. You might see stan Lee in
Speaker 1: the in the lobby. It's real, it's real good. And
Speaker 1: then you're like, I gotta get to Hall Age. So
Speaker 1: you instead of going around Comic Con and seeing the sites,
Speaker 1: you stand outside this door all day and all night,
Speaker 1: and you wake up, you go in and you watch
Speaker 1: a trailer and then it's released thirty seconds and so
Speaker 1: listen last year they had released the Wonder Woman trailer
Speaker 1: in hall Age. It was a very big deal. I
Speaker 1: could not be in hall Age at the time. I
Speaker 1: was in my hotel room and I literally watched at
Speaker 1: the same time as everyone in hall Age. I will
Speaker 1: say though, that it is exciting to be amongst your
Speaker 1: fellow nerds when even when I got to go in
Speaker 1: and I felt bad because people had spent the night there,
Speaker 1: But watching those people walk in, they were so excited,
Speaker 1: like that they win the Latto because they made it in.
Speaker 1: They were like jumping and dancing on their way in there.
Speaker 1: So now then my version was the cynical one. But
Speaker 1: there is something like I've for example, been to a
Speaker 1: bar that was showing an E sports match and watching
Speaker 1: it with nerds and cheering for teams together. It does
Speaker 1: add a whole another layer of excitement to it. And
Speaker 1: also not only do you get to see the trailer,
Speaker 1: you get to be in the same room with some
Speaker 1: of the hugest celebrities that you've ever seen. So yeah,
Speaker 1: so that is a phenomenon known as hall age. If
Speaker 1: you ever hear someone referred to it, Yeah, that is
Speaker 1: whole age. And there's many other halls but hall age
Speaker 1: is the one you want to be in, and if
Speaker 1: you're a host, is the one you want to be
Speaker 1: hosting in. If Chris Hardwick in, yeah, I was gonna
Speaker 1: say he is, He's probably the designated hall h hose.
Speaker 1: He's the king. But we touched on artists Alley, but
Speaker 1: I don't think we kind of explained it. But I
Speaker 1: I feel like a lot of people might not know.
Speaker 1: Like you're hearing about all these different brands and all
Speaker 1: these cool things, like well, all those things sound cool.
Speaker 1: Why is it a problem? Why is artists Alley being
Speaker 1: brought up? And I think the problem is is as
Speaker 1: you're hearing us describe these huge attractions and these huge
Speaker 1: like different booths and set pieces on the floor at
Speaker 1: Comic Con, the thing you have to imagine is that
Speaker 1: takes up a lot of space, and as it gets bigger,
Speaker 1: the space for artists Alley gets smaller, and it gets
Speaker 1: pushed back further and further to the darkest corners of
Speaker 1: the con. It's actually, if you're not looking for it,
Speaker 1: it's hard to find artists Alley. And that's a problem
Speaker 1: because if you're able to find artists Alley, because you're
Speaker 1: able to find our artists, Alley, You're gonna go there
Speaker 1: no matter what what that means for people who might
Speaker 1: discover artists Alley might purchase some of something from these
Speaker 1: indie creatives. That means that you're not getting that much
Speaker 1: foot traffic, not getting enough people who are gonna just
Speaker 1: be like, oh, this is a guy who does the
Speaker 1: art for a comic. I like, let me buy something
Speaker 1: from him instead. You're stuck in a cold it's like
Speaker 1: right under the air conditioner. It's and like it really
Speaker 1: feels like you're next to the party because since it's
Speaker 1: there next to the bathroom. Yeah, they're next to the party.
Speaker 1: I mean they're next to the bathrooms. And also like
Speaker 1: you hear the booming, distant sounds of like the exciting installations,
Speaker 1: and it really feels like you are indeed at the
Speaker 1: less cool part of comic con, and so you get
Speaker 1: out of their real fast. Well that makes a good point. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: a lot of these companies are taking over the con
Speaker 1: where it's not so much they call it comic con,
Speaker 1: but it's not really about comics anymore. In fact, this
Speaker 1: was a huge story this past year is that Mile
Speaker 1: High Comics, one of the US largest comic book retailers
Speaker 1: dropped out of Comic Con. Okay, I dropped out of
Speaker 1: San Diego Comic Con after forty four years of being there.
Speaker 1: That was huge. Again, Comic Con started to buy and
Speaker 1: sell comics, which you can still technically do. You can
Speaker 1: bring comics, and a lot of times they do do
Speaker 1: trades on the floor. So this was per Mile High
Speaker 1: President Chuck Razinski. He said, after forty or four years
Speaker 1: of my supporting them through good times and bad, that
Speaker 1: was just too much indifference to endure. What he is
Speaker 1: referring to was a big mishap that happened between Mile
Speaker 1: High and Comic Con when a Comic Con contractor failed
Speaker 1: to deliver Mile High's comics. So a lot of these
Speaker 1: vendors have to have things shipped in and they have
Speaker 1: to go through a comic Con contractor a lot of
Speaker 1: the times to get these things on the floor. So
Speaker 1: a Comic Con contractor failed to deliver Mile Highs comics
Speaker 1: on time and left them embarrassed and unable to assemble
Speaker 1: their booth. They were actually missing huge portions of their comics. So,
Speaker 1: and this is not you guys, Comic Con floor space
Speaker 1: is expensive. Booths are expensive. Especially now that you have
Speaker 1: companies like Fox, Marvel, Disney that can buy up the
Speaker 1: floor space. So a lot of these comic book companies
Speaker 1: are just not making the same amount of money. Also,
Speaker 1: a lot of people aren't going there to buy comics anymore,
Speaker 1: which was an issue. It just wasn't adding up for them,
Speaker 1: So he said, when you are in a relationship out
Speaker 1: of love and passion, but the other party could care
Speaker 1: less whether you live or die, you have to realize
Speaker 1: that it's time to move on. So Rosinski also noted
Speaker 1: that shifting demographics and the increased size of the convention
Speaker 1: had created an environment where he was paying for this
Speaker 1: large amount of money for essentially seventy ft of floor space,
Speaker 1: but he wasn't getting the same amount of foot traffic.
Speaker 1: So people aren't going there essentially for comics anymore. So
Speaker 1: he so it was it was a big dent for
Speaker 1: them to be putting in the money when when people
Speaker 1: aren't buying comics, and then when they don't even have
Speaker 1: their supplies showing up here. It is so are you
Speaker 1: ready for some of these prices for an exhibit space
Speaker 1: at Comic Con tin by tin Booth is two thousand,
Speaker 1: six hundred dollars that for of the weekend or four
Speaker 1: that's for the weekend. And by the way, this is
Speaker 1: for two thousand thirteen Comic Con. So these are these
Speaker 1: prices are four years old now. And the corner premium
Speaker 1: booth is seven hundred dollars, and an island premium booth
Speaker 1: was eighteen hundred dollars. A comic Con table, uh, into
Speaker 1: which I'm guessing is even smaller, is uh nine hundred dollars,
Speaker 1: and so pressed table was four hundred. Yeah. So on
Speaker 1: here it says that for mile High they wanted eighteen
Speaker 1: thousand dollars, which they're not making again, you guys, so
Speaker 1: you have to look at it. Are they making that
Speaker 1: back in sales of comics? Yeah, no, no way. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But speaking of like adding up money and numbers and
Speaker 1: all this, we want to I want to talk about
Speaker 1: this because we we are talking. Like I pointed out
Speaker 1: before earlier in the episode, comic Con is a registered nonprofit.
Speaker 1: David Glanzer, who he is actually the chief Communication Strategy
Speaker 1: Officer for Comic Con International, got real defensive when he
Speaker 1: was having an interview with Forbes where they're they're asking, uh,
Speaker 1: how most major conventions in North America run as commercial businesses,
Speaker 1: Comic Con International is actually a nonprofit even though it's
Speaker 1: the most successful. Yeah yeah, And it says that they
Speaker 1: reported over seventeen million in revenues reported in two thousand fourteen.
Speaker 1: And so then he goes and he goes, well, actually,
Speaker 1: this is a quote from it. He goes, you didn't
Speaker 1: mention how much it costs to produce both Comic Con
Speaker 1: and wonder Con. And it's the reported expenses, which actually,
Speaker 1: in this math that I did, I only treated it
Speaker 1: as if these were expenses for Comic Con. But these
Speaker 1: are expenses for two cons. The administration costs are seven
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty eight thousand. That's how much they report
Speaker 1: they are. Now, I went and did the math, and
Speaker 1: this year for a four day pass it costs two
Speaker 1: d and thirty one dollars. It cost two hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty one dollars for four day pass, and they say
Speaker 1: they get about a hundred and thirty five thousand individual attendees.
Speaker 1: So if you do the math of that, that's thirty
Speaker 1: one million dollars that they stand and make prices, and
Speaker 1: just ticket prices. This isn't counting, this isn't counting the
Speaker 1: exhibitor passes. This isn't accounting how much booth. Yeah, how
Speaker 1: much all of the vendors have to pay them exactly,
Speaker 1: It doesn't count any of that. That's how much they're making.
Speaker 1: So they make enough money to pay for two comic
Speaker 1: cons and they're still charging the fans two hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty one dollars for four days. Yeah. Yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: know why. I thought it was like it's four dollars
Speaker 1: every time I go. But he went on to say
Speaker 1: in the same interview, but we're not in the business
Speaker 1: to make money. We're an educational organization with the mission
Speaker 1: of promoting comics and popular art. But they're pushing artists
Speaker 1: alley to the back corner. They're giving these huge corporations
Speaker 1: large spaces on the floor, they're giving them prime space.
Speaker 1: They're free advertising, and we know the money and advertising,
Speaker 1: and then on top of that, they're charging the attending
Speaker 1: two This is kind of funny to me that you
Speaker 1: know when you lie about something and then you have
Speaker 1: to live with that lie the rest of your live.
Speaker 1: That they were like, hey, it's a it's a nonprofit,
Speaker 1: Ray Bradberry, and then now it's like they're still holding
Speaker 1: out that it's a nonprofit to educate people about comics.
Speaker 1: And then I only kept that off with one final question.
Speaker 1: If you are indeed an educational organization with a mission
Speaker 1: of promoting comics and popular art, why did you copyright
Speaker 1: comic con? I think that they wanted to. I don't
Speaker 1: know why I waited for an answer. Yeah, I wanted
Speaker 1: him to burst through the doors, like listen here, Mr
Speaker 1: wad Way. But that is a strong move. That's kind
Speaker 1: of so Stanley's comic causey was the original name that
Speaker 1: started inven He then changed it to l A Comic
Speaker 1: Con for that specific reason, so that no one could
Speaker 1: come and make an l A Comic Con. And however,
Speaker 1: like if he said san Diego trademark the term comic con, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they just got into a suit about it. And it
Speaker 1: actually didn't have to do with Los Angeles Comic Con,
Speaker 1: because that would be a bold move coming after Stanley
Speaker 1: actually did it for the whole what was do you
Speaker 1: remember when the Fine Brothers did a trademark on reaction videos?
Speaker 1: So like no one else could use that term. This
Speaker 1: reminds me of So the ruling was handed down in
Speaker 1: Southern California, which also that was The shitty thing was
Speaker 1: the case was actually against Salt Lake City Comic Con,
Speaker 1: but that was it was handled in San Diego. Like
Speaker 1: of course San Diego is going to make sure that
Speaker 1: their cash cow wins that case. They have everything, like
Speaker 1: it just wasn't That was not a fair trial. It
Speaker 1: needs to obviously. Look, I'm not a lawyer, I'm not
Speaker 1: going to pretend to be one, but I think you
Speaker 1: take it to the next court and that's that's that's
Speaker 1: and I think that's the legal term is when you
Speaker 1: don't like a like a judgment, you look at the
Speaker 1: judge and go, let's take it to the next court.
Speaker 1: But yeah, no, they were going to lose that in
Speaker 1: no way, there was no way that that judge was
Speaker 1: going to toss that. They're saying it's to protect their brand,
Speaker 1: but really what is their brand? If your brand is
Speaker 1: based on the passion of fans, is that really your brand? Well,
Speaker 1: and what we're seeing, like we were talking about with
Speaker 1: the specializations of different cons, Now there's Emerald City Con,
Speaker 1: there's Dragon Con. There's just so many cons that are
Speaker 1: popping up. Probably you could just look up wherever you're listening.
Speaker 1: You can literally type in your city and Con, and
Speaker 1: there's probably a convention, some type of nerd convention that
Speaker 1: is now taking place there. But all in all, through
Speaker 1: its ups and downs, I feel like Comic Con is
Speaker 1: the one place that people still will flock to no
Speaker 1: matter how bad it gets, because it's the one place
Speaker 1: nerds get to be nerds and be around nerds. I
Speaker 1: might disagree with you on that if you because I
Speaker 1: feel like Star Wars fans, if you add to choose,
Speaker 1: because not everyone has the amount of money to fly
Speaker 1: to California and get almost three or Badge. Also probably
Speaker 1: for your there's a lot of families. We see a
Speaker 1: lot of families at comic Con, so it's not just you,
Speaker 1: it's your family that you're traveling with, or a partner
Speaker 1: or spouse. I truly feel like if you're given the choice,
Speaker 1: a lot of Star Wars fans are gonna go to
Speaker 1: Star Wars Celebration. Star Wars Celebration has the cast, it
Speaker 1: drops a lot of news typically there or trailers. I
Speaker 1: think that they're moving on. I think people are I
Speaker 1: think Comic Con San Diego Comic Con will always be huge,
Speaker 1: but I think some of these other cons are catching up,
Speaker 1: and Disney is smart. Disney is capitalizing on that. They're like,
Speaker 1: you know what, we actually don't need a fly cast
Speaker 1: out for the We're gonna put our cast. We're gonna
Speaker 1: put all of our money into this and and promote
Speaker 1: our movies. We're gonna promote our people and have exclusives here.
Speaker 1: So that's another thing, is exclusives that take place not
Speaker 1: only just trailers that are dropped or scenes from movies
Speaker 1: that they'll show there, but they also have exclusive toys
Speaker 1: and merchandise that you can't get anywhere else. So I
Speaker 1: do think that that's UH might be taking if you had. However,
Speaker 1: I will say I don't like the precedent it sets.
Speaker 1: When you get to boguard your footage and your stuff
Speaker 1: so that you can get people to pay for your thing.
Speaker 1: You run into the problem that we're having right now
Speaker 1: with net neutrality. A lot of people are against Netflix
Speaker 1: because they want you to use their shitty version of Netflix.
Speaker 1: They want you to use whatever this what what did
Speaker 1: they put that Star Trek Discovery on CBS? Bullshit? You know, Like,
Speaker 1: I find that instinct not being the idea of, oh,
Speaker 1: let's do this better. The instinct is like, let's cut
Speaker 1: out the mentalman, so we can get all the money,
Speaker 1: and when something's built on that precedent, we get left
Speaker 1: with worse products. And now that they're able to use
Speaker 1: their strength as copyright owners to block off other entities
Speaker 1: from using it, you don't get a better product. You
Speaker 1: get what you get. I do want to say that
Speaker 1: Star Wars celebration is taking a break this year. What, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not happening after reconsecutive years. This is the most
Speaker 1: Star Wars and think, well, I think it could be.
Speaker 1: We haven't seen as much promotion for the Han solo movie, right,
Speaker 1: I think that the last three years we had movie
Speaker 1: movie movie. We had Force Awakens, we had Rogue One,
Speaker 1: we had Last Jedi, we have the Han solo film.
Speaker 1: So I don't really know what's going on there, but
Speaker 1: I do know that they're taking a break in that
Speaker 1: it will take place again in twenty nineteen, So so
Speaker 1: that is an issue. So yeah, so those so Star
Speaker 1: Wars fans are going to probably flock back to San
Speaker 1: Diego Comic Con and or D twenty three since Disney
Speaker 1: and Star Wars and Marvel are heavily linked. So D
Speaker 1: twenty three, which I was saying, is Disney's official expo.
Speaker 1: That's for a lot of Disney movie news, so they'll
Speaker 1: drop a Laddin exclusive things like that. Well, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: very interesting, especially about Star Wars celebrations. We'll see what
Speaker 1: the future holds, and after this break, we'll talk about
Speaker 1: what the future holds for cons and wrap this whole
Speaker 1: thing up. What do you think? All right, and we're back.
Speaker 1: I hope you like those messages. We worked really hard
Speaker 1: on them, or maybe we just were lazy and played
Speaker 1: Jack and Miles, and I think that's what we'll do.
Speaker 1: So if we are talking about the future, we're going
Speaker 1: to predict the future of comic Con. Here's my thing
Speaker 1: that if you have been going to Comic Con the
Speaker 1: last couple of years, you have realized that some of
Speaker 1: the things being promoted there have nothing to do with
Speaker 1: nerd Dumb. They're just some CBS show that's airing there. Literally,
Speaker 1: it's so funny. Now they'll have like procedurals or like
Speaker 1: Kevin Can Wait, or like promote they're like passing out
Speaker 1: flyers or some interactive thing where I'm like, you guys
Speaker 1: aren't even trying anymore. This has nothing to do with
Speaker 1: nerd dumb. But they know. But that's the thing is
Speaker 1: you were right. It is consumerism. Where where are capitalizing?
Speaker 1: These are hundreds of thousands of eyes are going to
Speaker 1: be there, So why not have some type of interactive
Speaker 1: NBC whatever for their upcoming show? They do have that,
Speaker 1: and it's not Have you really have you been noticing that?
Speaker 1: It's like this has nothing to do with anything with
Speaker 1: anything nerd. Really, it's I think it's gonna be even
Speaker 1: more commercial than it already is. I agree with the
Speaker 1: fact that the companies are buying up space. Not only
Speaker 1: our companies weeding out independent artists inside of the actual
Speaker 1: con itself, but they are also renting out restaurants and
Speaker 1: bars in gas Lamp District, which is downtown San Diego,
Speaker 1: so that you don't even need a badge to go inside.
Speaker 1: For them to get your money and eyeballs, they'll have
Speaker 1: an interactive show, some type of VR simulation or something
Speaker 1: where you can take pictures with your friends. You can
Speaker 1: get tattoos, temporary tattoos, or something done that a lot
Speaker 1: of these brands are doing. I think that's exactly what's
Speaker 1: gonna happen. I think it's gonna go because every year
Speaker 1: I noticed more and more people who aren't necessarily into
Speaker 1: nerd culture but one another there about the next movie
Speaker 1: and then what's because also like you are getting a
Speaker 1: headstart on like the blockbusters of next year when you go, so,
Speaker 1: I think that wave is gonna go where it is
Speaker 1: going to be a media con. It's going to be
Speaker 1: almost a TV con, a TV and movie It is
Speaker 1: a TV and movie con. That's so correct exactly, and
Speaker 1: that is going to finally lean into that. And then
Speaker 1: there's gonna be the great great great great great great
Speaker 1: great great great grandson of Bernie bubb Nous and Ron Fradkin,
Speaker 1: who goes, we need a space for us, But they
Speaker 1: weren't the comic book fans. I think you mean Dorff
Speaker 1: alf and Bernie bub I'm talking about my man, Bernie
Speaker 1: bubb Nous and Rob Frecken. Their kids, Krueger and Alfa
Speaker 1: are the ones that started the San Diego Con. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and killed it and started We're talking about my
Speaker 1: man Bernie and Rod Fradkin. Yeah. I completely agree with that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and maybe we don't care. I don't know. It seems
Speaker 1: like people are still showing up. Maybe people are exciting
Speaker 1: mean Conan took over part of the cone. Conan always does.
Speaker 1: Conan O'Brien does like live from Comic con Um, and
Speaker 1: he had an interactive con where I think he could
Speaker 1: put on like a Conan head and that was inside
Speaker 1: the convention. So there are I mean, he is a
Speaker 1: nerdy dude, but it's definitely masked in a lot of consumerism,
Speaker 1: as like a big commercial for a lot of these
Speaker 1: television shows that aren't necessarily sci fi fantasy. Also, I
Speaker 1: think it's just the simple fact that things that were
Speaker 1: considered child's play, like video games reading comic books, are
Speaker 1: more and more being found out to be just for
Speaker 1: everyone and now everyone can go and I think shows
Speaker 1: like Conan are displaying that, which is going to lead
Speaker 1: to people being more more comfortable being nerdy about things
Speaker 1: in general, not just watching something because they it's on,
Speaker 1: but really being passionate about the things they watched. And
Speaker 1: that's why it becomes a TV movie con. And then
Speaker 1: the great great great great great great grandson of Bernie
Speaker 1: Bufness and Rod for At can start their own just
Speaker 1: for Comics con and that's gonna be the new thing.
Speaker 1: J J J com I would love it. There are
Speaker 1: still a couple of those out there, but I would
Speaker 1: love if someone personally brands themselves as literally nothing but comics,
Speaker 1: just comics here, nothing else, and I feel like they
Speaker 1: would probably sell out to have given the money. So
Speaker 1: we're going to wrap it up here with some of
Speaker 1: our personal experience, especially as of late now that we
Speaker 1: are adults that get to get invited to cons. If
Speaker 1: you do you have any particular advice for people going
Speaker 1: to comic Con or your you know, experiences, well, my
Speaker 1: my biggest advice is just bring brain water. You're definitely
Speaker 1: gonna need it to go July and and you're just
Speaker 1: gonna if you're paying for water at the con, that's
Speaker 1: that's a new move, and you're going to spend way
Speaker 1: too much money. But I think my favorite comic Con
Speaker 1: moment has to be when I was going through my
Speaker 1: BRONI phase. I thought I was a brownie. I just
Speaker 1: like going against the grain. But you gotta tell people
Speaker 1: what a brownie is. Oh yeah, a brownie is an
Speaker 1: adult male fan of my little Ponium. And when I
Speaker 1: when I had this phase, I want to say, it
Speaker 1: was way before it got to where people are like
Speaker 1: these guys, something's wrong with them. It's yeah, yeah, So
Speaker 1: I got there was a pinky Pie, which is the
Speaker 1: pink my Little Pony crown that I got from the kind.
Speaker 1: It was one of the freebees. And I went to
Speaker 1: an Andrew w K show and my buddy was like, hey,
Speaker 1: I heard Andrew w K is a broken and so
Speaker 1: I gave it to him at the show and he
Speaker 1: was like, I'm gonna put this somewhere special tucked it
Speaker 1: in his page. He's a nice guy. Yeah, and he
Speaker 1: tucked it in his pants. It was a great moment,
Speaker 1: and I was like, Wow, this is cool. We're all
Speaker 1: being nerdy. I'm an Andrew w K party and hard
Speaker 1: show being nerdy. I love comic coup. I love Andrew
Speaker 1: w K. He follows me. He also follows like thousands
Speaker 1: of people. My um, what fault. He'll probably follow you back.
Speaker 1: I don't know mine. Oh god. I got to be
Speaker 1: on a panel the last two years, and that to
Speaker 1: me was so surreal because as someone who used to
Speaker 1: go to the panels and like get the voice actors
Speaker 1: to sign, you know, my VHS tapes, I got to
Speaker 1: actually be on a panel and arguing about comics and
Speaker 1: representation and comics. That was really cool for me. The
Speaker 1: parties also I just want to say it has become
Speaker 1: very Hollywood. I don't know if you feel that way, Iffy,
Speaker 1: I feel like everyone does. Um, it's very who's who,
Speaker 1: who gets into what. There's a lot of after parties,
Speaker 1: like Nerdus has an after party of famous after Playboy
Speaker 1: Playboy has an after party where I went to the
Speaker 1: after party very hard to get into Who's party Boy
Speaker 1: from Jackass? Do you know what I'm talking about? Okay,
Speaker 1: So I had an Assassin's Creed metallic risks wrap from
Speaker 1: doing the Assassin's Creed Obstacle course, which to get into
Speaker 1: the Playboy party you needed a metallic risk wrap, and
Speaker 1: so I just kind of flashed it. But like also
Speaker 1: that party boy guy whatever was with like a bunch
Speaker 1: of hot chicks and one had a puppy, and I
Speaker 1: was like, oh my god, the puppy and I was
Speaker 1: like talking and as a scooch along to get in.
Speaker 1: I like scooched along with them and had my little
Speaker 1: metallica wristband that was my earlier days of sneaking into
Speaker 1: parties before I was invited. Yeah, and when I got
Speaker 1: into the Playboy party, I was like, Wow, a lot
Speaker 1: of you weren't at the con because you can tell
Speaker 1: when people are at the con because they are sweaty.
Speaker 1: You are gross. You you haven't showered all day. You know,
Speaker 1: you probably still have your badge around your neck. And
Speaker 1: then you had people that you know, look like they
Speaker 1: were angels, and that was a sweaty mess. So that's
Speaker 1: my sneaking and my advice. You don't have to have
Speaker 1: a badge to get into the corn I mean to
Speaker 1: actually get into the convention center, but you don't have
Speaker 1: to have a badge to explore the whole town, which
Speaker 1: is totally common conduct. And then also if you are
Speaker 1: a young person trying to get in, you can normally
Speaker 1: reach out to a lot of these companies that are
Speaker 1: going to be there and ask if they need volunteers,
Speaker 1: because a lot of times, like the people that hand
Speaker 1: out T shirts outside of the con stuff like that,
Speaker 1: or hand out flyers promoting a lot of times they're volunteers.
Speaker 1: And then you get a free pass. You get a
Speaker 1: free pass there you go, yeah and yeah, I think
Speaker 1: once again Danny makes a great point of yeah, you
Speaker 1: don't need a badge. So if you're local, if you're
Speaker 1: local and you want to go down to Comic con
Speaker 1: just drive down to day parking is going to be expensive,
Speaker 1: so be ready for that or take the train. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and just hang out down and you'll be able to
Speaker 1: get swag. You'll be able to hang out, take pictures
Speaker 1: of cost players, just being in downtown San Diego, which
Speaker 1: is I think kind of cool. I do too, And
Speaker 1: it's all it's all done up at night as well,
Speaker 1: so it's a big party scene and a lot of
Speaker 1: those bars and stuff have like nerdy drinks and whatnot,
Speaker 1: nerdy thing drinks and the whole bar. I mean, the
Speaker 1: one that if he and I were at this past
Speaker 1: year was all dragon ball Z style and we got
Speaker 1: to take a shot out of an ice sculpture of Scheenron,
Speaker 1: the dragon from dragon ball Z. So yeah, live your
Speaker 1: adult wild fantasies. It's it's amazing, but we gotta get
Speaker 1: out of here. So you know, I'll let you know
Speaker 1: where you can catch me. You can catch me at
Speaker 1: if you wady way I f y in w A
Speaker 1: d I w E. You can catch me on Instagram
Speaker 1: and Twitter at those handles, and you can catch me
Speaker 1: here and sometimes on the daily sye guys, go ahead
Speaker 1: and give those guys a subscribe to with us. Don't
Speaker 1: don't be too busy subscribing, then let you forget to subscribe.
Speaker 1: I'm at MS Danny Fernandez. It's m S. Danny Day
Speaker 1: and I and then F E R N A N
Speaker 1: D e z on both Twitter and Instagram. All right, well,
Speaker 1: this has been nerdificent and we hope you learned something
Speaker 1: nerdy today. The bye