Personally, that's gone overboard. At a Birmingham comic event, there must have been - no exaggeration! - at least five big stalls selling Funko Pops. Forbidden Planet sell them. They are mainstream. I am not sure why a comic con needs five stalls selling them.

Gets back to what i said about it being more mainstream now. Years ago, at an event, it was so different/obscure. Back when I had a cassette player, one stall was selling TOS cassettes (I picked up the SPOCK VS Q cassette). Another guy had Kenner and Mattel figures from the 80s. And there was another stall selling R1 DVDs (not easy to locate in the UK), I picked up TV shows such as STATE TROOPER from there.

I am not sounding like a snob. Or being elitist. I promise. It may sound elitist and snobbish, but it's not meant to be. It's purely about wanting a unique experience. I can walk into Forbidden Planet, or other stores, to get Funko Pops (not that I buy those). I can go to mainstream stores for that stuff. When I go to a comic con, I want unique stalls. I want back issue stalls. I want to come across something obscure that I may not know existed (at one event, I came across a book devoted to decades of McDonalds merchandise).

And on a final note, there seems to be less space for comic creators at these events. No disrespect to actors, but it seems for every comic creator, you've got a dozen actors (e.g. the guy who played a Cyberman on screen for 4 seconds in 1983). 

What do I expect at a comic con from my expectations? Comic book stalls, selling both quarter books (um... better make that dollar books these days...), selling classic books for considerably more but of considerably higher value, one or two places selling slabbed comics, and a collection of publishers, and creators ("Artist's Alley" or however it's labeled.) Maybe one or two selling comic book related materials (action figures, t-shirts, etc.)

What I get is a few of the above, and:

Vendors selling DVDs and video tapes of ALL kind of science-fiction, fantasy, horror, drama, comedy - and some comic book properties.

All types of toy stalls - not just comic book related.

Clothing sales - again, not just comic related.

Weapon sales

Paperback sales

Cosplay item sales

Cosplay character appearances (where, for a small fee, you can get a crappy picture with someone dressed up as a third-rate comic character... and plenty of blockage of aisles)

Playboy bunnies or whatever the current phase is for (arguably) attractive young women in minimal clothing

Manga, manga, manga - and it's not my cup of tea, but I don't mind comic book presence. But manga seems to be more about TV tapes/DVDs, costumes, MORE cosplay....

Fantasy costumes and toys

Actors who played 18 seconds in a red shirt, or as a technician on Moonbase Alpha.

When I was last at San Diego Comic con, I think I calculated that a little more than a third of the booths were actually involved in comic book business. The rest were science-fiction, fantasy, etc.

I have no objection to those... but to my mind, that's not a comic book convention. However, it's where the MONEY is, and selling booths is what SDCC does (as far as the vendor floor goes). As long as the vendor pays for the space and doesn't violate any rules, I suspect they can get a booth. And sell lubricants, or cleaning supplies, or any damned thing they want.

I know I'm a grumpy old man, but that's not my idea of a comic con anymore. It never was.

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I concur, Mr Sofer.

It may sound like "grumpy man syndrome", but it's the way it is. It's like I occasionally attend vintage vinyl events (not often). And the whole point of it is that it's offering rare/deleted vinyls. If HMV showed up with a stall filled with mainstream CD releases, I wouldn't like it.

In recent years, the comic cons have added food stalls. There was a fucking cookie stall at the London Comic Con. Again, not a normal eating outlet (those are usually found away from the main hall/stalls), but a cookie stall among the comic stalls. If I wanted those, I'd go to a cookie convention, but what on earth are they doing giving comic con space to a cookie seller? Sorry, but that's lame!

For all the Sturm und Drang over how much San Diego has become less about comics, while it's true that it's a ever-shrinking percentage of the con, the totality of actual comic book material is still a lot more than you'd see at a lot of regional cons. It's just a matter of navigating through the hordes. 

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In your opinion!

Perhaps there are some of us who like the feel, look and smell of old comics. Perhaps we enjoy, in addition to the stories, the ads for plastic soldiers. And the letters pages. Perhaps it's enjoyable to read a Stan's Soapbox from 1970 or 1980. You don't get those in trades.

Calling them dinosaurs is unfair. 

I bought SHOWCASE PRESENTS: SUPERMAN FAMILY VOL. 1 at Birmingham ICE. For £7. Have you seen the prices on eBay for those SHOWCASE and ESSENTIAL volumes? Quite pricey. I saw a bundle of STAR TREK: TNG (DC) comics on eBay for a high price; but at a back issue stall, I bought a lot of those and because I was buying a high quantity, the guy did me a discount.

Also, not everything is available in a trade. Has "The Lazarus Affair", one of my favourite Batman stories, been released in TPB form? Not that I know of. I'd love to read those again. Are the individual issues on comiXology? Perhaps, but then I prefer to read paper rather than digital. So back issue bins serve a purpose.

The answer is pretty simple... the celebrity guests are what sell tickets and get people in the door. I've attended conventions in our city for over 25 years and the ones the bring in the media guests do a lot better in terms of attendance than the ones that solely focus on the comics side of things. The old comic based conventions that went on years ago were lucky to get 300 people in the door. When the Expo launched and began to bring in the media guests, attendance skyrocketed into the thousands, starting at 3000 the first year and cracking 10,000 within four. The shows were initially the same, with lots of comic vendors and guests but the difference was the addition of celebrity guests. While it's a bit sad to watch the comic side of conventions get pushed aside in favor of Hollywood, like any business, convention organizers are going to go where the money is.

 We are lucky here in Calgary that we get both the small scale comic conventions that are geared for the comic fans as well as the huge celebrity driven events that most of the "civilians" flock to.

That's fine, but that latter shouldn't be referred to as a comic con - they aren't about comics. I think we can agree on that, yes?

Drew Spence - I'd surely love to have comics in a flea market bargain-hunting atmosphere, but there really AREN'T so many bargains anymore. Thanks to Mr. Overstreet's guide, such vendors not only know what those books are priced at, but they MARK them at that price. And I don't know too many who would prefer to pay those prices... I must know a dozen different places I can find comics at less than Overstreet prices. But the flea market vendors feel pretty proud, and get quite annoyed if someone wants to actually unbag a book to check its condition. I got chewed out once when I asked if I could check a book's condition. The vendor said, "Hell no! If you take it out of the bag, it'll be worth less!" 

Riiight. It's sure not worth purchasing to me, so if it WAS something I wanted... you just chased your sale off. And this behavior seems pandemic.

Gundars - sounds as if you've pinned the tale on the super-donkey. I hate to say it this way, but comic cons let in ONE video vendor... ONE martial arts vendor... and suddenly, BLAM! It's gone to hell.

*****

Your love of letters pages is great, Robbie. My favorite letters page ever was A Flame About This High in John Byrne's Next Men, which is probably why I love this forum so much as well.