Resolution

Okay, I'm officially going to start actually writing things when I think of them, instead of slacking off only to have someone at the Times write the exact same article months later.

I'm obliquely referring to Manohla Dargis's Times piece on Comic-Con. Now granted, hers is on the San Diego Con and mine was going to be on the New York Comic-Con, which is the one I attended, but she basically says the exact same thing I wanted to say, namely that as geeky as Comic-Con is, there's something really beautiful about it. I was really moved by the sense of community at Comic-con, which manifested itself in two ways.

First, there was a general sense of freedom and acceptance. Some of us might have secretly snickered at the people in the anime-inspired costumes but nobody gets bullied at these sort of things. If you want to dress like an anime character and you don't have the body for it... well, I'm not going to stop you.

Second, the connection between the fans and the creators. I mean, there are obviously the big panels with tons and tons of real big-name people (at least, big-name if you follow comics... I was 25 feet away from Stan Lee!) but there're also opportunities to just go up and talk to the people making comics or computer games or whatever you're into. The best part is that in general they're actually pretty into it. They're happy to connect with fans and have conversations about how much they loved Shogun Warriors when they were growing up and stuff like that. I challenge you to name any other industry where that happens? Movies? TV? Forget about it.

So yeah, if I could travel back in time this post would be a lot longer, but since the Times article pretty much covered all the things I'm saying anyway, I guess I'll just stop. But watch out, Dargis! Next time I'm totally scooping you.