This article on the “Speed Dating” sessions at the recent New York Comic Con by Latoya Peterson paints an interesting picture of the social dynamics of Nerd World, especially with the growing participation of women due to the influx of anime and Vampire influences.
Prejudices that plague the wider dating market are checked at the door: Asian men—who don’t fare well by OkCupid’s metrics—are a highly sought after commodity, possibly due to anime and Japanese dramas finally showing Asian male characters as objects of desire rather than derision. Spending three minutes talking about Gundam collectibles is more likely to excite a prospect instead of making their eyes glaze over. Guys won’t be mocked in front of the entire Internet for being awesome at
If there was ever a bullcrap spin on a story, this NY Times pre-NYCC piece which attempted to cast it as the “smaller, quieter” cousin to SDCC is one.
“San Diego was the arena rock show; New York is the acoustic show,” said Jeremy Corray, creative director at World Events Productions, a television distribution company that is making its first visit to New York Comic Con to promote “Voltron: The Defender of the Universe,” an animated series from the 1980s. “San Diego has evolved into entertainment con. New York is a little more focused and manageable.”
There is nothing acoustic about New York Comic Con. It is loud, crowded and nutty. Just as happened last year, security is lax and people are getting in with badges in droves. It isn’t a dangerous feeling, but it sure is crowded, and trying to go anywhere is an exhausting task.
Plus there’s the matter of the felt carpet.
It’s thin and pills immediately, leading to a layer of little felt pills everywhere.
Even in a booth with nice thick carpet, the pills have been tracked in.
Of course in Artist Alley, there is no carpet at all.
NYCC is an ongoing nerdapalooza — mostly young, many costumed — seemingly focused on video games and anime.
Parties have been equally crowded and loud — but fun. Here’s the patron saint of the Marvel party.
Speaking of parties, Marvel and DC went different directions this year; DC decided to invite the entire office staff to thank them for the New 52; correspondingly, the freelance list was cut drastically, with fewer plus ones and some caught feelings from current DC creators who were disinvited because of their work for other companies.
As you can see from the above photo, they let anyone in to the Marvel party, with several DC staffers and creators seen wandering around. A very limited open bar, however.
Friday’s iFanboy party was the preferred alternate for those who didn’t go to DC, but the venue was way too small for the milling throngs. The craft beer was excellent, however.
We’re back to the floor for the last day of adventure. Come up and say hi!
Hype alert! I’ll be making my only scheduled public appearance at NYCC at 1:30 today.
The Comics History of the World
Date: Friday, October 14
1:30 pm – 2:30 pm
Location: 1A02
Speakers: Ben McCool, Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente
Views of world history in comics run from the imaginary to the tightly researched. They can inform and shed light on little known heroes and villains. Join Ben McCool (Nevsky), Fred Van Lente (Action Philosophers), Greg Pak (The Red Skull) and more as they discuss the ins and outs of making real-life characters come alive on the comics page — and having a blast while doing it. The panel will include a sneak peek at next year’s Nevsky graphic novel with never before seen artwork. Sponsored by TRIDENT MEDIA GROUP
There will be FREE NEVSKY POSTERS for all attendees! Come on by!
Perhaps spurred by news of the Chevy Sonic, ticket sales to New York Comic Con are flying off the shelves. According to the show’s official Twitter feed, Saturday tickets are now sold out, although some may be available via retailers. And professional 4-day passes — which cost $10 as a registration fee this year — are almost gone as well.
Three- and four-day passes for the public are still available but going fast.
There will be Star Wars, a special car and many, many people. New York Comic Con has announced that the floor is sold out. Chevrolet is using the show to launch the Sonic, a US-built economy car — the car will be promoted with four painted Sonics and one giant gas-filled Sonic—one imagines it will be floating overhead, but surely not the only element of the show that will be filled with hot air.
Check out Monday’s issue of Publishers Weekly for my interview with Lance Fensterman and a show preview.
Officials at New York Comic Con have announced that the show floor for this year’s highly anticipated convention is sold out. This “sell out” two weeks before the show marks another milestone in the convention’s enormous growth since its debut in 2006. The show floor will occupy the complete exhibit hall of Javits Center as the entire convention takes up 470,000 square feet of space. In total, over 700 exhibitors and 400 artists will participate in this year’s event which will include an expanded autographing area as well as 3 full days of public access to the show. Notably, this year will feature a Vehicle Sponsor, as Chevrolet will host the New York consumer debut for the 2012 Chevrolet Sonic at New York Comic Con. Additionally, after a hugely successful debut last year, the Cultyard Pavilion will return again this year with over 40 exhibitors featuring art, design, collectible toys, pop-tech, and fashion. And, in what NYCC is informally calling the “Star Wars Zip Code” in the exhibition hall, attendees will find new Star Wars products from licensees and dealers, as well as a special Celebration VI area.
The 2011 New York Comic Con takes place October 13-16, 2011. NYCC, which attracted 96,000 attendees in 2010, celebrates comics, television, movies, toys, games, and the popular arts from around the planet. Exhibitors spanning all these areas of the pop culture universe will participate in the show including: Activision, AMC, Archaia, Capcom, Comedy Central, Dark Horse, DC, Hasbro, HBO, IGN, Marvel, Mattel, and Xbox to name just a very few.
“I think it’s amazing that Chevrolet is leveraging New York Comic Con to launch the 2012 Sonic,” notes Lance Fentsterman. “We are proud to welcome Chevrolet to our show and the fact that they see such value in our audience speaks volumes about the influence and power of the pop culture world. As always, our show floor will be packed with an enormous range of product, promotions and diverse activity. Our intent is to deliver maximum entertainment while also providing a super dynamic business and marketing environment that benefits both exhibitors and consumers.”
“Sonic and New York Comic Con are a natural partnership,” said William Fleck, Northeast regional marketing manager for Chevrolet. “We are trying to market Sonic to early adopters – those who are the first to try all-things-new. They are immersed in pop culture, can spot trends early and have the power to transform a simple trend into a lifestyle. NYCC is the perfect place for us to reach that audience.”
Maintaining the spirit of New York Comic Con, Chevrolet will showcase four special-edition, illustrated Sonics and a gigantic, gas-filled flying Sonic. Drawing inspiration from the convention, an artist will work on illustrating a fifth Sonic in real time throughout the show. Chevrolet also will host an interac
From the folks who brought you Grant Morrison: Talking with Gods, the Grant Morrison documentary, comes WARREN ELLIS: CAPTURED GHOSTS. Can you guess the topic of the film? Surprise! It’s Warren Ellis.
Although the film is officially debuting at the Napa Valley Film Festival in November, the film will have a sneak preview at the downtown theater CINEMA VILLAGE (22 E 12th St NYC 10003) during New York Comic Con on Friday October 14th at 11:15pm.
CAPTURED GHOSTS features the most extensive interview ever given by Ellis, whose groundbreaking body of work includes comic books Planetary, Transmetropolitan, Iron Man: Extremis, FreakAngels, The Authority and novel Crooked Little Vein. Spanning from his first memory watching the moon landing as a child to the recent boffo success of RED, Ellis’ acerbic wit and core belief in humanity come across like never before… revealing the unique point of view that has made him such a pivotal and influential figure to his massive audience of artists, journalists, scientists, and fans.
The film features Academy Award-winner Dame Helen Mirren (THE QUEEN), Ben Templesmith (illustrator 30 Days of Night), Matt Fraction (writer Casanova, Invincible Iron Man), Darick Robertson (illustrator Transmetropolitan), Joss Whedon (director upcoming THE AVENGERS), Will Wheaton (STAR TREK), Brea Grant (HEROES, DEXTER, writer Suicide Girls comic), Claudio Sanchez (Coheed & Cambria), Joe Quesada (Chief Creative Officer, Marvel Entertainment), Stoya (adult film star), Andy Hurley (Fall Out Boy), Patton Oswalt (RATATOUILLE), and a Warren Ellis Muppet (!).
Even
The Beat was interviewed for this documentary, and it was director
Patrick Meaney with whom we faced starvation during the Ordeal of the Omni at last year’’s convention. Did we make the final cut? We’ll find out on October 14th! Advance tickets are available
here, $11 adult / $8 student / $20 bundle with DVD pre-order
[As if New York Comic-Con wasn't shaping up to be mad crazy already, recently a very special invitation only summit for Preview NIght day was announced. NYCC organizer ReedPOP, fellow Reed division ReedMIDEM, the international rights marketplace, and nerd culture media outposts GeekChicDaily and Nerdist Industries have joined together to bring 100 movers and shakers in comics, film games and so on together to talk about changing business models. WHITE SPACE is "designed to foster open, transparent discussion between industry leaders." While everyone waits anxiously by the Blackberry for their invite, we got a chance to talk to Lance Fensterman, Group Vice President of ReedPOP, and Peter Levin, GeekChicDaily founder and CEO to find out just what this geek G8 is all about.]
THE BEAT: So what are you guys cooking up?
LANCE FENSTERMAN: The simplest way to put it it’s like taking everything that happens on the floor of New York Comic-Con, all the brands, all the fans, all the content – and flipping it upside down and looking at what’s underneath it all and how it works across different technology platforms, how consumers connect with it. It’s looking at pop culture IP and the business behind it, the technology behind it and what’s the business model. It’s bringing all the different elements of the cool stuff you see on the show floor, from the funding people to the guys who actually buy it and trying to discuss it, think tank it and create a dialog between all those diverse players.
PETER LEVIN: I would add that when you have a backdrop like New York City where the bulk of the media dollars are spent, oftentimes this is a very sought after and coveted audience of pop culture enthusiasts as well as one of the harder nuts to crack for marketing partners and advertisers. To make them part of the conversation in their own backyard with CXO level executives from across the landscape is a very interesting opportunity.
THE BEAT: Let me back up a little and ask how you two began thinking about this? What’s the secret origin of this Davos of pop culture, as one of my commenters called it.
FENSTERMAN: I love that! This goes back for me nearly three years trying to find the right vehicle to explore the business of play. In NYC, there’s so much of the business side of this represented, we felt it was something very unique about NYCC that we could offer. We’ve said we want to grow the business in the industry—it’s not just putting a tent up and selling t
New York Comic-Con has just posted its programming schedules, and there are 300 panels in various categories from anime to comics to video games to Kevin Smith. Unfortunately it’s been posted online in one of those awful B-2-B agenda type formats. We made a screen cap of the comics programming grid here:
Click for larger version.
From the looks of things, it’s a fairly publisher centric line-up of Marvel, DC Dark Horse, etc. Expect a LOT of news.
We’re working on getting a text file like we did last year and we’ll update it when we get it.
UPDATE: As promised here’s the text file/ Many thanks to Kim Mueller at ReedPOP for supplying it.
Digital Comics & Libraries – Past, Present & Future
Thursday, October 13, 12:00PM – 1:00PM Location: 1A03
Digital comics and graphic novels are more available to readers than ever before and in different formats for a variety of platforms. Increasing numbers of major comics publishers are going to a "day and date structure" of publishing, which gives readers a choice of print and digital versions of newly released comics. What implications does this hold for libraries and comics readers that depend on libraries to provide them with their favorite story lines and graphic novels? David Lisa and Michael Maziekien will take a look at the history of digital comics, what’s happening now and what the future might hold for cooperation between digital comics publishers and libraries.
RWP 2.0 – The Future of Comics in the Classroom
Thursday, October 13, 12:15PM – 1:15PM Location: 1A02
Find out how YOU can help get comics into schools and get schools into comics in this informational seminar hosted by some of the biggest names in the world of comics and education. Join Josh Elder of Reading With Pictures, Dr. Michael Bitz of the Comic Book Project, Charlie LaGreca of Comic Book Classroom and Jessica Abel and Matt Madden of Drawing Words and Writing Pictures as they unveil their plans for 2012 and beyond.
Video Game Collection Development for Libraries
Thursday, October 13, 1:15PM – 2:15PM Location: 1A03
A library by definition, are collections of media. Librarians have terrific resources on building and maintaining material collections in various medi
It’s getting so you can’t launch a secret cabal without a good press release. This year’s NYCC will be co-located with an invitation-only think tank for “100 masters and innovators in the fields of TV, film, comics, games, technology and advertising” called White Space. Besides ReedPOP, parent company of NYCC, White Space is backed by the television market show MIPTV, also owned by Reed. Also involved, pop culture sites GeekChicDaily and Nerdist, which will help put together the programming. It’s set to be an annual event which will get bigger in 2012.
It’s about time someone put together a pop culture summit meeting in these rapidly evolving times. Make sure to bring your iPad!
ReedPOP has today announced the launch of WHITE SPACE, an exclusive invitation-only summit tailored to influencers and decision makers who help shape the direction of the business of popular culture. WHITE SPACE will take place on the afternoon of Thursday October 13th, 2011 at the Javits Center in New York City just hours before the doors open for the 2011 New York Comic Con. Conceived as a think tank for 100 masters and innovators in the fields of TV, film, comics, games, technology and advertising, WHITE SPACE is not a traditional conference, but is designed to foster open, transparent discussion between industry leaders. It will be kicked off by brief talks from three masters of media followed by small group discussions led by influential moderators. A drinks reception will conclude the summit meeting.
WHITE SPACE is set to be an annual event co-located with New York Comic Con with an evolving format to grow in size and scale in 2012. The concept is a joint venture with MIPTV, the world’s leading market for creating, financing and distributing TV content in all its forms. MIPTV, which takes place annually in Cannes, France, is owned and organized by Reed MIDEM, part of Reed Exhibitions, which also owns ReedPOP. GeekChicDaily and Nerdist Industries, the cross-platform producers and publishers of popular culture fare, are strategic partners to WHITE SPACE and will aid the effort to curate a varied and unique constituency of attendee and also will assist in the programming of the day. GeekChicDaily and Nerdist are backed by industry notables such as Legendary Pictures, Mandalay Entertainment, Joe Roth and Machinima CEO Allen DeBevoise.
“Just as New York Comic Con showcases what is new in TV, movies, games, toys and comic books, WHITE SPACE will gather the leading voices in these worlds into one room, where their learning across diverse businesses will form a chorus in a discussion of the pop culture consumer,” notes Lance Fensterman, Group Vice President of ReedPOP. “The New York Comic Con exhibit floor represents everything that is real, tangible, and material in the pop culture universe, while WHITE SPACE will be the flip side, the foundation on which all of the content of NYCC is based. Our discussion and focus will be on the consumer revolution and the complex and influential relationship between consumers, content, brands, and devices.”
In the modern world it doesn’t matter if content is being consumed via the big screen, the television screen, the computer screen, or on a mobile device. Organizers note that pop culture – in all its forms – shares a speci
A change is welcome, but I don’t think speed dating is the answer!
I would’ve paid good money to watch this…
I gotta be honest, I don’t think speed dating events in general are worth the time, money and effort. At conventions, I think its an even stupider idea and nothing in the linked article really changed my opinion.
It’s good that women are becoming a bigger and more active part of fandom, but this sort of thing leaves me cold. I’ve never been a fan of the idea of seeing cons as pick-up joints for nerdboys, and the idea that nerds can only find true happiness with other nerds is kind of insulting.
While yes, relationships – even lifelong ones – DO start at cons, trying to turn one social event celebrating everything you like about your subculture into “find the nerdboy/girl of your dreams” really almost feels exploitive to me. The apparent “NERDS! WORSHIP AT THE FEET OF YOUR GODDESSES” attitude that the MC was displaying does little to improve my impression of it.
(I have a fairly lengthy blog post about why I’m against trying to pick up girls at cons here: http://www.doctornerdlove.com/2011/07/pick-girls-comic-con/)
I did the speed dating event at C2E2. I actually did hit it off with somebody I met at the event. We spent the con together and have seen each other a number of times since then.
At the event I attended, the guys at the event tended to be younger (teens and early 20s) and just as basket-case geeky as one might imagine. 3/4 of the women who attended were acting as journalists in some fashion or other, doing a sort of first-person reporting rather than attending to actually meet someone. That was a bit depressing on its own.
I’m in my 30s. The person I matched with is also in her 30s. We’re both professionals and we found that we had a great deal in common both in the two minutes allotted to the “date” and in the hours afterward as we wandered around the con. I thought it was a fun, positive experience.
Anyone know if this was a purely heterosexual thing or if NYCC needs to have a separate event for same-sexers?
The C2E2 event was open to anyone regardless of preference.
I was told by the event organizer that he’d mostly seen girls do speed dates with girls at other cons. Based on observation and the experiences of other friends, it seems that nerd girls who occasionally go for other girls is just part of the package.
I can’t comment on the other side of the equation.
The Slate article specifically mentions that there were gay speed-dating events as well.
“Could it be that far from being a tiny, repressed minority in Nerd World, female fans are changing the whole game? Maybe comic-cons are no longer a “safe space” for male pursuits.
Maybe cooties DO exist and they DO “ruin” things.”
Comic fangirls might be a lot of things — but judging by the tenor of recent online discourse, ‘repressed’ ain’t one of them.
Also, was speed-dating ever really a predominantly ‘male pursuit’?
And while I think ‘ruin’ (even used ironically) is far too strong a term…a large influx of female fans into an existing fandom can result in major changes — and not always for the better.
Case in point: the Gundam anime/manga franchise name-checked above. Gundam used to be the archetypal shonen franchise, but an increase in female devotees caused later series to take on strong shojo overtones. The protagonists of the first half-dozen or so Gundam series were clean cut, earnest young prodigies along the lines of a Sci-Fi/Anime-style Doogie Howser.
But starting with Gundam Wing or so, the male leads started looking less like Peter Parker-style everydudes and more like boy band members (and/or androgynous bishonnen), romantic/emo subplots began to eat up more and more screentime, and the coming-of-age / war story themes were downplayed proportionally. Zeta Gundam (an early Gundam series) and Gundam 00 (one of a more recent vintage) have so little in common in terms of style, storytelling, and theme that they could easily be mistaken for entirely separate properties.
Though directing toxic invective towards female fans is never acceptable, the argument that catering to an increasing female fanbase could warp a franchise and/or character almost beyond recognition is not completely baseless or utterly without precedent.
NYCC speed dating should require the men to bring photos of their mom’s basement.
“3/4 of the women who attended were acting as journalists in some fashion or other, doing a sort of first-person reporting rather than attending to actually meet someone.”
This is a depressing statement about the state of “journalism” in the world today. Pubishers, editors … the next time some freelancer proposes a tongue-in-cheek article about any comicon … just say “no” …
“Journalists” insofar as people who said they were representing a blog, fandom-related site or Youtube channel. Probably a lot of people who are even a step below trade press.
Reedpop runs both C2E2 and NYCC, and the same outfit was doing the speed dating event. Honestly, I’m all for it. I had a good time, got some practice socialize (and I’ll fully admit being in the category of person who needs that) and even if I hadn’t found a lady geek to hang out with, there was a big group of people I hadn’t known before whom I met because of that shared experience. I bumped in to those people all weekend. It made the con more personable.
Are you KIDDING me? With all she stuff about female fans and creators in the comics world getting crapped on, you’re running a piece that strips them down to their f—ability, and the likelihood that a guy can get laid at Comic Con.
Look, I’m sure that the dynamics of it are fascinating and blah bloo pseudo-intellectual excuse for talking about the dating scene, but BOOOOOOOO!
Here’s the thing. I’m not sure how much this is built off preconceptions and how much of this is an actual thing. Because there has been a horrifying trend building over the past decade or so.
Nerds have gotten, on the whole, far less ugly.
No longer is the slightly below average woman hailed as a beauty queen in a room filled of overweight, socially awkward men. No. These days comic fans look fairly normal, for most part.
Some are even attractive by normal person standards.
Personally?
I blame the mangas.
Most of those female fans looK like butch dykes with facial hair. Ugly, you got to feel sorry for the male comic fans,as they get to pick from a bad litter.