Date: Mon, 18 Sep 1995 15:53:29 -0400 From: [g--l--n] at [bgnet.bgsu.edu] (Metroplex) Subject: ftp 539 ==== FIT TO PRINT by cathrine yronwode for the week of September 18, 1995 THIS IS FIT TO PRINT NUMBER 539: Well, The San Diego Comic-Con is history, and, let me tell you, if you missed it, you missed something swell. I've been going to San Diego since the '70s and, like many other fans, i've watched it grow and grow until i began to wonder if that much growth was healthy. About eight years ago, us old-timers started about the enormity of the con. Some said that the crowds were so big we no longer could see our friends. Others said the old spirit of the days when con was held at the El Cortez Hotel had been stretched thin and was in danger of being lost because the downtown convention center was so impersonal. In those days, many of us roomed at the Hotel San Diego, so when the pre-con Trade Expo was added to the week's events, some of us joked about renting condos in the area, so that we would not have to sleep with the cockroaches for so many days at a time. Shortly thereafter, the folks on Marvel and DC expense accounts began to stay at downtown hotels, like the Westgate and the Executive. The con parties moved to those sites too. Over the next few years, the renovation of San Diego's waterfront began and the first high-rise hotels sprang up. Gentrification made the streets safer but removed the con's former landmarks. There was irony, yet also true sentiment, in the voices of those who recalled the lost "Hypno-Sexism" club and the seedy tattoo parlours across from the Hotel San Diego. (Archie Goodwin once said of Hypno-Sexism, "That's where they hypnotize you into discriminating against women, but when you wake up you've forgotten all about it.") Then the con got bigger. The vast new convention center on the waterfront opened and more high rise hotels were completed. Only hold outs continued to room in the downtown hotels. Newly affluent creators stayed at the Marriott and the Hyatt and the parties they threw took place in these isolated fortresses, each a shuttle bus ride away from the other. After that level of growth was achieved, you could spend an entire week in San Diego doing the trade show and the con - and never see any of your friends. If you wanted to scout the dealers' tables, you had to do so during set-up. If you wanted to go out with an old pal for a snack, you had to make an appointment a week in advance. If three pros happened to run into each other in a hallway and none of us had a business appointment in the next half-hour, it was a miracle of synchronicity. The most common words of parting were, "If i don't see you again during the con, i'll call you when i get back to my office." I thought that the San Diego Comic-Con could get no further from its fannish origins than it had. The mutation had gone so far that i no longer sighed over the El Cortez or the late, lamented "Hypno-Sexism;" i now sighed because a trip to Horton Plaza was out of the question and so was lunch, and after a day of meeting and greeting 10,000 total strangers, my feet hurt. And yet, like a faithful horse, trained to pull the load, i always did the San Diego Comic-Con. I had to. Well, i am pleased to report that this year, San Diego has undergone another transformation. Instead of getting bigger - it's gotten BETTER. Critical mass has been reached and fission has taken place! This year there were enough randomly-generated people in that huge convention center to ensure that a sufficient quantity of them loved comics. The Comic-Con is now big enough to host - a real comic book convention, right in its midst! Everywhere i went this year, i had fun. I got kissed by Julie Schwartz, i chatted about Golden Age archives with Steve Geppi (that's right! - we talked about comic books, not about "the business"), i sat on the floor late at night and discussed animal husbandry with Trina Robbins and Dann Thomas, hung out with fans and pros and dealers too numerous to mention. i mean, geez, it was just like the old days! And, as if to signify this sea-change, Greg Theakston handed out "First Fandom" button to the few, the proud, and the old. I wore mine every day, and when i got home, i hung it in a place of honour, to remind myself that although some things change for the worse, time is a great wheel, and San Diego is once again a comic book convention. ==== Fit to Print appears in print each week in Comics Buyers Guide and is available via e-mail. Tell your friends! To subscribe to Fit to Print via e-mail send a request with the words "Subscribe FtP" in the subject header and your address in the body of the message to [g--l--n] at [bgnet.bgsu.edu.] You will be added to the list and receive the next available issue. Back issues are available. FTP to nspace.cts.com and look in the Comics/About Comics/Comics News/Fit to Print directory. FtP is also available on the World Wide Web at http://www.scar.utoronto.ca/~91mithra. Responses are welcome and should be directed to [g--l--n] at [bgnet.bgsu.edu.] Fit to Print is Copyright Cathrine Yronwode. All rights reserved.