The Lush Life: The Problem with Cons

It’s a long time coming, but I’ve got something to say: I am sorely disappointed in the coverage out of the Cons this year (namely ComicCon).

You might ask yourself why (or perhaps you don’t care enough to voice it, but either way works for me) and I simply answer: where were the fans?  The first decent pictures I actually found were from one of our own reporters.  In order to find anything, you have to spend countless hours searching flickr streams.  Other than that, I saw a bit of coverage from a movie channel (to remain unnamed) which had a 2 minute segment on the cosplayers…but it featured possibly the worst zombie I’ve ever seen, a woman decked out in Hello Kitty merchandise, a stereotypical Harley Quinn, a Batman, a Stormtrooper, and an Ewok.  The Ewok was the most creative of the costumes but that’s not even the saddest part: the guy reporting didn’t even know who the girl dressed as Harley Quinn (probably the second most popular costume for a female at cons) or the Ewok (an icon in the geek community) were supposed to be!

This leads me to my point: Networks, why are you hiring non-geeks to report on events like the San Diego ComicCon?  I mean, you certainly don’t have someone who doesn’t know football report on the Super Bowl or someone with the fashion sense of a beaver reporting on any of the awards shows.  What’s different with something so inherently geeky?

One possible answer is that the networks don’t consider the force that is the modern geek (especially as a collective).  If that’s the case, they really need to consider the facts.  For example, World of Warcraft subscribers in North America and Europe alone account for more than $800 million in subscription fees (and that’s only 39% of total subscribers).* We’ve also brought TV shows back from the cancelled graveyard and turned them into feature films.  Then you have to consider the Harry Potter Alliance‘s 3rd Annual Book Drive collected over 32,000 books for various libraries nationwide.  In addition, movies from the Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Batman franchises are among the highest grossing films.  To ignore the force (no Jedi-reference intended) is not only irresponsible, it’s highly unprofitable.

Another possibility which pops into my mind is the idea that there aren’t enough geeks out there (at least not personable ones).

Again, I refute this with a resounding heck no!  We have celebrities from A-to-F list, national and local…even excluding those from MEME stardom.  Stars like Vin Diesel, Kristen Bell, Simon Pegg, and Wil Wheaton are all superstars amongst the geek world and there are such personalities who would be more than happy to report on the stories out of the cons (myself included!  I may not be an actress, but I’m a good reporter, I swear! 😉 ).  Why can’t they find anyone?  Laziness is my only answer.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlUsiKfeDfo]

All I can hope is that next year, when nerds begin their annual migration to San Diego, the networks heed my words and hire some real geeks to bring the stories to the masses.

*Reference