If there is one word that I would use to describe Comic-Con, “overwhelming” would be that word. There is so much to see. There are panels going on from the start of the convention until the end. There are screening of films in the late evening. There are many, many, many booths ranging from big company names to comic writers, artists, and vendors. Anything you can imagine (related to comics) is probably there. And then there is the sheer number of attendees that I hear grows larger and larger every year. That is why the convention was moved to the San Diego Convention Center many years ago.

There are some things that could be better about it though. The first night I arrived in San Diego, I met up with Brooke Burgess, the creator of Broken Saints. He gave me some pointers about what to see at the convention — to check out the smaller panels, take lots of breaks, go outside, and basically just have fun. The next day I talked to him again after spending much time wandering around. He told me about the later days to just pick quadrants and check out the stuff in each area like the artwork section. He also mentioned to stay away from the center floor. I was taking all of this in for the first time, but I didn’t really understand it until I really opened my eyes.

One thing I said to Brooke was that the middle floor was just one big advertisement. I didn’t elaborate on that point, but he understood. In the center floor were big name, top brand companies who probably paid big amounts of money to have enormous amounts of floor space. With all the fancy big displays, flashy lights, and high traffic area, it’s not surprising to see everyone crowd and concentrate in one area. I remember walking around all these people and asking myself, “What is so special about this stuff?” You can play video games any time of the year. You can basically find all the merchandise on the Internet.

At the Broken Saints panel, Brooke mentioned how a lot of things out there are crap and praised everyone attending the panel. He condemned people waiting in the Hasbro booth line, and that you shouldn’t feed consumerism to these companies because they will continue to produce crap. Even some of the panels were like that. It’s too bad that the majority of panels I attended were for big media productions like LOST, Family Guy and American Dad, Sony (for Ghost Rider and Spider-Man 3), TV Funhouse, the Blade TV series, and Warner Bros. I’m not saying that I didn’t enjoy them. I probably could have spent my time looking at the things no one else is looking at. I could have made my experience more educational than entertaning.

There were vendors on end of the convention center, and artists and illustrators on the other end. In between were numerous comics booths. Some were from webcomics, some were independent, others were larger reputable publishers. I started to go around and just take my time to look at things and occasionally strike up a conversation. Everybody’s main reason for being at Comic-Con is to basically sell something. During one of my random conversations with a random comic I had never heard of, I ended up buying the first issue. The comic is called The Descendants. I should have bought the second issue while I was there. Comics are an investment and you have to pay in order to keep up with the story. Aside from that, there was a letter at the end of Issue 1 from the creator of The Descendants, Joe Andrade. He described his passion for comics and why he does what he loves. After reading that letter, I realized that it epitomizes everyone’s reason for being at Comic-Con. It is a place for people who love comics to convene and share their love with fellow nerds.

Retrospectively, all I knew about comics was Marvel and DC. These two giants overshadowed everyone else. In a way, it sparked a small interest in comics in me, to seek something new and interesting. Even if comics can cost a little money and even if the story or art may not be all that great, that is a risk one would have to be willing to take. That was one factor stopping me from investing in other comics. I had no idea what they were about, and I had to pay to find out. Most of the independent, smaller comics writers and artists seemed shy and introverted. They would give me glances, but most wouldn’t necessarily talk to me unless I made the initiative. I feel like I should have taken some more risks, and dived into the world and culture of comics.