For my event for the Communication In The Wild assignment I attended The Oak City Comicon. The event, in its second year, was held at the Raleigh Convention Center on April 16. “Comicon” is a convention in which fans of comic book culture are able to come together for the opportunity to purchase memorabilia, attend discussion panels, and interact with other fans like themselves. It was obvious as I walked in that this was a huge deal to many people who were attending. Everywhere I looked people were decked out in costumes and t-shirts embodying their favorite characters. Young and old, black and white, this was an opportunity for people of all cultures and all areas to come and bond over their love of comics.
Though the phenomenon known as “comicon” is fairly new to Raleigh, this is not new nationwide. The most popular of these comic book conventions is held yearly in San Diego, California. According to its official website, Comi-Con International was started in 1970 by Shel Dorf, Ken Krueger, and Richard Alf (Brown, 2015). The three of them were fans of comics, movies, and science fiction, and together decided to make a convention for those three things. The first convention was a one-day event, like the one in Raleigh. It was held in San Diego at the basement of the U.S. Grant Hotel and had about 100 attendees. The purpose of this first convention was to attempt to gain interest and funds for a more large-scale event (Brown). Later that year, that event occurred, as the convention was stretched to a three-day event in August of 1970. The event attracted over 300 attendees, and those who attended were able to attend panels, programs, and more. The first full-fledge San Diego Comic-Con featured 25 booths and three guest speakers, which included authors Ray Bradbury and A.E. Van Vogt and artist Jack Kirby.
The same model of the one in 1970 holds today, just on a much larger scale. In 2014 alone there were 700 separate Comic-Con events, each one representing a gathering place for lovers of comic books and the culture surrounding it. Each conventions features the same thing the inaugural one featured: panels, programs, and the ability to see special guests. Nowadays at the larger conventions the guests are bigger than ever. Thought there are 700 comic-cons nationwide, the big attraction is still the original one in San Diego. In 2014, over 130,000 people attended the festivities. The 2015 edition of the San Diego Comi-Con featured the likes of Ryan Reynolds, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lawrence, and Bill Murray. The 2014 edition featured stars such as Mila Kunis, Megan Fox, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Channing Tatum. Each star was there to promote some movie they were in that aligned with the comic book culture each person there was celebrating. Fans flock to see these people in order to see the actors and actresses that depict the characters they love. To them, this is the human embodiment of the illustrations they follow so dearly.
As for the scene at the Oak City Comicon, it was a little more downscaled I would expect compared to one like the event in San Diego. Though it lacked the “hoopla” surrounding the main attraction in San Diego, the effect was the same. In reference to the setting, without the people it felt like I was still in a convention center. The room was lined with tables and stands, filled with comic books and items of value correlated with the books. The panel lacked the big names of those previously mentioned, but interest was still there. The guests this year included Howard Chaykin, an artist for Star Wars, amd Richard Case, another artist. People, regardless of if they aligned themselves with this comic or not, gathered to hear these people talk. Half the draw of events like comicon isn’t just to further your love for the comics you’re already familiar with, but to also learn about the ones they’re unfamiliar with. This convention is an opportunity for many enthusiasts to become enthusiastic about something new, and to form relationships with fellow fanatics.
In addition to personal fandom, this was also a family event. Kids under the age of 10 received free admission, and the parents with young kids fully took advantage of this. Everywhere you looked, you saw children running around, decorated in costumes depicting the likes of Captain America and the Super Mario Brothers. They seemed the least bit interested in the panels and what the significance was of the items there parents were looking at, but they were more than happy to look at the illustrations within the comic books and the relished the opportunity to put on a costume and play dress up. It was interesting to see the parents and kids in matching costumes. In addition to hanging with the families, kids were able to intermingle with the other kids that were there and friendships were formed over a love their parents shared. It’s relationships like these that are such a main attraction to these conventions. While these comic conventions are popular, it’s rare for these people to encounter people in their daily lives.
The dressing up was one of the more intriguing things about this convention. I came to find out that the act of dressing up in costumes was called “cosplaying”. In “cosplay”, fans imitate their favorite characters and make their own costumes. According to Nicole Lamerichs article titled “Stranger than fiction: Fan identity in cosplay”, cosplaying requires four things. Those four things are a narrative, a set of clothing, a play or performance before spectators, and a subject or player. According to Lamerichs, the term “cosplaying” was coined by game designer Takahashi Nobuyuki in the 1980s. Nobuyuki encountered several Americans who were dressed like characters from his games upon meeting him. Though the word was new, the concept was not. The idea of dressing up and attending conventions dated back to the 1960s, when American fans would dress up in order to portray their favorite characters from science fiction series such as Star Wars and Star Trek. Now, cosplay has taken a life form of its own. Separate from conventions like comicon, cosplaying itself has conventions. Cosplay has since developed from being limited to just portraying people from science fiction films. Now, people embody characters from video games, comic books, and their favorite anime characters.
Of the main fandom groups that engage in cosplay, those who follow anime might have the largest number of participants who partake in cosplaying. Anime is mainly a form of Japanese fiction in the form of animated characters. According to Thomas Lammare is his article The Anime Machine, “anime is a source of information about Japan, and especially about Japanese youth.” When I personally think of Japan, I think of companies like Nintendo and I think of anime. While I would not consider myself a fan of anime, I’ve certainly seen its imprints in my life. The most known form of Japanese anime in American culture is Pokémon. Pokémon started out as a role-playing video game in Japan in the late 1990s (Kent, 2010). The craze moved to the United States in 1998 and quickly caught on here as well. The game turned into a lucrative industry and a thriving culture. Pokémon was soon more than a hand-held video game, as it soon became trading cards for people to pit against one another. The movement eventually turned into a popular television show and multiple movies.
I bring this up in order to point out the magnitude of the characters that these people portray in the world. While the likes of Pokémon have become more and more obsolete, the concept opened the door for the shows that have since followed it. It’s about more than just being a fan that leads to people getting involved in these conventions and things like cosplay. For people like Kaylee Hamil, it’s about being someone else. Hamil is a junior at NC State and an avid participant in cosplay. A design student, Hamil enjoys the full process of creating the characters that she adores. She attends a wide variety of conventions each year in order for the opportunity to dress up and meet new people. Hamil said that she’s spent hundreds of dollars on materials to create the best costume she possibly can. She’s uses a array of materials such as foam, wire, and even LED lights. While she enjoys the process of crafting and creating the costume and crafting, the opportunity to act and pretend to be the characters she follows is the best apart about it. Many people create costumes just for the sake of designing something intriguing, but according to Hamil, it’s actually frowned upon portraying characters that you’re not a fan of. Though she considers it an art, it’s a chance for community and discussion with other people who are interested in the same shows that you are.
Though the genres are different, the cultures surrounding comic books and anime are intertwined. The relations between divergent “languages” of comics reflect simultaneously competitive and complimentary relationships which exists between comics and other genres, other popular forms of expression, other forms of literature (Bongco, 2000). As I walked around the convention I could see this was evident. There was no rivalry of what art form was better, just a feeling of admiration and respect of each fandom. As I’ve gotten older, it seems that the more frowned upon it has been to be an extreme fan of things like anime and comic books. Insults are commonly use at kids that support these industries in the form of words like “nerd” and “weirdo”. However, at this convention, I was the one they all considered “weird”. I was walking around in a simple t-shirt that was unrelated to anything that was represented at the convention. While no one made me feel uncomfortable, it was clear that I was an anomaly.
The culture extends beyond just these conventions, however. Movie premieres featuring popular characters from comic books are some of the more popular to hit the box offices in recent years. According to BoxOfficeMojo, four of the top 10 highest grossing movies of all time come from the DC and Marvel comic book families in the form of The Avengers (No, 5), The Avengers: Age of Ultron (No. 9), The Dark Knight (No. 6), and The Dark Knight Rises (No. 10). The recently released Deadpool is based off of a comic book and is the second-highest grossing R-rated movie in history behind The Passion of the Christ. The love for comic books has also lead to theme parks such Universal Studios: Islands of Adventure witch rides based off the stories of characters like Spiderman and The Incredible Hulk. The Star Wars franchise and its fandom is another popular player at these conventions. The most recent release, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, is the highest grossing domestic film of all time. In addition to movies, there have also been television series. Currently, TheCW broadcasts Arrow, The Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow, all which are based on the stories of DC Comic books characters. Currently on Fox is a show titled Gotham, which is a prequel to the extremely popular Batman comic book series.
And so, we’ve come full circle back from the discussion about dressing up and cosplaying, and how it all started among the fans of Star Wars and Star Trek. The stories have proven to be timeless; both franchises have experienced a rebirth is recent years. What started as a convention among 100 people in San Diego has turned into a nationwide phenomenon. While a portion of society might refer to this culture as “nerdy” or “weird”, the old saying certainly applies here: money talks. As this phenomenon continues to grow, the money will grow with it. The conventions will grow in numbers and in spots they weren’t before. More shows will pop up on television networks and more movies will continue to be produced. If there is one thing I learned from the convention, is that these conventions aren’t going anywhere soon, and the Oak City Comicon will only get bigger as time goes on.
References
All Time Worldwide Box Office Grosses. (n.d.). Retrieved April 22, 2016, from http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/world/?pagenum=1
Biagi, M. (2012). About Comic-Con International. Retrieved April 22, 2016, from http://www.comic-con.org/about
Bongco, M. (2000). Reading comics: Language, culture, and the concept of the superhero in comic books. New York: Garland
Brown, T. (2015, July 8). Every Year of Comic-Con In One Giant Timeline. Retrieved April 22, 2016, from http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/herocomplex/la-et-hc-comic-con-san-diego-timeline-htmlstory.html
Lamerichs, Nicolle. 2011. “Stranger than Fiction: Fan Identity in Cosplay.” Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 7.
Kaylee Hamil Interview [Personal interview]. (2016, April 19).
Kent, S. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon. doi:https://books.google.com/books?id=PTrcTeAqeaEC
LaMarre, T. (2009). The Anime Machine. Retrieved April 22, 2016, from https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Anime_Machine.html?id=SUFB8c4h5-oC