Comic-Con is for broke people too

17 JULY 2024

This is not a post for 2024 attendees - it's for everyone who isn't going to San Diego Comic-Con, who wistfully wishes they could go but thinks they don't have the $$$$.

I used to do "SDCC on a Budget" posts about inexpensive food options, free events, and other ways to save money at the Con. But it occurred to me that probably quite a few people exempt themselves from even trying to attend a Con - be it San Diego or others - because they're strapped for cash.

I'm not here to tell you to go into debt or spend money you don't have. But if you're drinking in all the Comic-Con news from home and seeing pricey event tickets and looking up downtown hotel rooms that cost $1K+, you might come away with the idea that SDCC or NYCC or other Cons are only for the affluent. And that just doesn't have to be true.

Here's what to know about financing a Comic-Con trip.

You won't be paying for everything at once

For San Diego Comic-Con, you'll pay for your badge in the preceding fall; about six months later (roughly), you'll put down two nights' deposit on a hotel room. Then you'll have a few months more before you arrive at SDCC and pay the remainder of your hotel bill. Other Cons follow a similar path, though not all. This can give you a few months' breathing room to pay down those initial charges on your card and put aside some fun money.

You can do a partial Con

Especially for first-timers, this is a wise option. You don't have to buy a full badge and pay for 4-5 nights in a hotel. You could just pay for 2 nights/3 days at the Con or even pay for 1 night if you know you're spending 1 night in line. Don't be so sure a truncated Con won't slake your nerdy thirst; just 2 days of Comic-Con can be more thrilling and exhausting than you'd think.

You can find alternate lodging

Your hotel bill is usually your biggest expense. For this reason, many people will cram into one room and even sleep in shifts. But you can try to stay in a local hostel; you can find a very budget motel and take transportation into the city; you can sleep outside in various lines. (But please, for the love of God, find a place to shower.)

You might wonder why I don't mention Airbnb or one of those sketchy arrangements where locals will offer up a couch in their basement. The sole answer is that they are less reliable than an actual hotel. There are numerous legends about people who get their Airbnb reservation cancelled at the last minute by owners who just realized how much more they can charge during SDCC.

You might qualify for a badge discount

Most conventions offer discounts if you're a senior, junior or military; kids under a certain age are usually free. You can also volunteer, which usually gets you full or partial free access to the Con. Just look at the event website and find out their application requirements.

Finally, you can try to come in as a booth worker or a vendor's right hand. But be aware that there's a huge difference between working for someone you know and answering one of the job ads you see every summer. Those are often looking for people with modeling or acting experience and if they do hire you, you'll often work long hours with very little free time of your own.

You can bring your own food

Hats off to those attendees who pack up a little meal for themselves and carry it into the Con like a squirrel. I am not that person, but plenty of people live off apples, power bars, nuts, sandwiches, cereal and other food kept in their rooms. Going slightly more expensive, there are food trucks, pizza slice shops, and fast food. Once, people could scavenge appetizers and snacks from hospitality suites - but those spreads have shrunk down in recent years.

You might be able to buy and sell your way to a profit margin

This is also something that I think has become less reliable - but some attendees finance their Con by buying exclusives and selling them at a profit. This has always seemed like a colossal headache to me, and unpredictable to boot - even skilled flippers can be mistaken over what's going to sell for a big markup and what's going to collect dust. It also involves strenuous effort from standing in multiple lines to making trades to haggling with vendors.

Here's a horrible story: I know of a comic shop that sent employees to SDCC to buy a long wish list of items and said they would have to pay their own expenses if they fell short. And short they fell - two minimum wage employees stuck with a colossal hotel bill on their credit cards. It's just not as easy as people think to buy and flip unless you're very skilled with a good network.

You can find free events

There will always be pricey events around the bigger Cons - comedy shows, concerts, competitions, private parties - but there are also free events like offsites, screenings, gaming, meetups, and more. And if you're bringing kids, know that there are usually kid-specific panels and events - and they'll probably pick up a fair amount of kid-swag like free books and games during the day. And after a long day traipsing around the Con, they'll also fall asleep earlier at night. :)



I know times are tough for many people. Only you know what's in your checking account. But if going to Comic-Con is deeply embedded in your heart and your bucket list, you can probably work with your friends to pull it off. 

6 things to do on Monday and Tuesday

 17 JULY 2022

I know, I know: there are a million "how to prepare for San Diego Comic-Con!" articles flying around right now. As if you're not swamped enough, right? So here are a few things to do Monday and Tuesday to make this week a lot less stressful:

1. Tell coworkers, friends, and family you can't be disturbed during Comic-Con. No exceptions. Be firm. Bring it up proactively on Monday - and blame it on connectivity challenges. It's just impossible to get wifi in the convention center and your hotel, tell them, and you'll be out all the time in loud environments where you can't hear your phone alert, and in many SDCC places, they make you shut your phone completely off! Maybe some of that is true and maybe some of it isn't, but you'll do yourself a massive favor by cutting that kind of intrusion off at the root. No text messages, no conference calls, no Zoom meetings. If you have the kind of job or family where you absolutely can't go off leash, set a daily check-in time. 

2. Organize your documents. Group your badge with the lists of any exclusives or back issues you're picking up for friends, print any tickets that need to be printed, etc. Put everything on your phone that you can, but have a backup in case your phone dies.

3. Get your money in order. Transfer whatever funds around you need to, and confirm who's paying what for hotel rooms, meals, tickets and other stuff before you get there. Load up on as much cash as you can so you can avoid ATM lines and those credit card freezes that happen when your staggering number of purchases suggests the card has been stolen.

4. Make a list of 3-5 priorities - not 20. It's fine to have a backup wish list, but if you focus on too many things, you'll be lucky to achieve any of them. Pick your top 3-5 must-haves (signings, panels, events) and organize your days and choices around those things.

5. Let go of any half-baked cosplay plans. Every year someone I know waits until the last second to come up with a cosplay idea. Then it's a race to hunt through stores for the right clothes, tools, and theatre makeup, and all SDCC anticipation is smothered by anxiety as the cosplay looks mediocre and unfinished. If this is you - just let it go. It's not happening this year. And bad cosplay will eat up your Con time in terms of repairs, adjustments, and dissatisfaction.

6. Confirm your hotel arrangements. Many of us have roommates, have transferred rooms to friends, have nights to add or subtract, or need to pay/collect on a deposit. Now is the time to make sure everything is correct and in order. One year, I transferred a room to someone who somehow never changed the name on it, then asked the hotel for an upgrade and told them to cancel the "duplicate" room under my name - my actual room I was keeping at the same hotel. I only learned I was homeless (and was able to fix it) because I'm methodical about confirming hotel rooms. Also, if someone is being squirrely with you about paying their share, collect right now or tell them they're not in the room. I've seen people get stiffed before. 

I know people say comparison is the thief of joy, but I think stress is - so take care of the little things now so you're not stressing later.

10 last minute SDCC reminders

16 JULY 2018

Are we really just 48 hours from Preview Night?

Some of you may be packed and ready to go; some of you may be postponing your SDCC prep till tomorrow night. Some of you may already be there. Or maybe you're in a Putin/Prime Day rabbit hole. If so, remember that Comic-Con is the cure for what ails you - so here are 10 last minute reminders.

1. Bring your badge! There aren't enough panic attacks in the world for the moment you step off the plane and realize your badge is in another time zone. And if you need to pick up your badge, remember you can do so in the Sails Pavilion starting Tuesday.


2. Confirm your hotel. Today I cancelled Saturday night at my hotel. Of course the Hyatt robot effed it up and changed my reservation to Saturday to Tuesday. There's always some last minute drama. If you've had anything dodgy with your hotel room - a transfer, multiple reservations, etc. - it doesn't hurt to confirm your details now, before arriving.

3. Keep checking for Conan and other event tickets. Don't waste a lot of time on this, but remember that people will cancel their plans and give away their tickets. Keep your ear tuned on Twitter and the forums in case anyone has an extra ticket to something.

4. Make backup plans. Veterans know this: a lot of your plans won't work out. Bless your heart if you've designed some tightly plotted schedule, but at least 1/2 of it will fall through. Look through the guide and pencil in backup plans. And don't be too militant with yourself; let your day evolve in unexpected directions, whether that's deciding to sleep in, skip a panel or accept an invitation to a Hall H line effort.

5. Bring extra batteries, headphones and portable chargers. Don't count on charging up when and where you need to. It's faster and more reliable to just pop in a fresh battery or use your own charger.

6. Abandon any half-assed cosplay plans. Every year someone goes into an 11th-hour cosplay panic where they want to be a certain character but haven't actually pulled something together. If you aren't at the finish line yet, forget it. You won't look as convincing or finished as you want to, and it's just more unnecessary stress. If you are committed, make sure you bring adequate repair supplies for sewing, armor, weapons, makeup wounds and anything else that can fail suddenly.

7. Print out anything you might need. I know, we're all so digital now, but devices fail. And sometimes you really need a hard copy of your friends' contact info, your schedule, your hotel confirmation, your Conan tickets, your barcode confirmation, etc. On that note, make sure you have a unified list of everything you're picking up for friends back home. You won't have time to scroll through text messages from 42 people, trying to remember who wanted what and where you can find it.

8. Clarify any murky hotel arrangements. Who's sleeping in what room? Who gets the bed and who's relegated to an air mattress? If you're part of a large group with multiple rooms/roommates, it doesn't hurt to do a final check to make sure everyone's covered.

9. Set expectations with family, friends and coworkers. If people insist on bothering you at Comic-Con, let them know now that connectivity is very faulty in the convention center and you probably won't get their texts, emails and calls! Maybe that's true and maybe it isn't, but it's a statement that serves a greater cause: the potency of your Comic-Con joy. If you absolutely have to be accountable, schedule a daily check-in time and restrict them to it. Having your phone go off all day with work questions and annoyed demands for attention from your SO can really poison a fine SDCC moment. Their neediness can wait until Monday.

10. Take care of any banking transfers now. I'm always surprised by the number of people who show up at Comic-Con without any money. Often they're depending on someone to transfer money into a certain account or they thought their mom would let them borrow a credit card or some other mishap has ensued. If you have even slightly precarious finances, I would transfer funds around now to make sure you have valid credit cards and sufficient cash.

Let's talk about SDCC exclusives

25 JUNE 2017

Most people come to San Diego Comic-Con prepared for one challenge: the lines. What doesn't get discussed as much are the problems surrounding exclusives. And I wish they were, because it's a source of much frustration for nerds who come to SDCC specifically to buy one-of-a-kind action figures, variant covers, gewgaws and other items. They think that if they can get into Preview Night (or first thing any other morning) they have a good chance of getting what they want.

That's really not the case. Instead this kind of dynamic happens:

• The "exclusive" is also available online for virtually anyone - and will hit ToysRUs in time for Christmas
• A labryrinth of ticket lotteries, lines and other hoops to jump through make buying onsite complicated and almost impossible
• People with early access to the Exhibit Hall buy up the exclusives before attendees get in
• Resellers dominate and flood Ebay at marked-up prices
• Absolute mayhem

I'm not a big exclusives person, so I tapped some people who are way more serious about it than I am. Here are their experiences.


Comic shop worker: His boss sent him and another staff member to SDCC on retailer passes with a list of exclusives to pick up. The deal was that those exclusives had to pay for their trip there with money left over. (This wasn't  a mutual agreement - it was a "do this if you want to keep your job" thing and it's not uncommon.) None of them - the owner or the staff - had been to SDCC before and the staff members were unprepared for the brutality of trying to get certain Hasbro and other exclusives. They were freaking out about being stuck with their hotel bill, ended up living on Ramen all 4 days and barely slept because they were making deals to get other things (like event tickets and back issues) to trade for exclusives.

Anonymous attendee: He's had numerous struggles with Hasbro, Mattel and Lego. Last year 3 of his friends bought a Mattel WW Barbie during the pre-sale for him to pick up and ship home. After waiting in line for 4 hours at the Marriott, Matty Collector staff took a 3 hour lunch, then came back and closed early. He had to come back the next day and wait again. And because the WW Barbie turned out to be less than exclusive after all, his friends no longer wanted it. He was also annoyed that last year's Lego "exclusives" were more like early releases of the Block Headz that were available 9 months later at TRU, Target, and Walmart.

Various first-timers I've talked to: Some of them were able to join certain trading circles to get what they wanted; one spent 17 hours straight online trying to get a specific figure and finally found someone to sell it to him behind a food truck; one came from Mexico specifically to get a 6" Boba Fett figure and never got it despite his best efforts. A first-timer who came with me in 2013 almost lost it over our hellish experience at the Mattel booth. Another one saw two attendees get marched out by Security after an argument over a line. Exclusives disappointment seems to be a recurring theme among the first-timers who share their stories each year.

Veteran attendee: He believes that while the exclusives aren't as great in recent years, the recent advent of wristbands and tickets has made onsite sales more manageable. He got upset last year when Security moved a line he was in to another part of the convention center, which made it easy for people to cut in. He also dislikes the online lotteries, because he feels that more exclusives go to people who are simply out for what they can get vs. passionate collectors. But overall, he believes that as Comic Cons get more high-profile and companies see more $$$ to be made, the type of exclusives we used to get - that were limited to the buyers within the convention center - are dwindling.

Recovering exclusives addict: Just like some people can't resist a blackjack table or a hypodermic needle, some nerds are driven to possess exclusives whether they like them or not. It's the rarity and challenge they can't resist in most cases, as with my friend B who used to drop an incredible amount of money on exclusives. (Enough to pay off a house, is his estimate.) He would crave something right up until the moment he knew it was accessible to the public; one time he was zealously hunting a fairly valuable item when he came across it at a used bookstore for $25. His desire for it died on the spot. At that point he knew it was a compulsion he couldn't afford, and today he rarely buys any exclusives. If this describes you in any way - maybe not to this extent, but you keep collecting way past your budget - then make sure you do your homework on whatever you're eyeing. You will often find out it's not as rare, special or necessary as you think. And that the resale value (always a convenient justification for buying) isn't worth it.


Just a few things to think about. I'm not going to give precise advise because I'm not enough of a savvy procurer to do so. I will say that you'll pick up the best advice and contacts on collector boards. While "San Diego Comic-Con Exclusive" is still highly marketable packaging, most collectors I know don't try to go to SDCC - but they do know what things are worth and where you can get them. If you're dazzled by the exclusives that have been paraded around online so far but living on a budget, do some research. You'll make better decisions, have more money, and you'll appreciate whatever you do buy instead of regretting it a month later.

So you got an SDCC badge: the next 100 days

10 APRIL 2017

If you survived the extinction event known as Open Registration - congratulations. I didn't want to be insensitive on Saturday by throwing a giant Badge Holder Smugness party, but it's been 48 hours and I think we can all revel in our glorious luck. And frankly, it's time to get down to business, because San Diego Comic-Con is just a little more than 3 months away.

Here's what you should do now.



Take advantage of Early Bird Hotel sale or prep for Hotel Day while arranging a backup plan.

Locking down a hotel room for SDCC has gotten harder each year, and there's good reason to think that this year will bring a radically new process that you won't like. Here are your options: book a non-downtown room now without stress or uncertainty in the Early Bird sale; gamble in the Hotel Day sale; look for an Airbnb or other alternative situation. In fact, I'd partner those last two together, because it's so unlikely that you'll get the downtown room of your dreams.

First-timers, you may think 1) I'm exaggerating or 2) it doesn't matter where you stay. I'm not and it does. Staying in Mission Valley or elsewhere doesn't have to ruin your Con, but it's definitely more convenient to be closer. For those of you who've successfully traded reservations before on the attendee underground market, it's getting increasingly difficult to do that too. With the process changes expected this year, I'm guessing that will hold true.

What I'm saying: be scrappy and do what you can to lock down some lodgings.


Sign up for the parking lottery.

If you think you will be in the unfortunate situation of driving in and out of the area each day, you'll want to sign up for the parking lottery now. The drawing is on 25 April so don't delay. Be aware this isn't an option to drive into San Diego, deposit your car and pick it up Sunday; there's no overnight parking. (If your hotel doesn't have parking or even if it does, consider parking at the airport - it's significantly cheaper than hotel valet.)

 Save money.

I know, I know - you just paid for a badge and now you'll need to make a 2 night deposit on your hotel room. You may also be paying a hefty tax bill this week. No one is in a saving frame of mind. But you will have a much better time at SDCC if you wine, dine and shop as much as you want - and that means having a pretty sum put aside. Now is the best time to start; by June you'll see events tickets going on sale and certain exclusives will go up for pre-sale too. If you're currently having financial struggles, then you should definitely start saving now.


Get in shape.

SDCCfit is a thing now but far too many people still show up at Comic-Con unprepared for its physical demands. You can always identify them by Friday; they're sprawled in hallways with defeated expressions as they rub their feet and beg off other events. No one is ever prepared for how tiring Comic-Con is - all the walking and standing, the unexpectedly vast distances between going to lunch at the Fox Sports Grill at Hilton Bayfront, grabbing swag from the fulfillment room at the Hyatt, then heading back to Hall H. Seriously, pioneers didn't walk this much when their horse and buggy broke down. To make sure you're not sidelined by Day 2, start walking regularly and building up your endurance.

Make friends.

Here's something not many people know: a large percentage of Comic-Con attendees go alone. They don't have friends who share their interests, or their friends have kids/jobs keeping them at home, or they had a breakup when it was too late to invite someone else. There's nothing wrong with going to SDCC alone, but it's definitely more fun to meet up with friends. Start hanging out in the online SDCC communities. Not only will you find out about more events and exclusives, you'll have a better social life when you're there.


Take time off. 

Maybe you were waiting to see if you got a badge before doing this, but request vacation time off from your job now. Make sure you won't be guilted for skipping family weddings or graduation parties or summer trips, and if you need childcare help or some other kind of coverage, make those arrangements too.

Make a cosplay decision.

If you're part of a cosplay group, start working out the details now; if you're going solo, at least make overtures toward getting/making your outfit and props. This often takes longer than you think, and I know so many people who abandon their first plan mid-way and opt for something else. You can avoid getting stuck at the Con in an outfit you hate by getting started now.

Study up.

First-timers! What a journey of discovery awaits you. I know you've seen San Diego Comic-Con on YouTube and you've heard wild stories, and you probably think you have a decent idea of what to expect. You are wrong. It's bigger, louder and more multi-faceted than you can imagine, like a monstrously huge cephalopod that sucks you in and forces you to stumble, lost, through its many tentacles. That's why so many first-timers come home from SDCC dazzled but slightly resentful; they know they were in the midst of something incredible, but they also know they missed a lot of it.

Read up real accounts of people who've gone, and all of the advice on navigating what can be a bewildering experience. Hear what your first-timer ancestors thought - here and here and here and here. Oh, and here and here too.


Pay attention, starting now.

Comic-Con may seem far off but certain developments are already stirring. SyFy announced it will be broadcasting live again for instance; various exclusives will quietly go up for pre-sale and sell out before you found about them (already happened with DC Bombshells figures this year); tickets will be given away but only to people subscribed to a certain newsletter who happen to be online 15 minutes before go time. This takes knowledge and skill, and if you're new to Planet SDCC, it may be really frustrating how everyone seems to know this stuff but you. Make sure your Member ID account is checked to accept third-party offerings and stayed connected on social and the blogs so you find about events and sales in time. The Conan O'Brien tapings are a great example of people not understanding how to get tickets.


The next 3 months are going to whip by. We are firmly in Comic-Con season and there's no turning back - so get ready.

Financial reminder about Open Registration

27 MARCH 2017

Open Registration for San Diego Comic-Con is just around the corner. Whether you're trying to upgrade a Returning Reg badge or anticipating your first badge sale ever, your thoughts are probably consumed with the outcome: if you're getting a badge at all.

But there is something else to think about now and that's money. I talked to some first-timers this weekend who were struggling to come up with the price of a Preview Night badge (that's all 4 days plus Preview Night for you neophytes.) They were thinking that IF they get lucky in the sale, they'll have to pay $265. They were not happy when I pointed out that the badge sale lets you buy 3 badges - so whoever gets picked and buys for himself and his 2 friends, will actually have to pay $795.

Credit cards are the only accepted form of payment. Whoever you buy for might Paypal you the money right away, but you'll still need enough room on your cards to get all 3 badges. Conversely, if someone else buys for you, you'll need to have the cash on hand to send them.

So consider this a polite reminder: if you're struggling financially, or have some type of credit/cash flow issue, it's best to get your funds worked out now. CCI does let you fix any card rejection that might occur, but you'll still need to come up with payment within a short window of time. This is the last thing you want to worry about during the sale, when you'll already be anxious - so do what you can now to make sure the money is there.

Phoenix Comicon adopts paid volunteer model

24 JANUARY 2017

After weeks of controversy regarding changes to its volunteer model, Phoenix Comicon has arrived at a surprising decision: they are going to pay their (reduced) volunteer force.

Actual statement: "After much deliberation, we have decided to shift to an all paid staff in the operation of Phoenix Comicon and all events associated with Square Egg Entertainment, including Phoenix Fan Fest, Minnesota Fan Fest and Keen Halloween."

The email didn't discuss numbers but I'm hearing the plan is to reduce from 1300 volunteers to 400. (Emphasis on "hear".) A colossal reduction in volunteers seems inevitable, along with these questions:

• How do you drastically reduce the number of volunteers for a rapidly growing Con? Remember, PHXCC joined the 6-figure attendee club last year. One proposed answer is that one paid volunteer can do the work of several unpaid volunteers. That suggests they won't have time to enjoy the Con, always a selling point of volunteering, but these paid volunteers may be more like the security guards and other staff we see at Cons: procured as labor and nothing more. Given the number of volunteer hopefuls, though, it's impossible to discount their enthusiasm for PHXCC.

• Will badge prices go up? We don't know yet - but I would guess any increase would be moderate. And the money would be unlikely to come only from badge sales, since Cons have other revenue streams such as sponsorships and booth fees. But I'm only speculating here.

• What about the former volunteers who now won't be picked? This we have an answer for: each 2016 volunteer will receive 2 free full event tickets for 2017 if they're not selected to volunteer.

• Will this turn the tide of ill will that's been mounting in the Phoenix nerd community? This is subjective, but I'd wager... not so much. I can't say this enough: the free badge aspect is not the chief draw for most volunteers. (Though sheer access may be for sold-out Cons like SDCC.) Passionate fans love to feel involved with Comic Cons. Some genuinely enjoy helping attendees, others love the small amount of authority they have, many look forward to the social opportunities that come with joining a fun community, and so on. While it's laudable that the organizers want to compensate their volunteers fairly and stay on the right side of the law, anticipating their own exclusion has left many people feeling sad or resentful today. (On the positive side, I'm sure some of them will be inspired to host an event or participate in the Con another way.)

The decision is being justified as as a move that "avoids further controversies as this industry changes, keeps us compliant with changing laws and increases the professionalism and effectiveness of our team." Everyone's free to dissect that wording however they like - but it can't be denied that the burgeoning Con sphere is introducing complex questions around volunteering and compensation, and even the definition of non-profit vs. for-profit. So don't think this conversation is over - we'll be having it at other Cons, in other years, with many possible outcomes in play.

Should you be thinking about SDCC? Probably.

12 NOVEMBER 2016

Is your head throbbing with a post-election headache? It's been an ugly week, and many of us are facing acrimonious Thanksgiving/Friendsgiving dinners bound to feature aggressive debates. If like me, you have relatives furiously correcting each other between Holland, New York and San Francisco, the rest of 2016 may look pretty contentious too.

So here's a happier idea to contemplate: San Diego Comic-Con. Okay, the badge sale part is far from happy, but right now you can keep your eye on the prize and fantasize about all the idyllic panels and parties you'll experience next summer. You can almost feel that Ballroom 20 seat underneath you, right?

And of course - I know you know this - that means good planning. 2017 Pre-reg will take place early next year, with Open Registration not long after, and that really isn't so far away. To anchor SDCC 2017 in your mind and your future, you might want to start mapping all this out now:


1. Your buying group. Discuss your methodology and rules. Not to be all stodgy about this, but so many "groups" are people promising to be all in, while really belonging to multiple groups and shutting down as soon as someone gets them in. Think about who you can trust and start talking now about it.

2. Your safety hotel room. A lot of people have been on this for months but that doesn't mean all the rooms are snatched up. Other hotels haven't even made any rooms available yet. Start calling and Internetting around and see what you can get. And remember, this only matters if you want to stay downtown. If you're okay with staying far out, you can rely on the Early Bird sale.

3. Your back-up Con. We're facing 2 sales in a smaller timeframe, which might mean washing out might pack a tougher emotional punch. So think now about where else you might like to go if you don't get a SDCC badge. Obviously I'm an Emerald City fan but Salt Lake, Dragon Con, NYCC, Gen Con, Boston, Denver, Silicon Valley, Phoenix, and so on are all contenders. Start researching alternates now and pick one that gets you somewhat excited so your badge sale failure won't feel quite so fatal.

4. Your traveling companions. I know the SDCC cliche is a gang of friends all having fun together, but there are thousands of people who either go alone or would like to go but don't have friends that share their interests. If that's you, don't let that stop you from going to Comic-Con. It is fun by yourself and you'll meet a lot of people who feel like immediate friends. Plus a lot of people who go "together" barely see each other because they're always at different panels and events. But in the event you do want to go with someone, if only to share hotel expenses, start looking around now. Ask coworkers, long-distance friends, fellow fans, and don't feel weird about it. Expanding your social network is part of what's great about Comic-Con life.

5. Your budget. Saving money is always smart when it comes to Comic-Con; you might not get a discounted room in the hotel sale, a roommate might bail at the last second, your car might die and you need to buy a plane ticket, etc. And of course you'll always want to spend spend spend when you're there. Make a savings plan now, and if you have the kind of family members who like to be generous around the holidays, don't be afraid to ask Santa for a Comic-Con contribution.


I really do think the badge sales will come up fast. The holidays are always busy, and then there we are plotting our badge sale domination, our Hotel Day strategies, and it just accelerates from there. If you've been to SDCC before, you know that planning is the key that opens the door to a fulfilling Con. And if you haven't? Study up, kids, starting now. You've got a wild road ahead of you.

William Shatner headlined 4 Cons this weekend

5 SEPTEMBER 2016



How did you spend Labor Day weekend? Pick one:

•  DragonCon
• Salt Lake Comic Con
• Baltimore Comic Con
• FaxExpo Canada
• The Star Trek event in New York
• PAX West
• San Francisco Comic Con
• Floating in your pool with a beer before you close it up for fall

If you picked the last one, you're a lazy slacker compared to William Shatner, who tweeted that he was featured at 4 of the above this weekend. How did he manage it? I have no idea - the fact that he's in his eighties makes it even more incredible - but we do know that the demand for Con talent is on the rise.

This article from Forbes examines the multiplication of events and how celebrities - even YouTube and cosplay celebrities - are compensated and the ensuing rise in ticket prices. The driving cause of this madness: us. Our insatiable thirst for these events means money to be made. Is it going to peak? Will people burn out on going to Cons, and will the oft-predicted financial crisis around 2018 have any impact on our ability to keep spending on this madness? Or is Con life becoming a quasi-permanent part of our culture like sports?

I'm not sure, but I do know that we all have an embarrassment of riches to choose from when it comes to conventions. San Diego Comic-Con may still be the pick of the litter, but there are enough consolation prizes to make sure everyone has somewhere to go. You just have to appreciate your options.

San Diego Comic-Con 2016 by the numbers

31 JULY 2016

Visit San Diego put together an infographic about SDCC if you're curious about our spendiness and economic impact.

Other numbers that didn't make it into the infographic: 3500 registered media were in attendance, and the convention center had 230 full-time staff, 229 part-time staff and 95 temp staff working; that doesn't include partners' staff, external laborers, and of course the exhibitors and vendors. And last year we left almost 2 tons of food uneaten, which fed 3000 locals.

Always nice to know we're not just a swarm of locusts that annually descends on San Diego and devours every action figure and burrito in sight.

Prepping now for San Diego Comic-Con

29 FEBRUARY 2016



Now that Open Registration furor has cooled, those of you who got a badge for San Diego Comic-Con have probably shifted from disbelief and joy to more practical concerns like...

1) How much money will you need?
2) When will the hotel sale happen?
3) Is there anything special you should start doing now?


So let's go over that.

Think about hotels.

I outlined this previously, but here it is again - Early Bird Sale I expect to happen shortly, followed by Hotel Day. Right now you need to decide whether you want to opt for certainty and economy by doing the Early Bird Sale, or gamble your fate on Hotel Day. More details on that as they get announced.


Tithe your income to SDCC.

Unless you're a member of the Comic-Con 1%, you need to start a special SDCC fund now. Why? Because over the following months you'll see parties, comedy shows and concerts advertised with online ticket sales. You'll try to get into a Nerd HQ panel. You'll want to do an exclusive pre-sale. And when you arrive at the Con, all those vows you made to rein in the spending will go out the window. You'll run into an old friend and go out for drinks somewhere swank, you'll see the rare action figure of your dreams, you'll feel tired and take cabs instead of walking. Save money now.

Sell your nerd stuff now, not later.

For some reason, first-timers often think that SDCC is the best place to sell off their collectibles. It's not. I don't know if it's the worst, but it's not ideal. Other than a few lightning strikes where you and a vendor turn out to be soulmates, most booths are trying to unload as much merchandise as possible. Many operate on a thin profit margin besides and are very nervous about making back their money, as opposed to feeling generous. Collect all those back issues and figures now and sell them however you can - Ebay, OfferUp, your local retailer - and pocket that cash. You'll get to enjoy a newly spacious house before you fill it up again in August.

Plan your marketing game.

Maybe you're just going to network; maybe you're going to participate in Portfolio Review or Comic Creator Connection; maybe you're going to stalk a certain agent and dazzle them with your brilliance. (That last one is not recommended, actually.) Start thinking now about how to put your best commercial foot forward and the materials involved - business cards, a prettier landing page, sample work, a new domain. I know it seems like you have months to get it done but the next 5 months will fly by.

Build up your stamina.

You don't have to be super-buff to get through Comic-Con - but if you're severely out of shape or just not used to walking, you're going to be sore after 1 day. You'll stand in line quite a bit. You'll sit in uncomfortable positions in hallways. You'll walk hither and yon all day and night. Your mind will want to go a Friday night cosplay party, but your feet will beg you to stay in your hotel bed. Be kind to your future self and start walking or biking daily now.

Get to know the SDCC community.

You will always, always, always, find out the most valuable information - which secret concert is happening, how to get a certain autograph ticket - by befriending other attendees. Read the blogs and forums, ask who's going in your other digital communities and fandoms, and get connected. You'll pick up countless tips that will serve you well later.

Start thinking about your costume.

Yes, I said "start." I'm not talking to you cosplay fanatics who pay monthly storage fees to house all your props and costumes and staging. Attendees who are new to cosplay but think they'd like to try it often leave this to the last second. Don't. This isn't like a Halloween party where everyone's costume is terrible and you're all drunk after 2 hours anyhow so who cares. At SDCC, you'll care. You don't have to be professionally polished - but you will want to make sure your cosplay fits comfortably, can hold up while moving in a crowd, won't suffocate you or make you sweat too much and isn't too itchy. Spend time in it, make sure you're not flashing anyone when you move a certain way, and ask your friends for suggestions. That last is really helpful when you're doing conceptual cosplay.

First-timers - be aware that the majority of attendees wear street clothes, not cosplay. There's a general impression that everyone dresses up, but no, it's quite optional.


Overall, you can expect this schedule between now and Comic-Con. Other than the hotel sale, the next two months will be quiet. Around May, you'll begin hearing about events and a few exclusives and releases, and then in June the pace will pick up. By July, monitoring SDCC developments will be a full-time job. Expect your productivity at work to drop and all your unbadged friends to tell you to stop talking about Comic-Con. Your mind will be a circus of all the screenings, parties, panels, tournaments and toys you're anticipating and then finally - you'll be walking through the doors of the convention center.

In other words, enjoy this lull while you have it.

How to go to Comic-Con when you're poor

8 JANUARY 2016

Do you think you're too broke to go to Comic Con?

The last few years I've done "SDCC on a Budget" posts when Con time rolls around. But it's occurred to me that probably quite a few people exempt themselves from even trying to attend a Con - be it San Diego or others - simply because they feel they don't have the cash required.

I'd never try to persuade someone into spending $$$$ they don't have. However, it's my experience that many people assume that going to SDCC or NYCC is going to cost "thousands of dollars." That doesn't have to be true. People love to exaggerate and there are plenty of articles and online comments referring to $700 a night rooms and such that can make first-timers panic.

The reality is a little more nuanced. First of all, know that you'll be paying in installments. For San Diego Comic-Con, for instance, you usually pay for your badge first. A few weeks or months after that, you'll be asked to put down a deposit on a hotel room (or, if you do Early Bird, pay for your entire stay.) Then you'll have a few months more before you arrive at SDCC and pay for meals and the remainder of your hotel bill.

Other big Cons follow a similar path: badge in advance, hotel partly in advance and partly on check-out. If you're not good at saving money, this can give you a few months' breathing room to pay down those initial charges on your card.

On that note, don't forget that doing a partial Con is an option. Maybe instead of buying a full pass and 4 nights in a hotel, you just do Friday and Saturday and 2 nights. You could even arrive at dawn Friday, spend that night in a hotel, camp Saturday and leave at the end of Sunday. Voila, you've gotten 3 days at the Con while paying for only 1 night in a hotel. (If you're convinced a truncated Con would never satisfy the nerdy thirst inside you, don't be so sure. Just 2 days of Comic-Con can thrill and exhaust you more than you'd anticipate.)

So if you'd like to go to a big Comic Con but think you can't afford it, here's how budget-strapped people do it.


Hotels

This is usually the priciest aspect of going to the Con. A few options: you can try to stay in a local hostel; at some Cons you can camp in a nearby campground and take public transportation into town. You can also - if you're up for it - squeeze as many people as possible into your room. I knew one group that slept in shifts, with the morning people sleeping from 10 pm or so till dawn, and the partiers sleeping from dawn to afternoon. Everyone paid about $30 a night.

If you don't have someone - or enough someones - to share your room, ask around online, if you're comfortable sharing with strangers. You will definitely find others who didn't get a room at all or would like to split costs. Another option is bluntly asking people if you can crash with them 1 night. Overnight Hall H lines have been mitigated by the wristbands, but camping is still a thing at SDCC and other Cons and if you think you'll do at least 2 nights outside, you might see if you can sleep on someone's hotel room floor the other 2.

Finally, know that in SDCC's case, they offer up hotel rooms via the Early Bird sale. These aren't for downtown hotels - you will need to take the shuttle - but the rates are lower. Put 4 people into a room for 180 a night and you've got yourself a fairly manageable nightly rate per person.


Badges

Most conventions offer discounts if you're a senior, junior or military; kids under a certain age are usually free. You can also volunteer, which usually gets you full or partial free access to the Con. Just look at the event website and find out their application requirements.

Finally, if you've got connections you can try to come in as a booth worker or a vendor's right hand. Please note: there's generally a huge difference between working for someone you know and answering one of the job ads you see close to Con time. The latter tend to be low-paying with long hours and often only hire people with modeling or acting experience. Don't expect a lot of free time to scamper around the Con and attend panels and events at your leisure.



Meals

This is the element most in your control. I know people who live on a Spartan Comic-Con meal plan and it works for them. Generally, they pack their own food - cereal, fruit, sandwiches, power bars, etc - or buy groceries at a San Diego store like Ralph's, then live off that in their rooms. They don't go out to eat. OR they do that plus a few cheap indulgences, like a slice of pizza in the Gaslamp or the Horton food court or an $8 sub that feeds them all day long.

There was a time when you could scavenge appetizers and snacks from events and hospitality suites but those sources have dried up somewhat in the last few years.


Transportation

Plane fare is plane fare. Planning in advance and scouting for deals is your only option here, unless you're willing to endure a long bus ride. If you live in driving distance, look around online for anyone else who's driving and see if you can ride along and chip in for gas.


Merch

Some attendees (and shops) make an art of financing their attendance through buying exclusives and selling them at a profit. This has always seemed like a colossal headache to me, and uncertain to boot - it can be hard to anticipate what's going to increase in value and what will be glutting Ebay. If you choose this route, be aware that you will be working for your money, from standing in multiple lines to depending on the occasional ticket lottery to simply not getting to a booth in time.

As far as buying items for your own enjoyment, sometimes you can haggle with vendors and sometimes not. Waiting for the final-day markdowns is your best bet. If you fall in love with something and you're ready to sign over your last dime, check first on your phone to see what it's going for online. It's very rare to come across something at the Con that you can't get elsewhere, but that buzz of Exhibit Hall excitement can make every booth seem like a tantalizing chance of a lifetime.


Events

There will always be pricey events around the bigger Cons - comedy shows, concerts, competitions, private parties - but they're hardly the only show in town. Free events like screenings, gaming, meetups, and more will abound as well. And if you're bringing kids with you and wondering how you'll entertain them, know that 1) they'll be tuckered out earlier than usual at night 2) there are usually kid-specific panels and events at bigger Cons 3) just taking them to see the outside spectacles can awe them 4) they'll probably get a fair amount of kid-swag like free books and games during the day.



All in all, you can pull off a poor nerd's Comic Con if you plan strategically and save well. Of course, even with the above practices, it might still be out of your reach. There's nothing wrong with erring on the side of fiscal prudence, especially if you've never been to a big Con and aren't sure if it's worth the funds. I promise you that every August there are attendees who open their credit card bills and go pale with horror when they see the total of their SDCC spending.

But if you think you can swing it with the right tricks - give it a shot. It could be the best gift you ever give yourself.

What do the changes mean?

11 NOVEMBER 2015



In addition to the usual pre-Pre-registration turmoil, we've been given a lot to think about since yesterday. 3 main changes seem to be stirring up the SDCC citizenry:

1) the RFID badges
2) the badges being mailed out to the buyer only
3) the price increase


Pricing

Here's what I feel about the increase: nothing. I know some of you are on a tight budget and if this is going to rock your world, I am genuinely sorry. But it's a difference of what, $5 a day? And that's a small increase considering that CCI keeps expanding with new spaces at other facilities, they're continually trying to improve things for us (I know it doesn't always seem like it but they are) and we're now getting RFID badges. I remember when the whole show cost under $100. Things change. And it's not like CCI is lining their pockets; they've always been vociferous about trying to keep the Con affordable for everyone.

Onto RFID.

If you've never been to an event that uses this type of badge, it's just a way of electronically storing data within your badge, like microchipping your cat or dog. No, it doesn't mean that CCI will be tracking your movements through the Con, recording your panel attendance and embarrassing failure at Star Trek trivia. Many events that do track entry and exit separate your personal data (name, address, etc) from your demographic data (gender, age) simply to better understand attendee preferences.

If you're a privacy advocate and general watcher of Big Data culture, you might be annoyed that SDCC has gone this route. But I'm guessing most of us are thinking about scalpers. Is there really anything to stop them from moving into Open Reg en masse, equipped with an army of fake Member IDs and laptops, then selling those badges off at sky-high prices?

We know CCI has some kind of black ops team that cracks down on fraud, but I'm sure they'll be taking additional measures to prevent scalping. Mailing badges out at the last minute? Well, it can't be too last minute, because they're aware that many of us will then be mailing those badges a second time to the people we bought for.  And there's nothing to stop scalpers from targeting San Diego locals who don't need a hotel room reservation.

Will they check IDs? They already do but on a very limited basis; they might go through a Hall H line, say, and randomly check IDs while people are waiting (they can bring up the data from the badge with the right gizmo) and hope the threat of permanent banishment is enough to stop people from buying fake badges. (Though I don't think any threat will stop that.)

So that's a bit of a question mark right now. Pre-reg is somewhat more secure; every Member ID eligible is tied to a specific individual who attended the show. But Open Registration is a different story.

Mailing Badges

AKA "Advance Fulfillment." I'm still all about this, though the weird twist CCI threw at us has dimmed my ardor slightly. Whoever buys the badges during Pre-reg will have all 3 (or however many they bought) mailed to them. And since Comic-Con is a world where people who've never met correspond daily and trust each other with their money and SDCC futures, that means many of us will either be receiving and mailing out badges to people we've never met, or trusting them to do the same.

Yes, it's weird. Yes, it would be easier if CCI would just mail each badge to the physical address associated with that Member ID. Probably some of you would prefer to go back to the old way of picking them up onsite. (Though let's admit that eliminating Town & Country & its parking situation is a nice bonus.)

But I don't think anyone should be too skittish about this. The person paying still takes the lion's share of the risk. If your buyer never mails out your badge? You can contact CCI and have that badge turned inactive, and pick up a new one at the Con. On the whole, though, you are entrusting this other person to mail your badge properly - get the address right, buy the right postage, etc.  Again, it adds another layer of anxiety to the whole process.


Hopefully the changes haven't unsettled everyone too much. Personally I'm more worried about a system glitch than any of the above. That said, today and tomorrow are opportune times to talk to people in your buying group and see how everyone feels about the changes. Maybe someone doesn't want to be responsible for mailing out badges; maybe you have international people who won't be able to mail them out; maybe your lineup will change slightly because someone no longer wants their badges in the hands of a stranger.

In the meantime, think positive thoughts about Saturday. I'll post more tips on Pre-reg later.

The face of fandom - how typical are you?

16 SEPTEMBER 2015

Another survey examining our Comic Con ways is stirring discussion. This isn't entirely new, as it's a continuation of the Eventbrite surveys that have been going on since 2013. But the data does reveal some interesting stats on who today's superfan is, how many Cons they go to, what they spend and what they buy. Let's look.

• Here's one absolutely shocking fact: women like going to Cons and now make up half of attendees. Next thing you know we'll be voting and driving cars. Overall the split is 49/49, with 2% defining themselves as non-binary/other gender. 

• 46% of fans go to 3 or more shows annually - slightly more men than women. So don't feel you have to be monogamous with San Diego Comic-Con (which, let's be honest, will never offer a guaranteed badge in return for your loyalty.) Look around and find other events that appeal to your interests. Superfans know each Con has a different energy and offerings, so don't think adding a 2nd or 3rd Con to your annual roster is redundant.

• Women dominate media, fantasy/sci-fi and manga/anime, while men dominate comics and gaming. But every category has a fair amount of both genders, with other/non-binary gender represented most strongly in Alt/Small Press.

• Age and gender patterns intersect. Under age 40, female fans predominate 51% to 46%. Male fans tend to be older, with over a third over 40, and tend to have a longer Con history and higher income.

• Onto cosplay. We've all heard the ridiculous complaints that fake geek girls are using up all the badges just to cosplay for attention and they're not even real fans! Another complaint: those evil women don't spend money on the floor, hurting the exhibitors. So here's what the data actually shows. 
• 2/3 of women do cosplay sometimes at Cons and 30% said it was their primary or exclusive interest. (55% of men said they never cosplay.) 
• "Most male and female fans spend money at comparable levels on the same kinds of stuff. When you adjust for age and household income, women actually spend slightly more and female cosplayers spend about the same as everyone else." The survey has spoken.
• But this stereotype holds true; men spend more on toys and comics while women "slightly" prefer clothes and accessories.

• The number one purchase across every demographic? Original art and prints. That surprises me.

Do you see yourself in these results? Are you Nouveau Comic Con or part of the Old Guard? I don't think any of this is terribly surprising; if you've strolled around a Con in the last year, you've probably seen these trends with your own eyes. 

And they are just trends, not concrete statements on gender preferences and patterns. Plenty of attendees (like me) fly in the face of "boys like comics and girls like costumes" generalizations that might seem supported by the above. Still, it is an interesting look at who's going to Comic Con and why. Hopefully as Con life becomes increasingly recognized as the cultural juggernaut it is, we'll get more data examining our experiences and the factors driving the growing demand for attendance.

What Comic-Con means to investors

16 JULY 2015




Are you curious how San Diego Comic-Con is going to impact your portfolio? (Assuming you have one and it's chock full of major studio stocks.) I'm pretty sure the Motley Fool just wanted an excuse to talk about Star Wars, but this article does contain a few speculative points on how Con performance can impact trading prices and where you might want to invest your discretionary stock dollars. Spoiler alert: that would be Disney, who consistently makes 15%-17% returns on equity year after year.

Comic-Con on a budget

7 JULY 2015





If you read all the online Comic-Con coverage, you can come away with the impression that SDCC is only for the affluent. Invite-only parties at fancy clubs. Events with $200 tickets. Exclusives that run $300 for a simple action figure.

Given that most of us aren’t multi-millionaires, and are already shelling out for 4-5 days of restaurants and hotel rooms, and maybe even airfare, it can be disheartening to think that the really good parts of Comic-Con are out of reach. So I’m here to tell you that you can have just as much fun – or more – doing things that are free or inexpensive. (And please believe me when I say that all those celebrity parties are so unbelievably boring. Attendees throw the really fun parties at SDCC.)

But before we get into that, here's an idea if you’re really strapped for cash. One thing you can do now is cancel your Saturday night hotel room. You’ve probably put down a two night deposit which could cover Wednesday, Thursday or Friday if you have them booked; you can still cancel the other nights at most hotels. So if the Sunday programming isn’t doing it for you, consider leaving Saturday night. Or just ask around and see if a friend will let you crash on their floor. Right there you’ll save a good sum.

In the meantime, there are plenty of options for the budget-conscious.

Events

First, don’t forget about the many, many nightlife options SDCC gives you. They’re all free and some of them are way more interesting than your typical party. Movie marathons, screenings (like Justice League on Friday night and Scream Queens on Saturday night), trivia contests, Spike and Mike, a gay mixer, creative workshops, Nickelodean’s Variety Breadwinners show – there’s a lot to choose from.

MTV is throwing its usual Fandom party Thursday night in Petco Park. That’s free.

Adam Savage on Friday night is also free, and will have drinks and food.

The Bad Ass Music Festival is only five dollars for badge holders.

Nerd HQ may charge for conversations but you can participate in all their other activities for free, including nightly parties.

The official SDCC off-sites – the Game of Thrones experience, Adult Swim, the Assassin’s Creed obstacle course – are all free.

There are seriously so many gaming events even if you don’t want to pony up for Gam3rCon. The Xbox Lounge at the Manchester Grand Hyatt and the Nintendo Lounge at the Marriott Marquis. Nintendiego’s tournament at the Mission Brewery. You can game your heart away for very little at the Con.

Boom!’s 10 year anniversary party at the Hilton Bayfront on Thursday is free.

Crave Online is allegedly giving out 2,000 tickets to their USS Midway party.

Nerdist and Geek and Sundry teamed up for a free Friday party at Petco Park. 

 

Mcfadden's is throwing a free event every night of the Con, including a performance by David Hasselhoff. Now really, where else can you see David Hasselhoff turn in a free bar show while you're surrounded by spilled beer and raucous nerds?

 

Eating on the cheap

I covered some of this earlier, but there are a number of alternatives to splashing out on restaurants all the time.

The most obvious: getting groceries from Ralph’s or some other spot and creating some of your meals yourself in your room.

Pricey restaurants abound in the Gaslamp but there are cheaper options too, like getting a slice of pizza at Gaslamp Pizza or a huge sub at the 24-hour Subway; Horton Plaza Food Court has a lot of fast food options. We’ll have more food trucks this year, but how cheap they are remains to be seen.

If you want to get away from the Con, go to Mission Beach or Ocean Beach. You can get shrimp tacos or other beach fare for under 10 dollars usually.

A lot of bars offer super-inexpensive happy hour options during SDCC. So if you don’t mind greasy bar food (or you even love it) skip the restaurant lines and stroll straight into the nearest saloon.

 

Swag

This is such a tiny portion of the gifts and swag that will befall you:

 

Star Trek: Axanar is handing out giveaways. So is the Power Rangers Dino Charge panel, the TokyoPop panel and the Lego Marvel Avengers panel.

Free ice cream is being passed out randomly around the convention center in honor of Scream Queens.

The Artist as Brand: Rise of the Artist Entrepreneur panel will give out 3 Artist as Brand workbooks.

Anyone who goes to the Magnetic Press panel will get a copy of Poet Anderson #1.

The Something Old, Something New/Classic Comics panel is handing out books. So are the Harper Collins and the Penguin panels, along with ARCs (advanced review copies.)

Nickelodean’s Variety Show featuring Breadwinners Live will hand out “swag bags packed with exclusive collectibles.”

Creepy & Eerie’s Saturday panel will hand out swag “for the demonically deserving.”

The Adult Swim activities always give out t-shirts and other prizes to most participants.

The Archie panels typically are very generous with bags of free books and comics and promo codes.

 If you donate blood at the Hyatt, you get a swag bag full of books, shirts and other merch, and entered into multiple drawings.

While I can’t say for sure they’ll do so this year, the Game of Thrones experience usually hands out shirts and other stuff.

Kids’ panels especially give out a ton of stuff.

 

But here’s one thing that isn’t free – a lot of the postcards and other art at indie and small press booths. Attendees tend to come along and grab stuff without paying for it because they’re used to the giveaways at the big studio booths. But small artists depend on selling those items. Just ask first.

Also – be prepared for some companies to ask for your social media or contact information in order to get their giveaway. They won’t all do it, but some will. So decide in advance if you want to do that, or use fake information.

Again, this is just a portion of the freebies and deals you'll find at Comic-Con. So if your wallet is on the thin side, don't be depressed or think you can't have a good time. You absolutely can. The magic of SDCC isn't about expensive exclusives or glitzy parties. It's about having fun with your friends, other attendees and immersing yourself in the nerd passions that motivated you to go through all this hoopla in the first place.

Peeling back the curtain on CCI

28 JUNE 2015




Something interesting happened this weekend: The New York Times turned its shrewd eye - and somewhat caustic prose - on CCI.

Articles about San Diego Comic-Con abound, of course. But little information is to be found on the people who run it - people who can be maddeningly opaque. There's been little communication between SDCC attendees and the organizers with so much power over their Comic-Con experience, and the frustrations of attendees tend to go unanswered. The type of cursory feedback mechanisms offered by most companies - such as post-event surveys - is nonexistent with CCI; there's barely any transparency into who decides what or why certain decisions are made, and attendees are largely left in the dark as a result. When sales go painfully awry - as with Hotel Day this year - the general response from CCI is silence. Given the various pains associated with SDCC (badge sales, lines, tech meltdowns) this has driven part of the distaste expressed online toward both the convention and the people behind it.

That said, CCI has stepped up their game in the last few years. They started a blog, they have Talkback panels at their Cons, and they've been sharing more information on their issues with staying in San Diego. They create helpful content like badge sale videos. David Glanzer was candid in a recent interview with the SDCC Unofficial Blog. Personally I'd like to see them share more, embrace change and be less guarded - but it can't be denied they are trying to meet attendee needs while becoming slightly more open.

Which is how we got this revelatory article from NYT. A few tidbits:

• CCI "has a longstanding reluctance to discuss its affairs or even, for the most part, to share more than rudimentary details about its leaders." You don't say. They behave "less like a business or conventional nonprofit than a collective of shadowy guardians." But we know they have about 3 dozen paid employees and a volunteer membership of a few hundred people. Interestingly, "the nonprofit's directors have no professional interest in the comic or fantasy business."

• One of the biggest organizational challenges: "Are competing conventions misappropriating the Comic-Con brand?" So not what I would have called a top challenge, given the convention center expansion and hotel issues. And "Will it be able to protect its fans-first image?" Right there you see the breakdown between the organization and the attendees. The organization is worried more about its image than attendee experience - which is why they do not, in fact, have a "fans-first image." Though I'm sure they genuinely want attendees to be happy.

• The article finds a way to reveal CCI's net worth: "Will anything be done with the group's nest egg which included net assets of about 16.4 million in mid-2013 and has been growing at perhaps 3 million a year since?" Smooth, New York Times.

• The oft-discussed issue of the hotels raising rates got a number attached: "450 or more a night." Ouch.

• The convention center charges CCI 150K for the Con, 65% less than non-discounted rent.

• Comic book artists get free trade show space. Small press publishers get a discount, while studios and "paraphernalia salesman" pay big sums for their booths. BUT studios get that sweet Hall H space for free. Well, kind of; it's the extras that have a price tag. Just using the wraparound movie screens costs 600K per hour.

• The Exhibit Hall brings in more than 4.6 million for CCI. All in all, they take in 15 million from their conventions and have expenses about of 12 million.

• The lawsuit against Salt Lake Comic Con was not unique. Warning letters and licensing agreements have been used with more than a dozen conventions that "have used some form of the Comic-Con name" which was trademarked only in 2007.

• The VOD service with Lionsgate will offer movies, shorts, new series and archival footage. It kicks off next April.

What didn't get addressed: the possibility of a streaming service, which is rapidly becoming a hot topic. That alone would be an incredible revenue item. But on the whole, this was a great article that should be of interest to any attendee who's wanted to peel back the SDCC curtain and see who's at the controls.

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