Annotated 22-6
I joked yesterday, but it sure is a weird moment to be looking back not only on this story, but on my whole history with conventions and, to some degree, Phil’s as well. I don’t think we’ve really seen the end of nerd gatherings, but we may see them evolve. Personally, I like the “indie vibe” Ulak’s talking about here. I’d like to see more focus on that and less on the Disneyopoly-fied monster shows in California, New York, and whatever city Wizard deems worthy.
(Armagedda-Con, though, is a weird fusion of indie and giant, since it’s the only thing around for Cultists but has to be somewhat disorganized because of government crackdowns.)
My first officially published comics story had both its first scene and climax set in a con, so even the genre of “convention fiction” is like an old friend at this point. I think the key is to capture both the sense of wonder and acceptance you felt at your first show (“My people! MY PEOPLE! I AM HOME!”) and the disillusionment that’s gonna set in sooner or later. Phil was a decade fresher than me, so he was better able to capture the former, but the emotional labor of producing Guilded Age was giving him an early taste of the latter.
That made cons sound horrible, but I’ve never been to one so I’ll deffer to your wisdom.
The last line made me a bit sad because it gives me the impressions that Guilded Age turned out to be more draining than fulfilling.
I enjoy the smaller, fan-run cons. The bigger they get though the less fun I seem to have. Part of this is that the venues get too big – you can walk around for days and fail to meet people you know are there as things split up across different conference areas and hotels. There is also an increasing “cattle market” vibe to the larger media cons, once you have huge queues for signed items etc… whereas at smaller cons you can end up chatting to authors whose books you now want to read at the bar with no idea who they are (or, as at my first con, invited to decent, cheap, local restaurant by a local author who realised you were a bit lost, and until we put our name badges on when we went back in I’d no idea he even was an author I’d heard of).
I suspect it is similar for those attending as “creatives”, the more informal, normally smaller, cons seem to be enjoyed more by folks on both sides really. Of course you also mostly get the authors/artists/etc who value and enjoy meeting people at the smaller cons as they are less of a business event than a social one. I’ve helped run volunteer run fannish cons, and working with some authors who actually had ideas for program items they wanted to do but had never been asked for was great fun, and several of the items went down really well at the con too.
Got to agree with BM03, it is sad to see in the commentary how hard the creative process seems to have been at times, and how difficult the working relationship gets too. This does make it interesting though, as many people gloss over such things, so many thanks for doing this, I hope the commentary process is easier and helps refill some of what was drained.
Regarding the plague. Hopefully things will get back to normal in a 3-6 months and we all get to go to things again, before then take care everyone (as someone with a “pre-existing condition” I’m taking thing seriously). Take care and good luck everyone!
The period we produced chapters 23-24 was, I think, the most difficult for us overall. There were blowups before and one big one after, but it was around this point we were starting to come to grips with what we could and couldn’t accomplish with the business, and both our personal lives kinda sucked as well, all of which took its toll on the partnership. Glad we toughed it out, though.