Although San Francisco hosted the iconic WonderCon for nearly 25 years, WonderCon was relocated to Anaheim in 2011. Since then, SF has been the only major U.S. city without a comic convention.
...Enter Imaginarium, a Florida-based event promoter that sensed an opportunity.
Imaginarium had previously produced only the Indianapolis and Tampa Bay comic conventions, but an Imaginarium spokesperson had professed love for San Francisco culture.
As you and (presumably?) that Imaginarium spokesperson know, San Francisco is a complicated and dynamic city with a long history of queerness and counterculture as well as an obsession with modernity. So when I learned that San Francisco would once again host a comic convention in 2016, I had high hopes that the new San Francisco Comic Con (SFCC) would be just as singular and unique as its host city.
Did Imaginarium deliver at SFCC 2016 over Labor Day Weekend? Here's what went right and what it could have done better:
The Star Power
Ian McDiarmid played The Emperor / Chancellor Palpatine in Return of the Jedi and the Star Wars prequels, and he graciously did two Q&As with attendees. He was utterly charming in the way that only an older Scottish gentleman can be and entertained us with war stories about Star Wars. An hour well-spent, for sure.
His talk was as delightful as I had foreseen. No lightning though, so just three stars.
Otherwise, SFCC brought Jenna Coleman (Doctor Who) and Manu Bennett (Arrow) for autographs and panels.
Krysten Ritter (Jessica Jones) and Jason Momoa (Game of Thrones, Batman vs. Superman, My Dreams) both canceled. Cancellations happen all the time at this sort of thing I guess, but the impression was not a great one.
The Panels
Honestly, the programming felt pretty thin overall, with several presenters offering panels twice, seemingly to fill out an ambitious three-day schedule.
A handful of very good panels addressed diversity issues and lent some nerds-of-color credibility to the events schedule: the guys from the Blacker than Black Times Infinity podcast, for example. Chunky Girl Comics hosted panels on body diversity—including gender bending and sexual orientation—in comics, cosplay, and pop culture. Comic icons like Trina Robbins also gave presentations.
But. There was just one LGBT-focused panel scheduled for, get this, the final time slot on the final day. And it ultimately vanished from the schedule with no explanation or notice in the canceled events information. With all the stuff from 2016 to talk about in LGBT fandoms and given that, by the way, San Francisco is literally the gayest city in the country, it's perplexing that the San Francisco Comic Con had zero panels with "LGBT" or "queer" in their titles.
(While a close call, an adorable recital by the Video Game Pianist does not count as a gay panel.)
Fun times playing Super Mario pieces on the piano at #SFComicCon2016 ! https://t.co/hKwjOv6RYi
— Martin (@vidgamepianist) September 5, 2016
The Floor
Of course, no one was expecting huge media players like DC, Marvel, or Disney to stake out enormous claims on the convention floor. But at the same time, from attending SFCC, one would hardly know that the Bay Area is home to Lucasfilm, Pixar, or the largest privately-owned collection of Star Wars memorabilia in the world... not to mention over a half dozen unrepresented local comic shops, or impeccably styled toy and collectible stores like Super7.
Also, I hope there were much more that I didn't encounter, but I saw only two LGBT comic series / artists represented on the floor: Alex Woolfson, Bay Area writer of Artifice and The Young Protectors, and animator and illustrator Kirsten Yamaguchi. This level of representation struck me as odd, given that San Francisco is home to an annual Queer Comics Expo.
Granted, Labor Day Weekend is a huge one for conventions, including Toronto's Fan Expo, Dragon Con in Atlanta, PAX West in Seattle, and other major and more-established cons like Salt Lake City's. I imagine that the con-petition to book big-name participants, even nearby ones, is probably stiff. And locally, Imaginarium managed to schedule SFCC against the 15th annual SF Zine Fest on Sunday, which probably meant a choice for many hometown artists and publishers.
Did Imaginarium's decision to hold SFCC over Labor Day Weekend have an appreciable effect on professional attendance? Or perhaps the out-of-town promoter didn't have enough local traction to engage and energize the stakeholders? Either way, the convention floor—while lively and well-stocked—felt like it could have been in any Marriott chain hotel, Anywhere, U.S.A.
The Cosplay
SFCC had a cosplay contest on Saturday, a number of famous cosplayers, and cosplaying panels. With a dedicated (but really cramped) room all to themselves, the 501st Legion, Rebel Legion and Mandalorian Mercs costuming guilds had a very strong collective presence.
When it came to the attendees, several cosplayers really captured SF's hometown pride and gleeful sass.
A photo posted by AP (@prosincons) on
Sep 5, 2016 at 10:47am PDT
A photo posted by Usagi Tsukino (Robin Danielle) (@sailormoonusako) on
Sep 5, 2016 at 7:49am PDT
San Franciscans take virtually any opportunity to dress up in preposterous costumes: naturally Halloween, but also a complicated and escalating series of Pride festivals, Easter Sunday, and, inexplicably, a 12K footrace. Irreverent and creative fancy dress is in San Francisco's DNA (drag-oxyribonucleic acid), so hopefully cosplay will get even more emphasis at future SFCC's.
The Verdict
According to Imaginarium's Facebook page, 19,000 people attended SFCC, and it sounds like they're planning to return in 2017. The vibe at the new SFCC was very positive, kids and families were enjoying themselves, and this guy found himself grinning with con-glow more often than not. At the same time, I hope that Imaginarium is able to cultivate more momentum with the local color to add more SF to the SFCC.
As a final thought, all this begs the question about whether we really need another general comic con at all. Attending a con that is everything to everyone can be exhilarating and mind-expanding if it achieves a critical mass of content and attendees, like San Diego Comic-Con. But if a convention doesn't succeed on that level and also neglects an angle to distinguish itself either topically or regionally, it risks coming across as a little generic.
Maybe what I'm really looking for is a Flame Con West...
...Please?
#sanfrancisco
#ComicCon