A Comparison: Megacon vs Planet Comicon

Ten days ago, John and I went to our first Planet Comicon in Kansas City. For the past several years, we have spent time at this point in the year in Orlando, where we attended Megacon. Both are 'comic' conventions, but - as always - each has its own flavor. I could not keep myself from comparing them, and I'd like to share my thoughts with you.

A comic convention is, to my mind, a giant dealer's room first and foremost. A huge room, it contains dealers selling t-shirts, toys, models, comics and all sorts of retail items; artists showing and selling their artwork; authors selling their books; fans selling their craft items; fan groups looking for new members; media guests selling autographs and photo shoots; and at least one school trying to drum up new students. If I had to guess, I'd say Planet Comicon's dealer room was about the size of a football field. Happily, they did have some empty chairs lined up against the one empty wall, and I was not the only person who used those chairs. Megacon's dealer room is even larger, with more of all of the above types. There are no chairs along the wall to let your tired feet rest for a moment. I managed to get about halfway through Planet Comicon's dealer room on Friday before I wandered off to see what else was going on, and on that day, it was not horrendously crowded. Megacon's dealer room is always packed with shopping sardines, on any day, and I can't stand being in it for more than a few minutes at a time.

Planet Comicon also had a gaming room, 4 rooms for panels, and 1 room for large panels (panels, for instance, with the media guests tend to have a huge line forming in the hallway at least an hour before-hand). Megacon has a lot of rooms, of various sizes; rooms devoted to gaming, to anime, to costuming, to assorted and sundry other subjects. The largest rooms with the stages are for those panels with the media guests, of course, and there, too, you had better arrive early if you want a seat.

The food vendors at Planet Comicon were mostly brands I had heard of, and their prices were a little high, but not ridiculously so. The food vendors at Megacon are brands I had never heard of before, and their prices are sky high. The one time we bought something from a Megacon food vendor, it didn't taste any good, so we tend to fill our pockets with simple snacks and refill our water bottles from the water fountains.

After a long day at Megacon, one has to walk back all the way through the west wing of the Orange County Convention Center, find your way outside, take your bearings, and then - walk to the furthest end of the colossal parking lot to find your car. I always felt I was hiking back to Nebraska. If I had a similar thought at the end of a Planet Comicon day, as we made our way to our car, at least Nebraska wasn't nearly as far a hike!

Any comments on comic conventions you've attended?

In vs Out

Remember that old saying, "Opposites Attract?" My husband and I are a pretty good example of that being true; I am an 'In', and he is an 'Out'. By 'In', I mean Introvert, which leaves 'Out' to mean Extrovert. People use those words all the time, but I'm not sure they truly understand the meanings of both. In particular, the members of one group do not understand the needs of the other group, and vice versa.

Hubby is an extrovert. He loves to be around other people (with very few exceptions), and the more the merrier. If they have something in common (and that can be as small as they are both wearing black t-shirts that day), he is happy to explore their individual universes via conversation for hours! He is the type of person who, even after he acknowledges that it's time to leave, will continue to converse for another hour... or three. He leaves these convers-athons full of energy, with new tidbits of information to sort through and cubby-hole away, until he can find another conversation where he can pull them out and add to the mix.

I, on the other hand, am an introvert. Yes, I guess I'm shy, but introvert is more than that. Yes, I often am a wallflower, but does that really tell you anything about me? No, I am not anti-social; I like people just fine, in small doses, meaning one (okay, maybe two) at a time. Put me in a crowd - like a large convention - and I am overwhelmed. I pull inside myself and probably put barriers up that tell others, "Don't bother me." I might work on my laptop or pull out something to read.

When we go to big conventions, like Megacon or a Star Wars Celebrations, Hubby gets frustrated because I don't want to go to the dealer's room. Actually, I'd love to go see all the merchandise, a lot of which I don't see at smaller conventions, but a football field-sized room packed so tightly with people you frequently can't move more than a step, with a sound level that keeps you from thinking, with colorful displays that surround and tower over the crowd - that's not my idea of fun. It is my idea of confusion, and borders on panic. It's a situation where I have no control, and coping with it saps all my energy.

In short, extroverts find it energizing to be with other people, and are probably bored when they are alone. Introverts find their energy when they are alone, and are drained when they must deal with crowds. So if you have an introvert friend, don't think you are doing them a favor by dragging them out to a club. They will probably appreciate a movie a lot more.

Real People

There was one panel on writing at Megacon, and during that panel, an audience member asked how much ‘real life’ did they have to give their characters?

Enough to make them seem like real people.

Like those of us who actually have to deal with problems and issues, your characters need some, too. Let’s examine 3 recent, consecutive days in my life, and see if anything is applicable to a character.

Day 1 – Went to a water park, but forgot to take my sunscreen with me (left it right there, by the front door, as I walked out) and got sunburned. If your character is described as ‘pale’ or ‘freckled’, and you place them in the sun for hours, but they don’t sunburn, they won’t seem real. I have one character who, challenged to an all-day cross-country marathon by a couple American Indian crewmates while on planetside R&R, put on a sunsuit (think UV-blocking leotard with gloves and helmet) in order to avoid a sunburn. If you don’t want this character to have this problem, don’t have them forget their sunblock.

Day 2 – Heard a ‘funny noise’ every time the car brakes were applied. Turned out to be nothing, but what would be the consequences if your character heard the noise? Would they take the time to have it checked out and miss something important when they aren’t on stake out? Or would their brakes fail while chasing (or being chased by) the bad guy?

Day 3 – Was reminded by my car to ‘change oil soon’. This used to be an idiot light on the dash, now it flashes on the radio screen. And according to the reminder sticker on my windshield, I still had 1000 miles before I needed to do that, which could take 10 weeks to put on my car. If your character ignores this ‘gentle’ reminder, gets so used to it being on his radio screen, how long before his engine seizes up?

So, when you come to it, ‘real life’ issues can not only add dimension to your character, but also add complications to your plot. Pick your issues well, and use them wisely.

Will be driving home next Sunday, so might not get a blog posted until Monday. See you then. Trudy

Consistency

Just attended a big comic convention in Orlando called Megacon. Not much happening there about writing (except for comics), but lots of panels on art (mostly comics), costuming and independent film making. Surprisingly, a lot of these ‘other’ subjects still had some bearing on writing.

Let’s take an easy example: continuity. Movies, I understand, are not shot scene 1, scene 2, and so on. They will shoot ALL the scenes that happen in the living room, and then ALL the scenes that happen in the garden, and so on. They have someone who keeps track of the details, to keep the continuity consistent. So, if the story has Mary in a blue sundress and ponytail in the living room, and she goes out to the garden to cut some flowers for a vase, she doesn’t show up in the garden in a pink sweatsuit and a beehive.

I’ve seen authors who can’t seem to keep track of their own continuity. One had the protagonist picked up at the airport, taken to a grimy vehicle in the parking lot, where she and the acquaintance climb in. That’s the end of one chapter. At the very beginning of the next chapter, they are still outside the vehicle, and the protagonist – who was so dismayed by the filthy condition of the vehicle's exterior – leans her back against that vehicle as they discuss their next activity. It is boggling to my mind that not only did the author miss this in all her rewrites, but apparently, it was also missed by all her alpha- and beta-readers, her agent, her editors,…

So, some could say that I did nothing ‘writing related’ during this con weekend. I don’t agree with that, because a) I learned things, which is always good for a writer, and b) I kept figuring out how to take that info and apply it to writing.

See ya next week. Trudy