San Diego Update - Saturday, July 21, 2001

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San Diego Comic Con Update
Saturday, July 21, 2001

Howdy!

Today's report is going out a bit later in the evening than the past few, as we've been absolutely swamped with people in our booth. We have four online terminals, but I simply haven't been able to commandeer a terminal to write this column. All four chairs have been 100% full of fans picking books out of our Internet Store all day long.

Our experience of being overwhelmed with eager fans has been the norm at the convention today, as the number of people who showed up for the convention is unprecedented in the history of fandom. I would estimate that over 30,000 fans are here today! As a result, many aisles have been completely unpassable, totally packed with masses of people. I don't know how this is affecting sales, as I have yet to survey my friends in the dealer community, but I am betting that everyone did very, very well. Certainly well enough to offset any impact from the dealers selling cheap overstock in the back of the room.

As I did last year, I spent about 15 minutes standing dead still in the middle of the convention at 2 PM, watching the crowd, and eavesdropping on the passing groups of fans. The summary of my observations is as follows:

1) Despite increasing the size of the dealers hall from 250,000 square feet last year, to 300,000 square feet this year, the aisles were actually more crowded this year!

2) Last year I noticed that the number of young women at the show had greatly increased over the past. That trend continued this year, but I also noticed a dramatic increase in attendance by people of African-American, Asian, and Hispanic ethnic backgrounds. This is a remarkable change from the conventions of the early 1990's, when the vast majority of attendees were male, and of Anglo background.

3) Another trend I noticed today was a significant increase in the number of wheelchair attendees. The convention staff has a special liaison division specifically created to address the needs of the disabled community, and they have done an excellent job of making the convention experience pleasurable for those with a variety of disabilities. Clearly, there's no way to avoid the crowding in the aisles, but other considerations seem well addressed.

4) While everyone I talked with expressed that their feet were sore, they also greatly enjoyed the experience of being at the convention. First-time attendees to the convention were very much overwhelmed by the size of the hall, but that seemed to be considered a positive, rather than a negative. The number of creators signing autographs seemed to have increased this year, and the number of cool displays was also up dramatically, so convention newbies really got a treat this year.

5) The number of attendees from the general public in San Diego seems to also be greatly increasing. These folks attend primarily to see the media displays, and to the ogle the guests. It's very nice to see them here, however, as the support of the San Diego citizenry is critical to the continued use of the convention center during the peak summer tourist season. The Comic-Con convention staff has done an excellent job of creating a sense of involvement by all members of the San Diego community in the comics convention.

That's it for today's report. I'm very tired, and I just want to go and get some dinner. I do want to remind everyone before I go, however, that the CONSALE 30% sale ends on Monday night. After three 30% off sales in the past month, I've promised our warehouse team a break from any more sales for at least a little while. If you want to save 30% on your back issue comics purchase, this will be your last chance for a while.

OK, it's photo time. Today I asked Pam to track down folks in neat fantasy costumes. She got 27 great pictures. The one I chose for inclusion in my e-mail deserves a very close look. I highly recommend that you be very observant when admiring this particular costume, with the understanding that not all things are always as they first appear... I score this costume four stars for creativity!

Happy collecting!

Chuck Rozanski,
President - Mile High Comics, Inc.

Tarot Character from Broadsword