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Comics conventions/similar music events
For those of you that have been to any kind of comics convention as well as something like Record Store Day or Independent Label Market, how do you reckon the two compare? Do you have preferences over the way one tends to work over the other? I was thinking about Record Store Day this year, which was the same day as the first Comiket at the Bishopsgate Institute. I thought they operated on fairly similar principals, but preferred Comiket as it wasn't so commerce-minded, it didn't come with that same sense of panic that RSD induces. ("Must go to five different shops looking for Ryan Adams' Bob Mould cover" etc etc.)
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m66kgnKGef1qztjn5o1_500.png
Isn't the major point of RSD a commercial one though?
I avoid RSD
As to my mind it's mostly about buying things. One year I made a half arsed attempt to buy a Mogwai record, but I'm generally not willing to queue for hours just to buy something.
I went to San Diego Comic Con this year, and have been to several other comic cons, and it's much more about shared interests and learning with the merchandise as an aside. Yes - the objective of promoting a movie at a comic con is to sell it to your core demographic, but a lot of thought is put into the whole programme.
The panels at SDCC are amazing and a lot of them are purely about knowledge sharing - there is no money to be made from a load of TV and film writers talking about their creative process, or a lot of Pokemon enthusiasts showing off their robot wars style remote control pokemons.
I think that the difference largely revolves around their origins.
Reading comics is (largely) a solo activity, albeit with a healthy online community. The conventions exist for readers to get together, for readers to meet authors and artists, and for people to trade back issues and the like.
Record Store Day exists to sell people products and promote the idea of independent record shops. It's not a social thing and there is (comparatively) little interaction between the bands and the listeners.
It could be said that interaction doesn't need to happen as bands often play gigs, but I think that would suggest that a more appropriate comparisonwould be made between a comic con and a music festival, not RSD.
Yep, or between a comic con and something like Heedfest, the GBV fans event
http://www.daytoncitypaper.com/heedfest-a-love-story/
http://drownedinsound.com/community/boards/music/4280862
(why the hell am I enabling Ormsby's addiction?)