Letters to the Editor
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Ms. Lay, sorry I missed you.
I went there from Orlando, to cover the con with a friend. We were run ragged. I saw Keith Knight's booth, but not yours.
Heck, we barely saw a third of the things we wanted to see. Despite membership limits, and selling no tickets for Saturday on-site, the place was packed like a boxcar taking Jews to Auschwitz. Ugly metaphor, but entirely appropriate. (And yes, it smelled like that boxcar had been used to carry cattle before Jews. People joke about the way we geeks smell, and sadly it isn't an incorrect stereotype.)
We have our own fantasy: being journalists on the Web. But at least we have no pretensions about the possible outcome of this fantasy. We do it for the love of it, not out of any illusion that we'll be paid, or even read.
Heck, as everyone knows, in a few years writing will no longer be a paid profession for anyone. Everything will be out there on the Web, no one will buy books or magazines, dead-tree publishing will die, and writers will all need two or three real jobs to survive - as Bush says, "isn't that typical American." Steven King will have to become a greeter at Wal-Mart. And anyone who says otherwise is a liar or on drugs.
At any rate, having gone to these since 1999, we've decided this is our last one. San Diego Comic-Con costs too much for too little worth. The con committee screws attendees on hotel accommodations, the con and the city can't handle the mobs, and they won't move it out of San Diego to a decent place like Vegas (where they have hotel space, and the semi-nude women are paid professionals).
So we'll go to conventions where they care about the attendees; not as glamorous or show-bizzy but gentler and more intelligent. We people at Cartoon Geeks recommend that you do the same, avoid San Diego and go to smaller cons where you can live, breathe and actually eat real food. And where people will like you, even without silicone double-D's.