Comic Con Carne
I’m going to the New York Comic Con this weekend. That much has been confirmed. The weekend pass has been bought and paid for, sent and received. Out-of-town guests are already gathering like a murder of crows to descend into the city. It is too late for escape. Events are in motion. The momentum of the thing is unstoppable.
If there are some slight misgivings gnawing at my gut, a bit of bile-tasting queezy unease, it might be that feeling of entrapment mixed with my general reticence to attend fandom events of any kind, let alone this kind. I’ve never gone to a con before.
It isn’t that I’m not interested in it. Far from it, I am keenly interested in it. It is, in point of fact, too interesting, like the candy cabin from Hansel and Gretel, a temptation powerful enough to be, in its simple existence, suspicious.
More than that, in going to the con, I will be exposed. I have many hobbies, interests, and miscellaneous goings-on but, for the most part, I play these things close to the vest (much to the consternation of friends and family members). I can’t help it. It’s my nature. Revealing these interests in a large scale forum rubs against the grain of my being. Like the One Ring, I’d prefer to keep it secret, keep it safe. Gandalf would never counsel Frodo to take the ring of power to a con. It is not secret and it is not safe.
I might keep my anonymity of identity, but not my anonymity of purpose. There’s no denying the oneness of the con crowd – the unity of hobby and interest – the powerful vibe of a throng of like-minded people gathered in a single place under a single banner. Such energy can only call to it dark things. What gathering of super-fiends could resist striking at such an hour, sweeping across our midst like a plague of locust. Would the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants give up such an opportunity? Lex Luthor? I think not.
Yet despite the risks of super-villainy, I am looking forward to the weekend. Interesting panels and booths festoon the schedule like ribbons of hard candy and marizpan. Perhaps I can find solace in numbers. Or not. If you see me – the guy furtively glancing at the exit sign – come up and say “hi”. Or maybe it’s better that you don’t. I might mistake you for a super-villain in disguise.
Comic Conundrum | Todd Terwilliger posted: 05 Feb at 4:22 pm
[...] that I have overcome my fear of the forthcoming comic convention, I must tackle a slightly less-vital but crucially important task: selecting the events to [...]