COMIC-CON 2010 SAN DIEGO / BY TOM ESLINGER
27 July 2010
Fancy Dress wasn't the only eye-catching thing at this year's homage to the comic industry
- Country
- USA
- Source
- News
- Tags
- Comic
- interactive
- Experiential
When I first attended "The 'Con" as an apprentice geek nearly 30 years ago, it was small, smelly and very much about comics. If you were brave enough to wear a home-made costume, you made damn sure you had an escape route so that you could run straight out the door into your parent's still running car!
At San Diego Comic-Con 2010 you could find everything you like about comics, sci-fi, fantasy, graphic art or even (gasp) TV shows. Every sub-genre and micro-offshoot you can imagine was there: Celtic Weaponeers. Gay Comics. Steam Punk clothiers. Stormtroopers and Trekkies. DC and Marvel fans. All were peacefully co-existing, just like it will be in the future!
SDCC is now the world's largest popular culture convention, a tear in the fabric of the universe revealing for four days an alternate world full of fantasy, comics, sci-fi, games, movies, TV, toys and just plain weird stuff. With my clutch of wristbands, pins, tickets and hard-passes, I jumped into this dimensional rift to emerge in the massive San Diego Convention Centre or, as I like to call it, Planet GeekOut.
Although Comic-Con began 40 years ago as a temple for the worship of four-colour gods, it has evolved to include the new life forms which now inhabit this massive mother ship. Now, major Hollywood movies are also launched there, with some teasing and sharing for fan feedback a la Tron:Legacy. Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Jeff Bridges and Frank Darabont are just a few of the talents who previewed projects, answered questions and were worshipped by thousands of rabid fans. Buzz at Comic-Con is true viral marketing: everywhere you looked, fans were panting over their device of choice about previews for The Expendables, The Walking Dead and Scott Pilgrim v The World.
Games were heavily represented. A highlight for me was The DC Universe Online game, featuring spectacular graphics, customization features and storylines from comics writers like Geoff Johns. The PC and PS3 experience mixes tech and role-playing in what points the way to where deeply immersive technology brings the stories to life. Mattel's Loopz had people lined up to play, while action-gamers ogled the new Spider-Man and Star Wars, and Red Faction Armageddon ran a seminar dedicated to how to build a 'transmedia universe'.
While hundreds lined up for hours to get a glimpse of big budget films like Green Lantern and Sucker Punch, panels were heatedly discussing how cheap technology allows fans to quickly self-publish digital comics, bypassing the major publishers and doing a graphical 'Radiohead'. Smart phones and iPads were hot topics and had their own seminar sessions dedicated to 'comics of the future'. Strangely though, the lines always seemed to be longest at the real comics tables, not the downloadable comic kiosks.
'You're going to want to see me at Comic-Con' was the one-line email I got from Alex Lieu. He was right. 42 Entertainment's real-life Flynn's Arcade and the very cool Tron:Legacy work were highlights for fans of all ages at San Diego last week. I watched people running like maniacs to solve the clues, to claim a wristband allowing them to get into Flynn's Arcade, an abandoned 80s video arcade façade leading to a groovy Tron-style party room with displays of gear from the Tron:Legacy movie and an ear-bleeding Daft Punk soundtrack.
After Flynn's Arcade and the fun stuff happening around Tron:Legacy, I was disappointed with the lack of really immersive experiences from the big brands and their products. Only token space was given to mobile content by the big publishers (if they had any at all) and the 'real world' activation was limited to QR-codes on flyers. Actors dressed as alien attack/ apocalypse/ plague survivors (or all three at once) held signs for 2ndmass.com (rumour is that it is teasing Spielberg's Fallen Skies 2011 TV series) with, you guessed it, QR codes and mysterious URLs.
When I was packing up, I noticed that I had a rather heavy bag. For a creative gathering with at least one foot (or tentacle) in the future, there still seemed to be a lot of paper being handed out.
www.comic-con.org
Tom Eslinger is Worldwide Creative Director - Digital, Saatchi & Saatchi
At San Diego Comic-Con 2010 you could find everything you like about comics, sci-fi, fantasy, graphic art or even (gasp) TV shows. Every sub-genre and micro-offshoot you can imagine was there: Celtic Weaponeers. Gay Comics. Steam Punk clothiers. Stormtroopers and Trekkies. DC and Marvel fans. All were peacefully co-existing, just like it will be in the future!
SDCC is now the world's largest popular culture convention, a tear in the fabric of the universe revealing for four days an alternate world full of fantasy, comics, sci-fi, games, movies, TV, toys and just plain weird stuff. With my clutch of wristbands, pins, tickets and hard-passes, I jumped into this dimensional rift to emerge in the massive San Diego Convention Centre or, as I like to call it, Planet GeekOut.
Although Comic-Con began 40 years ago as a temple for the worship of four-colour gods, it has evolved to include the new life forms which now inhabit this massive mother ship. Now, major Hollywood movies are also launched there, with some teasing and sharing for fan feedback a la Tron:Legacy. Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Jeff Bridges and Frank Darabont are just a few of the talents who previewed projects, answered questions and were worshipped by thousands of rabid fans. Buzz at Comic-Con is true viral marketing: everywhere you looked, fans were panting over their device of choice about previews for The Expendables, The Walking Dead and Scott Pilgrim v The World.
Games were heavily represented. A highlight for me was The DC Universe Online game, featuring spectacular graphics, customization features and storylines from comics writers like Geoff Johns. The PC and PS3 experience mixes tech and role-playing in what points the way to where deeply immersive technology brings the stories to life. Mattel's Loopz had people lined up to play, while action-gamers ogled the new Spider-Man and Star Wars, and Red Faction Armageddon ran a seminar dedicated to how to build a 'transmedia universe'.
While hundreds lined up for hours to get a glimpse of big budget films like Green Lantern and Sucker Punch, panels were heatedly discussing how cheap technology allows fans to quickly self-publish digital comics, bypassing the major publishers and doing a graphical 'Radiohead'. Smart phones and iPads were hot topics and had their own seminar sessions dedicated to 'comics of the future'. Strangely though, the lines always seemed to be longest at the real comics tables, not the downloadable comic kiosks.
'You're going to want to see me at Comic-Con' was the one-line email I got from Alex Lieu. He was right. 42 Entertainment's real-life Flynn's Arcade and the very cool Tron:Legacy work were highlights for fans of all ages at San Diego last week. I watched people running like maniacs to solve the clues, to claim a wristband allowing them to get into Flynn's Arcade, an abandoned 80s video arcade façade leading to a groovy Tron-style party room with displays of gear from the Tron:Legacy movie and an ear-bleeding Daft Punk soundtrack.
After Flynn's Arcade and the fun stuff happening around Tron:Legacy, I was disappointed with the lack of really immersive experiences from the big brands and their products. Only token space was given to mobile content by the big publishers (if they had any at all) and the 'real world' activation was limited to QR-codes on flyers. Actors dressed as alien attack/ apocalypse/ plague survivors (or all three at once) held signs for 2ndmass.com (rumour is that it is teasing Spielberg's Fallen Skies 2011 TV series) with, you guessed it, QR codes and mysterious URLs.
When I was packing up, I noticed that I had a rather heavy bag. For a creative gathering with at least one foot (or tentacle) in the future, there still seemed to be a lot of paper being handed out.
www.comic-con.org
Tom Eslinger is Worldwide Creative Director - Digital, Saatchi & Saatchi
Weekly Newsletter /
Most Contagious /
COMMENTS /