Personal Reflections on C2E2 2015

On Saturday, April 25, 2015, I attended my fourth C2E2. Due to financial constraints and employment obligations, I went only the one day. I suppose this makes me a bad geek, but I do need to eat. Nevertheless, I felt I would be remiss if I didn’t write something in response to the experience, even though I know it could hardly be said to be indicative of the whole weekend. That’s part of why I have taken my time in posting this essay; I wanted to reflect on the experience to make it more than a reactive, emotive jumble and to emphasize that this represents my experience and no one else’s.

I got my worst C2E2 experience out of the way years ago when I attended my second one with an ex who insisted on going “to try and be interested in what interests you.” I thought this was very sweet and considerate until I’d spent an hour dragging him around (sometimes literally) as he mocked, ridiculed, or showed aggressive disinterest in every aspect of the convention. This was the tone for the whole day. Anytime I tried to explain something, I was interrupted with a dismissive, “I don’t care.” If I was excited about something, he didn’t even smile. I missed half of the panels I’d scheduled to see because he sullenly insisted on whiling away time in the food court. In retrospect, this should have been a huge red flag that the relationship was doomed. Perhaps I’ll use C2E2 as a testing ground for relationships in the future, but probably not because I don’t want to run the risk of something like that happening again.

In one respect, aggregations of comic book fans remind me of Pride Festivals. I may not enjoy or even agree with everything on display, but I appreciate that it’s there. Regardless of whatever stigma may exist everywhere else, like-minded individuals can gather together and share the world as if they are the norm. An outsider status gives way to a communal spirit over interests that are seen as odd at best and worthy of ridicule and harassment at worst. I wonder if this is why so many gay people are drawn to superheroes.

This falls apart rather quickly, of course, given how fractious both communities can be and the fact that no one ever died because he was wearing a Superman shirt. Geeks and gays may both be victims of bullying, but only one of those groups faces a death by stoning in some countries just for existing. There’s also the sad fact that geeks and gays can be incredibly racist. However, the opportunity to breathe a sigh of relief and live even for a few hours as if the world were a more inclusive place is a welcome fantasy.

The other thing that struck me about C2E2 was the diversity of the crowd. While representation in the marketplace may be quite low, and indeed there was only one non-white person among all the people I saw at panels and discussions, the crowd is as diverse as ever. Like repurposed religious icons, some of the world’s most popular characters were suddenly the ethnicity and mode of expression of every facet of society. Latina Lokis, cross-dressing members of the Bat-family, and a Muslim Agent Scully were all part of the panoply of C2E2 2015. Have you been waiting for a black Spider-Man or Captain America? Look no further! There are dozens. It’s wonderful.

Here’s a brief rundown of the panels I attended, because I feel like this information ought to go somewhere. At 11:00 a.m., I went to Breaking into Comics and Staying In! which was about as disheartening as you could expect it to be. I’m keeping this blog going anyway. The better part of the afternoon was spent in line for and seeing Kick-Ass Women of S.H.I.E.L.D., one of only two panels I saw all day to feature a minority (the lovely Ming-Na Wen). In retrospect, I probably should have sat that one out to walk the showroom floor but the friends with whom I went very much wanted to see it and I will admit that it was enjoyable. I finished the day with How to Be a Nerd for a Living.

Obviously, the highlight for me personally was the Geeks OUT panel, Geeks OUT Presents: Queerators. It was for this reason that I chose to attend on Saturday instead of Sunday or Friday and was an excellent experience. The moderator, Steve Disme, provided a brief biographical introduction for each panelist before opening the floor to questions. This gave the panel as a whole a very friendly, open vibe that made it feel more like a conversation than a chance for professionals to recite rote nuggets of wisdom or try to sell merchandise that deserves more publicity. The panelists were John Jennison, Jennie Wood, Chad Sell, and JD Glass. Naturally, there was the odd question that didn’t deserve attention or threatened to derail the entire presentation, but Mr. Disme handled these hiccups with humor and aplomb. I look forward to catching up on his Comic Book Queers podcast. In the end, a lively and insightful discussion was had about the status of LGBT creators in the comics field and I was exposed to the work of creators of whom I was previously unaware, which is something I always appreciate.

All of the panelists shared similar narratives of how each of them became interested in comics in the first place; namely, curiosity in childhood eventually waned before rediscovering comics in college and/or adulthood. Mr. Jennison shared a particularly vivid memory of attending a flea market in Maine with his grandmother and finding Marv Wolfman’s Teen Titans among all the merchandise. Love & Rockets was also singled out by everyone as either a series to recommend or what brought him or her back to comics.

Since the younger, alternate-universe version of one of the oldest members of the X-men coming out of the closet had only made news a few days prior to the convention, I think many of us were still processing that information. The figure of Iceman did not loom nearly as large as I had assumed he would have, literally or figuratively. The biggest Marvel news of the weekend was the upcoming Secret Wars reboot of their entire universe. Mr. Disme dismissed the topic out of hand at the Geeks OUT panel with a curt, “I don’t want to have this discussion.”

This did lead to a lively conversation at the panel about which is better: introducing new gay characters or reinventing existing characters as gay. Everyone readily agreed that regardless of the circumstances, the character should come first and his or her (or other) sexuality should be incidental to a good story. Ms. Glass warned about the rise of tokenism and Mr. Sell mentioned how readers, gay and straight, can react negatively to a co-opted character. Ms. Wood encouraged the audience to write the stories that we want to read. There was a lack of contention but no shortage of opinions.

I had the privilege of personally interacting with Chad Sell and Jennie Wood, and found them both to be incredibly warm and charming people. I encourage everyone to seek their work out and promise that it will be featured in posts here in the future.

At the end of the day, my friends and I had a drink at the hotel bar that had been repurposed as the CBR Lounge. Enjoying a beer with two Wonder Women (Womans?) and the Thing is inherently funny to me. Also, I don’t need an excuse to get a drink. I’d been handing out cards to promote this site all day and left one near my tip for the bartender, which warranted an odd look, and I desperately hoped he didn’t think I was hitting on him. He wasn’t my type. Thankfully, this was the closest thing to a sour note for the whole day. And who knows? Maybe he was one of the eight pageviews I had in the immediate aftermath of that weekend.

Unfortunately, I did not plan as well as I should have and did not get the chance to do as much shopping as I would have liked. I was actually running from booth to booth as lights were turned off and blankets thrown over merchandise, leaving my friends in the dust as I cried out to creators to speak with me or sign something or sell me something. At one point I simply took a handful of the aforementioned cards, threw them in the air, and hoped people would notice them. I didn’t even bother trying to find anything on my shopping list, which includes items for which I have been searching for a decade or more. Even if The Minx #3 continues to elude me, it was exhilarating and incredibly fun.

I realize that this has been pretty scattershot, even with all the time I’ve taken to craft it. I’ll probably expand half of the points I’ve made here into essays of their own in the future. In the end, this is all that matters: It was fun. Yes, there were experiences that made me think and conversations worth deconstructing and troubling aspects that may never go away. All in all, I had a good time. There are things that happened during that day that I will recall with a smile. What more can I really ask for?