« Home | Wally West being shafted for Bart Allen tells that... » | Darkseid is by far the most effective adversary in... » | Has Peter David lost it? » | TV's Superman attacks the approach to parental res... » | Happy Fourth of July to everyone! » | The problem with the mainstream media's focus on S... » | DC Comics may be trying to ignore/ruin the Atom's ... » | Superheroines do deserve glory on the silver screen » | Superbad role models: Superman Returns advocates a... » | Truth, justice, and the Am-*SQUICK* » 

Sunday, July 16, 2006 

So just how many attend the San Diego Comicon?

Reading this report today from the San Diego Union Tribune, it certainly does pose some interesting questions. First:
“People come to San Diego prepared to spend tens of thousands of dollars on artwork,” Apatoff said. “They store up over the year, like squirrels gathering nuts for winter.”
Artwork but not the fun of reading? There, that's what's been bothering me: some people still haven't shaken the habit of just collecting for profit, which may have caused the market to collapse as a result. Or, this is the segment of the public that the companies are still pandering to.
Despite high rollers like Apatoff, the Con has an old reputation as a cheapskate confab. On paper, it's still an economic underperformer. Compare it with the Health Information Management Systems Society, which held a convention here in February. Con-goers outnumber this group 4-to-1, but the HIMSS crowd laid out $82 million, 2½ times what Con-goers are expected to spend.

But the Convention Center vice president insists that the Con's numbers are artificially low. Most of the HIMSS attendees are members of the society who book their hotel through their organization. Most Con attendees are – well, who knows? Again, there hasn't been a survey in 10 years. Moreover, they're an independent lot.

“They use the Internet,” Steven Johnson said. “People book on their own.”

The center calculates the Con's economic clout by looking at the number of people who book hotel rooms through Comic-Con International – a service that many, if not most, attendees ignore.

So the official figure, $32.1 million, is based on incomplete numbers. “It has enormous impact,” Johnson said. “But we can't say quite how much money this brings in. We're not good enough to do that yet.”
If I'm reading correctly here, they don't for sure how many people are, or still do, attend the convention? That's a shame. And with the way sales are going, who knows if they'll ever have the chance to figure out how to calculate? Sigh.

Update: the South Florida Sun-Sentinel says that comic book COVERS and their heroes are going to be honored:
Half of the pane of 20 features portraits of the characters, and the other half shows individual comic book covers highlighting the heroes' exploits.
Are these to be old covers or new ones? Because having seen quite a few very indifferent covers in the past few years, that almost sounds like a joke. Why not panels from the actual stories? Let me guess. Because some of them just weren't exciting enough? Hmm...

Labels:

About me

  • I'm Avi Green
  • From Jerusalem, Israel
  • I was born in Pennsylvania in 1974, and moved to Israel in 1983. I also enjoyed reading a lot of comics when I was young, the first being Fantastic Four. I maintain a strong belief in the public's right to knowledge and accuracy in facts. I like to think of myself as a conservative-style version of Clark Kent. I don't expect to be perfect at the job, but I do my best.
My profile

Archives

Links

  • avigreen2002@yahoo.com
  • Fansites I Created

  • Hawkfan
  • The Greatest Thing on Earth!
  • The Outer Observatory
  • Earth's Mightiest Heroines
  • The Co-Stars Primer
  • Realtime Website Traffic

    Comic book websites (open menu)

    Comic book weblogs (open menu)

    Writers and Artists (open menu)

    Video commentators (open menu)

    Miscellanous links (open menu)

  • W3 Counter stats
  • Bio Link page
  • blog directory Bloggeries Blog Directory View My Stats Blog Directory & Search engine eXTReMe Tracker Locations of visitors to this page  
    Flag Counter

    This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

    make money online blogger templates

Older Posts Newer Posts

The Four Color Media Monitor is powered by Blogspot and Gecko & Fly.
No part of the content or the blog may be reproduced without prior written permission.
Join the Google Adsense program and learn how to make money online.