Full of Crap?
Nov. 9th, 2009 07:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captain_slinkyConvention on Sunday at the Seattle Center was good, we made some money and some new friends... but Len Wein was not there. An unfortunate last minute illness/cancellation left me with an odd feeling of sameness compared to the past several years of Seattle Center Comic Book conventions.
The last several shows there have promised one "Big" guest and a fistful of mini-guests, only to have the Big guest suddenly cancel at the last second. And coincidentally enough, the "Big" guest that drops out at the last moment has pretty steadily been somebody without a very large on-line presence so that people could actually check on the validity with any ease. Len Wein is about the tech-saviest guest he's had recently, as he's an infrequent blogger/twitterer, but past guests who have suddenly become ill include Mike Grell, Bernie Wrightson... folks who don't really interact with fans except for at conventions.
I've heard of unscrupulous convention organizers pulling this type of stuff before, putting semi-large-yet-believable names on the guest list even though there's no real chance of that person showing up... Star Trek conventions in the 80's and early 90's did it all the time (back before "Creation" were the nly Star Trek conventions out there).
But this is the Seattle Center Comic Con! This little show has been going on for something like 25 years now with the same promoter! Has he just lost interest at this point and figures it's okay to do the underhanded sleezeball dealings? Or has there REALLY been just a terrible 8-year streak of illness within the semi-elderly comic book professional community?
The last several shows there have promised one "Big" guest and a fistful of mini-guests, only to have the Big guest suddenly cancel at the last second. And coincidentally enough, the "Big" guest that drops out at the last moment has pretty steadily been somebody without a very large on-line presence so that people could actually check on the validity with any ease. Len Wein is about the tech-saviest guest he's had recently, as he's an infrequent blogger/twitterer, but past guests who have suddenly become ill include Mike Grell, Bernie Wrightson... folks who don't really interact with fans except for at conventions.
I've heard of unscrupulous convention organizers pulling this type of stuff before, putting semi-large-yet-believable names on the guest list even though there's no real chance of that person showing up... Star Trek conventions in the 80's and early 90's did it all the time (back before "Creation" were the nly Star Trek conventions out there).
But this is the Seattle Center Comic Con! This little show has been going on for something like 25 years now with the same promoter! Has he just lost interest at this point and figures it's okay to do the underhanded sleezeball dealings? Or has there REALLY been just a terrible 8-year streak of illness within the semi-elderly comic book professional community?
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