Overly Positive

This weekend is geekdom’s well-known “nerd prom”, San Diego Comic-Con. Every year, tens of thousands of people make the pilgrimage to the West Coast to partake in the country’s most well-known show on comics, games, sci-fi, and more.

I have to say, every year this show stays in existence (and grows, if the numbers are any indication) is really a validation of the power of geek fandom and media, something which I take it upon myself to opine on in idealized, sunny ways. The main reason is that honestly, for the better part of a year, geek fandom is relegated to a niche, superceded by the latest celebrity news from Hollywood, popular and catchy top 40 music, and all the other things in mainstream entertainment that dominate the headlines.

But for a short few days out of the year, geek media thrusts itself out of its shell and stands in the spotlight. It’s undeniable that shows like SDCC have grown and made leaps and bounds, and the entertainment industry has really had no choice but to recognize it. There’s a bit of Hollywood at Comic-Con, and celebrities that attend take to the sudden geek love (and hate) with varying levels of adaptability. Mainstream entertainment has to turn its eyes and attention to Comic-Con not just because of the potential marketing opportunity but also for the fact that more than ever, there’s just a ton of stuff to tickle the fancy of an increasingly discerning audience. Originality, honestly, has one of the greatest potentials to flourish and to be recognized among geek society, where shunning the social norms and ideas of what is “entertaining” is the modus operandi.

Geekery, prior to these shows really booming, was kept in basements and in comic book stores, shuttered away from prying eyes and sometimes even the product of ridicule. These days, shows like Comic-Con highlight a more modern geek – perhaps still a bit shuttered but armed with the tools of the new millennium which, among other things, enable geeks to find peers beyond their own direct social circles. This, of course, enables them to connect in various ways – with Comic-Con being one of them.

One of these days, I’ll make it back to Comic-Con. And I’m sure that when I do, it’ll be going as strong as ever.