Has Comic-Con sold its soul?

[Black Dragon]

I've been hearing complaints about San Diego Comic-Con becoming too commercial, and losing its former focus on comics and geek culture. Theonering.net posted a stinging critique of this year's event:

A Look Back: Has Comic-Con Really Jumped The Shark? | Hobbit Movie News and Rumors | TheOneRing.net

Apparently anything goes at Comic-Con now, including half-hour family sitcoms and cable melodramas.

What have you heard?

 

[myrddin173]

While ComicCon started out as a Comic Book Convention I feel that it has grown beyond it. Now it is a pop culture convention, and I don't see anything wrong with that, however I believe that it should be restrained to the bounds of speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, and horror). So while I am a fan of Covert Affairs and Psych I don't think they should be there. As for the show Ringer mentioned in the article, I think it is justified in being there because from what I have seen of it is a thriller/horror. Overall though I feel the writer of the article was a little to harsh in his criticisms.

The exception to this is the Mythbusters, but hey they have "myth" in their name, which count. Doesn't it?

 

[Behelit]

I've never been, so I'm hesitant to comment. I tried to go this year but when I checked MONTHS before July, it was already sold out. My friend went in 2010 and I didn't hear much at all about comics. I'm not by any means a comic buff, but it would be my main interest to go. The original geek purpose of the convention. Not the film and television series that seems to be overrunning it. As much as I like Mythbusters and Dexter, what do they have anything to do with comic books? Okay so Dexter does have some sort of spin off graphic novel, but I really doubt thats what they were there promoting. No, they were there promoting the upcoming season.

I got a chuckle a couple of times from some news sources speaking about it this year as if it were a geeky convention all its own. It is geeky, but its no more geeky than any other convention. In fact, GeekCon would be a more suitable name. I imagine most go to geek out over pop culture in general, not specifically for comics.

The more I read about it the less excited I get about going next year. 100k+ people in a little convention center? Talk about lines and claustrophobia galore.

To me it sounds less like it moved BEYOND what it was and merely sold out to seek a more general audience.