Going with the Comic-Con theme one more time, we turn to Jorge Cham and PHD Comics, his thrice-weekly web comic all about life in grad school. Last year, Jorge had the pleasure of attending San Diego Comic-Con for the first time, both as an artist and as a student. To honor this year’s SDCC, Jorge decided to chronicle his experience at last year’s show as a comic.
Through this three part comic, readers get to learn more about Comic-Con, and some of the panels that make up its scheduling block. For instance, I had no idea that the Comics Arts Conference portion of the con even existed, and I’ve been there twice. The CAC is meant for students and educators to present lectures and sessions based around comics—comic art, characters, readers and so on. Of course, it’s open to comic book professionals as well, so that they can share their experiences and stories only they could pass along.
At Comic-Con, Jorge learned that there are plenty of students and educators that attend Comic-Con, not only for the CAC, but also as a way to interact with their peers and to escape college, work, and life for a while. Even as SDCC gets bigger and bigger, it is still a way for comic fans to socialize with friends and strangers that share common interests, and maybe even start some lifelong relationships to be rekindled each year at the next convention.
And yes, even at an academic panel, geeks remain geeks. I mean come on, it’s Nerd Prom! Get your cosplay on and your notebook in hand and take some notes, and make the con your own. If you’re more of an academic, do the academic thing. You like movies? Do movies (don’t stab anybody over a seat, though)! TV, comics, video games? Covered. If you need help figuring out how a convention works for you, take this and the other comics as examples, and roll with it.