All eyes on San Diego

Earlier tonight I took my final for my mini semester course in computer electronics. It's actually a two part course, the first four weeks are learning the hardware side of computers, while the second term focuses on the programing side. Not the kind of programming you so often hear of, rather the machine language, actually learning machine language. Which is where you learn the language of zeros and ones. As much as I would have liked to have put in another four weeks of school, I would have to say going to San Diego, and Comic Con were all plans made far in advance.

I just can't believe how close it is to the big event. I'll actually arriving on Saturday the 18th just four days before the madness and mayhem begins. Quite honestly I wish I had some kind of exoskeleton suit right out of some Anime or Manga world. I believe one of the first type of suits, which I just heard the Japanese have somehow replicated its basic design, was based on the Manga series called Gundam Seed.

Even though I am filming a documentary which has no pre-written script or actors and all the other aspects of a fictional film. One has to keep in mind this is Comic Con and though I don't have a storyboard guiding my direction I do have the experiance of being part of this event twice before as a volonteer, not to mention I once lived and worked in San Diego. I also have thought about doing just this for so long now I have dreams about it. Then there will be the mighty fans who will dress in character, almost taking on the part of whom ever they might be emulating, to a point where a savy director and crew could cast a real motion picture with the fans as the real stars.

I suppose that is part of what I hope to take away from this documentary. An adlibed oasis of well dressed characters with a great pasion for what will be their most charesed memories, at least I hope so. I remember the first time I walked through those magical doors of what is the San Diego Comic Con my life changed forever. I just hope that I can come within a fraction of how I felt and bring it to those who were there and to those around the world that have access to a computer. I have no delusions of grandure, my greatest achievment would be if It were to be screned at a future Comic Con, otherwise I plan to share my story with the world.

Where did I get the idea for my documentary, you ask.

A lot of people have been asking me what is my documentary about and I have tried my best to give some semblance of where I am coming from, however; what I have not done and perhaps it is time I explained a bit more as to why I am so hungry to give a voice to someone I am not. Better said, I am not a young woman or any form of the female gender, so why would I want to devote so much time trying to document a womans role in an industry that for many years was about providing a media format directly aimed at young boys and even to some extent men as their primary audience. An industry born out of the depression and W.W. I.I. which now is one of the leading forms of revenue for much of the entertainment industry.

So if you ask me what is my motivation for my documentary and how did I decide on the subject matter, the answer is quite simple; as a fan of comics and their related genre, I want to prove that my hypothesis is true. I also want to give credit where credit is due, I don't have to be a woman to see that if it were not for an increase in female fans, artist and a change in the way the industry sees its audience, to know that this documentary needs to be made. Because sometimes when someone looks in from the outside they don't see what's going on.

They might only see a person dressed in a costume or a line of people 500 deep and think what a bunch of geeks. And in many cases those people will proudly proclaim their geekyness as they wait to volunteer for an event that will change their lives. Because it doesn't matter if you are a volunteer, a paid attendee, a vendor, a guest speaker or the head of a major studio, Comics and Comic Con will forever change the way you look at life. I suppose that is one of the reasons that I came upon the theme for my documentary.

It was during the summer of 2001 when I had the opportunity to work at Comic Con that I noticed something amazing. Here was a group of people from all walks of life that despite everything else about them, they held one common thread that pulled them together. It wasn't just the fact that they were comic fans, it was much deeper. What held them together was the fact that this was their convention and they new it was up to them to set the tone for where their characters were headed. They knew this was the one time they could either sit down and talk to a young artist and tell them how they felt a comic should look and feel or they would go and listen to the various panels and when it was their turn to stand at that microphone, never did a vague question did I hear. They knew who had drawn what characters and who had given them their words. However there was one exception that I would not realize for several more years. What I learned and observed the next time I went to Comic Con, which was only six years later, where I volunteered for Comic Con, 2007.

This time the attendees were nearly 6o-40 male to female and I could actually say that it really seemed more closely to a 50/50 split. The number of paid female models was considerably smaller and as far as I could tell there wasn't the large signing area for what had been in the previous convention, a place for celebrities from Sci-Fi shows etc . . ., yet it was mostly models from a well known magazine along with other glamor models that had little to do with the convention signing their 8x10's. To my pleasant surprise I also met quite a few female artist and began to see that there was a change to the comic industry. So the next year I went to an enogural comic convention in Birmingham, AL. and found that it was very much the same. Of course the size was miniscule in comparison but the spirit was much the same.

Also sense doing my research for this project I have found more and more evidence that women are no longer playing a back seat role in the industry. Whether it be a fan or an artist, women are becoming equal to the various genres that draw a half a million people to San Diego to either share their craft or be apart of something that is becoming a major part of popculture in this country. I don't think I need to name names but for some of the all time great comic character creators, they had their vision for many years and now it is up to the next generation to step up and either redfine or create the new characters for the 21st century. Believe it or not, the men who read comics are just as hungry for dynamic characters both male and female or alien. It's no longer exceptable for many readers to have the iconic hero and dutiful herion. Well I am not going to buy a comic where the only strong women are villians and even if they are, I want to see some humanity in them, if only for a brief moment.