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©2009 by Alan White

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1996 - Comdex

Another year of fannish abstince. Exploring the local fan scene; visited one of the Star Trek clubs, mmmmm, not for me, twice a month to the Vegrants.

Every year Las Vegas was turned topsy-turvy with the arrival of Comdex, the largest computer convention in the world. Being one of the few cities that can handle the massive influx of over a quarter mil conventioneers, every facet of Las Vegas was stretched to capacity. Man against machine jostle for position in the streets around the convention center as cab and limo companies add hundreds of additional autos; 50,000 hotel rooms are booked solid for the week. The Las Vegas Convention Center is filled to capacity, as well as the surrounding properties, a myriad of structures and collapsible buildings are raised, the Sands Expo Center is brimming over as well as the entire Hilton Hotel, Stardust, Sahara and others. There are over 35,000 exhibitors. It is estimated over $319.5 million in non-gaming funds will flow into the Las Vegas economy by the time the show moves on.

Not unlike the O.J. Simpson trial, newscasters from around the world station themselves for the duration. Tom Brokaw's base of operation was The Beach, a nightclub directly across the street from the convention center offering optimum visability of the goings on. The Corel hot air balloon loomed overhead dodging zooming planes pulling "Windows'95" banners. Trucks carried billboards through the crowded streets while busses and cabs that usually display signs showing an assortment of female proclivities now boast the attractive features of a new operating system.

Coincidentally Jay Leno picked this week to broadcast his late night TV show from the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino.

Now, you might be asking yourself "just what do these executives and computer geeks do in the entertainment capital of the world during their spare time?". The answer may surprise you... well maybe not. The locals joke that Comdex participants come to town with "one shirt and a $20 bill... neither of which get changed". They are not known for their partying, tipping nor gambling, thus the casinos switch to minimum staff; you can fire the proverbial cannon through the generally bustling gambling halls. While Bill Gates had been seen rolling the bones on occasion, the recipient of much of the money is the... ahem, the "adult entertainment" industry. The girlie shows explode, casinos like the Stardust canned their award winning "Enter the Night" and replaced it with "Bad Girls Australia". The Riviera countered with "XXX Rated Fantasy Revue" starring the "Crazy Girls". The brothels and outcall services report spectacular business. Nothing "virtual" here. Oh yeah, pizza delivery soared and the "all you can eat" buffets took a big hit!

The lesson to be learned here is even the most technologically savvy, geeked out / buck toothed / zit faced / pocket protector wearin' / four eyed / can't get it less ya' pay fer it computerized social leper whiz kid still needs the touch of something warm and friendly (not named Sparky) at least once a year.

Speaking of geeks, this was the first year I was totally lost at Comdex. It's a given you can never have enough time to even get the basics of what is going on at this thing, much less master your surroundings. Only enough time to run through the convention center, I heard later that the "cool" stuff was at the Sands. Hmmmph.

Nothing made sense and everything went over my head, no doubt about it. The big push was the internet and I came home with at least a dozen software discs offering the digital excesses of some comfy web somewhere, but as usual, I need an extra push to find out why I should bother, and as usual, dealers think you're a jerk if you weren't already a master of the medium. I have no desire to talk to anyone in Paraguay, no interest in kiddie porn or controlling a missle silo somewhere and God knows I had not an acquaintance who owned their own computer to email. I felt like the first guy to own a telephone; who do you talk to? So I guess I'll be residing on the fringes of the internet for the immediate future.

I didn't hear the phrase Virtual Reality this year, but in its place was "Hologram" and "3D". Video games for children and adults were in abundance with all manner of cool headgear to get the 3D effect; some with stereo headphones. Same old "shoot the alien / bad guy" fare, just newer graphics, and I was surprised to see the 3D effect isn't really that good to make all this fuss about. One of the more exciting displays however was the Phillips 3D CD projector which actually had an image come out at you instead of just giving the illusion of depth and without glasses! Maybe that tabletop alien chess game we saw in the first Star Wars isn't so far away after all.

Phillips also presented their new laser CD technology for home theatres. These CD discs are being mastered by cementing two finer discs together allowing up to 9 gigabytes of information (translating to a 4½ hour movie) to be stored on one side of a current sized CD disc you don't have to turn over. This includes of course, your Dolby Stereo or multichannel digital sound. The superb image is quite amazing whlle at the push of a button you can go from standard format to letterbox. English to various dubbed or subtitled versions in Italian, Japanese, German and French.

Comdex attendees loaded up bags with boodles of demo discs, software, magazines, pamphlets to the point of exhaustion. It's quite a hoot to see these button down executive sorts fighting and diving for cheap freebies tossed out by the exibitors. Witch Desk, Inc. software gave away tickets for the Fleetwood Mac concert Thursday night at the MGM Grand Garden.
 

5 Real Things Overheard at Comdex:

1) "Can't we find a company who can afford to give away extra large T-shirts?"

2) "How'd you do?" (on a video game). "Do? I don't even know what I'm doing!"

3) "My friends don't know this yet, but I ain't goin' home tomorrow!" (Booth worker to hairstylist).

4) "There isn't a rental car available this side of Salt Lake City and I paid $300 for a room with an inch of roach powder running around the walls"

5) "I hope I never come back here, but when I do I'll wear better shoes."

Comic Con 27

So here we are back in San Diego with an attendance of a mere 36,00. There was still room to move in the convention center In the next few years, membership would skyrocket well over the 100,000 mark.

< Click pic for a close-up of the Eisner Winners

The Site

There were two television shows devoted to all things webbish; the most influential being The Site, starring Leo LaPorte and Soledad O'Brien. This was the shot-in-the-arm I needed to start creating my own site. I picked up a copy of one of the few web tools for the Mac, Claris Homepage and cracked the manual. Still, I knew not a soul who owned a computer much less "surfed the net" so where my audience would come from was beyond my comprehension.

Being the eternal fanboy, my first site was devoted to Forry Ackerman. Contacting Forry, who was delight (naturally) at the thought, he sent scads of info, interviews, stories and such for content and thus began. . .

I printed a half dozen T-shirts with the 4eNet logo, sent them to Forry and for the next 3 years received a regular package of goodies to put on the site. I augmented the site with con reports, comic historian Bill Schelley sent me several interviews bringing the site to well over 100 pages and thus it was.

Several zines reported existence of the site and we even won a "Site of the Day" from some internet watchdog but in those three years, I never received a single letter of comment or acknowledgement from fandom.

Another fellow in Thailand began a site dealing entirely with Forry and the Ackermansion, Forry discontinued sending me material and that was the igdominius death of 4eNet.

Close Call

I have a bad habit, doing my job like there's no tomorrow. I would persue the job with extended hours, no breaks or days off. I suppose it's some kind of low self esteem, hoping I would be recognized by the powers that be. Thinking of the employers however was "Hey, this guy works so fast, we can fire everyone else!" In the end, it proved a bad idea as I found working at Landmark Theaters when I had my nervous breakdown.

As a poster boy for "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." after two years of 10 hour days, 7 days a week with no breaks of any kind. I find myself in an ambulance on the way to the hospital with a stroke.

I get off easy. Memory affected a bit, speaking is a little slower, but motor skills are unafected. I now have the power the completely forget what I'm talking about in the middle of a sentance.

After a few days in the hospital and tons of drugs, I'm back in action. Although I was fired for taking the time off.

1997 - Comic Con 28

By this time I'd given up on SF cons altogether. Whatever charm they once held was gone. For a decade I'd been whining about fandom's descent into self trivialization and it was coming to pass. I'd been told this malady was restricted to any event L.A.S.F.S. had their hands on but was in no mood to find out.

 

Friday, July 18

Was happy to see my art in the program, but disappointed there were none of the "Freebies" that heretofore lurked in the depths of the membership bag. The crowd, yearning to traverse the boundary from reality to comicality, was herded up the escalator this year, out across the patio and down again in the roundabout "surprise" we're coming in the back door ploy!

Up one aisle and down the next, marveling over each item in this smorgasbord for the visually famished. Yes, I was wagging my want list here and there, to the jeers and guffaws of the dealers. Yeh, I know most of the stuff I seek doesn't exist in this space/time continuum but somebody has to collect this stuff. On Friday, the 250,000 square foot huckster room was definitely quite and easy to maneuver through. Some dealers and display folk were still in the process of putting up their wares.

It boggles the mind when you see just who shows up at these things, not only to hock their wares, but also chat, review your portfolios and get to know their fans. I sat in while Joe Quesada looked over a young artist's portfolio. He seemed genuinely interested in the fellow's talent, giving him honest criticism and strangely enthusiastic kudos for such a competitive field. It must have given the guy a real shot in the arm to get such an overwhelming pat on the back. It also gives Quesada some extra credibility as a professional.!

This isn't a con to be knocked off in a single day. Even at full speed, I'd hardly gotten through half the room when it was time to cash in for the day. I must admit, after 8 hours of non-stop standing, I'd worn my feet to the nubs and just standing had become an effort of the will.

Somehow, somebody remembered that "Men In Black" had actually been a comic book! I spoke to the creator, Lowell Cunningham who was busy signing cards from the movie at the time. He told me his comic was discovered by a rep from the studio, here at Comic-Con and how lucky he was at getting a studio serious about creating a top-notch entertainment; particularly in light of what has happened to so many comic-to-movie undertakings.

The most enthusiastic buyer I found was a fellow from England who was filling lists from home and making many dealers smile, handing over scads of travelers checks for literally handfuls of cards. I don't admit to be up on all the juicy gossip and scandals in comics, but I was curious about the troup of young girls wearing Hart Fisher's black t-shirts reading "Marvel can suck my cock!" One of the handouts circulating through the con was pointed at Rob Liefeld. It was a card patterned along the lines of a Monopoly "Get Out of Jail" card. Instead of Mr. Moneybags, there was a cartoon of Liefeld and the text read "Get Out of Comics Free!", "This card may be kept until bankrupt or dead."

A few of the highlights to be found at the con on Friday were:

The adult animation program, Ric Meyers presentation of "ChanHungapalooza" celebrating Jackie Chan's new film "Operation Condor". This was followed by sever Sammo Hung and Chan movies including "Dragons Forever". Panels cover every topic from "Babylon 5" to Edgar Rice Burroughs "Spiritual Themes in Current Comic Books", "B Movies in the 90's", workshops on beginning acting and writing for comics, "Classic War Comics", "Costume Design for the Major Leagues" and much more. On top of all this was the continual Anime, films and gaming.

Close Call

Here's a little slideshow with pics of Bill Stout, Dave Stevens, Mark Crilley, Kenneth Smith, James Mooney, Rick Geary, Will Eisner, Jeff Smith, Jackie Estrada and Batton Lash, Charlie Vess, Joe Quesada, George Clayton Johnson, Geof Darrow, Rob Liefeld, Jim Shooter, Joe Viskocil.

1998 - Comic Con 29

Comic Con was the only show in town where one could get a good artistic shot in the arm. For all its success however, comic Con was getting to be the 800 pound gorilla. As attendance skyrocketed, crowds became unwieldy at best and getting into a panel or event was becoming an ordeal. Always had a good time, just going through the dealers room, bought a few things, said "HI" to some friends but would seldom spend more than a day or two.

DeDee Computes

DeDee had been using a dreadful stone age PC named Medusa that had more viruses than the Amazon. But with the advent of the iMac, it was time for a change. She raided her piggy bank and we hit the computer store where she loaded up on all the latest Mac Goodies. The internet will tremble.

 

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