This would be my guess. The prevalence and size of geek-focused conventions has almost certainly grown over the last decade or two. As a percentage of all traffic, the number of people focused on the hard-core buying and selling of goods has probably shrunk horribly. But at the same time, the total numbers have probably grown and in part thanks to the attention that cosplayers bring and to the take-up of the hobby by non-dweebs who have more than one thing to devote their life to but who are in it for the fun, not the hard-core numbers they can list about themselves (“I have FIVE copies of the FIRST printing of Ultra-Raptors Bikini Edition!”).
More toys than comics, but my daughters have cosplayed at My Little Pony cons and one went to a Furby con, or something that sounded like Furby, and now wants to make a Furby costume. I never thought there was enough about those creepy toys to support a con, but whatever.
no. No. NO!
It’s YA-YA!
I’m not a con goer, a comic book fanatic or against hot girls but I might see making a case against Cosplay in Phoenix. I work with many people who attend the cons. A couple of coworkers ( one a cosplayer and one not, the cosplayer is a girl )talking about the con and the non cosplayer said he was not taking his kids this year because he didn’t want to take them to a strip club. The girl kinda agreed that things were out of control on that front.
So, we know that comic books used to be for kids and the sales were booming. Now, the industry is in a financial downspin and it seems that more and more adults are making this a non kid friendly hobby ( again one town as a data point but the comments in this thread seem to concur with this ) and obviously these adults aren’t buying the books so exactly why should a comic creator be pleased by a bunch of people not helping the industry they love so much and chasing away what were the paying customers? The booming popularity of the cons hasn’t saved the industry financially. You need people buying comics to do that.
You need “I have FIVE copies of the FIRST printing of Ultra-Raptors Bikini Edition!” more than “I had a great weekend playing dress up but I didn’t buy any comics. Did you see what my outfit cost”?
People are right though. If the comic makers want to survive they need to adapt. They will need to find a way to actually sell the product they are making to an aging, non spending market. I predict comics are going to be made strictly to fuel movies which is where the adult money is. That’s already happening. Then, as all the people who loved comics as kids die off the market for new movies is going to dwindle because movie genres don’t stay cool forever. When was the last beach movie put out again. They used to be super popular?
I could see how you could be bitter if your new “fans” spend less on your product than the well paying fans you are losing and their answer to you is “deal with it.” You do have to deal with it as you need some fans but really, to think that comic creators should do it for the hobby and the love of the craft is some mighty hypocritical bs. They do this for a living. Of course they’re going to grouse if they see their money stream dry up. Why on Earth ( or any planet for that matter ) wouldn’t they?
As someone who has been attending cons for over 35 years and has helped run more than a few (including WorldCons) things have changed over the years, but I’m certainly not going to blame the Cosplayers.
Back in the late '70’s/early '80’s there were multiple “types” of conventions. There were science fiction conventions, comic book conventions, gaming conventions, Star Trek conventions and such but not a lot of overlap. Sure, you had people who would go to more than one convention but you wouldn’t expect to find a lot of comics at a science fiction convention for example.
Things started changing in the early '80’s, primarily due to the influence of Star Wars (and to a lesser extent D&D). Star Trek notwithstanding, Star Wars was when “science fiction” first broke back into pop culture. (Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon may have held that position at one time but they had certainly fallen out of the pop culture gestalt by then.) Suddenly Star Wars and other media-related programming and paraphernalia started showing up at conventions and dealers rooms.
There was a huge backlash at the time. Many people resented the “medians” intruding on their conventions and the “readers” looked down on them. I remember going to at least one “Reader Con” where media/comic fans were specifically not invited.
(Come to think of it, the Star Wars fans may have started the Cosplay trend as well. I know there had been costume contests at cons before but I think the Star Wars costumers were among the first ones to really start the meticulously-detailed and accurate-as-possible costumes we see now.)
After a while things started merging together. Game rooms started getting bigger and bigger. Comic book programming started appearing at science fiction cons and Star Wars costumes at comic conventions. Eventually the distinctions between types of cons disappeared for the most part.
Are there more cosplayers now? Sure. But conventions are much bigger now in general too. I remember going to cons with a total attendance of 70-80 people. There were WorldCons with maybe 5,000 attendees.
The most recent con I went to (DragonCon) had over 40,000.
As for people not buying anything, I can think of a lot of reasons for that that don’t involve cosplayers.
When I first started going to cons the dealer’s room was a big deal because it was abot the only place I could find things that I was looking for. Yeah, my local bookstore had a small science fiction section, but if I wanted something old or out of print or “geeky” shirts/posters/toys/props/what-have-you about the only place I could find them was at a convention. I remember going to cons with an empty suitcase just to have some place to bring back the books and things I bought.
Now if I want something I just click on Amazon, eBay, ThinkGeek or any of dozens of specialty websites and have it delivered directly to my door. I don’t need to worry about searching a dealer’s room for that one volume i’m missing or worry about a lightsaber prop being broken in my luggage. One click and done.
Which means I can spend more time at a convention seeing the programming or socializing with other fans than searching through the dealer’s room.
Have conventions changed? Certainly. Has business in the dealer’s room fallen off? Probably. Is it the cosplayers fault? Almost certainly not.
Like, Plus, Star, Thumbs Up.
My perspective is much like what Tanstaafl posted.
What a fascinating statement you’ve quoted. Product launches?
I don’t, by any means, consider myself a major Comic fan or Con attendee, but I do clearly remember that, back when the San Diego ComiCon had newly graduated from the basement of a downtown hotel to a municipal conference hall (Golden Hall), the primary intent of the Con seemed to be about vendors gathering to sell accessories and back-issue reprints so fans could complete their collections. It wasn’t about product-releases and hype and costuming. The focus was on vendors and products, a few scheduled role-playing games, a contest/auction of fan-made art, and a few creative types signing autographs (of stuff the fan/attendee brought to the table, whether it was a hat or a ticket stub or, preferably, a poster or issue of the signer’s published work). And, to be blunt about it, the authors and artists weren’t doing the gig just to get in the Con for free (and in the earliest days they might have had to pay anyway) but they participated because it helped sell more of their product, either on-the-spot or later when the fan’s improved interest encouraged more spending at their local comic book store.
Nobody in Hollywood could be bothered to drive three hours south to show up, and the guys dressed up as Klingons or warrior types were pretty much laughed at by the rest of the attendees – clearly those weirdos were just trying to get away with wearing leather and carrying pseudo-weapons in public; nobody thought they looked like any particular character or archetype (which is why my 6’8" 385lb friend thought it was perfectly reasonable to dress in green spandex and say, “I’m an elf!”). Sure, there was a costume contest and even a costume ball scheduled – shoehorned in around midnight because it wasn’t that popular or important. And the pre-convention advertising booklet hinted about certain authors or artists who were planning to show up at the next Con – as attendees, not guest speakers. Somebody with connections would get copies of old movies (Poltergeist or Bakshi’s Wizards) to show several times over a couple nights.
But, of course, things changed – particularly when Hollywood realized it could sell old products and pre-sell upcoming products through the Cons.
It wasn’t until after the ComiCon moved to the newly opened purpose-built Convention Center on the waterside that artists and authors were booked in rooms and time-slots for direct Q&A sessions and TV show companies would stop by to talk about the latest location-based shows being filmed around San Diego county. And a few animated short films were offered for exclusive viewings. And later some actors from some Sci-Fi or Fantasy or Comic/Anime movies/cartoons would come down and sit at a special autograph table.
And while the story lines for Comic Books and animation had their roots in a lot of genres, Horror, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy are particularly popular mainly because it’s possible to draw some things that live actors can’t or won’t do. The line between the conventions for, say, Star Trek or Role-Playing Games quickly became blurred and the ComiCon was perceived more and more as another appearance gig for the actors as well as the creators & producers and the merchandisers & vendors. Hollywood took notice because the fans were flocking to specific locations on certain dates with tons of cash and zillions of credit cards. It was clear that by previewing scenes from Alien versus Predator at the Con in July, the first week of ticket sales were better for the full film at the theaters in September. Now Hollywood considers The Con to be a routine pre-marketing (Hype) venue and The Con organizers see Hollywood previews as a way to draw bigger crowds and the fans see the Cons as a way to get previews of their favorite stuff. It’s a win-win-win situation.
Ultimately, I suspect the real decision-making is between the organizing committees and the venue management. If a certain facet of the con is growing in popularity amongst attendees, then facilitating those facets is just good business – greater profits from higher admissions.
Easy enough to do: Create a two-issue spectacular character with a unique and copyrighted costume. Have a designer make the costume. Have an actor wear it to the Con and sign autographs. Issue A with the character comes out before the Con and a half-page add is included to say “Meet XYZ at KidCon next month!”; issue B with the character comes out to be sold only at the Con – autographs cost extra. Have a merchandiser selling authentic costumes (and accessories). The creative guy’s copyright ensures he gets a cut of the profits from Issue A, Issue B, the signature, and the costume merchandise.
–G!
*There’s a Celebrities You’ve Met thread around here somewhere in which I mention meeting Raymond E. Feist at a Con; he was just there to check out the goods and pick up some Sci-Fi books. I happened to bump into him just before he walked out the door.
Is this somehow worse than the media ignoring the con entirely? Or showing up and just making fun of nerdy nerds doing nerd things?
I find I have perilously little sympathy with this view.
Did they mean, “Furry”?
Maybe. I wasn’t really paying attention. 
She didn’t tell us where she was going until she got home from it because she thought her mom and I would laugh at her. She was right, but as a cosplayer she mostly went to laugh at the Furries. There’s a whole ecology of trickle-down derision.
Just FYI, but right now isn’t the best time for jokes about mocking furries. Some asshole went to the Furry-con this past weekend, and set off a chlorine bomb that hurt 19 and required the entire hotel to be evacuated and ventilated.
Unfortunately, nearly all of the supposedly adult newscasters felt that joking about the ‘weird cosplayers’ and ‘freaks’ on live tv or in news articles was more important than accurate coverage of a chemical weapon attack.
Kink or not, weird or not, no one should feel like they have free reign to terrorize or hurt people based on a hobby.
Well, I agree that “no one should feel like they have free reign to terrorize or hurt people based on a hobby.” Especially one as harmless as that. She didn’t mention it, I didn’t know about it, but I’m not apologizing for what I said because it was “too soon.” “Too Soon” is my middle name.
No worries, and they may have been at a different con. I just wanted the info about the attack to be an explicit part of the conversation.
Nope, same con. In her update from the convention floor the day after, daughter said, “They say 19 were sent to the hospital, but 11 had just drunk too much.” And I’m not sure if it was anything like a hate crime. Some people are just jerks getting their unthinking yucks.
I agree, making furry jokes now is pretty yiffy.
sigh xkcd says it all
I always thought people complained that it was the movie industry that was hurting comic-cons by taking the focus away from comic books?
I think cosplay is pretty cool. Fans get to dress up as their favorite comic book/anime/film characters.
Golf clap
The comics industry itself is basically moribund; both DC and Marvel are run as with an eye to using their IP for the movie industry. So it’s a bit odd to complain that the movie industry is taking the focus away from comic books, when the comic books are focused on the movie industry. But I suppose being reminded of that is a bit of a sting to someone deeply invested into comics.
Slightly off-topic, but comments about cosplayers and furries reminded me of something:
I heard anecdotes about a proportionally high amount of convicted sex offenders happened to be Trekkies. Similarly, several people who spent time in prison noted that all the D&D groups consisted of prisoners who were sex offenders. Now I am not saying all the people into Star Trek and D&D are child molesters per se , but it also can’t be coincidental either.
Maybe it is just easier to groom children if you happen to have a hobby that appeals to them? It doesn’t make you a child molester, just a potentially more effective one.