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Blackhawks Convention vs. Comic-Con. FIGHT!
By Kat | July 27, 2009
Within a week (give or take a couple of days), I ended up attending two fan conventions. The first thing I learned? Never attend two fan conventions within a week of each other ever again if I value what’s left of my sanity. Especially if one of them is the San Diego Comic-Con.
So, for my first blog on NTIC, I thought it’d be fun to compare and contrast the two. I’m still high off of my nerd binge. Humor me, dammit.
Size of convention:
Blackhawks Convention – around 10,000 attendees / Comic-Con – around 150,000 attendeees
To say that I was unprepared for the sheer enormity of Comic-Con is the understatement of the decade. 150,000 people crammed into one (admittedly huge) convention center over the course of four days? That’s about FIVE TIMES the population of my home town. The Blackhawks Convention is much smaller, and in my opinion, much easier to deal with. (I actually spent a good portion of my time at Comic-Con with my arms over my head, declaring, “I must be Duncan Keith, because I can’t DEAL with this right now!”)
Security detail:
The security at Comic-Con made the security at the Blackhawks Convention look like the Keystone Kops. Of course, Comic-Con has about a thirty-nine-year head start, but let’s be real. Puckbunnies wearing no pants underneath their Kane and Toews jerseys are nothing compared to Slave Girl Leias grinding up on a guy, trying to sweet-talk him into letting her into the overly-packed ballroom. And yet the Comic-Con security guy does not budge.
This is what makes me convinced that Comic-Con has robots on security detail.
See that picture of a motherfucking flame-throwing robot? That’s what would happen when you would try to get into a completely full ballroom without paying your dues in line at Comic-Con. Learn from this, Blackhawks Convention security.
Autograph signings:
In all seriousness (well… mostly seriousness), this is something Comic-Con gets right, and something the Blackhawks Convention people need to steal. You get in line for an autograph ticket (and there is a set number of tickets per signing — no more than maybe 500 at the most at Comic-Con). If you’re one of the lucky people who get a ticket, you get to go to the autograph signing. No ticket, no autograph. It’s simple, elegant, and saves people from hard feelings about standing in line for three hours only to get turned away at some arbitrary time.
(As an aside — Blackhawks Convention attendees were WAY more obsessed with autographs than the typical Comic-Con attendee nerd. I wonder why that is.)
Officially-sanctioned hoochies:
Blackhawks Convention – Ice Crew / Comic-Con – Booth Babes
The booth babes gave away free shit I actually wanted. This round goes to the booth babes.
Unofficially-sanctioned hoochies:
Blackhawks Convention – Puck Bunnies / Comic-Con – The aforementioned Slave Girl Leias (along with a host of other scantily-clad women)
At least the slave girls had an excuse to WEAR NO PANTS, puck bunnies. (And, really, I’m putting my foot down on this “not wearing pants when all logic says you should” business. Pants, for fuck’s sake. All I am saying is give pants a chance. Or a skirt. Or even shorts. SOMETHING.)
Manliest of men:
Blackhawks Convention – Bobby Hull / Comic-Con – Bruce Campbell
Both reduced a roomful of grown-ass men into tittering, giggly fangirls. I say it’s a draw.
Random celebrity encounters:
Blackhawks Convention – Stan Mikita / Comic-Con – Leonard Nimoy
I randomly ran into both of these guys — Stan, while I was drunk, and Leonard, when I was hung over. So, obviously I need to drink more.
…Wait, aren’t they the same guy, anyway? Draw.
Cleanliness of the attendees:
Blackhawks fans, I would just like to thank you for taking the time to wash your ass on a daily basis during the convention. I thought that the fanboy who reeked of body funk, Cheetos, and Mountain Dew was only a myth, but I was wrong. Oh God, how I was wrong! I spent more time shoved under someone’s smelly armpit while in line at Comic-Con more than I’d care to remember.
…In fact, I’m going to drink now so I can forget this ever happened. Maybe I’ll end up running into Kris Versteeg or something.
Topics: Convention | 1 Comment »
July 27th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
Like I said, nothing (as a whole) beats the Blackhawks convention!