Heart of Dorkness: Day One

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Phoenix Comicon, day 1.

I stepped into a world I have no experience in. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been to comic book conventions before. I have not however, been to a “Comicon!!” before. The conventions that I’ve been to were usually held in one large convention hall, not three massive multi-story buildings. Upon arrival I was greeted by food trucks, blistering Phoenix heat, and literally tens of thousands of convention goers. I was nervous but excited all at the same time.

But like a good little plucky blogger, I slung my press pass around my neck and headed into what I hoped would be a grand adventure. I was somewhat correct. Myself and most of my comrades hit the exhibition hall and stepped right into what I was familiar with, row upon row upon row… upon row, of tables lined with every kind of geeky thing imaginable. Toys, costume supplies, people selling amateur art and nerdy homemade goods. There were dozens of industry people there, from writers, artists, publishing companies, inkers, web cartoonists, novelists, celebrities, the list goes on.

We made our way around for a while scoping out the con, and getting a feel for the space. Then we set to work. We had come armed with a box of candy to give to strangers. Yup. You heard that right. We carried a box around with tiny Ziploc bags filled with assorted wrapped candies, each with a sticker with our site name and logo on it. We also had larger stickers and business cards to pass out. We moved around the hall, noticing how MANY people were eyeing our candies, yet no one said anything or asked about them. After a while it kind of became a social experiment. Eventually one intrepid young woman inquired about our candy, so we gladly gave her and her friends each a bag and a sticker, and told them to check out the site. After that the floodgates kind of broke.

We started passing the stuff out to everyone who inquired, or who looked interested. And sometimes we even just gave them to people in good costumes. In between this we started asking people in cool costumes if we could get them on camera and talk to them for a minute. I even dove in nervously headfirst for a brief interview with one of my artistic idols. When the video comes up you’ll all see that I clearly have no experience interviewing people I’m impressed by.