One thing became very apparent to me at New York Comic Con…I hate you. It’s nothing personal it’s just that your opinions are stupid and based in some whimsical fanboy world where it actually makes sense to ask a panel of DC exclusive employee’s what their favorite New 52 book is. In my world, that’s stupid. But it occurred to me that as I watched these massive groups of friends (stupid friends) walking around that we still had a lot in common. We both obviously enjoy comics, video games and other nerdy shit that was at this and every convention. And yet I don’t really hear about or experience myself the act of making new friends at cons. I’m sure it happens,but it seems that it’s a much rarer thing. So why is it that comic con isn’t just a massive friends list that everyone is on? Could it be that secretly as I’m making fun of you for your opinion and turn to my friend and say something nerdy, that you too are judging me and making fun of me to your friends? Could it be that really this is a con filled mostly with people that hate other nerds? Or… is there a nerd hierarchy that keeps people like me from being able to befriend the more…ignorant nerds as equals and thus keeping them at arm length or at least a seat between?
Especially this year it just seems like I should have made a lot of friends with like-minded people, but at every con I just find more and more people that really… I can’t stand. Sure I’ll occasionally see a guy that’s around my age and looks like he’s into same fashion, but then I see him pick up Marvel freebies that were given out in any reputable comic shop months prior. Tsk, tsk I say as I wouldn’t be caught wasting my time on such propaganda marketing fueled books.
Because of this I tend to rely heavily on my current circle of friends and let’s not kid ourselves there is a nerd hierarchy with me basically sitting at the top in my area of expertise. And that’s the key,because they’re my friends I know that they have different strengths in nerd knowledge from expert to novice and we’re able to balance out because of this.But at comic con’s I only have your Comic, Video Games and Movie knowledge to go off of and if you score low in all three… then what would we talk about?You’d never bring anything to the conversation and frankly if you have nothing to talk about with someone, then you’re not really friends.
So to answer my own question of why comic fans hate each other, we don’t. In fact I’m very happy to see so many comic fans and every level of interest in to the industry, but don’t expect me to run up to you with hugs of friendship. Although we have similar interests we may not ever click in the way friends do. That being said I’ll still be your friend on X-Box or even tweet back and forth with you and if you ever have a comic related question and if you don’t come here first I’ll be deeply offended. We may not know each other or even like each other, but we respect each other’s hobbies and when it comes to comics, that’s the most important thing we can do for each other. But seriously, stop offering me free hugs I hate that shit.