Cultural Event: Attending the Comic-Con - Essay Example

? Attending the Comic Con Attending the Comic Con The Mid-Ohio Comic Convention is an annual affair that takes place with great gusto; the convention this year was held at the Greater Columbus Convention Center on from the 22 to 23rd of October, 2011 at 400 North High Street Columbus, Ohio 43215. A number of comic celebrities like James Marsters, Billy Dee Williams, Adam West, Burt Ward, Claudia Christian and Walter Koening attended the event and made it enthusiastic enough for the general public as well. This paper helps to provide an insight into the entire two days at the Comic Convention and includes a number of aspects like a descriptive analysis of the event. The main purpose of attending the Convention according to personal opinion was to understand the comic book scene in the United States of America. As I am a foreign student, it was imperative for me to take the initiative and go to a Comic Convention in the U.S because reading comic books has been my hobby since I was a young boy. I wanted to comprehend the kind of characters that the Americans speak of proudly and the comic books that they release to the rest of the world on such popular demand. Furthermore, I wanted to take time out and interact with American people interested in comic books and was also able to make a few contacts and friends at the Convention. This has really provided me with the opportunity to meet new people and share my ideas and thoughts regarding comic books. I am also interested in writing and imagining comic stories and thus wanted to share my ideologies with people because someday I might want to write my own graphic novel and meeting people at such a convention is the best way of broadening one’s horizons. The convention consisted of a number of events over a period of two days; there were a wide variety of comic books on display, costume events where people dressed up like their favorite characters, comic video games and posters adorned the four walls of the conventions. There were a number of freebies with respect to books and posters as well which were given out to the people. There was an exhibition of comic books as well as shown in the photographs that I took. It was extremely exciting for me to be a part of such an event because of the energy that I was surrounded by and it made me take a number of pictures so that I may preserve them and show them to my children in the future. The convention played host to some very renowned celebrities, and they came together to talk to people and share their ideas and thoughts with others as well which in my opinion was a very interesting experience. This event was created by Wizard World.com, a publishing group that has given rise to a number of such conventions all around the United States of America. Wizard World was founded by Gareb Shamus in 1991 and it grew from being just a magazine to a publishing company with a number of interests, the main one today being holding conventions. In America, this entertainment group is very widely known for its convention organizations and boasts of very high attendance of people coming to visit the Convention every time it is held in different cities all around. It has also won a number of awards for conducting some of the best conventions of all time. The event was extremely light and exciting with a number of people coming together to view different comic books, talk to each other, listen to the celebrities and interact with them as well as find out information regarding the new comic books on the scene. There was a great amount of energy in the air and the atmosphere was extremely lively as people of all different age groups came together to talk about and meet the parallel world of comic books. As a person completely new to the entire experience of attending the setup I should have felt like an outsider. However, I felt like an insider because of the love for comic books that I shared with everyone at the event. Everyone had the same thing in common and that brought people together. I was able to interact very freely with people and thus they accepted me immediately, not keeping in mind that my national identity was different than that of the others. I was able to talk to people about comic books from South Asia as well and since my home country has also been host to a number of comic books and graphic novels, people were able to relate with me extremely well. The exhibition was amazing and the celebrities were a breath of fresh air because listening to them speak was entirely a different occurrence altogether because it is not every day that one gets a chance to interact with people that they admire, especially if they are celebrities. I also came to know that many Americans value comic books as highly as I do and felt good about having something to share with other people around me. By participating in this event with others I was able to learn and understand how different people may live in different countries; however, stories and fiction can unite them. This is because imagination knows no bounds and people are eager to find common things, no matter who they may be or from where they might be. Thus, even though I am from a foreign country, I did not feel like an outsider at the convention because of the openness that everyone was accepted with. Cultural identity is something that every person has. Identity comprises of a person’s thoughts and ideologies, beliefs and ideas. Thus, coming from a South Korean background, there are a number of things that I find different while interacting with American people. However, after attending the convention, I understood that the love for art, in this case, for comic books, does not have to fall under a different category or be different for people belonging to different nations. This is because telling tales and stories with the help of pictures and comics is a very unique thing and helps to bring people of all nations together. It is very important for people to feel in place with another. If one attends religious or national events in another country, he may feel like an outsider. However, attending the convention made me feel completely like an insider because of the sole reason that I contributed. I had my own thoughts and ideas that I shared with a number of people there and I was able to have fun on my own without feeling as if I did not belong there consequentially. The convention thus helped to provide me with a sense of affiliation with not only books and art but with the American people. At first, I was under the opinion that attending the event might not be that great for me and I might feel like an outsider. However, after attending, I came to know that it does not matter where one is from; what matters is that I had my own thoughts about art and books and was able to share that with others which made them accept me. Thus, in a way I was able to change my opinion regarding the Americans not having much to interact with me with. My own cultural background has taught me a great deal about art. Since I have been an avid lover of comic books right from the start, I am aware of the kind of fun that understanding and reading comic books brings to me. Thus, the convention helped me a great deal in interacting with people around me and interpreting the entire event well. This is because back home I have attended a couple of such events/conventions where people come together and share comic related ideas. There have been a number of people that I have made friends and contacts with at the event. For example, Jack Brown, an interesting elderly man who attended the comic convention because of his love for comic books and because they reminded him of his past when he was a young man who would collect comics. It was very interesting to meet him and spend time talking to him as he helped me understand the value of comic books in America in the last fifty years. This was thus a motivating rendezvous. Another young girl that I met was Julie Smith. She attended the event with her children who were interested in comic books. I bonded with her sons and she helped me understand that her kids had brought her to love comic books and had opened up an entirely new world for her. Thus, in this way, the event was extremely successful and I was able to understand the thoughts and views of a number of more people. Attending this event has helped me gain an entirely different perspective on American people and their conventions as well as their outlook towards comic books. References Melrose, K. (1996). Breaking: Wizard and ToyFare magazines fold. Retrieved from http://www.comicbooksources.com/ Ohio Comic Convention. (n.d.). Mid Ohio Comic Con. Retrieved November 3, 2011, from http://midohiocon.blogspot.com/ Ohio Comic Convention. (n.d.). Gem City Comic Con . Retrieved November 3, 2011, from http://www.gemcitycomiccon.com/ Ohio Comic Con . (n.d.). Wizard World. Retrieved November 3, 2011, from http://www.wizardworldcomiccon.com/home-midohio.html Mid Ohio Comic Con . (n.d.). Huffington Post. Retrieved November 3, 2011, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/25/wizard-world-mid-ohio-comic-con_n_1030806.html Events at the Comic Con in Ohio. (n.d.). Convention Scene. Retrieved November 3, 2011, from http://www.conventionscene.com/ Comic Con at Ohio. (n.d.). Wizard World. Retrieved November 3, 2011, from http://www.wizardworld.com/home-midohio.html Read More

 

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