“Comic-Con is interesting because there’s so much going on at once. It’s literally impossible to do everything. You need clones and some sort of hoverboard so you can surf over the crowd of packed-in nerds”
-Chris Hardwick
I’ve always been a bit of a people watcher. That’s why I enjoyed riding the metro back in DC and why I enjoy walking the clustered streets of Seoul. From men in business suits bustling along to work, to teenagers playing Candy Crush on their way to school, to everyone in between strolling in and out of cafes, coffee in hand, wearing one sort of trendy clothing line or another, the second city that never sleeps always has something (or a multitude of things, rather) for you to observe at any given moment of the day.
Yet even the busy streets of Seoul pales in comparison when you attend an event like Comic-Con. The annual Halloween day parade at your Elementary school seems like childs play compared to the sheer amount of grown-up nerds who decide to cosplay for these sort of events which take place throughout the world on a regular basis. I’ve always considered myself to be a pretty affable guy albeit with very nerd-like tendencies, but I must admit I felt slightly out of place walking around in tennis shoes, athletic pants and an Arsenal jersey.
At its core, Comic-Con began and continues to be a “comic book convention” whereby people from all walks of life gather to appreciate their favorite characters, story-lines, authors and illustrators. Of course as with anything that becomes wildly successful, comics have become so much more than that as are continuously adapted into other forms of entertainment including tv shows, movies, videogames (now don’t get addicted kids or you might end up like this fella), board games, memorabilia, and the list goes on and on.
This being the first convention to take place in Seoul, I was told that it was smaller than some of the other more well known and established conventions that take place annually, the most famous of which is Comic-con San Diego. Nevertheless, I was almost overwhelmed with just how much was going on in this gargantuan room filled with nerds of the highest order.
Almost.
I had only gotten a day pass to the event, but I quickly realized that I would have been quite content spending an entire weekend watching famous illustrators work on a current project of theirs, partake in different kinds of virtual reality videogames, spend extra to get autographs from characters like Glenn and Le Chiffre, watch cosplayers (is that what you call them? idk) intermingle with one another/the average-nerd-joes like myself and in general, soak in and appreciate the friendly, welcoming nerd culture that is associated with these sort of events.
Alright enough talk. Let’s get to the good stuff! Here’s a little taste of what I got to witness at Comic-Con Seoul, 2017 edition….
As you can see, nerd levels are at an all time high when it comes to Comic Con events…and it’s freaking sweet. If I had a large house with a man cave and a six figure salary, hands down it would be decked out in all sorts of entirely-too-expensive-memorabilia, lots of Magic cards, videogames of every kind, professionally painted Warhammer models that followed 6th edition rules, along with an in-home movie theater and bar….FOR THE BOYS!!!. Sighh I guess a boy can dream.
Life doesn’t give us purpose. We give life purpose.”
– The Flash
P.S. I have some videos of the rubiks cube kid doing work, Steven Yeun aka Glenn being introduced/giving his interview, and myself doing a Batman virtual reality videogame but unfortunately, I can’t upload videos until I upgrade my account and pay a monthly fee. Christian bends but he doesn’t break. If you want to check those out, just go to my Instagram (thesaunteringsaari)….I posted a few videos a couple weeks back.