The two faces of the Comic-Coin

I’ve always been something of a fair-weather nerd. I watch Star Trek, but couldn’t tell you the serial number of the Enterprise-D, and when playing Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles (they will never be Ninja Turtles to me) at primary school, I assumed the role of Donatello, but I’m in no rush to see the new movie. I have strong views on Marvel vs DC comics, but have only ever bought one comic book. Being half way in and half way out the ‘nerd-sphere’, made going to Comic Con London on 24th October an interesting experience.

Until last weekend, I had never really appreciated what a true Comic Con-er was and it was both fascinating and terrifying to behold. Whatever their particular niche – whether it be Star Trek, Manga, or computer games, they’re all catered for at Comic Con. However, what struck me most, was a strange dichotomy between their extreme intelligence, dedication and non-conformity on the one hand and introversion, passivity and shyness on the other.

Nowhere was this distinction more apparent than in the costumes on show. There were two main types: those which had been hours in the making, at the cost of hundreds of pounds; and those on which people had spent 5 minutes, colouring their faces in with felt-tip pens and had stuck up-turned buckets to their feet with masking tape. But the most striking distinction came in their demeanour. Go to any nightclub on halloween, and you’ll see people dressing up, showing off and thriving off the attention. At Comic-Con, people go even crazier with their costumes, and bare just as much skin, but look like they’re hating every second, hoping no-one notices them for fear of dying of embarrassment.

I went along to with a friend, whose particular area of interest lies in Science Fiction character models. Figurines and ships from any number of film franchises: Star Wars, Robocop and Alien are his particular favourites. George Lucas famously owns the rights to a huge proportion of Star Wars merchandise, and he’s no fool.  The next time you watch any block-buster Sci-Fi movie, keep an eye out for marketing potential. Almost any on screen Sci-Fi character will  be made into a 1:16 scale model. Then, the character’s every incarnation and costume change will become another 1:16 model. Now imagine all those 1:16 models being made into 1:8 and 1:2 scale model.  An individual model can sometimes fetch hundreds of pounds. As I listened to a curly-haired ginger man dressed in a kimono and sparkly green nail polish, telling me about the cruising speeds and firepower of the frigate-class 1:16 scale ship, I was looking at, I found it even harder to understand why these grown adults would be so obsessed by these toys.

On the one hand, these Comic-Conners have a huge breadth of knowledge, and put a lot of passion into their hobby – a passion which, if you’ll excuse the pun, is totally alien to me. What the hell does it matter that this particular model Spaceship is superior to another, just because the paint job accurately reflects the fact that this ship regularly descends through the atmosphere of a planet? Did you really need to spend £300 to get a perfect replica Ghostbusters Proton Pack for your costume? And, were the three hours you spent making and applying Spock-ears really worth the time?

But there is salient difference between these nerds, and what you might call ‘traditional enthusiasts’. Comic Con-ers are not dressing up to flirt or to be outrageous, but to appreciate the craft of make up effects and design. Comic Con-ers want people to look at and admire their costumes, not at the person inside it. The fact that they have to wear their creations is an unfortunate necessity for the wearer. And is their interest in models and figures really any different from the one I have with my iPhone?  When I say I’m going to hold out for the iPhone 6 upgrade, is the difference between two indistinguishable model spaceships really as staggering as the one between the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 upgrade in 6 months?

The point about Comic Con, and the reason it feels so unnatural to me, is that I’m not as much a part of that world as I thought I was. I have no appreciation for the paint-details of a model starship,  in the same way I do for the minor processing speed difference of my new phone. The established norm in my world, is to dress-up to make being flirty, or outrageous acceptable, not to dress up as an end in itself. So, what started out as a kind of pity for hobbyists that I didn’t understand, has ultimately turned in to admiration for a subculture of people, who are doing the exact same thing as the mainstream. Comic Con is just a few-and-far-between facilitator.

Perhaps I’m not such a nerd as I thought I was.