Cosmic Masque X

I was asked to do a review of a Doctor Who comic for the Doctor Who Appreciation Society. As I have said in the past, they are the oldest Doctor Who group in the world. It actually started the month I was born. Way back in May of 76. They have a monthly print publication (Celestial Toyroom)that is available to members as well as a digital version (Cosmic Masque). The digital version is free to download on their website. Well I have been asked to contribute to both over the last year or two. This time my review made it to the recent Cosmic Masque. I have never reviewed a comic before, as I don’t really read them as much anymore. But, I did read this one for the review. And here it is attached. I have took out all the other material so you can just see my review. ( But I also recommend reading the entire thing http://www.dwasonline.uk/CM10_STD_format.pdf )If you have a few minutes to kill, please take a minute and give it a read. I would love to know what you think of my first comic book review. Thank you so much everyone. Have a great, safe, and healthy day.

Do Fans Ruin the Celebrity/Fan Relationship?

              A while back I wrote a piece titled “Do Conventions Ruin Celebrities for Fans?” https://fromthemouthofavoicelessactor.blogspot.com/2016/01/do-conventions-ruin-celebrities-for-fans.html and then recently provided a follow up piece titled “Conventions: A Celebrity Perspective”   https://fromthemouthofavoicelessactor.blogspot.com/2019/06/conventions-celebrities-perspective.html. The first was about the rising costs of attending conventions and if it ruins the celebrity/fan relationship. The second was an interview I did with my friend and celebrity Mary Deese Hampton giving her perspective on conventions and the changes that have occurred in recent years on the convention circuit. This time I am going to play the devil’s advocate a little. So I ask, “Do Fans Ruin the Celebrity/Fan Relationship?”

                For this one, let’s start with conventions. I’ve been going to conventions for quite a few years now. Presently not as often as I have in the past. It would be a pretty fair assumption to say that I know a little bit about them. Now I know there is a lot more to it than this. So I’m just going to give you the shortened version. Celebrity A is approached either in-person or via his/her agent or manager to be a guest at a convention. If he or she agrees, a contract is written up and signed. It could state something like Celebrity A will attend Convention X on these days for this amount of time for a guaranteed amount of money. Convention X will sometimes pay for lodging, meals, and airline tickets, etc. To recoup some of those expenses, the celebrity agrees to sign autographs for their fans. Someone (that’s a whole other argument) sets the price of how much to charge for the autographs and the process starts. If they go over the amount agreed upon, the celebrity either keeps the extra or they split it with the promoters. But those details are usually in the contract and not public information.

                Basically what it boils down to is that it is a job to the celebrity. You may not like to hear that but in reality, it is. The celebrity is being paid to show up at a specific time, meet the fans, and sign autographs and call it a day. It’s a pretty straight forward process, wash, rinse, and repeat. In theory, it’s simple. It doesn’t always work out that way though. There are a multitude of things that could go wrong. Even before the convention has even started. Usually the convention has a designated person picking the celeb up from their hotel to bring them in to be there at said designated time. Now if something goes wrong and the celebrity is later than their set time, a little chaos in sues. The attendees who are there to see said celeb are waiting and getting more and more anxious because he or she hasn’t shown up when they were scheduled to have. They are taking it out on the volunteers, the showrunners, the person designated to help the celeb at their table. Basically anyone who they can complain to, they do. Meanwhile a line is forming at said celebs table and as soon as they get there it’s full on convention mode. There’s not a lot of time to get situated, get settled, and get prepared for your day. So now everyone who is meeting that celeb or the celeb themselves, isn’t in the best of moods.

                Now this is where this gets a little touchy. There many different people that that attend conventions.  Many different personalities. Nothing to do with race, sexual orientation, religious aspect or anything. That’s one thing I can say about the Sci-fi/Comic Convention world is that we are all the same in that aspect. Our shared common interest puts all of that out of the way. Which is the way it should be with life. But there are many different levels of fans. If you actually think about these levels, you might understand why the convention world isn’t for every celebrity. For example, maybe there’s a celebrity that you have met one time and would like to meet them again or you’re telling someone about your prior encounter (or vice versa) and they don’t do conventions anymore or haven’t in a very long time. The following personalities could be a reason why.

                First you have what I call the inexperienced con goer. Most inexperienced con goers that I have witnessed is that their main interest is meeting celebrities. They would be the main ones in this category. This person seems to usually have a budget but not always. Most know before they even step in the door what celebrities they are going to meet and how much they are going to spend. Then again some are completely oblivious to the price structure. As for the celebrity part of it, they wait in line excited to meet one of their favorite celebrities and getting to actually talk to them. It doesn’t matter if it’s your first convention or your 100th convention, that excitement is still there especially if you’re a fan. You approach the celeb, hello Mr. /Mrs. So-and-so how are you, shake hand, nice to meet you etc., get autograph, have a great day. Usually lasting three to five minutes tops. The celeb is happy, the fan is happy, and all is well for everyone.

                 Second you have what I call the Uberfan. This person is really into the celebrity and a specific role that the celebrity has performed. What I have witnessed in my experience is this type of person will approach the celeb really super excited. Sometimes they will have a multitude of items that they want signed. (Usually at conventions, celebs will sign whatever amount of items you have as long as you pay. But they may ask you to break them up. Sign some now, the rest later for example) This fan will also start asking a barrage of specific questions. Usually about a role they did. For example, as they approach, they might quote their favorite quote or line from the television or movie they did. Then they may ask them specific questions about a role they did 10-20 years ago (maybe longer). “Do you remember in episode The Gamesters of Triskelion of season 2 of Star Trek, did the Master Thrall really shock your collar or was it just for show?” Taking up so much time that the line is getting longer without moving. Most of the time the celeb will keep his/her comments to themselves. Their assistant or handler will try to nicely move them along.

                Third you have what today would be called “the creeper”. This one is mainly certain guys when they meet female celebrities. For lack of a better word, some can get a bit “handsy”. I have seen and heard about certain guys that will put their arm around a female celebrity before they are ready and kind of catch them off guard. Or they will initiate it without their permission. Sometimes even with their permission or their initial invitation, the guy will do something that will make the person feel uncomfortable. If you want a photo with a female celebrity, don’t be that guy. Be respectful.

                Fourth you have what I call corn chips. Now I know that not everyone has the bathing habits that I do. This is one type of person that I have seen quite frequently at conventions. This person doesn’t seem to know what good hygiene is. There is usually a very pungent odor similar to corn chips. Not fritos, I mean off brand corn chips and sometimes onions. Most don’t even try to cover it with deodorant. If you’ve attended more than one conventions then it’s a pretty good guess that you know exactly what I’m talking about. Sometimes this person has traits of my third example. Which is always something that a celebrity loves. (Yes, that was sarcasm)

                This is just a few things that I have personally witnessed at science fiction/comic book conventions that may cause a celebrity to either A: stop attending or B: Be distant a standoffish to a fan. So maybe if things like this didn’t happen, maybe the possibility of a bad experience might lessen and everyone will have a better time. What do you think? Have you witnessed my examples? Do you think things like this could cause a rift between the celebrity and fan?  

                Then there's the dealer/collector who tries to get autographs from celebrities at their hotel or airports and doesn't know the definition of the words "boundaries" and or "limit". A lot of them (not all) have the sole purpose of selling their autographs and a lot of times take advantage of a celebs generosity. Which I have seen time and time again make the celebrity lump all the autograph collectors as dealers. But that's a whole other conversation. 

Just standing in line making memories.

              It’s funny how photos can help you remember details of events just by looking at them. Especially photos from sci fi/comic conventions. For everyone else, this photo is of myself meeting Brent Spiner, fellow Texan that is mostly known for portraying Lt. Comm. Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation. But for me, this photo gives me a few more details. One being the shirt that I was wearing. It was just a shirt that I had picked up from Old Navy that had some random BBQ restaurant in Texas on it. Could have been a real place, could not have been. I honestly don’t know. Well, when it was finally my turn, Brent Spiner started asking question after question about my shirt and the restaurant on it. If it was good and where was it located in Texas so he can go there. The second memory I have about this photo was just the random guy and his wife that was standing behind me. At most conventions, I usually go by myself and I usually keep to myself. Especially back then. But we all started talking about this and that. Afterwards they went on their way, I went on mine. 

             At that time Facebook hadn’t really taken off yet. I don’t even think it was around. But the convention had message boards (I miss those days) and you can post comments and photos etc about the shows and you could actually keep up with the conversations without them getting lost in the algorithm. Well I had commented on the board about the show and this person said he took a photo if I wanted it. Sure enough, it was from the couple behind me. So who’d thunk it? On Oct. 23, 2004 at Dallas Comic Con when a random photo was taken of a random person a friendship would start. And even though we don’t hang out as much, I still consider the both of them really good friends. Here’s to another almost 20 years my friends.

Do conventions ruin celebrities for fans?

Hello everyone, I hope all is well. I’ll start this for those who might be not as familiar with conventions as others. There are Sci-Fi, Comic book, Horror, and really any kind of genre of convention that are usually held in or around major cities across the country and abroad. The most popular (imo) is the Sci-Fi/Comic Book convention. It’s usually held at a location that has at least a few large rooms. One room is usually the vendor room. The vendor room is like a merchandise market. Various vendors have tables set up selling their merchandise. If there is something you are looking for from the Science Fiction or comic book world, you can most likely find it there. But just as any other open market you need to be aware of who you’re purchasing things from. As with the rest of the world, not everyone is there to sell quality goods at a fair price. Be wary of possible bootleg products as well as highly overpriced price tags. Secondly, there is usually an artist room aka “Artist Alley”. Comic book artists, writers, inkers, etc. are here. There is usually some awesome local talent as well as more mainstream comic book talent. There you can get your favorite books signed, buy original art, or just a handshake and a hello. Thirdly there is the media room. The media room is usually where the celebrities are. A lot of times conventions will bring in celebrities to help boost admission sales. Now this isn’t the baseline for every convention. There are variations. This is to give the uninitiated a general idea. Sometimes there are additional rooms for Q&A’s, gaming, demos, cosplay contests, etc. Hopefully you get the idea.

It seems that lately more and more conventions are popping up all over the place. Some are small, some are large. Some are extremely costly and some are fairly priced. I came into the convention scene a little later than some of the other seasoned veterans did. Some remember when all convention celebrity attendees didn't charge for autographs or if you did have to pay they were relatively cheaply priced. My first convention was The X-Files Expo in Dallas in 98. There were three celebrities that there from the show and all three signed for free. The downside is that you had to stand in line a long time to meet them. Unfortunately, I was only able to meet two of them, but they were two of my favorites (Outside of Mulder & Scully). They were Mitch Pileggi and Dean Haglund aka Skinner and Langly. 

         I didn’t attend a convention for another four years. That convention was the first Dallas Comic Con. I had researched the convention a little beforehand and I noticed something different going on. Celebrities were charging a fee for their autograph. I understood the reasoning behind the charges. Of course I would rather pay nothing but who wouldn’t. Fortunately, the fees weren’t too bad, so it wasn’t a total surprise. Since prior to the show I didn’t know the exact prices, I had to figure out who I really wanted to meet just in case the prices were high. Things were good, well to me at least. I got to meet some of my favorite celebrities and artists (Dave Stevens), make some new friends (some of the best friends I have had, have been people I’ve met at a convention) and then call it a day. Were there some negatives? Sure. (Corn chips anyone?) But the positives far outweighed the negatives. But to quote the legendary Bob Dylan “The times they are a changin’”.

Now I can only personally speak from my own experiences. But I’ve heard from people who have had similar experiences, say that this has happened to them as well. In their eyes as well as mine things are going good and then the local fan friendly convention gets bought out by a corporation. Corporations only see one thing, dollar signs. The one on one interaction with your favorite celebrity is replaced by the cattle call. What I mean by that is you are just going through the line like cattle with basically no interaction with the celebrity. Just pay your money, collect your autograph, and move along. Don’t even think about eye contact. Lol (ok that was a stretch. But it happens) Customer service goes down, prices go up. Instead of a small handful of celebs being brought in, a plethora (to quote Three Amigos) of celebrities is now being brought in. At double, sometimes triple the price for their autograph. They would in turn start getting the “bigger” names in not only the science fiction world but in television and movies. Simply because they have the financial backing of the corporation. So they can afford to bring in the bigger names. When it used to be the celebrities seemed to love meeting their fans, now a lot of them consider it just an easy paycheck. Comic Cons have turned into “media cons”.  They rush you through the line and nickel and dime you for everything. Don’t even think about pulling your camera out a taking a photo of the celebrity signing your item. Because you now have to pay an additional fee (anywhere from $30 to $125) for a photo with the celeb for an “Olan Mills” style photo. It seems like now with the bigger conventions and it seems to be bleeding over to the smaller ones, you aren’t even allowed to take your camera or phone out at all. Now don’t get me wrong I love to see a variety of celebrities at a convention. But if there is so many to choose from, how do you choose. If you have five to ten (or more) “headlining” guests charging $40 to $150 (yes, I said $150) an autograph and various other guests at considerably lesser price tags, someone is getting the short end. Now if there were only a small handful of guests, let’s say five to ten total, the playing field is a little more even. And everyone goes away satisfied.  

I’ve seen a growing trend at conventions as of late. A lot of people think that it started with The Walking Dead actors charging their fans so much for their autographs. But I believe it started way before that with the Creation conventions. With those drastic price increases it is making other celebrities who wouldn’t normally charge as much start raising their prices. Of course I understand, I don’t like it, but I understand. If a celeb is sitting at a table and charging say 25 dollars for their autograph and there are two other celebs to their left and right charging let’s say 40 dollars. All three have a steady line but the one charging 25 is thinking “I could charge 40 and get more money for doing the same thing”. So he/she changes their price to 40. So it begins. Most (if not all) of celebrities that go to conventions are there for the money and therefor don’t mind the price increase to their fans. Some maybe oblivious to the prices. I doubt it, but I guess it’s possible. Now I’ve had the “pricing” conversation with many people, even with some of the celebrities themselves. Celebs saying they don’t make the prices it’s the promoters. The promoters saying it’s the celebs that make the prices. Either way the prices continue to go up and it’s the fan’s wallets that suffer. I know no one is forcing you to go or to pay the prices. I know things go up, not just with autographs but with everything. That’s beside the point. It shouldn’t go up that drastically. Gas went up over four dollars here in Texas one year, it’s not that anymore. Prices can go down. Maybe not what they were exactly, but they can come down. Of course it’s just my opinion though.

I have also had conversations with those who have absolutely zero knowledge of the convention world. They’ve asked me what goes on there and how does it work. They’ve seen the photos I’ve taken and autographs I’ve gotten. So I explain to them what all goes on and how it “works”. Once I get to the pricing part of the autographs, they are completely dumbfounded. “You have to pay for their autographs?” some would say. Then after they would think about it they would understand a little bit but not fully. Their thoughts would turn from a positive to a negative saying that “if they really cared for their fans they wouldn’t charge”. Then it would really get heated when they became aware of the higher priced autographs and “photo ops” from some celebrities. Going as far as saying they are no longer a fan. Even though they’ve never met them or attended a convention. “If all they care about is ripping people off at these conventions then they won’t see another dime from me”. I really didn’t understand at times how it got so heated. But regardless it did and by a number of people.

I also know people who can’t attend conventions because either they are too far from them or too expensive. So they are strictly ttm collectors. TTM means “Through the Mail”, meaning that someone can find an address for a specific celebrity (either a manager or agents address) and they write to them asking for an autograph. Generally there are things that should always be included, a letter of request, something for them to sign, and a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE). But I have found that with the recent growth spurt of a variety of celebrities at conventions, ones who use to sign for their fans for free via ttm now refuse because they aren’t getting paid like they would at a convention. Some have even started an official store selling autographs through there. Sometimes if you write to them you will get a standard return to sender. But some will actually keep the items you’ve sent and send you a Pre-Print autograph (a photographic copy of their autograph on a photo) or a letter requesting payment. 

My question is this: Do conventions have the possibility of ruining a fan/celebrity relationship? Especially with the ever rising ticket, autograph, and photo op prices.