Our latest Rocking and Drawing Video Podcast contains a great discussion on the practicality of virtual comic-cons and virtual performances
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Rather read it? Alright then!
G808:
Alright, we’re back. I’m G808 and I’m DJ D and this is the Atomsplit Rocking and Drawing podcast.
DJDj:
And today we’re talking about…
G808:
Virtual comic conventions and virtual conventions.
DJDj:
Right. Which are a necessity currently.
G808:
Yeah. Another, uh, another side effect maybe, or, or result of COVID.
DJDj:
So we just found out this week that DragonCon, which we used to attend is going virtual.
G808:
We used to attend as…
DJDj:
Vendors or artists and…
G808:
But we will probably will attend no as fans, you know, on and off.
DJDj:
Right. Uh, it’s going virtual. And I mean, having personally been to it, whatever eight years in a row, that’s a big, and I don’t know if the loss is the word, but I mean, just the opposite, 50, 60,000 people or something like that, getting downtown Atlanta and all that money that was spent, spent on rooms and food and, merchandise. So Atlanta, the city loses out. Um, but does DragonCon lose out? It looks like they’re going to let you get a refund or you can keep your pass for next year. So, ComiCon and, San Diego doing the same thing, but that, well, let’s just say DragonCon is not charging you to do their virtual con. And they haven’t really said what it is going to be yet. Right. So they don’t know, but it’d be interesting to see. Um, but Comic Con is doing a virtual YouTube feeds of the panels, right? Yeah. So do you think that DragonCon should do panels that way too?
G808:
Yeah, I think they should have been doing panels like that all along. I mean, I know I can’t get out to see everything.
DJDj:
You mean in addition to real in person? Yeah. Okay. I mean, that’s, that’s a great point.
G808:
I don’t know if it costs them any extra to do that, but let me,
DJDj:
It’s probably more equipment cameras and internet feeds and whatnot costs, and cloud storage, but yeah, you can’t get across town to go to the one hotel and the ballroom basement to see that panel when you’re in the other one. So watch it stream it, you later, that’s excellent.
G808:
Even if they had like, you know, $10 for all panels, it’s a lot cheaper than a plane ticket and a hotel room out to San Diego.
DJDj:
So what you’re saying is Cons should be combo going forward once this COVID stuffs over the next few years?
G808:
We’ve talked about music in the past podcasts about, live streaming shows. I don’t think that’s going away. I think that’s going to be new in addition to, the actual concerts you might, they might give a Patreon fans or whatever, an extra tip.
DJDj:
Have you watched any live stream shows?
G808:
I haven’t, no, I haven’t. Nobody I’m interested in is live stream yet. I think Metallica is live streaming.
DJDj:
Do they charge for that or no? I don’t know.
G808:
But if they did, I mean,
DJDj:
Well, like, Steve Kilbey on Instagram. He was doing them and he was just asking for donations.
G808:
The Church. Yeah. Donations is mostly what people like a Patreon are doing. And I don’t want to get into music, but I mean, if it was somebody, if it was somebody, let’s just say, if it was the Black Keys, I love them. Do I want to see the Black Keys live from their studio set up? Hell yeah. I’ve paid, you know, five or 10 bucks to see a concert from the black keys or definitely ACDC, you know, somebody, somebody I really like.
DJDj:
Yeah. I mean, I guess it’s like pay per view fights or something. Huh? Yeah. But the problem is they play the same set every time. Pretty much they’d have to mix it up.
G808:
They could because, you know, it’s not like we go to all of these shows for the whatever tour they’re on. I mean, there’s all these songs for whatever tour they’re on and then play the same set over and over, and they can play some deep cuts. And you know, it’s, it’s not like they had practice the same songs they play over. I mean, I’m sure they don’t really need to practice “Back in Black” anymore.
DJDj:
I doubt it that! You know, to see them like play in a nice studio or something would be cool with good cameras and good audio.
G808:
And Paul Stanley was doing that kind of stuff.
DJDj:
He was doing stuff from his home and it was cool to watch. And Bruce Kulick has, done a lot that I’ve enjoyed playing old songs and showing you how to play them and showing his guitars and stuff.
G808:
No, that was great. It says that there you go. There’s a precident, this being set for additional things you can do virtually and conventions.
DJDj:
That’s a great point.
G808:
Okay.
DJDj:
So I guess you go back to the question of, can what drives everything… Money? Can they make money currently doing just virtual? And we just talked about how Atlanta is, is losing tons of money from people not being there, but the organizations themselves are obviously gonna lose money.
G808:
Yeah. The Cons are.
DJDj:
I was thinking that, or can they make more money because they don’t have to limit attendance and they can have 200,000 people log on instead of 60,000 people in person. Probably not, probably not.
G808:
I don’t know right now, whether or not the cons are gonna do as well financially, just virtually, but I don’t think money is the reason why everybody does things. I don’t think money is the biggest draw. People are the biggest. I think people are the biggest draw for people at conventions. You, and I think know people want to go there, live in person to see friends, they see once a year. They want to go there and see, cosplayers dressed up as their favorite characters and take pictures of them live .
DJDj:
So ComiCon is doing a virtual masquerade of cosplay. Is it, does it close to being the same? No?
G808:
I wouldn’t think so, but I’m not really in it. I mean, even if I was way into cosplay, I don’t think it would be as, you know, as fulfilling as it would be to be their live.
DJDj:
I think when I’m 65, I might get into it. Go dress up as old time people, you know,
G808:
Like, okay, you’re going to dress up?
DJDj:
Yeah. Right. Maybe just as a joke.
G808:
I thought you mean, you know, like you were going to get into watching Cosplay.
DJDj:
No, I’m going to start doing it. I’ll need something fun. Hopefully something fun that they had. Um, man, when you’re retired. Yeah.
G808:
That’s that going to be your retirement?
DJDj:
Cosplay, play into retirement homes. They could dress up like Benny Hill and Carol Burnett and all kinds of stuff from the old Archie bunker, Archie bunker. That’s actually not that crazy, but an idea. But I digress because I’m trying to come up with new ideas. So wizard world, you know, they have all these pop culture things. So for instance, they’re having panels like they have a Blazing Saddles event July night and you can talk to the actors for $50 video chat for like two minutes for $50 bucks. So what is this Wizard Wizard world, as we’ve talked about has, you know, Cheers. And now they’ve got Blazing Saddles and they have, they have these weird pop culture, people Battlestar Galactica, the TV show, the old one. And so for $60 on July 14th, this podcast will probably not be edited by that. You can talk to the actor, Aaron Douglas, live video chat, instead of going to the physical con, this is their way of, uh, going virtual. Uh, I don’t know.
G808:
Is it like a one on one talk?
DJDj:
I think so. Yeah. All the actors there’s a little Mary McDonnell or you can buy their photo signed for $45, all that kind of stuff. One on one talk. Now it really depends on the show. Yeah. If it was somebody I really liked it might do it.
G808:
I might. Yeah. I mean, there’s no other way you could at a convention. That’s a new idea, I mean these days, everything, whenever you do something, you’re a pioneer because it’s never been done before.
DJDj:
Pretty much. Yeah.
G808:
Nobody’s ever had a one on one conversation at a convention, you know, all you get is maybe a Hey and let’s take a picture.
DJDj:
Right. So unless you buy something really big that they made.
G808:
Yeah. And you know, I’m not saying that’s every case at every convention ever.
DJDj:
Yeah. So that’s a possible improvement if you’re really a fan, there’s a baseball one here. Virtual experiences, talking baseball, Roy White, Bobby Valentine and Jim layer. It’s no, those guys
G808:
I’ve heard about Bobby Valentine.
DJDj:
So you can have a live chat with him and autograph for a hundred dollars
G808:
Or
DJDj:
You can just have them record a message for you for the same price
G808:
For the same price? Here’s the thing though. Like what would I say? Let’s say I wanted to see, like you say, let’s just say a Wizard is having an A Team thing. And that was my favorite show when I was a kid, what would I say to Mr. T? I mean, it’s been so long, you know, I loved the show. Great point. What would I say to these people?
DJDj:
It’s like, you’d almost rather just have your picture with them. Yeah. Um, that, and that now you make a good point and this could be a future topic,
G808:
But if you were
DJDj:
Able to talk to Angus young
G808:
Who is still in ACDC…
DJDj:
You might actually have something to say and ask, whereas Mr. T played that part for four years back in the seventies. You know, this has always been my rub with these things, but …
G808:
I might, I might have something to say, what could I say to Angus Young, like, could I say you are my soundtrack to every summer for 15 years? Cause I cut the grass and listened to ACDC or, you know, like I, I get, I understand you play the Gibson SG, but I don’t know anything about guitars or how you set it up or anything, you know?
DJDj:
I mean, you could say to Mr. T you were my Saturday night TV for four years.
G808:
It seems weird to me that now, unless you are an actor or seeing somebody, cause I want some advice or something. Right. Cause I can see myself, you know, if I spent a hundred dollars or whatever, I would get an hour of one-on-one time. I would want an hour of one on one time with somebody like while Simon Anson or Mark Sylvestri or, or somebody, you know, I respect in my, in my field now that’s something, but you know,
DJDj:
Well, you’re right. When I met Paul Stanley, what was it? Eight years ago when I bought his painting and I got to spend two minutes with him. You’re right. I didn’t know what to say.
G808:
I mean, you’re star struck.
DJDj:
I was completely star struck. Yeah. I was like, ah, it’s kind of cool to see you five feet or three feet away instead of hundreds. And I mean, he was very cool and gracious. And luckily I had somebody with me to help make some conversation up, but I didn’t know what to say.
G808:
And that’s the thing is like, you know, say I had an hour, I paid for an hour with wild excitement in the first 60 minutes to leave me being star struck. And then he would probably be like, all right, kid, let’s go. What do you want him to? Cause he would have to lead. And then, you know, that would, you know, you’re going. But
DJDj:
If you think about your questions ahead of time, maybe you’ll be all right.
G808:
Well, yeah. That’s one thing too. Yeah. I don’t know if that’s going to help with still being starstruck,
DJDj:
Right? Yeah. I was just completely for like four hours afterwards. I was like, Oh my God, wow.
G808:
I mean, I would do the same thing, I do exactly the same.
DJDj:
And I never thought I would be that way, but I was um, all right, so let’s go back to the topic. Um, I think we both agree that the virtual stuff helps or doesn’t, I don’t know if it helps, but the actors in the, in the panelists and stuff, but it, it doesn’t help the vendors or the retailers, um, or really the, uh, you know, more common level people at all really. Cause they don’t really get to participate. I don’t think in this, unless they put up a store where you can virtually browse everyone’s booths, but I don’t think they have time to do that or where with all,
G808:
Well, what would that even mean though? Because say like I wanted to browse somebody booth…,
DJDj:
Say you want some swords.
G808:
Okay. Say I wanted the Highlander sword or whatever, and I go there and browse and I’m like, Ooh, I like that Highlander sword. I want that. Oh no, somebody’s already bought that. You know, you can’t buy it on the fly. I don’t know if you know, sales at the same time.
DJDj:
Right. You got so many levels there. You got, well, I mean, if they could actually like us, if we were doing it, we could attend the booth virtually for eight hours a day during that three day period and wait for people to click in and ask questions and then you’ve got to have an eCommerce thing to sell.
G808:
I could work. I don’t know if I would wait three days if somebody was offering me something, you know, a friend is like, no, it’d be first come first. Yeah.
DJDj:
Um, interesting thought though. Um, so, uh, you know, like my day job is making part of what I do is make games, digital games for business trade shows, which are kind of like their conventions for business stuff and all those have been canceled. And so they try to go virtual. Um, and we had a client switch to that last month and uh, they had like a virtual booth that site that you went to with signs and all kinds of stuff. And uh, hardly anybody went. I mean, it was not a return on investment as we say in business. Um, nobody really participated in it. So, but comic Comicons are different because it’s a little bit more die, hard fan base business ones. You, you gotta go cause it’s your job or whatever. So if you’re home with your kids, you don’t necessarily want to go log on there. But I don’t know.
G808:
Well, I dunno. I mean, if he say you had a business, Trey say you’re, I dunno, you’re in a bed show. Um, shit. And you had a gay, you know, you had it for a year at a virtual boat show and you had a game about, you know, trying to Dodge things in the water while you drive a boat or whatever. And um, what you do online is not what you do in real life. Like when you, when you read your email, if you, if you, you know, if you get a message from a newsletter, even if it’s something that you signed up for that you like, if you read the first couple of headlines and then you delete it and move on, you were in your head, you read headlines online. Um, you read memes online, you don’t stop and smell the roses or play the game. You don’t have to get in and get out. But when you’re at a trade show, you’re there. So if you’re there, you might as well be present and participate and get some, a hands on experience. But if you’re not, if you’re not there or if you’re there just to, I’m here to buy 15 boats and I’m gone, you know, I don’t need to play any games. I know what I want a man.
G808:
I, you know, I know what I want for whatever I need these motives for. And I’m I’m out. Yeah. That’s how I was saying. You know, that’s how people, that’s how people play games on, on the computer. You know, you play, you play a little bit in this game before he a little bit in that game. Um, that’s how you conduct yourself. Visually is not how you conduct yourself in real life. So
DJDj:
Virtual cons, any other thoughts we didn’t cover?
G808:
Um, yeah. As any virtual cons are on the, for the most part, you see, keep the convention culture alive on life support for as long as the pandemic is going on there. Another thing and just like, uh, live streaming for bands. I don’t think they’re going to be the way forward, but I think your point of a combo
DJDj:
Thing is, is right.
G808:
Yeah. I think they will be a combo. Yeah.
DJDj:
And then, you know, money-wise for an extra 25 bucks, you get the virtual watch, any of the panels or whatever, attend the masquerade party virtually. That would probably be quite interesting.
G808:
Yeah. I mean, there’s some things I would like to do, even if I was at a con there’s some things I would like to do virtually just because, you know, I don’t want to be out late.
DJDj:
Right. That’s what I was thinking. It’s like, I wouldn’t mind going to those crazy cosplay parties that are at midnight, but if I could kind of just watch it as a fly on the wall.
G808:
Yeah. That, that, or the award shows or panels that I missed because I was in other panels. There’s, you know, there’s a lot of merit to putting things online that you never have before, but I don’t think it’s going to replace the community ceiling of comic conventions, trade shows. I don’t know, but kind of like comic conventions, whereas I’m fan based and not business based and their business has a lot to do with it. I don’t think it’s there. Those are going to go away whenever the new normal or the old normal comes,
DJDj:
But a lot of good stuff conversation there, some good ideas, some good points. I think. So, uh, let’s play, let’s play a tune while you work, Which it looked like it was still a disaster, but I, uh, I thought you were onto another battle part. Well, what that?
G808:
So evil, Colby did takeover Colby in the last phage and then DSazster is flying through the middle of him and knocks him down again. And then evil disaster comes through and he knocks him down again. And you’re like, come on, man. That’s read. We were in the middle of our own site.
DJDj:
And then what’s coming up after this
G808:
More DSazster. Yeah. Okay.
DJDj:
All right. Um, I’ve had the song, “Scorpion Crunch” on my mind from the Battery Powers EP because of the lyric, “My mind, I think that I’m losing it” in light of all the stuff that’s going on in the USA today. So I just, I wake up and it’s unusual when your own lyrics are repeated in your head, but that’s, what’s happening to me this week. So I was going to play that. I can’t remember where I’ve lost track of what we played when we haven’t. So scorpion crunch off the, Battery Powers EP – “My mind, I think that I’m losing it!”
DJDj:
Quick fade. Lots of compression. Alright. “Scorpion Crunch” from the Battery Powers EP from a couple of years ago, available on iTunes streaming and physical CD, please purchase or stream.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, you can, you can get it on Spotify too.
DJDj:
Plus an excellent Jack Kirby inspired cover with art by G808. Alright. Well, anything else? No, I think we got it. We covered a good, uh, current event.
Speaker 3:
Yeah. All right. Once again, I’m G808 and I’m DJ D stay tuned for another Atomsplit Rocking and Drawing Podcasts coming your way soon.
DJDj:
Right. As well as the page posted in somebody’s music coming up. So until next time…
