MiceChat partner Chuck Oberleitner, is starting to recover from Comic-Con and has some terse thoughts on the event:

There’s absolutely no doubt that Comic-Con is a pop culture phenomenon. That’s both the good news and the bad news, for most such phenomenon burn out sooner or later. In addition to the overwhelming crowds, a few additional cracks are beginning to show in the Con’s well-worn patina.

Celebrity access and the autographs and pictures that go with them used to be a Comic-Con staple. As recently as last year’s Con, the casts of NBC’ Chuck and the SciFi Channel’s Eureka stepped off the stage and waded into the waiting crowds. The stars included Chuck Executive Producer and writer McG who freely signed virtually everything shoved in their faces and posed with fans for half again as many pictures.

Pandemonium nearly broke out as various Lost cast members and stars, like Robert Downey Jr., made their way across the exhibition floor for booth appearances and everyone got to take pictures. Of course, that pandemonium was one of the things the Fire Marshall was taken to task for.

Now, with few exceptions, there’s almost no such thing as a free-range celebrity. All high-profile programs feature secure, guarded entry and exit ways for celebrity panelists, virtually guaranteeing separation from the fans.

Autographs and photo ops are now mostly for sale, and even media access has been heavily curtailed. The bigger stars work the exhibit floor either for their employers, like the aforementioned Warner Brothers, or the professional autograph dealers, who had attendees lined up like kids in a mall waiting to see Santa Claus, at $25 a pop, to say hello to the stars of Torchwood and several StarTrek series.

Upstairs in the “autograph area” over the course of the convention, a dozen or so Z-listers whiled away the hours swapping tales with one another between increasingly sporadic sales of autographed headshots.

What were your thoughts on Comic Con?

For all of Chuck’s thoughts, Click HERE

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