When a true genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him. – Jonathan Swift
Do you ever have ideas that are ahead of their time or even slightly ahead of the curve?
Story time.
A few years ago, I was talking with a friend about comic and SF conventions. I love comics and have been to a number of cons of various sizes in many cities. I’ve never done San Diego, but I’ve been to New York Comic Con and it’s a blast.
However, cons changed over the years and I’m not so in tune with the younger audience they attract. When I started attending comic cons, the vast majority of the hall was filled by comic dealers and professional talent. Over time, other vendors – toys, posters, memorabilia – got in on the act. Then the amateur artists came along, selling their version of characters they don’t own and have never worked on professionally, and often have simply traced and modified from professional work. Then cosplay blew up, and it started to become hard to navigate to a booth space for all the costumes in the way. Eventually, the cosplayers and famous movie cars became the convention spotlight “guests” and the better retailers and creatives started backing away. It was simply no longer fun or profitable to attend, because audience was no longer there for them.
Modern cons are not my scene. I don’t begrudge people enjoying themselves, but I miss the old conventions. I would like to go to cons to meet talent and buy comics. I’m not there to see cosplay or a Batmobile replica. If I kvetch about the new, it’s only because it drove the old to near extinction. I’d be happy to see both thrive.
Which brings me back to my conversation with my friend and my idea. I said that someone should create a virtual con. I knew there were lots of people like me, who wanted to talk to creative people, buy comics, and support artists, but who didn’t want to travel and spend a lot of money to stand in a packed (smelly) crowd, especially when the halls were slowly becoming devoid of the very people we wanted to meet.
Wouldn’t it be great, I said, to have a weekend event, using Zoom or another online platform, where people could interact with comic creators or talk to dealers? Charge a small fee, set up scheduling for chats, let everyone participate from their own location? It couldn’t be just a one-on-one with a few writers or artists, but a big deal with both creatives and vendors. I imagined the creative people would like that, since they wouldn’t be competing with cosplayers and cars for eyeballs, and vendors already sell online. I could see the appeal of having a dedicated space and time for retailers to talk to potential customers from all over, especially for dealers with high-end product.
To be clear, this wasn’t a plan of any kind, only me thinking out loud. It wasn’t even an amazingly original idea, as Zoom events had started, but back then, there wasn’t anything that big in scale. I didn’t spend time working out details, because it was not something I could imagine tackling on my own, but I had the vision of it. It was fun to speculate. I do that a lot, dreaming out loud.
And my friend pooped all over it, for so many reasons: online was over, people doing online events weren’t getting big audiences, anyone who wanted to do an online event could do it themselves. There were lots of reasons why this was an idea whose time would never come.
And about six months later, COVID-19 shut the world down. You probably saw that coming.
I’m not fooling myself about the prospects. Even if my friend had liked the idea, it’s doubtful anything would have come from it. But clearly, the thought wasn’t as outlandish as I was given to believe. If I’d had entrepreneur money to go along with my entrepreneur ideas, I would have been six or eight months ahead of COVID with an online comics event.
Moral of the story? Don’t let other people crap on your fun ideas, even the crazy ones. Identify the people that indulge your capacity for play and dreaming out loud. Protect your ideas from the naysayers. Surround yourself with people like the movie guy who says, “It’s crazy, but it just might work!”
If you have an idea that excites you, that you can manage with your resources and finances, do it. You might have fun but not make any money. It might be a big bust. Or you might have originated something the world simply does not yet know it needs. Go play.