*SDCC UPDATE IS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST*

I have an editorial I want to write! 

Here it is:

I see that some convention goers are getting together to protest the changes DC is making to their characters at SDCC this year.  I'm of two minds about this:

On one hand I think it's a great idea - I admire their gusto, the fact they want their voices to be heard and that they're willing to get their faces in front of the ever-present media.  They are getting out there and are going to get their message broadcasted (at least on G4 which no one with DirectTv can watch and maybe CBR video). 

On the other hand, I think that it might be a waste of time as DC has too much invested and they're too far down the road to revert back to how things were.  Like any good business, they won't make any changes until they start hurting at the bottom line.  Maybe that's the fans best bet..... stop buying the books.  Hit the publisher in the wallet.

Just an example - There were people all over the place last year complaining about Wonder Woman's new costume (in print interviews,tv, in-person at cons, etc), but there wasn't a big enough drop in sales for them to change it back.  What do we have now?  Wonder Woman with the new costume.  Trust me, they knew fans didn't like it, yet they kept it.  Just about every single panel I went to at last years SDCC had a couple of people stand up and say how bad it was.  JMS, Jim Lee and Dan Didio all tried to justify the change and begged people to stick with the title.  Like I said, I guess enough people kept buying it because she's still got the costume a year later.  And that's just a costume change issue!  Now they want to protest the retconning of all those characters AND costume changes?  No way.  DC won't be listening to anyone, at least until they stop making money.

What about the whole "Superman walking across America" plot they tried to sell us..... and kept publishing, no matter what the fan reaction was or how upset other industry people got?  Best quote that was ever emailed to me: "You will believe a man can walk".  Sorry JMS, you are a very talented writer, but it was a dumb idea and I can't believe it was actually printed. 

If I'm still at the con on Saturday when the protest is going on, I may swing by to watch, but I think I'll protest by dropping a bunch of titles from my pull list.  By my last count, I had around 12 DC titles being pulled for me each month.  That number is going to go way down.  I'll spend my money on other publishers work.  Like I've mentioned before, I may try a couple of Marvel's X-Men titles and I might try out some indie books.

The weird thing about this whole thing is that I normally like change.  I guess I just don't like it as much as I thought I did.

SDCC UPDATE:

I'm writing this as I'm in the waiting room for SDCC.  It went live within three minutes before I clicked on it.  I know this because I clicked on it about three minutes before I refreshed the page and the button was still shaded out.  The button lit up when I refreshed the page three minutes later so I clicked on it and got in at almost # 6,000.  They never said how many passes they were going to sell, so I don't know if I'll get one.  I'm not too optimistic.  At least I'll know either way this morning, right? 

Now I'm # 5,087.  I've been moving up in increments of 100, but not every two minutes when it refreshes.  They have these dumb notices that change every few minutes, like: "The waiting room is moving customers to their registration session every 120 seconds" and "Online registration is currently helping other customers".  I wonder how difficult it was for them to resist adding "loser" at the end?  Now I'm at # 5,037, so I guess things are slowing down again.  It's been almost an hour and I'm only # 4,737.

# 4,437 and I got a notice that inventory is running low.

I'm # 4,237 and just got notice that only Thursday badges are available.  No Saturday for me!  Took just over an hour for them to sell-out. 

I'm bummed.  Seriously.  Actually, I think a better description would be that I feel defeated.  I guess I'll come home either Friday night or Saturday morning and drive back down Sunday morning if there are panels worth making the drive back down.  This is casting a shadow over my day. :-(