ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews academic work on the most-studied fan convention, San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC), comparing it with emergent work on globalised or glocalised conventions in India, China and South Africa. It suggests that the concept of the “experience economy” can be applied more substantively to Comic-Cons, especially as the cost of such events for their attendees means that a neoliberal return on investment is sought – this explains the need for “anticipatory labour” as well as the intense valuing of event experiences (e.g. being commemorated through swag). Furthermore, what has been termed “third-generation” experience economy analysis can also be useful in terms of understanding Comic-Cons not merely as experiences staged by rights-holders and media professionals, but also as experiences co-produced by attending/blogging fans. Through these discussions, I suggest that rather than distinguishing between text-based and place-based fandom, or silo-ing brand fans and event fans as distinct categories, it could be helpful to approach fans of Comic-Cons as displaying a type of co-existential fandom, operating through a blend of fannish elements (text/brand/place), which cannot be meaningfully separated out, particularly as fan experience connects and bridges these strands.
