Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  This week, Bennett looks at the nerd prom and Grant Morrison's notably disparaging view of the geeks that attend it.

I know that for a while now I've been saying next year I'll finally fulfill my cultural obligation to attend Comic-Con but I've got to confess I've pretty much accepted in my heart that's becoming less and less likely.  It wasn't as painful as some of my other middle aged realizations, seeing as how I'm now way past the age where I can easily endure extended periods of standing, walking and waiting.  But I've started to feel a twinge of regret due to all the reports from this year's Comic-Con all of which make it sound like it was fun.

I know that it's gotten increasingly Hollywood oriented (not like I wouldn't mind getting one of those six figure development deals producers were handing out this year like promotional key chains for myself) but in an increasingly hostile, hyper-critical world there's something kind of nice about a venue dedicated to pure appreciation and unbridled enthusiasm.

It's why Hollywood started showing up at our prom to promote their movies and TV shows in the first place; at Comic-Con they have a captive audience whose beliefs come pre-suspended and are predisposed to like them and their wares.  It's increasingly why networks use it to promote their upcoming fall shows instead of the Television Critics Association Press Tour; at Comic-Con there's more hero worship and less chance embarrassing questions will get asked.

The closest Comic-Con came to a controversy this year was when certain comic book fans were resentful of the female Twilight fans who were muscling into their territory (when it's amazing they attended at all, what with the first Twi-Con being held in Dallas later that month).  It's ludicrous we of all people should try and make someone else feel either unwelcome or bad about what they like.  And hopefully retailers will use the upcoming Twilight manga (copies should be in the window of every comic book shop in America) as an opportunity to lure these strange female creatures inside and turn them into customers.

But something rather odd came out of it and what's doubly odd is it received almost zero reportage.  I'm speaking of a quote from Grant Morrison which came from a Hollywood Reporter article about Comic-Con, comic book culture and comic book movies.  I made the memorable bullet point the title of this week's column but here's his statement in its entirety:

Morrison: I don't care about geeks, you know?  Geeks shouldn't be given power.  When geeks get power, you get Hitler.  There's a lot of weird and angry geeks out there.

Yes, and for over the last twenty years they've kept you continuously employed. Under those circumstances gratitude, appreciation or silence would seem to be the appropriate response, not stooping to play the Hitler Card to smear comic book fans.  At the very least I'd like to think a writer of Mr. Morrison's caliber would know better than to violate Godwin's Law* especially its corollary which states the first person to bring up Nazi's automatically loses the argument.

It's also just factually untrue; okay, North Korean Dictator Kim Jon-il does look like someone who could be trying to fill the holes in his Archie digest collection and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if it turned out Hugo Chavez was heavily into manga tentacle porn.  And you can always drag out Napoleon but historically speaking your average brutal fascist strongman has been your beefy outdoorsy type, not someone you'd pick out of a line-up of comic book fans.  

Plus, take it from me nobody gives geeks power and we rarely get it.  I'm as flattered as anyone by the mainstream articles about 'geek culture' but am not so smitten I mistake the attention for affection; we're just another newly discovered market corporate America can sell stuff too.

I've always appreciated Mr. Morrison's work and would like to think his words were taken out of context, but honestly can't imagine what other context they could be put in.  I also acknowledge the relationship between fans and creators can be complex and acrimonious but I frankly don't know what he's getting at.

Hopefully a further elaboration of his comments is forthcoming.

So I didn't make to Comic-Con again this year but I did attend Pulpfest 2009 last weekend in Columbus, Ohio and had a great time catching up with old friends and making new ones.  There was a good turnout of surprisingly young pulp fans (well, young for a pulp convention anyway) who were clearly happy to be there and in spite of the times eager to buy pulps new and old.

* According to Wikipedia Gideon's Law states "As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches.  

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.