, released to iTunes and video-on-demand services this week, is exactly what it advertises. After a series of fictional or fictionalized films like Fanboys and the like, Morgan Spurlock and Joss Whedon set out to craft a film that is at once a love letter to the San Diego Comic Con and at the same time, a fully functioning documentary. They succeed admirably, capturing the convention warts and all.Tackling the convention principally from the point of view of five central characters–two aspiring comics artists, a costume designer, a retailer (Chuck Rozanski of Mile High Comics) and a toy collector whose entire story begins and ends in a single five-minute arc and seems shoehorned in.That arc and character feel a bit out of place, since everyone else we follow for any substantial amount of time really seems to wax poetic about the “feeling of community” and the importance of the convention to the health of the industry and the subculture. That dude is there to buy exclusive toys, and when he’s done with that he declares that he’s done and leaves the film and, apparently, the convention. The man unapologetically tells the camera that he isn’t concerned with convention workers who tell him not to run, because “What are you going to do, throw me out for running?” Aside from the fact that convention workers at big shows like New York and San Diego have been known to overreact, so the answer might be yes, there’s the fact that he just comes off seeming, more than anyone else in the film, like an overgrown adolescent.The others, though, are all fascinating and likable characters, particularly Skip Harvey, a determined bartender and artist who heads into the convention with visions of Marvel jobs dancing in his head but leaves disappointed in spite of what appears to be a strong portfolio (his weaknesses are pointed out to him and the viewer by editor after editor, who to a man point out that he’s got strong draftsmanship chops). Of the three aspiring creative-types in the film, he’s the only one who didn’t land a job in the field by the time the movie was out of production and somehow he’s the one who’s the easiest to connect with. Maybe it’s the “lovable loser” thing, or maybe it’s just that early on he got the most screentime, but it’s hard not to root for him.
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