As has now become almost customary, I made it to the Comic Con in Bengaluru once more as a ‘Super Fan’. And as is usual, it gave me the chance to look at the event again through an economic lens. The Super Fan pass is something the organizers of the show sell to the die hards promising some extra goodies and faster processing times at the entry through dedicated check in lines. Sounds a bit airlines-y? Well that’s because it is similar to a, say, premium economy class ticket on an airline where may be they say they’ll give you a free snack and like whether you are flying economy, premium economy, or business class, you enter the same plane, at Comic Con you still enter the same exhibition/show. Nonetheless, for a die-hard like me it makes sense because of an economics idea called ‘bundling’ [where two or more things are sold as a combo and at a lower price* than the individual unit] because I would use both units and once inside, I was about to discover a whole new economy crop up. But more importantly, I would also learn a lesson on the things money cant buy.
The Comic Con, in whatever its avatars, is generally seen as a celebration of pop culture but also a commercial enterprise looking to make people spend money on things they really don’t need or will not really use [a friend of mine bought 5 TV Show themed clocks this year; I am wondering if she and her husband have enough space in their apartment to put them up]. And while it is easy to get cynical about it like Frances McDormand’s character Elaine Miller in Almost Famous does, declaring to her children that ‘Adolescence is a marketing tool’ I think there is always value in these conventions because of the communities they build.
This year’s Con in Bengaluru came at a critical time just when the government in a major currency move had declared demonetisation of the existing Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes [almost four fifths of the total currency notes circulating in the country], with immediate effect beginning midnight last Wednesday, to be replaced in staggered fashion by new Rs 500 and Rs 2000 notes. The objective was apparently to crack down on ‘black money’ [illegal and possibly undeclared income] but the transition period when citizens have been asked to take the notes they have to their nearest bank and exchange them for new ones has been chaotic and difficult so far. The logistics seem to have overwhelmed most banks and with ATMs still not calibrated for the new notes, dealing in cash has become fraught with difficulties. When I first wrote a piece of this sort about the Comic Con in 2012, I narrated an instance of where a vendor had told us ‘Cash never fails’. The wheel seems to have turned full circle since then because it was cash precisely that was failing at this Comic Con. Vendors this time found creative ways to manage those problems. Most were accepting card payments or payments through Paytm a popular digital wallet that many urban Indians use, but they also realized that absolutely no cash might shut out customers such as students [who may have saved money in hard currency; maybe got some during their birthday or Diwali]. Thus quite a few outlets, selling everything from superhero themed cupcakes to tee shirts to posters declared that they would accept the old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes but with the condition that they would not be able to tender any change for them. In effect, they were shifting the burden of changing those notes at the bank upon themselves.
Nonetheless, such creative solutions notwithstanding, my observation is that there seemed to be lesser business at the counters. The fact that people weren’t spending all their time on spending their money led to them focusing on the small joys of enjoying the con as a community of fun people. I have always been struck by the unwritten bond shared by most who visit the event, particularly here in this city, particularly those who attend the show in costume – the cosplayers. I tried cosplays on both days of the event and the fellow cosplayers, strangers almost all of them, were there helping out in case you needed some help, complimenting sincerely on your effort, or encouraging genuinely someone who may not have the best looking costume but is really into the character. There is incredible efforts put in by some to put their elaborate guise together [making just the body armour for many anime characters can be a nightmare] and there certainly are opportunity costs involved [people may have skipped school or work to prepare the costume, even spent a lot of money on it]. And that’s not all. For an effort that is purely voluntary, the cosplayers in expectation of no return, spend hours standing and posing for photos with visitors, smiling tirelessly. I was made to wonder why they do that and where the motivation comes from, because clearly rational economics could not really answer that.
I found one from the experience of my two days as, dare I suggest, a rather popular cosplayer. I had tried to be Newt Scamander, the Harry Potter universe character on Day 1 and was inundated with photo requests, particularly from young Potter fans who recognized my props of the wand and my briefcase, in which ostensibly there are some magical creatures locked up. ‘Are you a wizard?’ one child asked, her eyes open in wide genuine wonder and when I answered ‘Yes I am’ [something you can only do at a Comic Con, really], she excitedly asked if she could get a picture clicked with me. She was grinning the whole time, the smile getting wider as we posed for the photo. Another young kid, aged 9, was cosplaying a rather badass Freddy Krueger [of The Nightmare on Elm Street fame] himself and when I went up to him to say ‘nice job’ he graciously said thanks and then pointed at my briefcase, and in all seriousness whispered, ‘Take very good care of this. Do not let any of the magical creatures spill out.’ I dutifully told him I will. The kid in question then went to another little guy dressed up as Thor and asked to borrow his hammer. When ‘Thor’ passed it on to him he pretended it was too heavy and he couldn’t hold it. Talk about getting into character and living out a fantasy! These are things many may find silly when adults do it, but I think that’s where the biggest value of the Comic Con lies. To see these little children and the smiles on their faces as you let them hold the lightsaber or cast a spell with your wand is priceless, and worth standing in oppressive conditions for hours at a stretch. To see their parents do the same and engaging in some banter about the character or quote a favourite line is to see someone leave the worldly worries behind for a brief moment and live that present moment of pure fantasy like a child would. Now that’s a currency that’ll never go out of fashion.
P.S. A huge shout out to all the other cosplayers, pretty much all of whom put in way more effort than I did and looked absolutely fabulous and the volunteers who kept the show running.
*The Super Fan pass was Rs 575, the daily entry ticket was Rs 325.
It's the Market, Stupid! 