Our latest ezine offering
Get your Geek on - READ The Kung Fu of Fan Expo San Francisco: Anime Katanas Rising by Gene Ching
[QUOTE=GeneChing;1325812]Get your Geek on - READ The Kung Fu of Fan Expo San Francisco: Anime Katanas Rising by Gene Ching
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One is more likely to find a historically correct katana than a Chinese Dao or Jian at those shows. So much so, that I just buy anything that looks remotely close to a Chinese sword then grind it down to shape…
Our latest con coverage
"…right out of a comic book!’ READ The Kung Fu of Comic Cons – San Diego Comic-Con 2024 by Patrick Lugo and Gene Ching
Our latest con coverage
Return of "…right out of a comic book!’ READ The Kung Fu of Comic Cons – GalaxyCon San Jose 2024: Plus Michael Dorn on Klingon Martial Arts by Gene Ching
Our Latest ezine offering
The ABCs of Comics - READ San Diego Comic-Con 2024: One-on-One with Gene Luen Yang by Patrick Lugo
I was just at San Diego Comic-con last weekend and as I was preparing coverage, I realized I never posted the last fan gathering we covered. And that’s still available on the temp site.
[URL=“https://www.kungfumagazine.com/web-articles/2024/danny-trejo-on-fan-expo-sf-tyson-vs-paul-and-doing-his-own-stunts”]Danny Trejo on FAN EXPO SF, Tyson vs. Paul, and Doing His Own Stunts
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READ The Kung Fu of Comic Cons – San Diego Comic-Con 2025 (Outro: Shaolin Abbot Arrest) By Gene Ching
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https://www.kungfumagazine.net/forum/martial-media-culture-and-other-arts/off-topic/66554-comic-cons
https://www.kungfumagazine.net/forum/wai-jia-the-kung-fu-forum/shaolin-kung-fu/40469-abbot-scandals
READ The Kung Fu of Comic Cons – GalaxyCon San Jose 2025 By Gene Ching
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San Diego Comic-Con and the Anthropology of Kung Fu Cinema[/B]
By Patrick Lugo
Read The Kung Fu of FAN EXPO San Francisco 2025 by Gene Ching
Looks like there was not much kung fu weapons in the “kung fu of fan expo”. There’s a huge variety of
replica Green Destiny jians and Disney Mulan Swords sold on the internet. Why none at these expos? And where’s the conspiously absent merchandising wings of kungfumagazine and their friends promoting Wuxia?
CTHD was 2000. Mulan was 1998 (although there was that live action in 2020). That was a long time ago in Con years. I posted a pic of the Mulan sword in one of my SDCC reports (Not sure if that one has been updated and I’m not going to look for it right now). But you’ll notice that there’s not much Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones swords either. There used to be a lot of those (I think I posted some pix in my Wizard World coverage but I can’t remember - that was a long time ago).
As for KFM, I was there obvs, but there hasn’t been enough support from the KF community for us to justify the expense of having a booth. It’s a two-way thang - gotta have enough fan base support to make your gate, ya know? That’s kinda what all my Comic con reports have been about. There is a martial presence, but you really have to look for it. I like to think it’s growing, but that’s just my personal bias… or hope. There’s always hope…
I’ve noticed there’s a lot of Americans on Tiktok into Chinese costume dramas which are full of swords, knives and fans. Have even seen people at the gym watching them while on the cardio machines. Maybe someone’s got to put the chicken before the egg, setup a booth and see what happens. Whats a booth cost these days?
Depends on the con - anywhere from a few hundred to up in the thousands for the big ones.
Unfortunately we don’t have the staff or the budget to man a booth at this time. Many many moons ago, Patrick Lugo and I did a table for Kung Fu Tai Chi back when we still ran Patrick’s comic Tiger’s Tale. That was fun. But we don’t have the bandwidth now.
There are also weapons (props) regulations at cons. MartialArtSmart only sells a small number of items that will pass most cons (FXSF is one of the more permissive). Uniforms wouldn’t sell - not the right market. Back issues probably wouldn’t sell enough to make gate.
I hear you on the popularity of wuxia TV dramas nowadays. I’m hoping that’ll spill over to cons soon. But even the martial K-dramas have yet to arrive. That’s partly why K-Pop Demon Hunters is so significant. I’m hoping that’s a gateway show.
Time will tell.
To our San Francisco Community,
Thank you.
For the past five years, you’ve made FAN EXPO at the Moscone Center something truly special. From incredible cosplay to unforgettable fan moments, this community has been the heart of it all.
As we looked ahead, we weren’t able to secure dates that meet the experience we’re committed to delivering. Because of that, we’ve made the difficult decision not to move forward with FAN EXPO San Francisco.
This isn’t goodbye to the fandom, it’s a shift. While we’ll miss gathering in San Francisco, we’ll continue celebrating with fans across our events. If you’ve ever thought about experiencing another event with an awesome group of fans, we’d love to see you.
Thank you for everything you’ve brought to this community.We hope to see you again soon.
The FAN EXPO Team
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I find nerd conventions pretty weird, stale, sterile and cold. A little like church. Maybe these nerd activities are replacement for church.
What was the last one you were at?
In denver of course mang. Afterwards I was invited to an awkward cartoon watching session. 6 obese men and one obese lady who was basking at the center of attention.
Which con? And when.
Comic con is not a trademarked term. Anyone can use it. So there’s quite a range of experiences.
It should’ve been early May 2015, I just arrived and was living in a hostel without new clothes, and went on a meetup site on laptop. The convention center should’ve been near the msu campus and also close to skid row. Could’ve wrong as it was a stressful time. Later that month I started snooping around local kung fu circles.
in hindsight maybe we weren’t culturally compatible as that time I was using a flip phone and using physical paper maps to navigate around towns. They planned to see the Warcraft movie which was my last straw. I very much preferred to talk to the local working class people or hobos.