>>6417016Yea, but they're very small. I've only gone to one in Dublin a few years back. It was a comic convention with a few guest speakers. Paul Cornell is the only one I can remember, having been happy to meet him at the time since I liked the Robin Hood remake he worked on for the BBC around the time. There was some tabletop gaming stuff there as well. Might even have been a few anime bits and pieces, though I can't recall. It's such a small scene around here that I'd imagine it's pretty easy to stay grounded.
I do remember that during the Q&A session there were a couple of pretty bland questions being asked of all the guest speakers and then the host pulled out one asking who'd win in a race between the Flash and Superman, giving out to the anonymous person who dumped it in. All the speakers had a bit of a joke about the question for a few minutes.
Then again, one of the guys I'm living with is working in a different section of the same company as me and told me the other day about a rather fat girl he works with who taught herself Japanese and is in talks about a comic she made with some company. I admire her for being able to sit down and learn Japanese on her own - shit like that takes a lot of time and dedication - but I have no desire to meet her after all the horror stories I've read her and other places online over the years. It's not just America, it's just that like everything it's more prevalent there because you have a huge population and a culture that revels in excess for better and worse.