TV CRITIC's NOTEBOOK. 2019's muted 2nd Comic Con Africa: How the Reed Exhibitions Africa organisers and South Africa's TV biz again failed to do any real local sci-fi-fantasy show-and-tell showcase.

2019's just-concluded second Comic Con Africa in Johannesburg once again displayed a disappointing lack by the organisers Reed Exhibitions Africa and ReedPOP to try and involve South Africa's TV and film industry - and locally available TV channels - in any real or meaningful way to give their science fiction and fantasy content a platform through panels or screenings.

While more parking and better spacing were improvements following the move from Kyalami in 2018 to Gallagher Estate in 2019, Comic Con Africa 2019 was mostly characterised by come-look-see cosplayers milling about while gamers stared at screens and some people played board games.

Oh, and don't forget the replica of an old sitcom celebrating its 25th anniversary. That was there too! That was there too!

While Viacom International Media Networks Africa (VIMN Africa), M-Net through M-Net Movies, and Fox Networks Group Africa (FNG Africa) had a sliver of a presence at Comic Con Africa 2019 through some marketing activations like a Friends couch replica, zombies and who-really-knows-what else, only Fox managed to issue a media advisory that it would have a presence at the fan convention and what its involvement would entail.

No-one else bothered.

The lethargic and lukewarm "we're there but don't care" attitude from Viacom Africa, M-Net and Fox was matched by the Comic Con Africa organisers and this year's PR agency (switched from last year but without telling a lot of the relevant media) who didn't appear to either want media coverage or involvement, or appeared to want to put effort behind telling the press how or why it would matter to attend.

Missing in action at this year's second Comic Con Africa in South Africa were video streaming services Netflix South Africa, and MultiChoice's Showmax who at least had a semblance of a presence in 2018 at Kyalami with a Disenchantment jumping castle and a Doctor Who activation and pop-corn machine.

Once again several of the organiser-promised (yet faded) overseas talent on the already small list of fly-in stars who were billed to make an appearance at Comic Con 2019 cancelled - some at the last minute. Talk about amateurish and unprofessional.

Star Trek captain William Shatner was a good addition to Comic Con 2019 and did show up, and he was and will always be a proper A-lister draw and highlight.

However, D-lister drawcards from over-and-done series like The Vampire Diaries and others were once again foisted onto South African Comic Con-go-ers who had to pay for expensive tickets, expensive food and drinks, for the "privilege" to mostly get access to look at other visitors' costumes.

It's worrying that Reed Exhibitions Africa and ReedPOP, as well as TV channels and channel suppliers still don't care about doing actual screenings and panels about TV shows, especially ones filmed and produced in South Africa.

Is it too much to ask or too difficult for M-Net (DStv 101) to have organised a panel discussion and a screening of the first episode of its new drama series Trackers, filmed in Cape Town, and starting in October? Why couldn't some of the cast and crew be at Comic Con Africa 2019?

Attendees at Comic Con Africa 2019 would literally have shown up just for this if M-Net did a "panel session" where it just showed trailers and talked about its upcoming science fiction and fantasy-related programming on the M-Net and M-Net City (DStv 115) channel for the next few months that it acquired like HBO's His Dark Materials British fantasy series.

But again - a complete lack of vision or wanting to on M-Net side.

Is there literally nothing remotely done in terms of a snippet, rough trailer or 2-minutes of footage that Netflix South Africa and Pearl Thusi could or wanted to show off at a Comic Con Africa 2019 panel to tease the in-production Queen Sono spy drama series? Ridiculous.

And what about NBCUniversal's Vagrant Queen science fiction show made for SYFY and adapted from The Vault Comics book that is still filming in Cape Town and which will be shown on NBCUniversal International Networks' Universal TV (DStv 117)?

Is one day off over a weekend too much for some cast members, some crew, and someone to press play on a teaser trailer for Vagrant Queen to give to Comic Con Africa?

It's utterly mindboggling that Disney Africa and FNG Africa couldn't bother to do at the very least a screening of the first episode of the upcoming War of the Worlds live-action science fiction drama series (and then maybe even a panel session) of its second-ever commissioned series by Fox Networks Group Europe & Africa for the region.

Why did WarnerMedia do absolutely nothing at Comic Con Africa 2019 around its Batman 80th anniversary and Batman film festival on TNT (DStv 137), instead choosing to do a light show on The Leonardo building in Sandton? Doing something like this at Comic Con Africa would have been much more in-theme.

Google South Africa and YouTube South Africa couldn't bother to do a panel about Origin and maybe showing the first episode of its YouTube Original spaceship-set series that was filmed in Cape Town) to make some noise for it, and Showmax - that literally just added the Spanish dramedy Los Espookys - was hauntingly absent.

Why not show the first episode as people are strapped into beds?

Huge, unrealised and once-again wasted potential existed and exists for both Reed Exhibitions Africa and ReedPOP, as well as TV channels in South Africa, to build an event like Comic Con Africa into something special with panels and screenings for the press and fans around current and upcoming shows.

Sadly, no-one bothers and nobody cares. There doesn't seem to be any willingness, initiative, cooperation, vision or the drive that you find from true fans of genre content.

The result is that Comic Con Africa 2019 in its second year was once again filled with people forced to pay astronomical prices to basically come see cosplayers wandering the hallways like its an end-of-the-month Teletubbies-appearing-in-the-food-court promotion, taking place at a 90s mall that's seen better days and is desperate to try and appear relevant to passer-by shoppers.

How difficult (apparently very!) is it for Comic Con Africa 2019 organisers to keep tabs on what's going on and coming soon to South Africa, to liaise with a pay-TV operator like MultiChoice or individual local and internationally supplied TV channels, and to create a few choice panels and screening around that?

For now, Africa Comic Con 2019 remains a very watered-down and disappointing version of what's done and provided in the United States.

When an orange replica of a couch from a 25-year old American sitcom as a nostalgia activation is one of the biggest TV "draws" to your 4-day event, then you're not relevant, you're not in-touch and you're lame and old.

Best to just sit down - or start putting in actual work to collaborate and to make something passé like Comic Con Africa what it can and should be.

REVIEW. The first Comic Con Africa 2018 at Kyalami was super enough - but there's a lot of room for improvement.

While Aquaman waited to gain entry, the cosplay visitor before him held out his VIP ticket and a plastic grey gun as the security guard told him that "You're not allowed to bring a gun in".

The muscular superhero who held a (plastic) sword in his other hand, didn't know whether to laugh or what to say. Meanwhile off to the side, the Angel of Death - in sprawling black feather wings adorned with multiple amber eyes - was temporarily denied entry at the gate. If she wasn't going to be let in, there was sure going to be hell to pay.

The inaugural Comic Con Africa 2018 - South Africa and Africa's first - that took place this past Friday to Sunday at the Kyalami race track in Johannesburg was super enough and buzzed with colour, krypton and excitement but there's a lot of room for improvement that Reed Exhibitions need to look at. 

Firstly, the Kyalami Convention Centre is not the best venue for something like this because of the crowds and (hopefully in future more panel discussions) but also due to layout, which ties in with the second problem - the parking, parking logistics and the walking distances.

Comic Con Africa will work better in a bigger, more "blocky", more self-contained venue where people are able to get much closer to the actual gates and doors without having to walk kilometres in costumes and carrying heavy hard drives, computer processors and kids. Even the Harry Potters from House Hufflepuff arrived by leg with broomstick in hand.

The lack of adequate signage, both outside (especially outside) and inside Comic Con Africa 2018 needs to be improved.

For an hour and 15 minutes I stood at the exhibitor/VIP entrance at Comic Con Africa 2018, just observing, as hundreds of people arrived after already having walked very far, only to be told (and not told!) that they need to walk down, and then up to the general entrance gate - with no signs, no directions and no help.

I lost count of the number of "F"-words uttered, visitors remarking on the confusion, and fatigued people who just arrived, egamers carrying heavy computer boxes and families with little kids who were already in a bad mood after they popped out after walking over the bridge and disappointed at the long further walk to get in.

How about loop-run golf carts to help people (and their costumes) to get between the entrance/exit gates and their cars? Luckily it didn't rain, but how are people in costumes and with electronics like computers they must carry, supposed to get inside the building without getting wet?

R50 for a slice of pizza? The exploitation from the very first Comic Con Africa in terms of food price gouging need to stop. If this is sold as a family event, make prices for food affordable for families who visit and who are forced to buy it there.

Guides and helpers inside Comic Con Africa 2018 very not just good but actually very good. Everyone interacted with, and everyone of them observed as they helped people asking things (directions and times for events/panels/activations topped the list) were really helpful, informed, knew what to say - and were extremely, and surprisingly, friendly.

With the horde of people besieging them, you'd think they'd appear overwhelmed or stressed, but all of them were helpful and professional - as were the first aid medical team who were quick to help people with things like when a child swallowed a bee inside a Coca-Cola can.

The cancellation from the few overseas stars promised to attend, right up until the day before was a disappointment and a no-no.

Also most of them were "past prime"instead of Optimus Prime. Having someone like Travis Fimmel from Vikings at Comic Con Africa 2018 doesn't really serve a purpose if the character Ragnar already died almost two years ago. The actor has little to contribute to or tease about the future or progression of the character - which is what visitors, the media and pop culture aficionado's are interested in.

Which bring up the next point. Hopefully Comic Con Africa 2019 will attract better and more high-profile overseas TV stars in science fiction and fantasy who have current zeitgeist currency, as well as high-profile local stars.

More should also be done to add actual real panel discussions. Viacom Africa did a Moosebox and women in animation panels, while Showmax, M-Net Movies, M-Net City, Netflix and SundanceTV with a fear tunnel with (why are they smiling instead of looking scary?) zombies, all did interactive "activations".

What Comic Con Africa visitors are looking for who ended up taking photos posing next to life-size statues of Batman and jumping on a Netflix SA Disenchantment inflatable castle, are real-life stars they know and love and people appearing and talking about their shows and projects.

There should be bigger interaction between Reed Exhibitions on the one hand, and MultiChoice, M-Net, Showmax, Netflix South Africa, Amazon Prime Video and film distributors on the other to actually get stars, and have interesting panels and Q&A sessions about the shows and their projects. This will still hopefully happen as Comic Con Africa develops.

Lastly the PR aspect needs a lot of improvement. Where were the flurry of invitations to the press beforehand to cover specific aspects of Comic Con Africa 2018, the interactive media liaising during, and the reams of press releases about aspects of the event and what came out of the few panels that did take place?

How many media knew that Viacom Africa is launching its Moosebox animated series at Comic Con Africa, or that M-Net Movies is doing a DC Heroes pop-up channel on MultiChoice's DStv in November and "activating" it with an escape room at the event?

Future Comic Con Africas need to be made more accessible, with more communication, and filled with more relevant topline talent.

Reed Exhibitions and the organisers really have to "pre-walk" the planned event around the block - literally - from the neverending entrance traffic jam to the toilets, the food stands, seating and crowd flow, to see how ordinary visitors - not exhibitors, media or VIP guests - are really having to navigate the event, to improve aspects of it.