KungFuMagazine.com has a longstanding relationship with Comic Cons held at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center. Since 2009 up until it was canceled by the pandemic, we staged our Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com Championships at the same center, although we were in South Hall, colossal 80,000 square-foot permanent canopy which lies behind the brick-and-mortar main complex, so I know the venue well.

Big Wow to Silicon Valley Comic Con

The KungFuMagazine.com comic con San Jose rendezvous go back to 2014. By happenstance, our championships coincided with Big Wow Comicfest. I had hustled up a ticket exchange with the promoters of Big Wow. We had both hoped there might be some cross-fertilization, but that didn’t come to pass. I told my Dragon Crew to try to cajole some cosplayers over to our Championships, but they failed at that mission. At the very least, it was a friendly neighborly gesture, and were nice perks for my volunteer Dragon Crew.

In 2016, Big Wow was supplanted by Silicon Valley Comic Con. As cons go, SVCC had a special angle. Steve ‘the Woz’ Wozniak was one of the founders, along with Rick White and Trip Hunter (as CEO), and under their influence, there was a science and tech focus alongside pop culture. Central booths were dedicated to NASA, AI, VR, AR, and assorted space research programs.

Coincidentally I attended the inaugural SVCC on a space-related mission. Or perhaps I should say ‘galaxy related.’ I went to capture a Sith Lord. I interviewed Ray Park there which resulted in our July August 2016 issue cover story on Ray Park. I had been wanting to get Ray on the cover since I took the publisher’s chair. Bringing wushu to Star Wars was totally cover worthy.

Under the Woz and friends, SVCC thrived. It filled the McEnery Convention Center and in following years, it spilled over to the San Jose Civic and Plaza de Cesar Chavez. the the second solo, cosplaying as Pak Mei.

Covid Concelation

Just as covid was looming its corona-encircled head, in February 2020, SVCC rebranded as SiliCon, and Adam Savage took over leadership. The first SiliCon was set for mid-October 2020 and promised to be ‘bigger and better than ever.’

I covered one more comic con for KungFuMagazine.com in 2019. That was Wizard World. And then the pandemic struck, and the world changed.

Almost immediately after SiliCon was announced, everything shut down and we all sheltered in place. No more cons.

In the summer of 2021, SiliCon staged its inaugural convention, however covid was still raging, and despite continued efforts to maintain its promotion of science, vaccine and masking protocols were waived. I was granted a press pass, but I didn’t go. Something else came up, a personal commitment to the widow of a late martial brother, and given SiliCon’s lax attitude, which felt hypocritical whilst maintain the facade of a scientific focus, my priorities were clear.

I need to stop here and confess that there’s bad blood between me and Savage. Back in 2007, he visited Tiger Claw to ask a favor. Mythbusters was doing an episode focused ninja skills and we graciously supplied him with free sparring gear plus I loaded him up with a basket of DVDs, mostly Kung Fu movies because he expressed an interest. He spent the afternoon with us, picking our brains and collecting whatever we offered. He said he’d give Tiger Claw some exposure and with his word and a handshake, he was gone with a cart full of free stuff.

In our naivete, we got nothing in writing. The ninja episode, titled ‘Walking on Water’ was televised in late April 2007. In the final cut, they digitally blurred all our logos and credited ‘Tigerclaw’ (spelled as one word) and ‘Gene Chen of King Fu Magazine.’ Seriously? Even though my surname would be Chen in mandarin (my family is Hakka so it was pronounced and spelled ‘Ching’ when my ancestors immigrated to Hawaii), that’s just sloppy. And ‘King Fu?’ That felt intentional. If there’s one thing to recognize about us King Fu folk, we hold grudges. Just look at all our King Fu movies. They are all about revenge.

Returning to Cons

Last July, I attended San Diego Comic-Con at the behest of Immortal Studios. I was honored to join Immortal’s first panel at SDCC ‘Birth of a Storyverse.’ SDCC sees 130,000 attendees, but this year was unsurprisingly a little less. It was my first con since the pandemic struck. Full covid protocols were in place. All attendees needed to get a wristband after showing proof of vaccination or a negative covid test, and masking was strictly enforced indoors by security, which is not much of an issue for cosplayers as most of them are used to wearing masks. The most ironic thing I saw there was some anti-mask protesters outside the venue who donned cosplay Guy Fawkes masks from V for Vendatta. Let that sink in. Take all the time you need.

This year, SiliCon announced that they would be imposing some covid restrictions. On the 19^th, a SiliCon emailblast stated that required wristbands would be issued after proof of vaccination or negative covid tests were shown. On-site testing would be available for $20. On the 26^th, the day before the pre-event activities began, another emailblast announced that this was all off. The desperation was obvious. Ticket sales were too low to maintain their own self-set ‘scientific’ standards.

The second SiliCon was held at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center on August 27 and 28^th, and Savage put his name on every sign he could. Attendance was low and so were the offerings. There weren’t nearly as many panels, and the exhibit hall booths were spread out to spaciously to make the room feel fuller. I walked the entire floor before I finished my complimentary press cuppa Earl Grey (hot!) Although it’s an unfair comparison, I doubt I could finish two rows of SDCC in that time.   

It’s hard to say why SiliCon turnout was so weak. The pandemic? Savage? The fact that the Bay Area, despite our colorful community, has not been able to sustain a major comic-con? For anyone who had been to SVCC, it was sad to see how much this event declined.

The Kung Fu of SiliCon

But what does this all have to do with Kung Fu? Glad you asked. Comic cons are remarkable barometers of pop culture and a large part of our mission here at KungFuMagazine.com has always been to promote and perpetuate the martial arts. In past coverage of comic cons, we’ve looked at weapons vendors, indie artists who use martial arts as their subject, and martial arts groups that demonstrate there. However, with the diminished offerings at SiliCon, pickings were slim.

One of the things that I delight in most at cons is the weapons vendors. Back in the days of SVCC, there were multiple weapons booths on the exhibit floor. It’s a lot of fantasy swords, modeled after Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, and so on, and while I delight in seeing those firsthand, it’s the authentic replicas that I’m after. I’m reasonably familiar with what’s out on the market from surfing the web, but the experience of holding a good sword in your hand just can’t be beat.

Most of the vendors are cautious and understandably so. Many attendees are naïve about how to safely handle a sword and the sword dealers never want someone to accidentally poke out someone else’s eye. However, I ran many sword vending tables myself and can usually talk the dealers into letting me handle some pieces (especially when I offer coverage here on KungFuMagazine.com). They know I’m not a buyer, but I might be able to drive some traffic to their website, so it’s all good.

There’s a lot of people carrying weapons around at comic cons. It’s a cosplay thing. Most all of them are fake or rendered harmless. Every con has a security check and weapons must be approved as safe and clearly tagged so security will let them pass. Usually special arrangements must be made with the dealer to purchase a live sharp sword, but it’s all manageable and those dealers will bend over backwards to make a sale.

At SiliCon, there was only one sword vendor. It was a large booth in the center of the exhibit hall, but all the offerings were plastic anime swords. Those are safe. The blades aren’t even metal. They’ll pass a weapons check. You could smack someone on the head with one of those plastic swords and it might not even bruise. I’m not a fan, but I understand. Plastic anime swords are light and fun, very cheesy, and relatively inexpensive, like $50 or so. And every time I went by, they were doing a brisk business. I’m glad that their booth did well but honestly, plastic swords aren’t my jam. I’m barely into wooden swords so plastic swords are a buzzkill for me. So that was another disappointment.

Fortunately, my SiliCon research expedition was rewarded by on specific booth - What’s Clackin. It was that comic con barometer telling me something I already knew – folding fans are trending. I’ve been ruminating about an article on this very topic for a while. Now, thanks to SiliCon, I’m moving it off the backburner and up to one of the frontburners. I’ve been watching the rise of folding fans appearing at music festivals, and even carried an Dragon Iron Fan from time to time at some hotter Reggae Festivals where I work.

If you don’t know already, ‘what’s clackin?’ is a slang term used at music festivals that refers to the sharp sound a fan makes when clacked open. Anyone who has been to a Chinese martial arts tournament (especially our Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com Championships) has heard it.

Chris Marzula, the maker behind What’s Clackin, has gone all in with this growing trend, designing custom fans with pop culture appeal. “I’m a big fan” he says with a grin. He’s been assiduously following the growth in fan popularity. “They started about three years ago with gay pride. And then the pandemic hit. The ravers picked up on it before the pandemic also. This year, I just decided to go mainstream with it.” What’s Clackin? launched around the first quarter of 2022. “Before this I was doing T-shirts. We still do the shirts, but the fans have been my hot new favorite thing.”

As for this growing market, the proof is in Marzula’s success. “They’re trending. They’re doing good. We did Anime Expo this year. That’s one of the biggest anime shows of the year all over the world. We did fantastic.” His designs are based on pop culture and his artwork reflects popular comic con favorites like Pikachu and the Hell Fire Club from Stranger Things, among others. “Our fans are traditional bamboo. We make them with – not paper – a modern day silky polyester fabric. They are very durable obviously for us to do our clackin.”

The Future of Bay Area Comic cons

SiliCon is evolving into a comic con that is more of a maker’s faire than a scientific showcase. Much of the focus was upon the creation of arts and crafts, mostly for cosplay. There were classes and many booths oriented towards this. I do hope that SiliCon survives the pandemic (and Savage) so there is another one. At this writing, no 2023 dates have been announced.

Nevertheless, if SiliCon falls, the Bay Area is looking forward to a new event - Fan Expo SF, coming to San Francisco’s magnificent Moscone Center this November. That’s where we last held Wondercon until Anaheim stole it away from us. In 2021, Fan Expo acquired Wizard World’s conventions, making it the largest comic con producer in North America. The word is that they’ve signed a five-year contract with the Moscone Center, so we’re very hopeful that it grows into something massive and inclusive. And we’re especially hopeful that there will be swords there - real swords made of steel.