Other articles by Albert Ching:

Tempe, home of ASU, offers worthwhile ways to pass timeMore than a country barDating in Tucson Remote Controlled by Albert Ching: Comcast adds high-definition channels Lovin' that McDonald's survey TCC gets WWE 'Raw' Remote Controlled by Albert Ching : KVOA will expand its local news coverage 'Beat' touts Downtown Different strokes Don't miss Sonic's new slush and those 'Extreme Tots'

Health Care
Sierra Tucson
Eating Disorders Program Coordinator General
A1 Communications
Cable Techs Trades/Construction
RANCHO RESORT
MAINTANANCE POSITION

Two big events in the world of television recently wrapped: the summer Television Critics Association press tour and Comic-Con International.

What exactly does a comic-book convention have to do with TV? Well, these days, a lot. Comic-Con, which takes place each summer in San Diego, originally was conceived as a relatively simple affair for fans to meet and greet the people who created their beloved comic-book titles.

Sure, it's still that, but it's also evolved into a massive gathering for devotees of all types of pop culture — especially television. No matter where you turn, you'll see a cavalcade of TV stuff around the convention floor. At the most recent gathering, ABC Family, Sci Fi, Warner Bros. Studios and NBC all had booths. "Kyle XY" was advertised on the bags given away to everyone who entered. Giant banners of the ABC Family miniseries "Fallen" hung in one of the main rooms.

Many shows held panels during the convention — genre programming like Sci Fi's "Battlestar Galactica" has been part of Comic-Con for a while now, but presence from shows such as Comedy Central's nonsensically hilarious "The Sarah Silverman Program" was more surprising.

The convention is open to the public and attracts about 120,000 people each year, and even though the San Diego Convention Center is massive, you can definitely tell there are that many people there. Many were turned away for the "Heroes" panel, even though it was in a room that held 4,000 people.

Sounds pretty good, right? Fans get to see sneak previews of shows, ask questions of the cast and crew — everybody wins, right? Well, some folks at the TCA press tour, which overlapped a bit with Comic-Con, don't seem to think so.

"Lost" show runners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse planned to announce (those weary of any sort of spoilers, stop reading this sentence immediately) that Harold Perrineau, who played Michael in the first two seasons, would be returning to the show — at Comic-Con, not the press tour. This didn't sit too well with the critics gathered in Los Angeles for the press event, who felt as though they were getting cheated out of a scoop in favor of a bunch of geeks. In her Washington Post column, Lisa de Moraes called Comic-Con "irksome" due to its perceived devaluing of the press tour, which is open only to the 200 or so members of the Television Critics Association.

Eventually, ABC Entertainment chief Steve McPherson relented, and did indeed spill the beans to the critics, but only after much consternation from critics. Still, the intent was clear — ABC, and presumably others, would rather break news to thousands of fans than the press. There are a lot of implications here — that the power of the press isn't what it once was, given the rise of message boards and the blogosphere, that the TCA press tour might be losing relevance, or maybe it's just more rewarding to simply enjoy TV than analyze it.

Or maybe it's just that people like to complain. On the other side of the argument, comic-book fans certainly moan about Hollywood-types co-opting the Comic-Con event that they built. Human nature, I guess.