Men in Tights Have Money

When an Awesome Con attendee asked Adam West this past weekend about his experience playing Batman on the eponymous 1966 television series, West’s response was wry and fairly telling: “The tights were itchy.”

While panels and Q&As are usually free with entry, extras can cost up to $100 a pop.

However, based on the proliferation of comic conventions and the excess of nerd paraphernalia, there are many people more than willing to take his place in those itchy tights — and they have the money to do so.

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This year’s three-day pass to Washington, D.C.’s Awesome Con (June 3 to June 5), which guaranteed entry for all three days of the convention, was $75. VIP tickets cost a pretty $465, according to ShowClix.com.

Part of the fun for convention attendees is seeing their childhood (and clearly adulthood) heroes up close. A big benefit for con organizers is that they can make you pay through the nose to do so. While panels and Q&As are usually free with entry, extras — things like autographs and having your photo taken with that guy who played Darth Vader’s body (but not his voice) — can cost up to $100 a pop. Even a photo with Will Friedle, perhaps best known as Eric Matthews on the 90s sitcom “Boy Meets World,” came in at $40.

And that’s just the tip of the cape-wearing iceberg.

Much like Cinderella’s ball, a comic convention demands an appropriate outfit — or costume, as the case may be. Some people actually show up as Cinderella, attempting to navigate huge crowds in a dress that crinkles with crinoline. One Awesome Con attendee’s Rapunzel costume came complete with actual working lights twined into her blonde wig. The practice of “cosplay,” or dressing up as different characters and attending events in costume, is prevalent among all age groups and creeds. The Awesome Con website said that in 2014 roughly half of its 30,000 attendees came in costume or some kind of related apparel.

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Some costumes are made at home — but many others are purchased from any number of retailers specializing in ready-made or bespoke costuming. The “pirate princess” outfit from Pendragon Costumes, an exhibitor at Awesome Con this year, will set you back about $500 — but it includes real brocade fabric, silk ruffles, and satin ribbon.

A Captain America pajama set for women, on the other hand, can be purchased at Target for less than $20.

Which brings us to fan paraphernalia. In addition to costumes, comic conventions like Awesome Con feature hundreds of exhibitors and artists who hawk their wares in something that resembles a nerd agora. Sidling past three Elsas, a Han Solo trapped in foam-rubber carbonite, and a toddler in a Wonder Woman leotard, we come to the place where fans spend most of their money: the exhibition hall.

Want a leather-bound TARDIS notebook? Check. Sloth-shaped tea infuser? Check. Whole cast of “The Avengers” in Lego form? Check. Entire set of “Orphan Black” Pop! Figures? Eh, maybe. One retailer, framed by at least 100 of the bobbleheaded figurines, says Funko stopped making that particular group.

In 2014, attendees spent, all told, roughly $4.6 million — over $150 per person — at the event.

A booth in the exhibition hall costs $1,100, but these retailers make it up in no time. Awesome Con is “a business opportunity for a niche market of entrepreneurs, offering immediate and invaluable exposure to the potential customer base,” said a 2015 Washington Times article.

In 2014, attendees spent, all told, roughly $4.6 million — over $150 per person — at the event. But don’t worry: Only 1 percent of Awesome Con attendees are unemployed, and of the other 99 percent, about half of them make over $75,000 a year. Attendance increased approximately 67 percent in 2015 from the previous year, according to a 2015 Awesome Con prospectus.

“It’s not just a business or about making money,” Awesome Con co-founder Ben Penrod said in a Legendary Women interview last year. “It’s the idea that if we take care of the people who come to our events, the money will take care of itself.”

And it has. Some people might spend more cash on things like groceries or gasoline — but apparently there’s always room on the bookshelf for a signed photo of Adam West, or that one-of-a-kind “Doctor Who”-themed tea set.