Comic-Con International Continues to Captivate

Good friends Tom, Brianna, Rachel, and Rebecca, are all ready to have a great time at this year’s Comic-Con International: San Diego. – Courtesy photo

By May S. Ruiz 

In 1970, a group of comic book, movie, and science fiction aficionados got together and decided to organize a small convention (which they called minicon) in San Diego to establish awareness and raise funds for a much bigger event of this nature. They held it on March 21 of that year at the US Grant Hotel and it drew about 100 attendees.

It has since evolved into the San Diego Comic Convention (SDCC) and attracts thousands of followers to its multi-day gatherings in major cities the world over. The granddaddy of them all remains to be the annual Comic-Con International: San Diego, which will be held in several venues in and around the convention center from Thursday, July 21, to Sunday, July 24, with a preview night on July 20.

The comic convention has become hugely popular that it has spawned other events like WonderCon, held from 1995 to 2014 in Anaheim, the Alternative Press Expo (APE), held in San Francisco from 2002 to 2014 and in San Jose in 1995 to 2001, Comic Book Expo, ProCon, and Con/Fusion.

Stephen Haydon, who works at a national retail store in Pasadena and is going this year as a member of the industry, is one of the organization’s most devoted attendees. He states, “Comic-Con has a reputation that preceded it long before it became mainstream. I’ve known about it for as long as I’ve been able to lift a comic book but it wasn’t until I was in high school that I learned the particulars of the event. I happened to be talking to my uncle who lives in San Diego and he suggested that my dad and I come out for it.

“I was born and raised in Iowa so Comic-Con seemed like an impossible dream but to hear that it was in such close proximity to my family made it an attainable goal. I first attended it in 2009 with my dad for four days and preview night. Unfortunately, my flight was delayed and I was unable to make it to preview night in time that year. I’ve tried not to miss it since,” Haydon continues.

Pasadena born and bred, Rachel Miller, loves reading comic books. The 20-year-old college student relates, “I must have heard about Comic-Con through an ad or at the comic store I frequent. Heading down to SDCC has been my dream since I was about 11 or 12, but this was the first year I was able to set any plans down in stone.”

For Miller’s 19-year-old former high school classmate, Brianna Chu, going to Comic-Con wasn’t exactly a childhood wish. She discloses, “I found out about it from friends like Rach but it wasn’t until I learned that my favorite actors from TV shows and movies went to it every year that I got really interested.

“Rach and I had considered going to it together, just the two of us, but having thought more about it we decided it wasn’t such a great idea to have two girls go on their own. So I asked two friends from university if they wanted to tag along,” Chu expounds.

Tom Williams, a 20-year-old who old hails from Herefordshire, England, has also known about Comic-Con for a while. He recounts, “I had heard about it from various different sources, long before I ever conceived of possibly going there one day. It’s discussed and represented quite a bit in the general media, in such forms as gaming YouTube channels. And if you’re even vaguely interested in the Marvel film franchise, for example, it’s highly likely you’ll hear about it eventually. Some friends from back home and I considered going to London Comic-Con a number of times although we were never able to organize it properly.

“Being from England, I obviously really didn’t think about traveling to San Diego until I went to university and made new friends. We knew we all wanted to go together! In my experience it’s always the people that make an event special, and I’m really looking forward to enjoying it,” Williams continues.

Rebecca Montgomery, who is 19 years old and Chu’s flat mate last year at the university they both attend in the UK, has lived all over the world where her dad’s business operates. When school isn’t in session, she resides in Singapore. She says, “I found out about Comic-Con from watching my favorite TV shows, ‘Chuck’ and ‘The Big Bang Theory.’ While I had dreamt of going to Comic-Con it wasn’t until I met Brianna and Tom that it became achievable.”

The process of getting a badge to ComicCon proved daunting for this group of friends. Miller says, “Badge purchasing was awful! You have to register long before you can actually buy tickets just to secure a spot in the ‘waiting room.’ On the day the badges become available you log onto this ‘waiting room’ an hour at most before tickets are up and you wait to get called into the page where you purchase them. In the meantime, banners pop up letting you know when days are sold out. On top of that, you can only purchase for yourself and a maximum of two others. It was stressful!”

“It was nerve-wracking while we were all waiting to see if we could get onto the actual buying site. I honestly wasn’t expecting we’d get lucky so I wasn’t really paying much attention. Then suddenly I realized I got in the purchasing page,” Montgomery relates.

The four friends were at school the day badges became available – Miller was in Philadelphia while Chu, Montgomery, and Williams were in Scotland. They were all on Skype together, watching the screen and hoping one of them would get selected.

Relates Williams, “Happily, Rebecca got chosen and she nominated Brianna and Rachel, who are both from Pasadena. That left me in a bit of a pickle. I had resigned myself into missing it this year but, thankfully, I was invited as an official guest of an exhibitor at the show!”

“We planned for this event for a good six months – figuring out when everyone would be meeting up and how we’d get there, as Rebecca and I live abroad. We also had to find accommodations at a reasonable price, decide what costumes we wanted to wear, consider our meal plan. The hardest part was making sure we’d all arrive at convenient times and that we’d have enough time beforehand to work and save up some cash,” Williams goes on to say.

They’re all looking forward to a thrilling experience. As Miller says, “Hopefully, it will live up to all my expectations of fun craziness. The trip still feels like a dream – it won’t be real for me until I step onto the convention floor on Thursday! While I anticipate to get much enjoyment, I also hope to gain a sense of independence and self-responsibility, traveling without my parents for the first time.”

Montgomery pipes in, “I’m delighted to be here in California; I shall make the most of this experience. I intend to have a great time, maybe see some cool panels, and listen to people talk about interesting topics.”

Meanwhile, Chu has one priority, “The first thing I’ll do is head to the Warner Bros. booth and hopefully get some autographs from the cast of ‘Supernatural,’ one of my favorite TV shows.”

One drawback about Comic-Con’s popularity is that tickets are in such high demand. Haydon, who has been going for seven years, illustrates, “The first time I purchased them, I went on the website a mere two months before the event. It was as simple as buying a movie ticket from Fandango, if not easier. Now the process is so complicated and badges sell out within 45 minutes after they are available for purchase.

“The price has also gone up – the first time my Dad and I went it cost $50 for all four days plus preview night; it’s now $275. But Comic-Con is part of my life; it’s hard to imagine a year without it,” Haydon states.

Comic-Con International is the largest event of its kind and is held in 19 separate rooms in the Convention Center, at hotels nearby, and in the public library. Activities for attendees range from hands-on workshops, a masquerade cosplay costume competition, film screenings, an art show, portfolio reviews, autograph area, and the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards.

People who weren’t able to purchase badges can attend events that are open to the public including booths, carnivals, obstacle courses, etc.

The presence of Hollywood celebrities promoting upcoming films and TV shows has added to the attraction and popularity of Comic-Con. David Glanzer, spokesperson for SDCC, says, “We have a wide variety of attendees, some of whom are interested in comics, writing, film, acting, producing, art, and other forms of artistic expression. It is great that those aspiring creators can meet and learn from those who are successful in their chosen field.

“In fact, I think there is a misconception that Comic-Con was originally just to focus on comic books. The reality is we always thought comics, film, and fantasy literature were areas of popular art that the public may not have fully embraced. So our hope was to bring wider recognition to elements we felt were truly great artistic forms of expression. In fact, it is heartening to see that in the 21st century, fantasy literature is so popular, that film is widely regarded with such high esteem that the US Congress established a film registry, and comic books are so popular that the public is aware of so many comics characters,” Glanzer expounds.

“The event is different for every person,” Glanzer concludes. “But we are all fans, who produce Comic-Con, so we try to create the type of show we would want to attend. We hope they learn something new and informative, enjoy the company of like-minded friends, and realize Comic-Con is a place where you can be yourself … or who you want to be.”

For the over 100,000 enthusiastic fans who will flock to San Diego this week, Comic-Con makes it so cool to be a nerd.

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