The Origin Story of San Diego Comic-con
Today is the first day of Comic-Con International: San Diego. That’s the official name of what’s usually called San Diego Comic-con or SDCC. This year marks its triumphant return after taking a 2-year hiatus because of the pandemic. I follow a lot of creatives who will be at the show this year. And, as always, I look forward to all the pop-culture news to follow this event as it’s always the source of big announcements of what’s coming next when it comes to comics and movies big and small.
Speaking of big and small-SDCC wasn’t always like this. Like everything else, it has a humble beginning. But what did that look like? Well, first starters you have to go back to the year 1970. Disco was hot, Charlie’s Angles were dominating the TV, and that year would see both the release of Star Wars and the break up of The Beatles. And it would see the first comic-con.
It all started with a guy named Shel Dorf — one of only two adults involved with that first convention. Dorf had some experience attending and planning conventions, and more importantly, he had connections. He knew Jack Kirby, the legendary co-creator of characters like the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. And Kirby was willing to talk to a bunch of kids.
–Petra Mayer of NPR
Who else attended that first convention? Ray Bradbury, yeah he’s the guy who wrote Fahrenheit 451 that you may have read in school. He was there for the first one, and then was there for every one afterwards. He was a champion of comics and was quoted saying that, “…comics are important and serve a definite purpose in the American way of life.” It was Jack Kirby who had the foresight of what that little gathering of comic fans could turn out to be.
“Do it all,” Kirby said. “I know that comic fans have also been interested in the movie media, they’ve been interested in the pulp media, and all that has some value to them. I think they want to see it. I don’t think they want to concentrate on comics alone. If you can widen the scope of the convention to include all these, I think you’ll have a larger crowd and a more interesting crowd. And I think you’ll have a great time.”
-as reported by Petra Mayer of NPR
Held in the basement of the U.S. Grant Hotel and in what was called “hustler rooms” people bought and traded comics. “It really was just kind of a bunch of tables like this with cardboard boxes with comics,” says Scott Shaw! who was one of the original covention’s committee. He and fellow founders Roger Freedman, Shel Dorf and Mike Lowry were among those first organizers to what was then called the “Golden State Convention.” About 300 people were at that first one-day event back in 1970. This year the Comic-Con is expected to return to its usual numbers of over 135,000.
With social media, it’s easier to connect with your favorite artists and authors. We follow superstars who update us via their Twitter accounts, but there was a time where comic artists and writers were perceived untouchable. You’d write fan letter and get a form letter in return that simply stated, “I’m very busy, but thanks for reading.” Conventions helped to bridge that gap.
“I think we thought comic creators lived on some comic book Mount Olympus and couldn’t be approached by normal mortals like us,” says Mike Towry, who was 14 when he got involved with the convention committee. “And then to find out that we could actually meet them and talk to them one on one, and then have a convention where they would come and we would get to hang out with them was just kind of mind-blowing.”
-NPR
“There’s a famous quotation from science fiction fandom from the 1940s and 50s … ‘it is a proud and lonely thing to be a fan,'” says Roger Freedman. That may have been true at one point, but today all you have to do is don your favorite cosplay and head to the nearest con and you’ll never be lonely again.