San Diego History

Comic-Con 2007

Largest Convention of its Kind
By Erik Stevens
Posted on Jul 31 2007
Last updated Oct 23 2007

Comic-Con is not just about leotard-wearing, super-powered vigilantes or cartoon animals. It's not just a chance for fans to meet artists and writers. It's not just about aspiring artists meeting publishers. It's not just a trememdous shopping experience. It's a celebration of science fiction and fantasy in whatever medium it may take: printed comic strips, animated cartoons, live-action films and television, merchandising and organized activities.

Conan

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There exists a perception that confuses a genre with its accustomed medium. For example, we tend to percieve comic books as being about superheroes, although comics (or sequential art, a term prefered by Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics) can be and are produced on other subjects, such as horror, comedy, drama, and romance, as a visit to the small press pavilion will quickly prove.

We also tend to percieve animation as being suitable only for children's fare. This is also untrue, as Spike And Mike's Sick And Twisted Festival of Animation and Cartoon Network's Adult Swim are quick to prove. Indeed, the upcoming animated film Beowulf seems to be poised to blur the line between traditional filmmaking and animation.

Thus as the boundaries between media and genre have dissolved, Comic-Con has become more inclusive. In addition to featuring artists, writers, and fanclubs, it also features exhibits dedicated to video, card, and board games (and tournaments thereof), vendors selling period costume pieces and weaponry (and demonstrations thereof), and of course lots of exclusive announcements by major entertainment companies.

Inside Comic Con

Outside Comic Con

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As Comic-Con has grown more inclusive, it has also grown in size. What started in 1970 as a gathering of 300, has now grown to fill the entire Convention Center in both area and volume. Many hopeful attendees were disappointed to discover that for the first time, memberships to the Comic-Con had been completely sold out.

Many convention-goers bought Saturday passes in advance with the sole intention of seeing a presentation given by the creators and cast of the popular television show, Heroes. However, more than a few of these fans were disappointed to learn that more experienced convention-goers had camped out earlier that morning to gain early entry to the auditorium where the Heroes panel would be held later that afternoon. Since Comic-Con staff don't clear rooms in between presentations, attendees may sit and watch consecutive presentations in the same room. The early-rising Heroes fans thus waited through a sneak preview of Bionic Woman and a presentation by TV Guide to be guaranteed seats. Outside the auditorium, many other Heroes fans still waited, later realizing the wait to be in vain.

Although such a multitude of fans does cause logistical problems, these fans might also change the course of the entertainment industry. In recent years, fan effort has brought feature-film closure to the canceled science-fiction series Farscape and Firefly, both announced to great celebration at past Comic-Cons. This year, announcements of new Babylon 5 and Futurama features were made, again to great celebration. Since DVD sales figures seem to be a more accurate gauge of popularity than Neilsen ratings, it may be that the future of video entertainment is in high-definition DVD features directed to target audiences rather than network programming designed to appeal to everybody and nobody.

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