Tuesday, July 18, 2006
San Diego Comic Con
This Thursday morning I will be leaving from my
Southeast Arizona home and be driving to San Diego,
California, about a 6-7 hour drive. July 20-23 is the
annual popular arts festival called the Comic Con
International: San Diego, more affectionately know
as the San Diego Con. The San Diego Con started
out in 1970 as a get together of comic book fans
and collectors to sell, buy, trade comic books and
related merchandise. This convention early on
attracted professional comic book artists, writers,
editors and wannabes trying to break into that industry.
Soon programs with panel discussions, lectures,
24 hr. film viewing of science fiction and fantasy
movies made it on the convention schedule.
Originally a “dealer’s” convention rapidly developed
into multi-level event that had sometime that would
appeal to anyone interested in popular culture. As I
have written elsewhere 1974 was my first time at
the convention (though I was aware of it from the
beginning). The thing that fascinated me the most
was the presence of comic book writers and artists
whose work I’d grown up reading over the years.
Jack Kirby was the first professional guest at the
convention. Kirby was one of a handful of truly great
comic book areas who was in the industry for at least
50 years. He was a co-creator of Captain America,
was involved in introducing romantic comics and with
Stan Lee created the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, the
X-Men and many other comic book properties that
have become media icons.
Comic book enthusiasts are fanatical. Many of them
have a bend toward recording the history of comic
books. Magazines, fanzines, books, motion pictures,
web sites and other forms of media have been used
to document the minutiae of comic book lore. In 1998
I attended the San Diego Con and a highlight of that
event was a panel featuring Silver Age comics writer
John Broome. Broome was most famous as the writer
of many of the Flash, Green Lantern, Batman, the
Atomic Knights and numerous science fiction tales for
DC Comics. When Broome entered the packed meeting
room he was greeted by a standing ovation and
thunderous applause. This being his first comics
convention the 85 year old Broome was somewhat
baffled by this show of adulation. Many in the audience
were either long time comics fans who loved his work
or comics professionals or both.
That day I made a audio recording of the panel
as well as taking numerous candid photos of Broome
and the others on the panel. Later I spent time
doing a laborious transcript which was eventually
published by the small press zine “It’s a Fanzine.”
This proved to be Broome’s first and only convention
as he died about six months later. Yesterday I
received copies of Alter Ego #60 where “my”
transcript made it into the pages of this leading
comics history magazine. Very gratifying and a
fun way to go to the convention.
Southeast Arizona home and be driving to San Diego,
California, about a 6-7 hour drive. July 20-23 is the
annual popular arts festival called the Comic Con
International: San Diego, more affectionately know
as the San Diego Con. The San Diego Con started
out in 1970 as a get together of comic book fans
and collectors to sell, buy, trade comic books and
related merchandise. This convention early on
attracted professional comic book artists, writers,
editors and wannabes trying to break into that industry.
Soon programs with panel discussions, lectures,
24 hr. film viewing of science fiction and fantasy
movies made it on the convention schedule.
Originally a “dealer’s” convention rapidly developed
into multi-level event that had sometime that would
appeal to anyone interested in popular culture. As I
have written elsewhere 1974 was my first time at
the convention (though I was aware of it from the
beginning). The thing that fascinated me the most
was the presence of comic book writers and artists
whose work I’d grown up reading over the years.
Jack Kirby was the first professional guest at the
convention. Kirby was one of a handful of truly great
comic book areas who was in the industry for at least
50 years. He was a co-creator of Captain America,
was involved in introducing romantic comics and with
Stan Lee created the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, the
X-Men and many other comic book properties that
have become media icons.
Comic book enthusiasts are fanatical. Many of them
have a bend toward recording the history of comic
books. Magazines, fanzines, books, motion pictures,
web sites and other forms of media have been used
to document the minutiae of comic book lore. In 1998
I attended the San Diego Con and a highlight of that
event was a panel featuring Silver Age comics writer
John Broome. Broome was most famous as the writer
of many of the Flash, Green Lantern, Batman, the
Atomic Knights and numerous science fiction tales for
DC Comics. When Broome entered the packed meeting
room he was greeted by a standing ovation and
thunderous applause. This being his first comics
convention the 85 year old Broome was somewhat
baffled by this show of adulation. Many in the audience
were either long time comics fans who loved his work
or comics professionals or both.
That day I made a audio recording of the panel
as well as taking numerous candid photos of Broome
and the others on the panel. Later I spent time
doing a laborious transcript which was eventually
published by the small press zine “It’s a Fanzine.”
This proved to be Broome’s first and only convention
as he died about six months later. Yesterday I
received copies of Alter Ego #60 where “my”
transcript made it into the pages of this leading
comics history magazine. Very gratifying and a
fun way to go to the convention.
# posted by Dino Don @ 12:13 PM 
