With San Diego Comic Con coming up, i.e. Comic Con, it really is the Most Wonderful Time Of The Year.
While many naysayers these days lament how it’s “all about movies” these days and “not about comic books anymore”, that’s not true. It ALWAYS was about three things: Comic Books, Film, and Science Fiction. It was printed on their very first flier back in 1970.
And here’s a flier for the second Comic Con in 1971. Note the “Comic Art”, “Fims”, and “Science Fiction” in their logo:
Why was this? They needed to include film and science fiction for three reasons. 1) the people who put it on and the people who went to it were into these things, 2) it was the only way at the time to see rare versions of films that only certain people had access to (like the original cut of King Kong where he eats people), and 3) comic books weren’t that popular back in 1970. They needed film and science fiction to bring in more people!
From page 98 of “See You At San Diego”, an oral history of Comic Con (released by Fantagraphics Books and highly recommended):
Paul M. Sammon: It was never just comic books. It was comics, it was film, it was television. It was social craziness.
Scott Shaw!: You hear fans now complain about Comic-Con: “There’s too much about TV and movies.” Well, that was built into our mission statement! Back then, having an event that honored movies too meant that somebody might have a 16mm print of King Kong! We even showed William Castle films at the thing, you know? The old ones you’d buy in the magic department at department stores. So, Comic-Con was always from a general “fan” point of view.
Fun Fact: Ray Bradbury was the one of the first guests at Comic Con. And they were a non-profit organization because of him.
From page 192 of “See You At San Diego”:
Clayton Moore: (Richard Alf) and Shel Dorf went to go see Ray Bradbury speak at UCSD. After Ray’s talk, Shel Dorf and Richard Alf went over to speak with him. “Hey Mr Bradbury,” Shel Dorf said. “We’re thinking of starting a convention in San Diego, and we’d like to have you as our science fiction guest of honor.” And Ray Bradbury says, “Well, thank you. That’d be wonderful. I’d be delighted to come. My speaker’s fee if $5,000. I don’t drive. I’m going to need a train ticket. And I need a hotel room for two or three nights.” And Shel looked at Richard, and Richard looked at Shel. They didn’t have any money. And Shel said to Ray Bradbury, “Mr Bradbury, we’re a nonprofit group.” Shel just improvised that on the spot! So, Ray Bradbury said, “Then I will come for free.” And he did. And people like him brought their friends, and that’s how the great guest nucleus began.
And Ray Bradbury went to Comic Con almost every year until his death.
So basically, Comic Con has something for everyone. You want Japanese anime? Tons of that. Godzilla? Yep! Science Fiction? All over the place. Movies? Sure! ALL kinds. And yes, comic books too. Quite a bit of that too.
And with all the fandom going on, there are fans. And some of these fans are famous musicians. Some come to promote things. Some come because they love this stuff!
The first time I met Gene Simmons of KISS, it was around 2003 or so. A friend just saw Gene walking around. WHAT?! So we stopped what we were doing and approached Gene. “Can we get a quick picture with you?” Gene replied: “Yes. But first: what do you do for a living?” I was a computer programmer at the time, but I was on the spot and looking for any legitimacy, so I said “I write for a punk rock magazine.” (which wasn’t true at that time). He introduces me to this up and coming comic artist he was with. “Do you have a business card?” No. He asks the guy the same question. No. “(Sigh) So what are you guys doing here?” He did have a point. I mean, if we’re in some sort of business we should have some contact information to distribute (and yes, at THIS Comic-Con, I WILL have business cards for this blog). So he tells the artist, “You’re going to give him some comic books”, then to me “And you’re going to write a story about them.” So while we’re exchanging information, Gene slips away! We caught up with him and got our picture, but damn, that was a lot of work! But Gene was trying to teach us a lesson. I met Gene several times since (giving him a Dragons CD for his record label he was starting at the time) and promoting KISS comics.
Kirk Hammet from Metallica is usually there. He’ll make the rounds going to the Famous Monsters booth and doing signings for whatever he’s promoting. He had a little action figure one year, and a book on his horror collection another year.
All of Metallica were there in 2013 doing a Q&A session in Hall H for their “Through The Never” movie.
Metallica even played Spreckles theater after that. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get tickets.
But one Comic-Con party I DID get to go to was when Slayer played the House Of Blues. You can read about that show here.
They did an autograph signing the next day at the Nuclear Blast booth. Tom arrived early and chatted with us for a little bit. All were great guys. This was probably the best signing I’ve ever been to.
Afterwards, they had a private party at the Cat Eye Club, a tiki bar that existed downtown at the time.
One of the biggest signings EVER at Comic Con was Ozzy Osbourne. Though I think most people knew him as “that guy from that TV show The Osbournes” and not the singer of Black Sabbath. This was a last minute addition to the Comic Con schedule and was all over the news for a week. It was all anyone was talking about. You had to win a lottery drawing to get it. I didn’t win. But my wife did! The convention center floor was a madhouse for this. They had to cut off some areas of the exhibit hall to control the flow of people. Everyone was there (including myself) to just try to get a glimpse of him and it was insane. I think he signed about 1,000 autographs, in two sessions. I think he had just gotten into an accident riding an ATV or something. My wife said that she felt really bad for him, as he was hurting and she was thankful she got in the first session, as she didn’t think he looked like he could even make the second session (but he did!). In order to keep the crowd flow going during the signing, there were no pictures allowed. At all. Phones had to be put in your pocket. BUT being the sneaky people that we are, we did get this:
This was what the scene looked like from afar:
Screenshot of Ozzy singing the poster:
And the poster:
Even Robin Zander from Cheap Trick has been at Comic Con! Cheap Trick even played an acoustic show at an offsite event.
I’ve seen Dan Murphy from Soul Asylum there. His wife run a vintage poster booth.
Jonathan Davis from Korn has been seen walking around.
Coheed and Cambria have had a booth the past few years. A little bit of trivia: fellow Flipside writer Blaze James is their manager! Their booth is #1730 this year.
Cory Taylor from Slipknot owns Famous Monsters now. They always have a booth at Comic Con. And he’s been there the past few years.
Glenn Danzig from the Misfits used to be always there. He even had a booth, selling original comic panel art
Scott Ian and Charlie Benante from Anthrax will show up even if they’re on tour! If they have a day off, they will fly right into San Diego to cruise the floors.
Lemmy from Motorhead actually had an action figure as a Comic Con exclusive.
Leave a Reply