San Diego — It started modestly enough: a couple of hundred guys devoted to comic books assembling in the dank basement of an aging downtown hotel in 1970.
Comic books. Those things that teachers would seize and parents disdain. The illegitimate child never mentioned in the literature family.
Flash-forward -- like in a sci-fi time machine -- to 2005, when the annual Comic-Con International gathering, which begins today, is expected to attract more than 95,000 aficionados to the city's upscale, waterfront convention center.
If you've got a comic book, movie, card game, action figure, video game or other entertainment item you hope to sell to the youth market, you'd better be here.
Super geek is also super consumer.
The event that started in the basement of the U.S. Grant Hotel is now considered by many in the entertainment industry to be the largest, most energetic and most innovative trade show of its kind.
There are other large comic fests in other cities -- and starting next year, an imitator in New York -- but this remains the biggest, the one not to miss for producers and consumers.
"This is the gathering of the tribes," said Chris Charla, executive producer of Backbone Entertainment, whose Death Jr. character has spawned a comic book, action figure, T-shirt and, making its debut this week, a PlayStation-compatible game.
"For four days each summer, San Diego is the center of the cool T-shirt zeitgeist of America," Charla said. "Some older guys miss when it was just comic books, but it's become so much more: It's a total pop-culture event."
Comic books are still the heart of the program (about 60% of the events). DC Comics, Marvel, Dark Horse, Image and other heavies will be there. New books are unveiled, older titles are updated. And there are seminars on the intellectual underpinnings of comic books, with literary-establishment titles like "Masculinity and Adulthood in Comics" and "Sin, Transgression and Redemption in Comics."
But while comics were the genesis for the annual meeting, things have changed considerably in 3 1/2 decades. Hollywood studios and the indies have discovered Comic-Con. Last year, more than 50 films were shown in full or in sneak snippets.
In addition, the makers of nearly every genre of youth-oriented diversions -- whether it's Japanese anime, toys and action figures, or video games -- get a chance to start the all-important word-of-mouth about their products.
