It took my pal Rob Schulte over a year to produce a six-part podcast that shares the oral history of how San Diego Comic-Con (the big one!) got started.
It's called Comic-Con Begins:
In the Summer of 1970, a ragtag group of teenage hippies, proto-punks, artists, and science buffs assembled in a small, obscure town called San Diego to celebrate their pop culture heroes … and each other. They couldn't possibly have known that the San Diego Comic-Con would over the decades grow into the largest pop culture gathering worldwide. Join original scream queen and cosplay pioneer Brinke Stevens as she, nearly 50 of her childhood cohorts, and a cadre of uber-geeky celebrity guests reveal their most fascinating, funny, and fannish memories of how they brought the Comic-Con together in the "early days" … as well as the profound impact the fandom community it helped spawn has had on our shared culture at large. — Celebrity guests include: Kevin Smith, Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller, Felicia Day, Bruce Campbell, The Russo Bros., Scott Aukerman, Trina Robbins, Stan Sakai, Tim Seeley, Maggie Thompson, Sergio Aragones, Kevin Eastman, Ho Che Anderson, and many more!
That same Comic-Con is still going strong today. It's happening July 23-25 right from the comfort of your home. An in-person event is planned in 2022.
images via Rob Schulte
