Comic-Con International: San Diego, commonly known as Comic-Con or the San Diego Comic-Con, is an annual multigenre fan convention founded as the Golden State Comic Book Convention and later the San Diego Comic Book Convention in 1970 by Shel Dorf and a group of San Diegans. It is traditionally a four-day event (Thursday through Sunday—though a four-hour preview night on Wednesday is open to guests pre-registered for all four days) held during the summer in San Diego, California, at the San Diego Convention Center. Comic-Con is both the name of the annual event and the common name of the organization.
Comic-Con International also produces two other conventions, WonderCon and the Alternative Press Expo (APE), both held in San Francisco, California. Since 1974, Comic-Con has bestowed its annual Inkpot Award to guests and persons of interest in the industries of popular arts as well as to members of Comic-Con’s Board of Directors and convention committee. It is also the home of the Will Eisner Awards.
Originally showcasing comic books, science fiction/fantasy and film/television (as was evident by the three circled figures appearing in Comic-Con’s original logo), and related popular arts, the convention has expanded over the years to include a larger range of pop culture elements, such as horror, anime, manga, animation, toys, collectible card games, video games, webcomics, and fantasy novels. The convention is the largest of its kind in the world, filling to capacity the San Diego Convention Center with over 125,000 attendees in 2007. Although Comiket in Tokyo, Japan is four times larger in terms of attendance than Comic-Con, its focus is solely as a gather for the buying, selling, and trading of dōjinshi (self-published comic books and fanzines), somewhat akin to a huge swap meet, and is not a convention in the American sense.
All 4-day and single day passes once again sold out months ahead of time, however passes previously returned and refunded are being sold in the final weeks before the event through Comic-Con’s official eBay channel. Passes cannot be transferred or re-sold due to attendees in past years who resold their tickets for more than their purchase price on eBay and Craigslist after tickets were sold out.
Some of the attendies are:
