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| San Diego Comic-Con International | |
| Type: | Real event |
| Category: | Convention |
| Dates: | July (Annually) |
| Locations: | San Diego, California |
San Diego Comic-Con International is a multigenre convention held annually in San Diego, California, United States. It was founded as the Golden State Comic Book Convention in 1970 by a group of San Diegans, which included Shel Dorf, Richard Alf, Ken Krueger and Mike Towry; later, it was called the "San Diego Comic Book Convention". The name, as given on its website, is Comic-Con International: San Diego; but it is commonly known as Comic-Con or the San Diego Comic-Con or "'SDCC". It is a four-day event (Thursday-Sunday) held during the summer in San Diego, in southern California, United States. On Wednesday evening, there is a preview for professionals, exhibitors, and some guests pre-registered for all four days.
Comic-Con International also produces two other conventions, WonderCon and the Alternative Press Expo (APE), both held in San Francisco, in northern California. Since 1974, Comic-Con has bestowed its annual Inkpot Award on guests and persons of interest in the Popular Arts industries, as well as on members of Comic-Con's Board of Directors and the Convention Committee. It is also the home of the Will Eisner Awards.
Originally showcasing comic books, science fiction/fantasy and film/television, and related popular arts, the convention now includes a larger range of pop culture elements, such as horror, animation, anime, manga, toys, collectible card games, video games, webcomics, and fantasy novels. According to Forbes, the convention is the "largest convention of its kind in the world"; it is also the largest convention held in San Diego. In 2010, it filled the San Diego Convention Center to capacity with more than 130,000 attendees. [1]
Events[]
A costumed attendee at Comic-Con.
Along with panels, seminars, and workshops with comic book professionals, there are previews of upcoming feature films, and portfolio review sessions with top comic book and video game companies. The evenings include events such as awards ceremonies, the annual Masquerade costume contest, and the Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival, which showcases shorts and feature length movies that do not have distribution or distribution deals.
Traditional events include an eclectic film program, screening rooms devoted to Japanese animation, gaming, programs such as cartoonist Scott Shaw!'s "Oddball Comics" slide show and animation expert Jerry Beck's program featuring TV's "worst cartoons ever", as well as over 350 hours of other programming on all aspects of comic books and pop culture.
Like most comic-book conventions, Comic-Con features a large floorspace for exhibitors. These include media companies such as movie studios and TV networks, as well as comic-book dealers and collectibles merchants. And like most comics conventions, Comic-Con includes an autograph area, as well as the Artists' Alley where comics artists can sign autographs and sell or do free sketches. Despite the name, artists' alleys can include writers and even models.
Academics and comic industry professionals annually hold the Comics Arts Conference at Comic-Con, presenting scholarly studies on comics as a medium.
In recent years, the number of television shows that are promoted far outnumber films. During the 2011 convention, at least 80 TV shows were represented, compared to about 35 films.[19] The shows not only promote in the exhibit halls, but also use screenings and panels of various actors, writers, producers, and others from their shows.
While many animated shows are represented, a high number of non-animated shows are also promoted by studios and the networks. Examples of the wide variety of TV shows recently promoted include Bones, Burn Notice, Castle, Chuck, Grimm, MythBusters, Nikita, Once Upon a Time, Psych, Supernatural, The Big Bang Theory, and The Vampire Diaries. Sci-fi TV shows are also there, such as Being Human, Eureka, Fringe, Lost Girl, Sanctuary, Torchwood, Doctor Who and Warehouse 13, but HBO and Showtime are also big attractions with shows like Dexter, Shameless and True Blood.
There are at least 17 separate rooms in the Convention Center used for panels and screenings, ranging in size from 280 seats to 6,500 seats. The neighboring Hilton Bayfront is also used, with their main ballroom (Indigo) seating up to 2,600. The other neighboring hotel, the Marriott Marquis & Marina, also hosts a lot of Comic-Con activity. Among other things, the hotel serves as the anime headquarters and is where the nighttime films are shown. [2]