On 2-3 December the first „Comic Con Baltics“ will take place Vilnius, Lithuania, exhibition centre LITEXPO, the one and only in the Baltic States. The attendees will be able not just meet other like minded people but also see and talk with their beloved heroes and creators of movies and TV series. First „Comic Con“ happened in 1970 in San Diego, California and is counting almost 50 years of history. We want to present the history of „Comic Con“ and to invite you to see it live in the beginning of this December.
The idea to gather comic fans was born in 1964, New York (USA). Back in the day the event had only one hundred visitors. Organizers of the event had no sponsorship and financed it from their own pocket. It had only one participant from the “comics world” – Tom Gill. He was an author of a popular western-themed comic book called “Lone Ranger”. This laid the foundation towards the meaning of these conventions – allowing fans to meet the authors of their favorite comics.
Afterwards it still took a lot of time for these types of events to become popular on the international level. The first and nowadays most popular “Comic Con” in the world – “Comic Con International” held in San Diego (USA) was held back in 1970. It was called “San Diego Comic Book Convention”.
The only thing worse than comics – pornography
Behind the first “Comic Con”, there were six like-minded people, who gathered around the same dinner table. The most important person was the 36 year-old Sheldon Dorf, who had just moved to San Diego from Detroit, where he was already a well-known comic books collector. To work with him he invited five teenagers, who were huge comic book fans: Richard Ald, Mike Towry, Bob Sourk, Dan Stewart and Barry Alfonso. They were united by the same problem – being a comic book fan was very unpopular. That is why these men searched for a way to gather people into a place, where they could express their love for comics.
“Back in the day, people who were reading comics were seen as outlaws, – remembers M. Towry. – Society did not like sci-fi fans and even sci-fans despised us. The only worse thing than being open about your passion for comics, was an open passion for pornography.”
This collective of men was perfect to organize this type of event. S. Dorf had a lot of connections in comics-world and had already organized a similar event in Detroit. Meantime, Richard Ald, Mike Towry and Bob Sourk had a comic book distribution business and had many contacts of local comic book fans. Another member to join this company was Ken Krueger, who was an owner of a local shop, which sold comics and pornography. He was a huge fan of comics, but in order to keep his business running he had to also sell the adult literature. Krueger was the main engine, who knew how to deal with money and how to hold an event like that.
Debut – in a basement of an old hotel
“San Diego Comic Book Convention” debuted in 1970 in a basement of an old “Grant” hotel and had 300 attendees. Despite that, the first guest of this convention was already a well-known personality in a comic book world. It was Jack Kirby, a co-author of many well-known “Marvel” superheroes. His list of created characters included Hulk, Captain America and most of the X-Men.
One of the event organizers Mark Evanier stated, that “back then, to gather 300 people looked just surreal. Nobody would have even dreamt about one day gathering 10 thousand people. A hope to triple this number would have been brave.”
“It was incredible to finally be in an environment where what you like was normal and interested other people, – says M. Tower. – Meeting so many like-minded people was an amazing experience.”
This gave the start for a largest event in the world for fans of comic books, movies and TV shows. Six years later (1976) the number of attendees grew ten times and there were more than 3 000 people. Nowadays, the San Diego’s “Comic Con International” gathers more than 100 thousand fans from all over the world, who wishes to interact with their beloved actors and authors. This became such a worldwide phenomenon that as of right now “Comic Con” is held in more than 40 different countries. The “Comic Con Baltics” in Vilnius, will be the first of its kind in the Baltic Countries.
Don’t miss your chance to become a part of historical event and buy your tickets in TIKETA.LT.
