I’m a librarian, so I have been trained in how information has been organized.
I’m a collector, so I’m always looking for esoteric items never before seen again.
But, among my special powers, I have what I call “web-fu”. I have an almost zen/Force ability of finding things, almost at random.
Today, while scanning the newsfeeds from San Diego, I wondered… what is the oldest mention of “Comic-Con” on the Internet? Getty Pictures has a few photos from 1992, but not much appears in the Google News archives.
So I did a general search:
“comic-con” “san diego” Jan 1, 1970 – Dec 31, 1990
Now, some of the date tags are a bit false… but I found something that looked curious, so I clicked on the link.
[PDF]San Diego – Ironic Sans
Go ahead… Click on it. You’ll see a PDF of the “1988 San Diego Comic-Con progress report No. 2”, dated June 1988!
Now, I recommend you spend an hour perusing the newsletter, but here are some highlights:
- Held August 4-7, 1988 at the San Diego Convention and Performing Arts Center & Omni Horton Plaza Hotel
- Memberships: $30 (before June 30), $36 at the door, $12 for one day
- Expected attendance: 9,000
- 350 exhibitors
- Golden Hall was turned into a lounge for attendees, and also served as overflow for the dealers room in Plaza Hall.
- This was the first year one-day memberships were sold in advance, due to long registration lines.
- Carol Kaleescky and Julie Roloff, the “registration twins” controlled an expanded registration desk.
- Hotels? Four. Room rates? $55-$115
Guests?
- Howard Chaykin
- Will Eisner
- George R. R. Martin (then known as the producer of “Beauty and the Beast” on TV)
- Jules Feiffer
- Arthur Adams
- Matt Wagner
- Max Allan Collins
- Kirk Alyn
- Robert Asprin
- Raymond Feist
- June Foray
- Scott Shaw!
- Lynda Barry
- Matt Groening (back when he was known for “Life in Hell”, and The Simpsons were guests on The Tracey Ullman show)
- Kevin Fagan
- Jack Kirby
Headline on Page 8: “Programming to emphasize alternatives, diversity”
Anyone know what happened to 21st Century Comics & Toys in Orange, California?
How about Ninth Nebula in North Hollywood?
Comic Castle? (Four stores!)
Comico The Comics Company has a full page ad.
Artists Alley, sold out by mid-March, hosted 50+ creators. (Many of those listed I’m not familiar with.)
Father Tree Press (AKA Warp Graphics) offered a 40% discount on their graphic novels. $60 for all six volumes!
Wow… “Silver Card honors past members”
The Silver Card grants lifetime free admission to the Comic-Con.
Page 18 lists the entire (?) San Diego Comic-Con Committee!
Pages 19-21 list all advance members through April 10th. That doesn’t include professionals or media, it seems.
—
Wow. To go back in time… Would I meet you there, and what were you doing then?
Wow…that’s about two years before my first trip to Comic-Con, so you wouldn’t have seen me there.
I’ve been racking my brains trying to remember anything about 21st Century Comics other than its name. I had friends who were also into comics who went there, but I didn’t even remember it was next to the traffic circle in Old Town. At the time I mostly went to Freedonia, also in Orange, and Comics Toons ‘n’ Toys in Tustin (still around!)
I did a little digging and found that 21st Century Comics moved to nearby Fullerton, and apparently owner Barry Short was one of the *many* people who ran for California governor in the 2003 recall that ended up giving us the Governator: http://icv2.com/articles/comics/view/3269/barry-short-21st-century-comics-launches-gubernatorial-run
So they were still around in 2003, but I don’t know when they closed.
Interestingly, when I was checking the address listed in the program to see if the area looked familiar, I discovered there’s a comic store called Big Red Comics across the street from where 21st Century used to be!
YES I was at SDCC in 1988, at Golden Hall, and it was awesome. Probably the first year I went all four days, spent too much money and had way too much fun. I was 17 just graduated High School and had a job to earn money for Con.
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