This week’s Small Press Spotlight is a little different than our usual entry. We are checking out an update on the new documentary, See You at San Diego: An Oral History of Comic-Con, Fandom, and the Triumph of Geek Culture.
Emmy and Academy Award-nominated producer David Permut and filmmaker Oscar Boyson are teaming up with author/filmmaker Mathew Klickstein to bring the documentary to life. At the center of the story is the origin of San Diego Comic-Con.
Read more from the Deadline exclusive here:
The See You at San Diego documentary will follow how a scrappy group of teenage fans, zinesters, illustrators, stoners, hippies, weirdoes, bookworms, and science buffs in the late 1960s joined forces with an unemployed thirtysomething comic fan to create what has now become one of the most influential pop culture events ever. San Diego Comic-Con has twice been recognized as the largest pop culture gathering worldwide by the Guinness Book of World Records in recent years.
Boyson and Oh Boy Productions will produce alongside Permut who will produce under his Permut Presentations banner — with his Director of Development Alex Astrachan serving as co-producer. Ricky Camilleri, of Oh Boy, will co-produce.
The plan is to align the project with a filmmaker who shares the producers’ passion for the wild story.
Klickstein brought together more than 50 people to document the tale, which was first published as 2021’s six-part audio docuseries via SiriusXM/Stitcher Comic-Con Begins and the oral history book See You at San Diego, published by Fantagraphics in 2022.
Included are surviving SDCC co-founders and early contributors Scott Shaw!, David Clark, Roger Freedman, Barry Alfonso, Wendy All, and Paul M. Sammon, as well as the son of late co-originator Ken Krueger, Gus Krueger, and author, scholar, and media professor Dr. Erin Hanna (Only at Comic-Con).
The historical collection also includes old and new interviews as well as celebrities, unseen photos, art, memorabilia, and audio archives from the earliest days of the mega convention.
“This is the quintessential underdog story — young fanboys and fangirls filled with their passion and dreams — that mushroomed into the birth of what evolved into a global phenomenon,” said Permut in a statement.
“Culture grows out of community, ambition, and the often naive belief that you can change things without waiting for anyone’s permission,” said Boyson in a statement. “The origins of Comic-Con are no exception, and in a moment where many of us are wondering what the future of entertainment looks like, it’s an important and timely story to tell.”
“It’s been a true honor and privilege over the past five years to become a principal chronicler of the early years of Comic-Con and its original founders, the majority of whom have become close friends and mentors,” said Klickstein in a statement. “This forthcoming onscreen expansion will be a perfect coda to our ongoing labor-of-love illuminating the personal story of the early Con years by those who made it happen, all in a compelling form that will inspire viewers and fans everywhere.”
Stay tuned for more on this bit of comics history!
