currents - Pacific San Diego Magazine

currents
first things
GUILTY
LEISURE
Costumed conventioneers
let their dweeb flags fly
during Comic-Con
coolture
chainsaw HOME BODY action
An army of misfit toys
and the perpetually
adolescent revel in
past Comic-Cons’
geeky pleasures and
treasures.
Photos Courtesy parkablogs.com
B y D a v i d M o y e
For 361 days a year, San Diego’s
Gaslamp district is Scenester
Central, where the slightest
deviation from the mandates of
style could result in a major fashion citation.
But for four gloriously geeky days in July,
the ‘Lamp is transformed into a veritable
comic strip, in which a coup is waged on
common sartorial sense, and 30-year-olds
subsisting on pizza and Mystery Science
Theatre in their parents’ basements reign
over nightclubs, restos and city streets.
The caped and makeup-ed mayhem
known as the 42nd annual San Diego
Comic-Con International takes place July 21
to 24 at the San Diego Convention Center.
This year (as in prior years) all 126,000
available passes sold out in a matter of days.
City officials and business leaders fought
tooth and nail to keep the Con from
moving to Anaheim or Los Angeles—and
for good reason. Each year the event has an
estimated economic impact of about $160
million in San Diego County.
“As big as the Con is—and, sometimes,
I think it’s too big—I get a rush the
minute I walk into the exhibit hall and
see the exhibits for Marvel Comics or
Star Wars,” says animation historian Jerry
Beck, a consultant to Warner Bros. and
previous executive with Nickelodeon and
Disney. “I think, ‘These are my peeps.’”
Comic-Con is unique among
conventions, not only for the crowds it
attracts, but also for its sneak peeks at the
coming year’s pop culture offerings, such
as the buzz it lent to the Twilight series,
Avatar and Tron: Legacy.
“It really is the pop culture center
of the universe,” says Beck, who hosts
a Friday night Con festival called The
Worst Cartoons Ever Made. “In the past,
you’d have to pick your days, but there is
something going on at anytime now.”
(Continued on page 28)
STAR SEARCH: The cast of the cable TV series Torchwood: Miracle Day (including John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Bill Pullman, Mekhi
Phifer, Alexa Havins and Lauren Ambrose) will appear in a panel at 10 a.m., July 22. The cast of Spartacus: Vengeance (including Liam
McIntyre, Dustin Clare, Lucy Lawless, Manu Bennett and Katrina Law) will be introduced to fans at 5:45 p.m., July 22.
26 pacificsandiego.com {July 2011}