San Diego Comic Con

Overview

San Diego Comic-Con is an annual comic convention held at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California in July. The scope of the conference has grown to include fantasy and science fiction television shows and movies, and the conference has become famous for the impressive Cosplay displays.

Background

San Diego Comic Con^[1] was created by a group of Comic enthusiasts, with the first one-day Con taking place on March 21st, 1970, and the first three day convention held from August 1st to 3rd, 1970, at the U.S. Grant Hotel. The convention moved to its current location, San Diego Convention Center, in 1991. In 1974, the con added their first Masquerade ball as an opportunity for cosplayers to show off their costumes.

Notable Developments

Social Media Presence

On September 29th, 2006, San Diego Comic Con created its official YouTube channel^[4], as of July 2014, the channel has gained over 11,000 subscribers. The channel features videos of panels which were held at past cons, interviews with famous con guests and interviews with ordinary attendees. As of July 2014, the most viewed video, which was uploaded on July 28th, 2009, is titled “Peter Jackson Sets the Record Straight on The Hobbit” which featured the Lord of the Rings director discussing the then upcoming Hobbit film. The video has gained over 90,000 views.

San Diego Comic Con’s official Twitter account^[2] was created in October 2008, as of July 2014 it has gained over 500,000 followers, and Its Facebook page^[3] has gained over 780,000 likes.

Media Coverage

One of the first articles by a main stream media site on the convention was published by the New York Times^[5] on August 5th, 2007, titled “We’re All Geeks Here.” On September 17th, 2007, The Laughing Squid^[6] published a post titled “1982 San Diego Comic Con Photos by Alan Light” which featured vintage photographs from a 1980s con.

The con was profiled by the New York Times^[7] again in 2008, and on June 15th, 2009, io9^[8] published an article titled “San Diego Comic Con: Not Really For Girls?” which discussed sexism at the convention. Several sites published guides to the convention in 2010, including Jezebel^[9] and The Huffington Post.^[10] The following year several sites posted photo galleries from the convention including Hollywood Reporter^[12] and Mashable.^[11] In 2012, several websites featured women attending the convention including Entertainment Weekly^[13] and NPR.^[14] In 2013, many websites published recaps of the convention including The Verge^[15] and IGN.^[16]