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The San Diego Comic-Con will lack star power presence as Hollywood A-listers skip out on promotional panels to support the ongoing strike in Los Angeles.
Actors went on strike last Friday, effectively shutting down the film and television industry. Actors are not permitted to promote any work tied to TV or theatrical contracts with studios. That means no interviews, premieres, social media posts, and no conventions.
Both Marvel and DC have shared their upcoming slates of comic book films and TV shows, leading both to bow out of marquee Hall H presentations this year.
The convention was founded as the Golden State Comic Book Convention in 1970 by a group of San Diegans that included Shel Dorf, Richard Alf, Ken Krueger, Ron Graf, and Mike Towry; later, it was called the “San Diego Comic Book Convention”, Dorf said during an interview that he hoped the first Con would bring in 500 attendees.
It is a four-day event (Thursday–Sunday) held during the summer (in July since 2003) at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego. On Wednesday evening before the official opening, professionals, exhibitors, and pre-registered guests for all four days can attend a pre-event “Preview Night” to allow attendees to walk the exhibit hall and see what will be available during the convention.
Comic-Con International also produces WonderCon, held in Anaheim, and SAM: Storytelling Across Media, a conference held in 2016 in San Francisco and beginning in 2018 annually at the Comic-Con Museum in San Diego. Since 1974, Comic-Con has bestowed its annual Inkpot Award on guests and persons of interest in the popular arts industries, as well as on members of Comic-Con’s board of directors and the Convention committee. It is also the home of the Will Eisner Awards.
Originally showcasing primarily comic books and science fiction/fantasy related film, television, and similar popular arts, the convention has since included a larger range of pop culture and entertainment elements across virtually all genres, including horror, Western animation, anime, comics, manga, toys, collectible card games, video games, webcomics, and fantasy novels. In 2010 and each year subsequently, it filled the San Diego Convention Center with more than 130,000 attendees. In addition to drawing huge crowds, the event holds several Guinness World Records including the largest annual comic and pop culture festival in the world.
