Comic-Con at 50: Bigger than ever, but at what cost?

LOS ANGELES — No one expected their culture would ever become mainstream when a few hundred comic book and science fiction enthusiasts and creators gathered in the basement of a San Diego hotel 49 years ago for what would become known as the first Comic-Con.

Except Jack Kirby.

“A long time ago he said, ‘One day Hollywood is going to come to Comic-Con to get its ideas,’” co-founder Mike Towry said. “That seemed pretty far-fetched to us, but Jack Kirby was pretty visionary.”

At this week’s 50th Comic-Con, which includes a big Marvel Studios panel on Saturday that’s sure to be the hottest ticket in town, and Spider-Man and the Marvel Cinematic Universe dominating the box office, Kirby proved to be right. But it took a while for Comic-Con to really “go Hollywood.”

“We were just looking to get together with our fellow comic fans and some of the people who created the comics and science fiction we enjoyed,” Towry said of the early years. “Comics back then were looked down on by pretty much everyone.”

Roy Thomas remembers being part of one of the first “real movie events” at Comic-Con. In the summer of 1976, the artist and two other panelists took the stage to preview an unknown sci-fi property that wouldn’t hit theaters for another 10 months.

It was, of course, “Star Wars” and he was working on the promotional comics that Marvel would put out prior to release.

“We had a few posters. But we didn’t even have any footage,” Thomas said. “All we could do was sit there and talk about it and show a poster.”

He remembers the PR guy, Charles Lippincott, trying to sell the posters later for $1 apiece.

“He didn’t even sell them all,” Thomas laughed. “He ended up giving some of them away.”

Compare that to 28 years later, when...