The Story of How the San Diego Comic-Con Went From Small Event to Industry Giant

Today, San Diego Comic-Con is a pop-culture phenomenon. Because the four-day event isn’t your average comics convention. It transforms an entire city into a safe haven for geeks, nerds and fans of all ages, shapes and sizes.

Tickets are nearly impossible to get. And the most sought-after collectibles are even harder. But it hasn’t always been the beast it is now.

At its start, San Diego Comic-Con was nothing more than a modest show held in the basement of a local hotel. Lovers of comics, science fiction, and fantasy spent a few days buying trades and chatting with industry speakers.

Here’s the story of how the convention went from small time to the $180 million behemoth it is today.

This is San Diego Comic-Con.

It’s a huge annual convention that was created to celebrate comics and pop culture. Although its main draw today seems to be for film and TV lovers, the nonprofit is, at its core, a celebration of comics and their impact on art and culture.

It’s the largest comic and pop culture festival in the world.

[dx_custom_adunit desktop_id=”RTK_K67O” mobile_id=”RTK_5yk0″]

Today, its attendance numbers are over 167,000. It holds the Guiness World Record title for such a festival, and people in every manner of fandom travel from all over the world for the four-day event.

But it wasn’t always the convention juggernaut it is now.

The first ever “minicon,” a single-day event held at the U.S. Grant Hotel, only drew about 100 attendees. Less than four months later, it had its first full-fledged three-day event, which drew in a crowd of about 300.

And it wasn’t always called San Diego Comic-Con, either.

After the first day’s San Diego’s Golden State Comic-Minicon, it changed to San Diego’s Golden State Comic-Con for the three-day. In 1972, we got San Diego’s West Coast Comic Convention, then San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) in 1973.

Finally, in 1995, the event changed its name to Comic-Con International: San Diego (CCI).