GREETINGS FANGIRLS, FANBOYS, AND MUNDANES ALIKE FROM THE GALAXY’S GEEKIEST GABFEST —
“COMIC-CON BEGINS: ORIGIN STORIES OF THE SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON AND THE RISE OF MODERN FANDOM”
We are so excited to let you know about the brand new FANNNNtastic six-part audio documentary that, for the first time, delves deeply into the entire history of the largest pop culture event on the planet and the modern fandom scene it helped spawn … all told by those who were there in the beginning and made it all happen!
SiriusXM/Stitcher brought together a crackshot team of producers and innovators to put together a wholly unique original podcast series that is unlike any you’ve heard before.
More than 30 surviving members of the foundational years of the Con were interviewed at great lengths over the past year of production to tell their personal, nuanced, quirky, weird, heartbreaking, passionate, funny, and insightful stories about how a group of young teenagers in San Diego in the 70s came together to make the San Diego Comic-Con … and in so doing, more or less helped create our contemporary fandom scene as we know it today.
Joining these foundational Con folks are a troupe of uber-geeky celebrity guests telling their own stories of the Con and fandom including: Kevin Smith, Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller, Trina Robbins, Bruce Campbell, The Russo Bros., Kevin Eastman, Stan Sakai, Sergio Aragones, Felicia Day, Maggie Thompson, Scott Aukerman and many more!!
In partnership not only with these original Con folks who gifted us hours of amazing archival material from the earliest Cons (including panels with the likes of Ray Bradbury, Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, and even Chuck Norris talking about what REALLY happened to Bruce Lee), we worked closely with San Diego State University, San Diego’s KPBS Radio and other primary/scholarly sources on ensuring COMIC-CON BEGINS is not only entertaining, engaging, and immersive … but educational as well.
COMIC-CON BEGINS is the resource for the full story of Comic-Con, going all the way back to the early prehistory days of the first sci-fi cons and ‘zines that made fandom happen all the way back in the late 1930s. We go right up to today with the many changes to the Con, wild expansion of both space and audience numbers, Hall H, and beyond.
At last! You can hear the full story of SDCC and fandom in one place: COMIC-CON BEGINS, available NOW wherever you hear your podcasts/audio content.
For further coverage of this sui-generis audio documentary event, we’d be happy to make available both those who worked on this special project (not easy over a year of lockdown/Covid!), as well as key interviewees who are so passionate about helping to spread the word of what they did back in the 70s and 80s … and how it led to where we are today.
Thank you for your time, and you can hear the 3min trailer and first episodes (being rolled out weekly up through Comic-Con) right here for starters (again, available on all audio platforms as well).
A recent feature in the San Diego Tribune by longtime SDCC reporter Karla Peterson may also be able to help witcoverage you’re planning as well:
And, hey, if that’s not enough for you … just check out what our friend, interviewee and supporter Neil Gaiman has to say!
