The WonderCon pop culture convention marked its 37th year this weekend with a time-traveling look to the past.
WonderCon, the sister convention of San Diego’s much-larger Comic-Con, has unveiled historic photos of earlier conventions that provide a glimpse into the beginnings of Comic-Con and its influence on pop culture.
“It’s a great window into Comic-Con’s origins,” said Chief Communications and StrategyOfficer David Glanzer.
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Like valuable comic books stashed in a box hidden away in the garage, the photos had been collected over the years by Greg Koudoulian, a friend of Comic-Con founder Shel Dorf.
Dorf, who passed away in 2009, was a photojournalist at the Detroit Free Press who used two 35mm film cameras and a medium-format film camera to shoot pictures at Comic-Con in its early years. San Diego hosted the first Comic-Con in 1970.
Koudoulian has been digitizing the photos and wanted to share them with fans in hopes that they could help identify some of the people in the images.
“(He) thought it would be fun to have a walk down memory lane,” Glanzer said.
Many of the photos are from the 1970s and are black and white. They show a much more casual gathering, where artists mingled with fans at the swimming pool at the host hotel.
“It’s interesting because while there was cosplaying in the past, it really wasn’t the levelit is today,” said Glanzer. “So, what it really it is, is photos from some of the early comicconventions where it was just a very casual atmosphere.”
Nowadays, Comic-Con attracts up 155,000 fans each July to downtown San Diego, along with movie and TV stars, representatives from the Hollywood entertainment industry and a global press.
“It’s one thing to talk about the very first Comic-Con – they had 300 people,” said Glanzer. “But it’s another thing to look back at the photos and remember the convention with a few hundred people as opposed to today where it’s, you know, in excess of 100,000 plus.”
Will fans at Comic-Con or in San Diego eventually see the photos?
Glanzer hopes so, but said there are no current plans. He emphasized that the treasuretrove of photos belongs to Koudoulian so it would be up to him.
“I would love eventually to see if we could have access to some of those in the future, and Greg has been very nice and friendly,” said Glanzer. “It’s just a matter of, I’m sure, having discussions.”
WonderCon ends its three-day run at the Anaheim Convention Center on Sunday.
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