“Some people just don’t get dressed up because they don’t have to.”
That pic above is a still from the video I’m featuring here, a brief TV news story about the 1974 San Diego Comic Con. The image represents the sort of thing I want to see more of: vintage videos of old comic racks and folks pulling comics out of back issue bins. Watch in horror as someone flips through a bunch of unbagged Marvel Tales! And I think that Silver Surfer #1 is unbagged, too! Alas, very little comic-flipping is present beyond what you see there.
At any rate, you can kinda see what this sort of thing looked like 50 years ago, and (cough) what some shops look like now. However, you have to peer past the story’s focus, which is on what everyone’s wearing. (WARNING: the quick-cutting between a photo of William Shatner as Kirk and a person dressed as Kirk may cause seizures.) It’s really sort of frustrating, as I want to see what’s one everyone’s tables, what comics are the “hot” ones, what merch (official and otherwise) is being offered.
There are other, better, videos, that show a little more of the comics themselves (often with a breathless “this was once 10 cents, now it can cost as much as FIFTY dollars!”). Many of those are like this, however, with less focus on the comics and more on the attendees, but not quite as unbalanced as this clip.
Did you ask Ralph if he was there in ’74?
I wonder which established comics writers and artists were there that year–and also which future legends (Dave Stevens, perhaps?) were there?
If you’re going to cross-cut that quickly between Kirk and his cosplayer, shouldn’t they at least be wearing the same uniform?
Also, Cathy Clark seems a little too pleased with her own “Say cheese!” joke at the end.
On a positive note, those fairy wings were really well made. They should have given that artist a shout out.
Ironically, it’s the reporter’s outfit that’s aged the worst.
Look, that’s a pretty dope top hat.
The first comic “convention” I went to was in Miami Florida (or maybe nearby, like Coral Gables?) around 1979/1980 and it was small, in a confrence room at a Holiday Inn – I found an issue of Marvel Team-Up I was looking for.
I also remeber a gentleman drawing a picture of the Hulk – there was no same plate I could see and the art looked kinda Trimpe-y like – I was too shy to ask anyone who it was.
Fun fact – of the two comic stores I use to go to in the late 70’s – Shunshine Comics & A&M comics – A&M is still open!
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/south-miami/article298990490.html
Shesh – I need to spell check before I post –
Sunshine Comices
Name plate
Brian “doh” Etc…
That quote you chose for the title of the blog post? You just don’t see that kind of honesty in journalism anymore.
“I also remeber a gentleman drawing a picture of the Hulk – there was no same plate I could see and the art looked kinda Trimpe-y like”
Did he, by chance, look like Herb Trimpe?
In 1980 I had zero idea what Herb Trimpe looked like, and I don’t have a photographic memory.
You could ask was he “Trimpe like”? I could make something up so lets say sure, why not?
Caucasian male, not a kid – you decide!