Comic-Con turns the Big 4-0

Posted By:	Tyler Sanders
Posted On:	Thu May 14th, 2009

By Tyler Sanders

Wednesday July 22nd marks the opening of the 40th annual San Diego Comic-Con and just like the previous years in this decade, attendance is expected to be well over 100,000. One who has never been to this event would ask exactly what is Comic-Con?

Every summer thousands gather at the San Diego Convention Center to witness not only the exhibition of comic books and comic book memoribilia, but the launching of new television shows, video games and last but not least, the upcoming theatrical releases from all the major studios. And there's more.

Take the Will Eisner awards, given to the best of the thousands of comic books published each year. Many famous names have taken part in Comic-Con through the years. Names such as Ralph Bakshi(Fritz the Cat,Wizards), Kevin Eastman (Ninja Turtles) and of course Marvel comic legend Stan Lee, an octogenerian who is still as enthused as ever with his creations.

There is also an annual costume ball which always brings out the creativity in attendees. Some range from the familiar (Batman,Superman) while others are anyone's guess.

And lets not forget the Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival, and the Star Wars Fan Film Award.

The current convention is a far cry from the first convention which was credited as the Golden State Comic Convention in 1970. That convention was a single day affair that had less than a thousand attendees and was held at the quant U.S. Grant hotel in downtown San Diego.

This year promises to be a huge affair, and while attending Zboneman.com staff members plan on hitting a little bit of everything, there's no doubt that the big draw for us will be the movie related presentations. Programming for Comic-Con 2009 is still shaping up, but if we were to venture to take a guess, you can bet that there will be advance looks at Iron Man 2, Avatar, Tr2n (if that's what they're still calling it), Alice in Wonderland, Toy Story 3, The Hobbit, Lovely Bones, Sherlock Holmes, and much, much more. I am personally looking forward to another look at Wolf Man which, reportedly, has been bumped to the fall. With any futher luck, perhaps we'll get an early screening of Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds which is scheduled for release three weeks after the convention.

For those interested in further details on Comic-Con 2009, head over to comic-con.org. If you plan on attending Comic-Con this year, you best hurry because tickets are selling fast. Again, the convention takes place July 22-26.