Comic Con Remaining In San Diego Through 2015

There’s not too much more to this than what’s in the headline; after a great deal of back and forth about possibly moving the San Diego Comic Con to another city, such as Anaheim, the con has decided to stay put. The organization had previously been contracted to do business in San Diego through 2012, and the imminent end of that period kickstarted speculation about moving. Now a new three-year deal will keep the con in its home city of San Diego until 2015.

Comic Con has grown significantly over the past ten years, to the point where the Con is arguably far larger than San Diego can realistically accommodate. The convention center has officially been sold to capacity (125,000) each year since 2007. Hotels have been enlarged (and built from scratch) and rooms still sell out almost as soon as they go on sale. The massive convention center has even been looking outsized, with more and more events going off-site in the past couple years.

Comic Con marketing director David Glanzer said “L.A., Anaheim and San Diego all had unique understanding of the challenges we faced and tried to mitigate those. In the end, we looked at what was best for the attendees.” He explained that San Diego “really came together to try to make it work for us.”

Some of the city’s efforts likely include the construction of more hotel rooms and additional convention facilities, but the con’s current waterfront location is rather limited with respects to the prospect of further expansion. We’ll hear more plans from the city of San Diego soon, and a great many attendees will be very interested to see if the plans seem far-reaching enough to keep the convention from moving in 2015.

The San Diego Convention Center Corporation has scheduled a press conference for Friday, October 1 at 11:45 a.m. at Lobby E of the convention center.

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San Diego Comic-Con Wraps Up Another Great Year

<–Chairman of Comic-Con’s first committee Ken Krueger

The 40th annual San Diego Comic-Con wrapped up Sunday, with another capacity crowd enjoying a smoothly run show. Ken Krueger, the chairman of the very first Comic-Con, was one of several members of the original organizing committee who were invited back to celebrate the 40th anniversary. Other committee members from Comic-Con’s early years were also present as guests.

The massive presence from Hollywood shifted a bit this year, with a greater emphasis on television. Comic-Con Director of Marketing and Public Relations David Glanzer described the shift. “There was certainly a lot more presence from television this year,” he said. “And there may have been less movies in some instances. But not everybody has a project they want to promote to this group every year.”

We asked Glanzer about the continual sellouts of the show, which are capping its growth. “The mayor has appointed a task force on the expansion of the convention center, and they will render a decision on that in September and the mayor says that he will abide by whatever their recommendation is,” he said.

The convention utilized tents for some signing space, as well as the main ballroom at the Hilton Bayfront as additional space this year, and use of outside space may grow in the coming years, Glanzer told us. And although the convention did not increase the number of tickets this year despite the additional space, that step may be taken in future years, allowing a greater number of attendees despite a maxed-out convention center. .

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‘New Moon’ Stars To Appear At Comic-Con

FROM HOLLYWOOD CRUSH: If you live in the San Diego area, we suggest you buy some ear plugs, stat. Variety is reporting that “New Moon” stars Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner will appear at Comic-Con 2009 this week to promote the “Twilight” sequel. Cue the squealing teens!

Fans have been speculating for months whether the Saga’s stars would turn up for the event, with keen interest focused on RPattz who is in the middle of filming “Remember Me” in New York City. According to the report, Robert, Kristen and Taylor will participate in an off-site press conference Thursday morning and will attend a Hall H panel later in the afternoon at the San Diego Convention Center. (View an entire Comic-Con schedule of events here.)

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The Official Comic-Con iPhone App Is Here

iPhone owners who are headed to San Diego this week should download the official Comic-Con iPhone app. It basically provides all the information you would normally find in the official Comic-Con International program book, including maps of the halls and exhibit floor, program schedules, and a news feed without having to lug around that heavy program. Plus the programing line-up and exhibitor listing is easily searchable, and the maps are multi-touch zoomable (of course).

I’m sure this will come in handy during the five-day convention. Its not perfect. The maps don’t switch to landscape mode, and the exhibitor and panel search could be improved if they actually integrated with the maps (showing you where to go). But my hats go off to Comic-Con for putting the extra money into a possibly very useful tool. Best part is it’s FREE.

And I’m sure in future years the app will only get better. Social integration would be awesome, allowing you and your friends to create and share customizable schedules. Fantastic Fest and SXSW have some great social features like this on their website.

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Will ‘Twilight’ Ruin This Year’s Comic-Con?

I’m not a Twilight hater. We wrote about the first film a few times, and received a ton of extra traffic as a result. But I learned quickly that it just wasn’t my cup of tea. Not only that, but it isn’t something most /Film readers are interested in. That’s why we generally don’t cover the Twilight films (aside from some trailers or page 2 items). Unlike others, I don’t feel threatened by the books, films, or insane fandom. Why should I? Twilighters can do their own thing, and it really doesn’t affect me at all… except for when it does. And the one time it might is at a place called Comic-Con.

Probably the most anticipated film at Comic-Con this year is James Cameron’s Avatar. But only second to Tron 2, a film almost 30 years in the making which was the surprise sensation of last years con. For those who don’t know, they have retrofitted the main hall at the San Diego Convention Center, Hall H, for 3D presentations this year — a Comic-Con first. What this means is that the first two panels in Hall H on Thursday are in 3D (Disney 3D and Avatar). I assume they did this so that they could easily pass out 3D glasses to those entering the hall in the morning. If they had held the 3D presentations later in the day, distribution of 3D glasses could have been complicated. Sounds logical, right? But not when you add Twilight into the mix.

Summit Entertainment’s panel takes place 15 minutes after the close of the Avatar presentation. Anyone who attended last year’s Comic-Con can attest to how much of a cluster-&$#% was caused by Twilight’s presentation in Hall H. Hundreds of tweens and Twilight Moms/Dads camped overnight to be the first ones into Hall H. By the time the “normal people” began to line up hours before doors were set to open, thousands of Twilighters were already in line.

Hall H fits 6,000-6,500 people , yet many people were shut out of the opening 20th Century Fox panel, and when the Summit panel began you couldn’t even hear yourself think as four or five thousand Twilight fans screamed in unison. It was a bit sad seeing a 50-year-old Twilight Mom asking a 22-year old Robert Pattinson if he wears boxers or briefs, but Im not writing today to talk about that. When the Summit panel ended, Hall H rapidly emptied, as more than 80% of the people exited the building. The rest of the day/weekend became a lot less stressful. But a lot of the people that wanted to attend the early morning panel missed out.

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Hayao Miyazaki Scheduled To Appear At Comic-Con

The Los Angeles Times newspaper reports that Oscar-winning director Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind) will appear for the first time at San Diego’s Comic-Con International (CCI) next month. According to the paper, the Studio Ghibli co-founder will show clips from his latest film, Ponyo, at the convention.

On July 25 — the Saturday that falls in the middle of CCI — Miyazaki will travel to the University of California, Berkeley in northern California to accept the second annual Berkeley Japan Prize and participate in a moderated discussion. The Tuesday after CCI, Miyazaki will travel to Beverly Hills to appear at the headquarters of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS of Oscar fame) for a tribute with Pixar director John Lasseter.

Ponyo will open in the United States on August 14, after its English-language premiere on Sunday at the Los Angeles Film Festival.

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Librarians Gather At Comic-Con To Stock Up On Manga

Are the shelves at your local library looking more colorful these days? Chalk it up to all the comic books — and the librarians who love them. Read more

Tron 2 Announced At Comic-Con

Disney unveiled computer animation for a sequel to its classic 1982 animated SF movie Tron in a surprise announcement to more than 6,500 fans at Comic-Con International in San Diego on July 24.

The sequence opens with a camera twisting through the clouds during a thunderstorm, then down and across a grid. In the center, a figure in a new version of the blue light suit runs and jumps, and a new version of the lightcycle materializes under him. Read more