San Diego Comic-Con traces its origins to 1970, when a small group of comic book and science fiction enthusiasts decided that Southern California deserved its own convention. The event they launched was called the Golden State Comic-Minicon.

That first full gathering drew around 300 people. The convention now brings in well over 130,000 attendees annually and is widely regarded as the largest pop culture convention on the planet.

For its first two decades, the convention had no permanent home. It moved through hotels, university campuses, and various venues around San Diego before finally settling into the San Diego Convention Center in 1991.

The name took time to stabilize as well. Early editions went by titles like “San Diego West Coast Comic Convention” before the event formally became Comic-Con International: San Diego in 1995.

One of its key founders, Shel Dorf, had already helped organize one of the earliest comic fan gatherings in Detroit before turning his attention to building something similar on the West Coast.

Comics and science fiction literature dominated the early years. The massive Hollywood presence that defines the modern convention arrived much later, as the broader culture caught up with what had once been considered niche interests.

Hall H developed a mythology of its own. Studios use it to drop surprise trailers, parade out major celebrities, and unveil announcements that spread across the internet within minutes. Dedicated fans routinely camp outside overnight for a chance at a seat.

Marvel Studios became particularly associated with Hall H during the 2010s, using it repeatedly to lay out sweeping plans for the Marvel Cinematic Universe in presentations that generated enormous online attention.

Even the 2023 convention, held during the Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strikes that kept many celebrities away, drew massive crowds, demonstrating that the event had grown well beyond any single element of its programming.

Comic-Con played a significant role in pulling cosplay out of a small dedicated community and into mainstream visibility. Thousands of attendees now arrive each year in costumes of genuine professional quality.

Photographs from the early conventions tell a very different story. Those images show modest rooms where collectors flipped through boxes of back issues, with none of the sprawling studio installations that now fill the convention floor.

Science fiction writer Ray Bradbury was a presence at early Comic-Cons, moving through the rooms and talking with fans in an atmosphere that bore little resemblance to the global media event it would eventually become.

Securing a badge has become its own ordeal. Tickets frequently sell out during online registration windows, and the process has developed a reputation for being stressful and unpredictable.

Despite its scale and international profile, Comic-Con operates as a nonprofit organization.

The convention delivers substantial economic impact to San Diego each year, with the influx of visitors supporting hotels, restaurants, and businesses across the city.

Studios sometimes screen footage at Comic-Con that never gets an official online release, giving in-person attendees access to material that simply cannot be found elsewhere.

The market for convention-exclusive merchandise grew into a phenomenon of its own. Companies recognized early that fans would stand in long lines for collectibles available nowhere else, and the Con Exclusive culture expanded accordingly.

Hellboy made his first appearance in print not in a standard issue comic but in a promotional comic distributed at San Diego Comic-Con in 1993, before the character went on to anchor a major franchise.