It’s been called everything from Nerdi Gras to Geekapalooza to the Nerd Prom.  The San Diego Comic Con is “the” event to attend for uber-fans seeking out tastes of the next big things in TV, movies, comics, collectibles and all things geek culture.  It’s where fans connect with other fans and meet the creators behind their favorite fictional stories and characters. Simply, Comic Con is the place to get an early look at… everything cool.

The result for those fans lucky enough to attend… multiple nerdgasms.

Comic Con was always ahead of the curve, even at those early conventions. In 1976, Mark Hamill stood behind a card table surrounded by paintings representing a new movie known as “The Star Wars.”  A trailer was shown… and word spread throughout fandom.  It was that year that Comic Con had found its groove and its mission… connect fans with creators and start the early buzz. What began as a small comic book convention nearly 40 years ago has now exploded into a massive event attracting over 100,000 worldwide.  Fans pack themselves into the San Diego Convention Center to participate in the largest gathering of the geek tribe on earth.  But what makes something so damn nerdy, so damn cool?

Here’s what happens at the con:

See Stuff
Comic Con is where studios reveal movie posters, make big casting announcements, where trailers are tested and new movies are screened early to the public.  The feedback from fans often results in marketing campaigns being changed and trailers and movies being recut.

Talk about Stuff
Major Hollywood filmmakers and celebrities trek south to San Diego to sit on panels and take questions from hardcore fans.  This public grilling of the creators by the fans is insightful, hilarious, sometimes embarrassing, and always geeky.

Buy Stuff
The main hall of the convention center features booths where one can purchase comics, clothes, action figures featuring not only characters from popular fiction, but also from completely unknown properties hoping to discover an audience or even studio backing.

Party n’ Stuff
San Diego goes geek when official and unofficial Comic Con bashes occur all over the city.  The official masquerade ball allows fans to bring out their inner superhero in the ultimate celebration of spandex.  Now Hollywood has invaded in a big way with massive presentations – last year Warners used Petco Park for a party for the film 300.  How strange must it have been for the nerd contingent to sit at a sports park to revel in geek culture.

Learn Stuff
There are also seminars in everything from indie filmmaking to comic book writing to breaking into television.  In fact, many of the creators sitting on panels talking about their latest project, were actually attendees years before and got their dose of inspiration at the con.

Having attended for more than 15 years, for me Comic Con has become an annual tradition.  It’s about reconnecting with fan friends from all over and having those intensely geeky conversations long into the night to the point that I lose my voice by day two. For me, it’s also about discovering a groundbreaking comic like Walking Dead, laughing my ass off at a panel at something Galactica’s Edward James Olmos said, getting Peter “Chewbacca” Mayhew’s autograph on my Criterion Laser Disc of Star Wars, shaking Stan Lee’s hand, drinking at a party with Kevin Smith after getting reamed by him on a panel, urinating next to Brian Posehn in the bathroom while Darth Vader takes a dump, the hot girl dressed like a Stormtrooper with boobs, having a wildly romantic encounter with a woman who was wearing a Planet of the Apes mask… then trying to find her the next day having never seen her face.  These are all part of my own Comic Con memories that I will cherish for years to come.

But there is no greater joy than watching the city taken over by pale-skinned geeks like myself – nerds own this town!  San Diego during Comic Con is the closest thing to a living version of Revenge of the Nerds in real life.  Jocks, if you crease my comic, we will kick your ass.  You have been warned… geeks not only rule San Diego, geeks rule the world!

Words by Chris Gore