Comic-Con has been at San Diego Convention Center since 1991. This year it's expected to host over 135,000 guests. (Centerplate)
Comic-Con has become a beloved, yearly party held at San Diego Convention Center every July, and it just keeps growing. This year’s five-day event started Wednesday and runs through Sunday.
“This is going to be the biggest Comic-Con ever," said Clifford “Rip” Rippetoe, the convention center's general manager. "It’s the largest convention of its kind in the world.”
Comic-Con is in its 49th year. It started in 1970 as the Golden State Comic Book Convention at the Grant Hotel in downtown San Diego. It moved to the basement ballroom of the El Cortez Hotel, outgrew that, moved to the University of California, San Diego, and ultimately made San Diego Convention Center its home in 1991.
Originally showcasing primarily comic books and science fiction/fantasy-related film, television, and similar popular arts, the convention has since included a larger range of pop culture and entertainment elements across virtually all genres, including horror, animation, anime, manga, toys, collectible card games, video games, webcomics and fantasy novels.
Over 135,000 people are expected to attend Comic-Con 2018.
“We expect 32,000 to 33,000 people a day,” Rippetoe said. “They’ve sold out every year the event has been here.”
The economic benefit to the San Diego area cannot be underestimated.
Comic-Con 2017. (Graphic Courtesy San Diego Convention Center)
“This event brings over $147.1 million of regional impact over the five-day period,” he said. “There is $87.1 million in direct attendee spending; over 60,000 documented room nights; it takes 34,003 hours of labor to set up; it uses 20 miles of electrical cable; we recycle 50 tons of cardboard; 3,790 tons of materials are recycled; and 173 tons of nonedible food is composted.”
There are 3,000 registered media credentials handed out, and attendees come from over 80 countries.
This is the largest convention in attendance and economic impact that San Diego Convention Center puts on each year, Rippetoe said.
Over 100 temporary workers are brought in for the event, who mainly work in guest services and housekeeping. Freeman is the contractor.
Security is a huge concern at Comic-Con, not only because the average age of the attendees skews young, but also because many attendees show up as costumed characters, often with fake weapons.
“We screen everybody that comes in and check every replica weapon,” Rippetoe said. “If the 'weapon' is approved, the guest gets marked so we know they’ve been cleared.”
Rippetoe is less concerned with the imitation weapons as he is with all the activity that takes place surrounding the convention that is out of his control.
“Every hotel near the center puts on their own events. (Talk show host) Conan O’Brien is doing a broadcast from one of the local hotels. There’s 200,000 people roaming the streets surrounding us, a lot of it not secured,” he said.
Food and beverage is provided by Centerplate, the center’s concessionaire for the past 26 years. Typically, Centerplate provides concessions for 75-90 shows each year at the convention center.
“Comic-Con is our largest retail F&B operation every year,” said Bobby Ramirez, GM for Centerplate at the center, who has been with the venue for 15 years. “We average about $1.1 million in gross for the event on a yearly basis, a healthy number in the convention center F&B world.”
Each year Ramirez and his executive chef, Daryl O'Donnell, and pastry chef, Mathew Haven, work to create new items for the Comic-Con attendees.
“The event has grown astronomically,” said O’Donnell, who has been at the convention center for 19 years. “It used to be just comic book lovers and figurines, but now it’s Hollywood-based with the studios putting on spectacular presentations of their new TV shows and big summer blockbuster movies.”
“The show floor has become more elaborate every year,” said Ramirez. “The panels are filled with big-name stars and the holding rooms are filled with celebrities. There are lines wrapped around the building and that line gets bigger every year.”
The food offerings are basic: hot dogs, pizza, nacho cheese plates. “It’s very grab-n-go,” said O’Donnell.
“One thing we do every year is come up with comic-themed chocolate bars and we collaboratively choose the theme and flavors for each bar,” said Haven.
The Superman-themed Kryptonite chocolate bar is one of the new confections for sale at Comic-Con 2018. (Centerplate)
Up for grabs this year are the Anime, the “Game of Thrones”-inspired Dragon Glass, Superman-derived Kryptonite, and S'mores.
This year, more than 3,000 chocolate bars will be made and wrapped in the convention center's kitchen, using 700 pounds of Belgian chocolate. The bars sell for $5.
"It takes about an hour and a half to make about 100 candy bars," Haven said. "This year, we will spend more than 45 hours just making the bars."
All chocolate bar wrapper artwork is made by the in-house design team.
The "Game of Thrones"-inspired Dragon Glass chocolate bar was dreamed up by Centerplate chefs for Comic-Con 2108. (Centerplate)
“We start thinking about next year’s bars almost as soon as this year’s expo ends,” said O’Donnell. “We look at what people wear, what’s hot, trends, and try to stay ahead of the curve.”
Centerplate has 300 employees working every day of the expo; most are full-time employees, and “about 30 temps” are brought in to fill the gaps.
Based on history, Ramirez expects to sell over 20,000 hot dogs and 16,000 slices of pizza. He anticipates going through 150 gallons of nacho cheese sauce a day and that the three Starbucks that are in the convention center will serve over 40,000 cups of beverages.
Four lucky attendees will find Golden Tickets good for a $100 Starbucks gift card hidden inside their bars
Other new items this year include an in-house fish taco cart, a Kale Caesar Wrap, a selection of fresh salads, California burritos and vegan burgers.
“The whole area around the venue becomes very Hollywood,” said O’Donnell. “In front of the facility, behind the facility, across the street, up the road, they build all these minicities with all kinds of animated stuff going on. The hotels wrap themselves with gigantic posters. Stars walk by. It’s like being on a movie set. When you drive this city every day for 19 years and see what it becomes for this event, it takes your breath away.”