A person who asks that I identity him (or her, I suppose) as "A. Nonymous" sent me the following…
I know you have been to every San Diego Comic-Con since the first one in 1970 but have you been to every day of every one? Have you ever paid to get in? If you did, what did it cost back then? Have you ever known the sad feeling of not being able to get tickets to one or not being able to get a hotel room? How many panels do you think you've hosted? Have you ever been a panelist on a panel someone else hosted?
But my main question is this. A friend of mine insists that you are paid a handsome fee for hosting all those panels you host. I told him he was wrong but he did seem sure of it. Can you set one of us straight?
Boy, you ask lot of questions, A. To be technically accurate, I have been to every Comic-Con International in San Diego even before they were called that with these exceptions: I did not attend the one-day mini-con they held on March 21, 1970 as kind of a test and fundraiser for the first full-out convention, which was held August 1–3 later that year. I was at that one for Saturday only.
I also did not attend a small con they did in November of '75 to raise money. The receipts from the convention in August of that year were stolen and they needed to make up those funds somehow if the con was to continue. I also didn't go to the "Special Edition" con they had right after Thanksgiving last year.
I have not attended every day of every con since then. I believe my pal Scott Shaw! has been present for every day of every con except for the one year he had to miss for medical reasons. Scott has been to more days of San Diego Cons than I have and there may be a few others who have. There have been a few years when I skipped the first day or the last day for various reasons. One year, a TV show I wrote was taping on the Thursday that the con opened so I went down to San Diego that evening.
In 1988, the Writers Guild was convening on Sunday, August 7 to vote to end its 153 day strike. That was the last day of that's year Comic-Con but I wanted to be at the strike meeting and I wasn't doing as many panels back then so I didn't have one on Sunday. I checked out of my hotel Saturday night, stashed my gear in my car, then spent the evening with friends and at parties. Around 2:30 AM, I hopped on the freeway and made excellent time getting back home to Los Angeles. I got a little sleep and was at the Strike Meeting at 11 AM.
And there were a couple of other years around then when I began getting a little bored with the con so I'd skip the first day or the last day. This year, my lady friend and I drove down Thursday evening. We skipped Preview Night and Thursday, thereby reducing the number of days we were risking exposure to a certain well-publicized dread disease.
When I attended my first Comic-Con in 1970 — logo above — I was a guest by virtue of being Jack Kirby's assistant. So I had a free invite and after that, I got more such invites informally until 1975 when the con presented me with an Inkpot Award. An Inkpot includes admission to the convention forever…so I've never really known what it costs to get in, nor have I had to sweat getting a badge or a hotel room. They need me there to host all those panels so they make sure I have a place to sleep. Each year, a certain number of people are designated as Special Guests and I'm usually among them. Special Guests get their hotel rooms, meals and travel expenses covered.
I have no idea how many panels I've hosted but it's gotta be more than 200, maybe 300. Each year, I'm usually on one or two I don't moderate.
No, I am not paid anything — a handsome fee or even an ugly one — for what I do there. There are people who host panels and are paid but they're not paid by the convention. They're paid by some company which has arranged a panel to promote some product of theirs.
To conclude all this Full Disclosure: I do get some perks but I do all those panels because I enjoy doing them. I also just enjoy being at the convention…but I don't sell anything, I don't want to sit behind a table signing much of what Sergio has signed — boy, does he sign a lot of stuff — and my knees could never take 4.5 days of wandering around that building. Doing panels gives me a place to be and something to do and I feel like I'm contributing something.
