Armed with our 1/2 off Museum Month Pass, we headed back to San Diego to learn about Comic-Con at its newly re-opened museum.
This unique conference began in 1970 when a small group of comics, movie and science fiction fans, from San Diego, put on an event attended by just 300 people. Since then, Comic-Con has grown into a global phenomenon and is widely recognized as the premier pop culture convention in the world.
The vision of the Comic-Con Museum is to:
- Thrive as a world-class attraction and gateway to popular art, culture, and life-long learning for San Diego residents and visiting tourists.
- Serve as a pop culture focal point, enhancing the ways San Diego celebrates its unique place in the popular culture landscape.
- Enhance the economic strength of the community.
- Become a sustainable model for equitable and environmentally-sound community service through our practices and offerings.
Excitedly, we were introduced to Charles Addams (creator of one of our favorite childhood TV shows, The Addams Family). I never knew he was more than that. Described here as "Ghoulish, macabre, gruesome, demonic, sinister, grisly, dark, depraved, malevolent, bizarre, eerie and weird have all been used to describe his work and the characters therein." I knew there was a reason I liked him.
"Adorable, sweet, charming, humorous, enchanting, tender and captivating are adjectives used to describe the same body of work which spans nearly sixty years of published drawings. Likewise, these same words have been repeated in characterization of this extraordinary artist and man whose gift was the ability to enjoin such dichotomies." I fell for him hard after seeing this, his Self-Portrait. Hysterical.
I chuckled at this until I saw the poor unicorn's face. This is the real reason there are no unicorns.Our last stop was to play about in the Cosplay Creator's Lab! For those who don't know, cosplay is the practice of dressing up as a character from a movie, book, or video game.The art of cosplay and costuming is an important part of Comic-Con. Cosplay empowers an individual to take on another persona and to express themselves in a way that they might not otherwise. As with most artforms, it spans the gamut of imagination, sometimes focusing on faithfully recreating, other times creating something never before seen. Some designs can take years to build and include intricate mechanics, robotics, cooling systems, electrical wiring, and other elements to make them both realistic and functional. Cosplay provides an opportunity for community-building, and those who are passionate about it enjoy coming together with like-minded individuals in celebration of what inspires them.
We were happy to have had the opportunity to experience the Comic-Con Museum. It is a younger person's place, to be certain, but fun none-the-less.
And now a little history about the structure in which the Museum exists. The Federal Building, constructed in 1935, originally served as a hall to house U.S. Government Exhibits during the California Pacific International Exposition, the second of Balboa Park’s two major Expos. The building was always meant to be a permanent fixture with visions of it converting to a civic theater, or a convention center for the City of San Diego.
Serving a variety of roles over the decades—from Naval Barracks, for 1,400 men during World War II, to Badminton Headquarters—the building was modernized in the mid-1990s to house the Hall of Champions, a multi-sport museum, that operated inside the building until June 2017.
Although the building itself is not listed as a historic structure, it, and more specifically its front façade, are considered a part of the National Historic Landmark and National Historic Landmark District status granted to Balboa Park in 1977.
“It isn't all over; everything has not been invented;
the human adventure is just beginning.”
― Gene Roddenberry
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