Just learned that the first comic book fan convention was in 1964, not the 70s like I always thought

I was reading an article about the history of comic book fandom last night and it surprised me. The first real convention was in Detroit back in 1964, put on by a guy named Dave Szewczul. I always figured the big comic cons started in the late 70s or early 80s with stuff like Comic-Con International. But nope, fans were getting together to trade and talk comics way earlier than that. Anyone else run into a fact like this that changed how you think about the hobby?

2 comments

2 Comments

laura_black11d ago

Did you hear that same story from Dave about the guy with the signed napkin? Cause I swear I read a blog post once that mentioned a very similar thing, a con in a church basement around '67 or '68. It was just a bunch of guys sitting on metal folding chairs comparing their Frank Miller sketches and arguing about who had the better copy of Amazing Spider-Man #1. Makes you appreciate how much things have blown up since then. It must have felt pretty special to be part of something that small and genuine before it all got corporate.

jason_stone5911d agoMost Upvoted

My buddy Dave from work told me a wild story about this. He went to some tiny con back in the late 60s with his older brother and apparently the whole thing was in a church basement with like 40 people. They had a handful of old comics just spread out on folding tables and one guy selling homemade fanzines. Said the highlight was a guy who claimed he knew Stan Lee personally and brought a signed napkin. Nothing like the big events now, but he still talks about it like it was the coolest thing ever.