It’s Comicon season once again, with at least three major cons in the past month or so, I thought this would be the perfect time to look back at some of my earliest convention—and comic fandom—memories! Tales From My Spinner Rack Episode 30: “Comicon Memories Part 1: The New York Years,” chronicles that long-ago time!
My very first con was in July 1971 and I started at the top: Phil Seuling’s New York Comic Art Convention for one amazing day. My older brother and I took a bus from our small hometown in northeastern Pennsylvania and walked into what became a defining moment in my life: A giant room filled with comic books, comic art, comic pros, and comic fans. I was 16 years old and starting to lost interest in comics … but this one-day experience energized my love of comics for LIFE, and put me on a path to eventually become a convention manager at San Diego Comic-Con for over 20 years.
In this video, I look back at those early days of comic conventions and the birth of fandom and fanzines that inspired them, through rare art and my own experiences as a New York con-goer for over a decade in the 1970s.
You can watch Episode 30 right here, right now or click on the video below and see it in all its full-screen glory on the official Tales From My Spinner Rack! YouTube channel! Please subscribe on YouTube, where you’ll get my latest episodes a day earlier than here on my blog! And while you’re there, check out all of our other numbered episodes of Tales From My Spinner Rack, collected in the “Complete” playlist.
Tales From My Spinner Rack! Episode 30: Comicon Memories Part 1: The New York Years
Click here for more than 30 Tales From My Spinner Rack! posts featuring nostalgic essays loaded with art and info about the comics I loved growing up in the 1960s and ‘70s!
Leave a Reply