San Diego Comic-Con is the ultimate mecca of fandom. Superhero cocktail posters go Zap! Boom! Pow! from bar windows, everyone seems to be wearing a cape, and signs with that iconic eye leer at you as you make your way down to the convention center and brave the most menacing line you've ever seen outside Hall H. This is what it takes to get an exclusive first look at that supernatural thriller you and several hundred other con-goers are dying to see.

Comic-Con wasn't always the fan-demonium it is now. Hardcore comic fans Shel Dorf, Ken Krueger, and Richard Alf dreamed it up with a bunch of local teens who just wanted a local slice of nerdvana. The two 1970 events (San Diego's Golden State Minicon and San Diego's Golden State Comic-Con) that merged to form what is now the phenomenon known as Comic-Con International both spawned in hotel basements, with a max of 300 people eager to get close to comic and sci-fi luminaries like Jack Kirby and Ray Bradbury — and with no monster crowds, they actually did.

If you wonder what the con to end all cons was like before it evolved into the leviathan it is now, read on …