Connecting at the Con

SAN DIEGO — For the 130,000 attendees of this year’s San Diego Comic-Con International, one thing was abundantly clear — even as the show gets bigger, the connection between content creators and their fans is as close as it has ever been. 

Sure, this year’s convention had the usual fan events, autograph signings, special premiere screenings and giveaways to promote all the latest movies, TV shows, DVDs and Blu-rays, much to the excitement of the fanboy community. But more than just bringing the content to the fans, Comic-Con has become ground zero for involving fans directly in content production, with several panels, booths and events built around the idea of using Kickstarter and other crowd-funding outlets to finance independent projects.

Fans also turned out in droves to celebrate milestone anniversaries for their favorite franchises, including the 30th anniversary of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the 75th anniversary of Batman.

The latter kicked off with Batman Day on July 23 and continued with numerous panels and fan events covering almost all facets of Batman’s history, including an elaborate display of movie props at the DC Comics booth, the premiere of the new Batman: Assault on Arkham animated movie, more news about the long-awaited home video release of the classic 1960s “Batman” series, and a festival display to promote the upcoming series “Gotham” that let fans zipline past the Gotham City skyline.