Located at 111 W Harbor Dr, San Diego, CA 92101
In 2022, San Diego's Comic-Con International returns in its full format after cancellations due to Covid-19.
Comic-Con has remained in San Diego for half a century and has an extensive history.
The first one was held in 1970 and was called the Golden State Comic-Minicon. The next one that same year sold three-day tickets for $3.50 each.
The show's official title was changed to San Diego Comic-Con in 1973.
1983 is the year the Toucan became Comic-Con's first mascot. He stands at the entrance to the Comic-Con Museum in Balboa Park.
1991 marks the year Comic-Con moved into the San Diego Convention Center, where it has been held ever since.
In 1995, the Eye Logo is adopted as the official logo of the newly named Comic-Con International.
With increasing attendance, Comic-Con has expanded its realm from just comic books to include films, TV shows, cosplay, anime, video games, toys, animation, fantasy novels, card and board games, comic-themed arts and crafts, and pop culture media.
135,000 tickets were sold for Comic-Con in 2022. Look at the steam rising from the air conditioners to keep all those comic fans cool inside.
So many people are eager to attend Comic-Con now that it's back. This line is for Covid-19 vaccination and negative test verification.
From here, we see the line extends along the length of Harbor Drive as the Abbott Elementary Trolley passes by.
Here is the end of the same line on Harbor Drive at Park Boulevard. Just over the Convention Center is a banner for Star Trek.
Captain Kirk in his muted yellow uniform must navigate through the Comic-Con crowd.
He may be seeking out new life and new civilizations by boldly going to the Starfleet Outpost.
The Outpost is in the nearby Gaslamp Quarter. They have refreshments for all beings experiencing the wrath of Comic-Con and umbrellas for others venturing into darkness.
The Vulcan hand signals "Live long and prosper" while the lounge area will provide Star Trek fans a chance to rest and enjoy their surroundings.
Once regrouped, people can enter warp speed from the front of the Outpost or maybe just walk through the door to Europa.
The Star Trek Outpost is sponsored by Paramount+ which streams many of the Star Trek TV series and some of the movies.
Comic-Con has become colossal. Attendees must walk up and down Harbor Drive from the Convention Center to the adjacent hotels.
The Marriott Marquis has a large waterfall at the front of their property. If you'd like to see the serenity and hear the calming sounds of more waterfalls, search for and watch the San Diego Review on the Japanese Friendship Garden after this one. This triple waterfall hides the lines of fans waiting to enter the Marriott Marquis for Comic-Con anime screenings and other event displays.
Displays like this exhibit hall which appears to be set up for an online gaming tournament.
Or this Stern pop-up pinball arcade featuring some of their current pinball releases like Jurassic Park, Rush, and Godzilla.
Each one is packed with ramps, bumpers, and targets to keep the pinball action moving. This Jurassic Park model has a Tyrannosaurus Rex that shakes the ball and spits it onto one of the adjacent wireframe rails on the right.
They are modern machines and some allow you to scan a QR code to track progress and register high scores anywhere in the world. This one named after the band Rush has a time machine at the top.
Note how much detail is put into the playfield area, in terms of the high resolution artwork and airbrushed color schemes. Godzilla has a five-story skyscraper that gradually collapses when pinballs are shot into the first floor.
Did you know that pinball was illegal in several major cities in the United States during and after World War II? In the 1940s, pinball machines were seen as gambling devices out to corrupt young children by taking their nickels and dimes intended for lunch money.
It was also thought to have connection to the unsavory characters of organized crime who would rig the prizes awarded.
To combat this vice, New York City's Mayor LaGuardia banned pinball machines in public spaces in January 1942.
They seized 2,000 machines and used sledgehammers to smash them in front of the news cameras to show the pinball prohibition had started.
Other cities like New Orleans, Los Angeles, and Chicago soon followed suit making playing or owning pinball machines in public illegal.
Over three decades later in May 1976, a professional pinball wizard named Roger Sharpe demonstrated pinball to be a game of skill, instead of a game of chance.
In front of the Manhattan City Council he said, "Look, there’s skill, because if I pull the plunger back just right, the ball will, I hope, go down this particular lane." He released the plunger and it went exactly where he predicted. With that one shot, the Council unanimously voted to lift the ban on pinball.
Nowadays, everyone enjoys playing pinball and most don't know of its shadowy past,

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