Comic-Con: a ride through pop culture, comic books and all things nerd

If you happened to go to San Diego on the final weekend of July, you may have seen Wookies, vampires, ninjas and other pop culture icons roaming the streets and waiting for their turn to get onto the trolley, trying to get to the convention center. There could only be one reason for the sudden swarm of pop culture enthusiasts: Comic Con was in town.

The event, which began in 1990 as a small gathering of comic book lovers in a hotel basement in San Diego, has exploded into a huge event that gets national coverage, and draws over 120,000 people a year to America’s Finest City, selling out early...