It was a place where film stars shared the same space as storm troopers, zombies and ink-blotted homicidal detectives. No, it wasn’t a bizarre dream (or viral mash-up YouTube video), it was the 2009 Comic-Con International. Held in San Diego at the end of July, it is an event savvy entertainment producers and creators from around the world – including Canadians – are attending and monitoring in growing numbers.

Now in its 40th year, Comic-Con has emerged from its origins as a bastion of comic books and geeks into a pop culture smorgasbord (featuring films, television, video games, toys, merchandise and, yes, comic books). Perhaps the easiest way to picture San Diego is as the Cannes of pop culture, except at this Cannes the largest and most rabid legion of Internet journalists, bloggers and ‘tweeters’ spread word of all successful (or flawed) launches or promos of any product within minutes; they have become the most important influencers or tastemakers in the business.

This frenzy has not escaped the notice of film and television executives, who now make sure they are ready to court this geek fan base by sharing sneak previews and sending in the stars.

The growing infiltration of 3D cinema technology made a huge splash with a number of high-profile releases previewed. James Cameron made his fans dizzy with anticipation with a 15-minute preview of his long-awaited opus Avatar. Also previewed at the Con was Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, Robert Zemeckis’ A Christmas Carol, and Tron 2.0, all to be released in coming months in theaters across the globe.

Garnering more attention than any other project was Twilight: New Moon, the sequel to last year’s successful Twilight. The lovelorn vampires were the talk of the convention and inspired the most ardent support (fans camped out two days in advance for a chance to see a sneak preview and field questions to the stars of the teen saga).

Some regulars grumbled about this (sporting signs that read ‘Twilight ruined the Con’), but you could argue they missed the point; the tremendous turnout for New Moon is a sign that a whole demographic – teenage girls and their mothers – are now part of ‘geek culture.’ And with record attendance – pegged at between 125,000 and 144,000 for the four-and-a-half-day event, it’s clear San Diego’s impact is only growing.

This is partially because the original subject matter of Comic-Con – comic books themselves – has changed. No longer exclusively featuring caped superheroes, comic books have matured and gained more of a mainstream acceptance.

And Canada is positioned to play a major role in comics’ resurgence. The country is generally perceived by the comic book world as having a major cluster of up-and-coming talent that should be watched over the next few years. Canadian artists such as award-winning Seth, Darwyn Cooke, Cameron Stewart and Andy Belanger of Toronto-based Transmission-X web comic studio and Bryan Lee O’Malley took part in panels and discussions in San Diego. O’Malley may be the biggest star on the horizon; a $100 million adaptation of his Toronto-set Scott Pilgrim graphic novel series has just started post-production.

Other Canadian content included presentations by homegrown publishers Drawn & Quarterly and UDON Entertainment, an appearance by actor Paul Gross to promote his upcoming U.S. television series Eastwick, and a promotional panel on the Canadian television series Sanctuary, whose second season premieres in October on Syfy in the U.S. and now holds the distinction of being the only Internet-originated project to have gone into a full second season of television production.

Then there was Anna Paquin. The Winnipeg-born Academy Award winner was mobbed by fans of True Blood, another now-iconic piece of genre content. The blonde star signed autographs with assembly-line precision, pausing only briefly to look up and smile at the hundreds of fans mobbing her booth.

It was just another of many frenetic events at the 2009 Comic-Con, which has become a mecca for marketing niche entertainment products to core audiences. As Canadians increasingly look to foreign markets for their projects, the courting of the influential Comic-Con crowds can be the beginning of a great quest – just be ready to bring garlic and Kryptonite to battle the vampires and superheroes. *