美国国家公共电台 NPR San Diego Comic-Con Is Turning 50: Here's Its Origin Story

 

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Fifty years ago, a bunch of comic book fans in San Diego decided¹ they wanted a way to meet other fans. They were mostly teenagers, though there were two adults among them. And what they created a year later became the pop culture phenomenon known as San Diego Comic-Con². NPR's Petra Mayer is at this year's convention, and she spoke³ to some of the original crew.

PETRA MAYER, BYLINE⁴: Roger Freedman was 17 years old in 1969, and he had no idea what he was about to get himself into.

ROGER FREEDMAN: I think it's fair to say that if you had come to us and said what - how Comic-Con was going to evolve, we would have said, A - what have you been smoking? And B - where can we buy some?

MAYER: It all started with a guy named Shel Dorf, one of only two adults involved with that first convention. Dorf had some experience attending and planning conventions. And more importantly, he had connections. He knew Jack⁵ Kirby, the legendary⁶ co-creator of characters like the X-Men and The Fantastic Four, and Kirby was willing to talk to a bunch of kids.

MIKE TOWRY: I think we thought comic creators lived on some comic book Mount Olympus and couldn't be approached by normal mortals like us.

MAYER: That's Mike Towry. He was 14 when he got involved with the convention committee.

TOWRY: And then to find out that we could actually meet them and talk to them one-on-one and then have a convention where they would come and we would get to hang out with them was just kind of mind-blowing.

MAYER: We're standing⁷ on the packed show floor at Comic-Con 2019. More than 130,000 people are expected to attend this year. Right now it feels like most of them are crammed⁸ in around us. It's a far cry from the 300 people who gathered in the basement of San Diego's U.S. Grant Hotel in the summer of 1970 to see Jack Kirby and the equally legendary sci-fi author Ray Bradbury. Scott Shaw, another member of the original convention committee, was an aspiring⁹ cartoonist then and a professional now.

SCOTT SHAW: It really was just kind of a bunch of tables like this with cardboard boxes of comics. And I would say I only know of one woman that showed up that was a fan of comics. For the most part, it was teenage boys.

MAYER: Shaw says that one woman was Jackie Estrada.

JACKIE ESTRADA: I only went for, like, three hours, and it was in a basement of a hotel. And there was Jack Kirby and Ray Bradbury. So for a fan of both of those to go and just hear them talk - I mean, what more could you want?

MAYER: Yup. Jackie Estrada is here today. In fact, she's been to every single Comic-Con. These days, she even works for the convention, running the annual Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. And, of course, she's far from the only woman at Comic-Con 2019. Today the show floor is crowded with people of all genders¹⁰, ethnicities and ages. But not all the changes have been positive. When a convention gets as big as this one is, you do lose something. Jim Lee is publisher and chief creative officer of DC Comics, but he started coming to the con as an artist back in the '80s.

JIM LEE: For the first several years, we just went to the con, met with fans, went back to the hotel room, drew pictures and met with fans. They would just kind of wander into the rooms all night long. And you'd draw till, like, 3 in the morning, get some sleep and go back to the convention.

MAYER: Lee says he began to notice things changing in the '90s and the early 2000s.

LEE: And now today you have, like, all of Hollywood here, so you just don't have the stars, but you have agents and you have managers. And so there's a whole stratification of the show, I think, which wasn't there early on.

MAYER: But people still find fellowship here. They make con friends - the kinds of friends you only see once a year. But when you see them, it's as if you were never apart. Shel Dorf died a few years ago, but most of his young proteges are still alive, still friends and still here. The convention and fan culture in general has changed dramatically in 50 years, says Roger Freedman.

FREEDMAN: And to feel that we had a small part in that transformation¹¹ is a very remarkable¹² feeling.

MAYER: Petra Mayer, NPR News, San Diego.

(SOUNDBITE OF SLOWHY SONG, "REAL HAPPY LIFE")

1 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

2 con   

n.反对的观点，反对者，反对票，肺病；vt.精读，学习，默记；adv.反对地，从反面；adj.欺诈的

参考例句：

• We must be fair and consider the reason pro and con.我们必须公平考虑赞成和反对的理由。
• The motion is adopted non con.因无人投反对票，协议被通过。

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

6 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。

7 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

8 crammed   

adj.塞满的，挤满的；大口地吃；快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满；填入；临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式)

参考例句：

• He crammed eight people into his car. 他往他的车里硬塞进八个人。
• All the shelves were crammed with books. 所有的架子上都堆满了书。

9 aspiring   

adj.有志气的；有抱负的；高耸的v.渴望；追求

参考例句：

• Aspiring musicians need hours of practice every day. 想当音乐家就要每天练许多小时。
• He came from an aspiring working-class background. 他出身于有抱负的工人阶级家庭。 来自辞典例句

10 genders   

n.性某些语言的（阳性、阴性和中性，不同的性有不同的词尾等）( gender的名词复数 )；性别；某些语言的（名词、代词和形容词）性的区分

参考例句：

• There are three genders in German: masculine, feminine and neuter. 德语中有叁性：阳性、阴性和中性。 来自辞典例句
• Japan was fourth among the genders of foreign students. 日本在二十个留美学生输送地中列第四位。 来自互联网

11 transformation   

n.变化；改造；转变

参考例句：

• Going to college brought about a dramatic transformation in her outlook.上大学使她的观念发生了巨大的变化。
• He was struggling to make the transformation from single man to responsible husband.他正在努力使自己由单身汉变为可靠的丈夫。

12 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。