stan lee_palmsprings

Comic Con Palm Springs Gains Legit Status Quickly

Landing former Marvel Comics CEO Stan Lee to appear is big endorsement for inaugural event

Greg Archer Arts & Entertainment

stan lee_palmsprings
Stan Lee, the guy who created Spiderman among other comic superheroes, has agreed to appear during the three-day Comic Con Palm Springs.

Comic Book legend Stan Lee hits Palm Springs. Zombies walk through downtown and nab refreshments at Lulu’s Restaurant. Geeks speed date.

As summer bashes in the desert go, let’s just say Comic Con Palm Springs is as rare and colorful as they come. In its freshman outing in the valley, the event has generated more buzz with each passing week since its arrival was announced back in spring. To be sure, founder/executive producer Christopher Spellman never imagined just how fast things would evolve or how big the event, which runs Aug. 26-28 at Palm Springs Convention Center, would become.

In addition to Lee — the Marvel Comics titan whose celebrity continues to soar at the age of 93 — Lou Ferrigno (The Incredible Hulk), Sam Jones (Flash Gordon), and a gaggle of other stars, writers, producers and other creatives linked to the comic book world in some way, will be in attendance. All that and an embarrassment of events — Cosplay, Geek Film Fest, Live Podcasts, “Star Trek Beyond” screening with a live orchestra and more — appealing to comic book fans and curiosity seekers.

Not to be forgotten: Wonder Woman turns 75 this year!

Spellman (pictured below), an intrepid Palm Springs resident with strong Hollywood ties thanks to his talent management business, turned to colleague Bob Shaw, a partner in other Comic Cons, to lure top talent here. (Actually, some of them even invited themselves.) Spellman opens up to Palm Springs Life about how things evolved and why it was important for him to launch the valley’s first major Comic Com.

Talk a bit about what motivated you to create a Comic Con here?
Palm Springs is my home. I really wanted to build something that, hopefully, would help our city grow and also help transition our city to having a healthier economy, year-round.

What have been discovering so far by bringing the event here?
Well, I really didn’t know at first that there were that many people in our valley who were big comic book fans or Cos Players (costume players). They were all just hiding in the woodwork.

Right. There’s significant interest here. Other than that, what do you think will make Comic Con Palm Springs stand out?

That it will be very similar to a young version of Comic-Con International San Diego, and some of the big Comic Cons around the country, but we’re bringing a certain type of guest from Hollywood who loves to come to Palm Springs.

We’re going to have what a film festival has — creators, writers, producers. The people behind the scenes — from pop culture, television, film, and the animation mediums. The Pixars. The Disneys. All that. Those big players who are the driving force of where we are today, culturally. So, we’re building a Comic Con much like San Diego, and what L.A. does with WonderCon.

Certainly having Stan Lee appear in the first Palm Springs outing is good.
He’s really into it. He and his manager have had a lot of discussions about Palm Springs because the Comic Con here would be unique. There’s a passion for doing it here. Stan learned about our Comic Con and it’s interesting, because he’s been reduced to doing one-day appearances at other Comic Cons, but here, he’s like, ‘No, this is an exception.’ I just think there’s a history and environment here that’s attractive. I also believe that we’ve been building our close relationship with Stan and his manager. We are able to foster a unique situation and Stan has really embraced our Comic Con. It’s kismet.

Stan Lee will be here all three days?
Yes. But look — we have to go by how he’s feeling. He’s 93. He’s a force but everybody has their days. But as of now, he is going to be here all three days.

And Lou Ferrigno …
Yes. And you know who really helped propel things? The actor Sam Jones from Flash Gordon. He reached out. I actually remember seeing Flash Gordon when I was a kid — over at the Camelot Theatres. That left a big impression. So flash forward and there’s Sam’s cameo in the movie “Ted.” We all had that same memory and fan-boy relation. Sam reached out to us. He’s a popular person to have a Comic Con. He only does the really big ones. But he jumped aboard. And we snowballed with big names—comic book writers and voice over talents. We probably have the biggest first-year convention, doing things that bigger Comic Cons would do to lead to even having that possibility of Stan Lee. This will probably be his first, first-year Comic Con since the 1990s. And then Lou—he reached out to us. I got an email that read: “This is Lou Ferrigno and I’d like to attend your event.”

Were you into comic books growing up?
No. I was a film and TV and pop culture junkie. I grew up watching the Adam West Batman and The Incredible Hulk TV show. The Krofft Supershow, where there were vignettes with super hero characters — Shazam! and Isis. The Six Million Dollar Man, and even into the ’80s, The Greatest American Hero.

After traveling around the country and learning about Comic Cons and the people who attend, what have learned about our pop culture interests and, really, about humanity?
That we all grew up with a lot of peer pressure and influences that maybe we didn’t want to have. I grew up when people still called people “nerds.” But who didn’t really want to be the best that they could be to other people; to just to be ourselves and have people accept us? What I truly see in the Comic Con environment, is that people can really be themselves and have fun doing it, and nobody looks at your any different for doing it.

Comic Con Palm Springs, Aug. 26-28, Palm Springs Convention Center, 277 N. Avenida Caballeros; www.comicconpalmsprings.com

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