After a two-year hiatus, the San Diego Comic-Con returns in 2022 to hosting in-person attendees. Gary Sassaman tells tales of working for the Con, designing program books and organizing the programs listed in those books.
After a two-year, pandemic-imposed hiatus, the San Diego Comic-Con returns to hosting in-person attendees this year. Gary Sassaman tells tales of working for the Con, designing program books as well as organizing the programs listed in those books.
Read Don and John's comic remembrances on the Musical Innertube Blog!
Gary Sassaman is a lifelong comic book fan. He dearly remembers the day in August of 1961 when his older brother walked in the front door with a copy of Fantastic Four #1 (yes, they still have it). In the 1990s, Gary created his self-published comics series, Innocent Bystander, which became part of Geeksville, published by Image Comics in the early 2000s. In 2000, Gary was hired by Comic-Con International: San Diego, the world’s largest—and most famous—comics and pop culture convention. Over the next 20+ years, he worked for Comic-Con as Director of Programming (2000-2007) and Director of Publications and Digital Media (2007-2021). He was involved with the start-up of the Comic-Con Museum in San Diego, curating its first two gallery shows, “The Art of Comic-Con 50” and “Sense of Wonder: The Art of WonderCon.” He is happily retired since 2021 and still visits his local comics shop every Wednesday.