Platinum Studios' chairman, Scott Rosenberg, who was the main thrust behind the creation of the successful film and cartoon series Men In Black, has been traveling to San Diego for Comic-Con for 23 years. He says that as a professional and a fan it's a trip he enjoys making, citing that it's a good place to get a feel for everything that's going on in the industry. His associate and Platinum Studios' vice president of production, Gregory Noveck, explained that it's a great place to talk to the people that are creating future media and to "see what's going on inside their heads."

Costumed characters were everywhere! Photo courtesy of Pete Nicholls.

But in the End...
The convention organizers are aware of animation's draw. They used images of Bart Simpson on their banners advertising the convention in downtown San Diego. It seems, however, that the animation industry doesn't quite realize how many more fans and professionals would attend the convention if animation was better represented. Independent comic artist and first time Comic-Con attendee, Stew Noack felt that, "It would be a plus if there were more animation."

In previous years, it seemed as though the convention was getting smaller, and a bit less successful in bringing fans and professionals together. Perhaps this is partly the comic industry's fault, but this year the convention triumphantly showed off the new and hopeful within the comic book industry. The animation industry, however, in many ways, left itself out in the cold.

This is Pete Nicholls' fifth consecutive trip to Comic-Con International. He has been collecting comic books and watching cartoons since the early Seventies. Since then, he has written cartoons for Hanna-Barbera and has an animated kids series in development at Wild Brain Studios.