By Tracy Dietlin
Get ready to suit up Coachella Valley because the first ever Comic Con Palm Springs is just around the corner. Tickets are available now for all of the other events except the VIP Stan Lee dinner which has already SOLD OUT!! While the desert has many other large festivals and events that drive tourists to the desert, Comic Con Palm Springs promises to become one of the top annual events that locals and visitors alike look forward to every year.
Founder Christopher Spellman is pulling out all the stops for this first offering. When I first met Spellman back in February, I knew right away that he was focused and driven enough to put together something special and large-scale, I just didn’t realize how spectacular it would become in such a short time.
I say a short time, however, Spellman says he’s been planning this Comic Con for about 5 years. “I always knew I wanted to do it in Palm Springs,” he said. “Other places had come up, but here just made sense.”
Spellman is quite humble when asked if he is the owner, producer and founder of this event. “Well originally I had a couple partners way back, but they aren’t involved anymore so yes, it is just me, but because of this amazing team I have and all the love and support I’ve been shown here I like to refer to it as a group effort.”
I asked Spellman if he’s always been a comic book enthusiast. He replied, “I’m a major pop culture enthusiast. All my super heroes came from movies and TV shows. In 1977, “Superman” was a great movie to me, back when they made real motion pictures. But before that there was a TV show called “The Electric Company” and one of the vignettes was Spider-Man. So my brother and I would always tune in to watch the live action Spider-Man segments. And also the “Kroft Super Show” and “The 6 Million Dollar Man,” shows where people had super powers. The 70’s had a huge pop culture influence on me. I remember watching the Adam West “Batman” series in reruns.”
While there are so many exciting events that will take place during this Comic Con including: Symphony Pop Live with Lisa Harriton (Smashing Pumpkins), The Geek Film Festival, Virtual Reality Lounge, Geek Speed Dating, BB’s Costume Party, Zombie Escape Room, Zombie Walk, Guest Speaker Panels, Live Podcasts and much more, when I asked Spellman what he was most excited about he replied: “I’m really excited about the screening of the “Star Trek: Beyond” film that will take place at Pickford. First of all it is the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek period. Why it’s not in everyone’s face and on pizza boxes I don’t know. (laughing). That’s why I’m trying to do something special for it at this Comic Con and make it a real experience for those attending.”
The Mary Pickford Theatre reached out to Spellman about partnering with him as the movie will be shown on a brand new screen called the Barco’s Escape screen, which is a multi-screen, panoramic movie format that offers the ultimate immersive cinema experience. There are only 12 of these screens in the country and during the special screening there will be an additional 20 minutes of footage not seen in the original theatrical cut.
Spellman then reached out to Kellie Gerardi, who is one of the Mars 100, which means she has been selected as one of the people to go to and colonize Mars sometime in 2026, meaning a one-way ticket to another planet; basically a real-life Star Trek experience by taking the next step into the final frontier of space exploration.
“I wrote to Kellie and asked if she was a Star Trek fan and she said ‘yes, I’m a fanatic.’ So I told her I really wanted her to be involved in Comic Con and I asked her if she would come and host my Star Trek Experience,” shared an excited Spellman. “And she said ‘yes’. So she is going to do a 30 minute science fiction panel, with Q&A, before the screening of the movie. And the theatre is stepping up their adult beverages with a new line and for that event will be rebranding them with names like Romulan Ale, Federation this and Klingon that. So now it’s turning into something really special and an actual “experience” for Science fiction lovers.”
Spellman says that he is trying to be conservative with his numbers the first year out. He wants to build a solid foundation and offer a well-produced event where everyone who buys a ticket, even if it’s not a VIP, still has a “great experience”.
All of the top tier VIP tickets are sold out, but Spellman says they will be doing an add on for the ultimate Stan Lee collector with an uber package that will include a lot of special one of a kind items, signings, and the potential to hang out with Stan Lee at his booth on Sunday.
Spellman says that Stan Lee announced this year at the Comic Con in New York that this was probably going to be his last year of doing the events. So this might be your last chance to see him right here at home. “This is the first time Stan has appeared at a first year Comic Con,” shared Spellman proudly.
During our interview, Spellman gave me an exclusive bit of news that just came through. As part of one of his industry panels with movie directors, writers and producers, Andrew Neiderman has been added to the panel. For those of you that don’t know, Neiderman took over for author VC Andrews, who was a famous writer of vampire novels, when she passed away about 25 years ago. He also penned the movie “Devil’s Advocate” with Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves.
“For those familiar with V.C. Andrews and her vampire series you know she’s huge and he took over for her and having him here is really exciting,” said Spellman.
I asked Spellman what inspired him to do a Comic Con in the first place.
“Being around Comic Con’s for the last 8 years and seeing that there was an explosion of this culture made it easy to make the creative and business decision to produce one myself,” he went on to say, “How tremendous it’s been to be involved with the best people in the city, to have been woven into the fabric of the valley and to have gotten the appreciation and support from all of the right people and how we want to grow this event worthy of the reputation of Palm Springs.”
If you haven’t gotten your tickets yet, check out the coupon below for your CV Weekly discount. CV Weekly is proud to be a Title Sponsor of Comic Con Palm Springs. For updated info go to: www.comicconpalmsprings.com.
