San Diego Comic-Con Fans Erect a Shrine For Canceled Event

Shrine is located at Tin Fish restaurant across the street from the convention center

San Diego Comic Con Wondercon
Photo by Rich Polk/Getty Images for IMDb

With the annual San Diego Comic-Con shut down for the first time its 51 year history due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, some fans have erected a shrine near the site of the canceled convention.

Comic-Con@home curator Chris Morrow shared pictures of the shrine — which is located in front of the Tin Fish restaurant across the street from the San Diego Convention Center — on her Twitter account Tuesday. In any other year, the streets would be filled with convention attendees.

As of Tuesday morning, the shrine has grown and now has a Will Eisner Hall of Fame tribute. Eisner was one of the pioneers in comic book illustrations.

The shrine also includes illustrations of heroes including Wonder Woman and Ant-Man, as well as a San Diego Comic-Con swag bag — used to carry all the merchandise accrued during the event from vendors, publishers and local retailers.

The San Diego Convention Center even tweeted this positive message of encouragement.

This year’s Comic-Con was originally scheduled to take place between July 23-26. The event will instead return to the San Diego Convention Center from July 22-25, 2021.

“For the first time in its 50-year history San Diego Comic Convention (SDCC), the organizers behind the annual pop-culture celebration, announced today with deep regret, that there will be no Comic-Con in 2020,” organizers said in a statement to TheWrap.

The cancellation will serious economic impact on the city of San Diego. In 2019, more than 135,000 people attended the event, a figure that doesn’t include participants in numerous unofficial, offsite events who did not secure badges to the actual convention. According to the San Diego tourism board, the weeklong event annually generates about $90 million for the city and $150 million regionally.

Instead of a physical convention, Comic-Con at Home — a virtual event — will be held this week.

Umberto Gonzalez

Umberto has been covering the fanboy beat & breaking scoops for 20 years with numerous Hollywood trade, newspaper, & magazine mentions to his credit. Umberto has been profiled in such publications as The Washington Post, Variety and Grantland.

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