Cosmicon

Just copied this from Ron Kasman’s post on FB on March 3 of this year which was the 50th anniversary of the first Cosmicon in 1972 and that is the year that the Steranko poster is from:
Today, March 3rd is the fiftieth anniversary of Canada’s first modern comic convention*, Cosmicon. Of the eight billion people in the world I expect that I am the only one who has noticed this. Be that as it may, it still means something to those of us who were there. Times change. The hobby has grown. Cosmicon reflected a hobby that was getting up and learning to walk and for that it was very, very cute. Here…
1. Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes played at Cosmicon on the Saturday night. Admission was free with admission to the convention. Really.
2. Admission to the convention was $3.00. As an aid to adjust for inflation, a chocolate bar was a dime, a comic book was $.20 and a year of university was $600. Free passes were donated to charitable children’s community organizations.
3. Dealers tables were free. Journey into Mystery #83 was $3.50. There was a copy of Conan #1 for a nickel.
4. Jim Steranko, the most popular artist in comics at the time, created a surrealist, day-glo poster to promote the convention, for free. He was a guest of the convention. He displayed his paintings, his comic art and even made signs for the hallways.
5. The convention was not organized for profit but to break even.
6. The organizers were fans in their late teens and early twenties.
7. Except for Alain Resnais, Jim Steranko and Gray Morrow, all guests came up to Toronto paying their own plane fare .
8. Even on their own dime, guests at one Cosmicon included Stan Lee, editor-in-chief of Marvel, Carmine Infantino, editor-in-chief of D.C., Jim Warren, Publisher of Warren, P.J.O’Rourke, editor-in-chief of National Lampoon, Michele Eury, cartoon editor of Playboy and Harvey Kurtzman, founder of Mad Magazine. Many of the other major creative forces in comics attended as well because it was the place to be.
9. While the convention was associated with a nearby hotel there were free accommodations for whoever wanted them. Many stayed in the student residences in vacant rooms. I slept in the student common room.
10. Security was by the Laffguards not by security guards. These London, Ontario comic fans did so in exchange for student residence sleeping accomodations.
11. You could walk through the convention at a natural pace even at one o’clock on Saturday afternoon. As the convention grew, the Winter’s College organizers negotiated with nearby colleges, Vanier, McLaughlin and Founders, for more space.
12. All attendees received a free poster and a program booklet filled with artwork donated by the attending professionals.
13. The seed budget was $600. That was sufficient.
14. Comic conventions were special. There were annual conventions in NYC and Detroit at the time. I don’t think they had begun in Boston, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Washington, Montreal, Chicago or the other large eastern cities. Today, in the warm months, there are multiple conventions every weekend. I attended a convention in Tilsonburg a few years ago.
15. Young men and young women in near equal numbers attended Cosmicon which was not the case at any other comic or SF convention at the time.
16. It was a 24 hour a day convention because all night movies were shown in a very large lounge area.
17. Police were not present at the convention. They would come only if their presence was requested.
18. Cosmicon had an on site pub and at least three others you could go to without leaving the building. I sat on the floor outside of The Absinthe across from the most influential comic artist of the period while he was on LSD. I didn’t even know he was stoned.
19. All autographs were free. I don’t remember anyone charging for a sketch.
20. It was in the dead of winter.
There were four Cosmicons. By year three the convention was the top headline on the front page of the Toronto Star. I don’t have a copy. I remember that the headline was in red type and said something like, “Comic Book Freaks converge on York University”. In year four it became an issue for the university in a time of Canadian nationalism. The campus newspaper accused Cosmicon of using student money to subsidize American dealers, artists, writers, etc. We didn’t need the aggravation. And besides, we were graduating. One of our number trademarked the name and we walked away.
Today money and love are the fuels that keeps comic fandom going. That’s OK. When I was new to all this, fandom also ran on money and love but they were proportioned differently.
* Modern Comic Convention– advertised, associated with hotel, dealers room, admission fee, program booklet, guests, concerning comic books, speakers, panels, presentations, art exhibits.