Comic-con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope
by Savas Abadsidis on 2012-07-11

In case you can't make it to Comic-Con (or have no desire to) but want to experience it vicariously, then watching Morgan Spurlock's Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope would be your best bet. Unlike nearly every other documentary he's made, Morgan Spurlock doesn't appear in a single frame of the film. A fanboy himself, he wanted to tell the tale of Comic-Con International through the eyes of real attendees, not his own.

That decision meant the film almost didn't get made.

"When we first started going out and shopping the film around knowing that we were going to find these folks and follow them in, there would be people like, 'Yeah I really like the idea, OK we'll give you the money, but we want you to be in the film,'" Spurlock said in an interview with Wired. "And I was like, ‘Great, I'll find the money somewhere else.' And we ultimately did."

Spurlock's savior shouldn't be a surprise. When, the documentarian, known for shock-and-awe films like Super Size Me and The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, got turned down by three or four investors who said they wouldn't fund Comic-Con Episode IV unless Spurlock was in it, he took it to Thomas Lull of Legendary Pictures, who helped arrange the financing.

The movie Spurlock ended up making, with help from producing partners like Joss Whedon, Stan Lee and Ain't It Cool News' Harry Knowles, is a celebration of all things geek — from aspiring comic-book artists who come to Comic-Con to break into the biz to costume designers looking to bring Mass Effect to life during the masquerade. The movie also gets testimonials from celebrity geeks like Kevin Smith and The Walking Dead's Rober Kirkman who have inherited the pop culture Earth. The result is one of Spurlock's finest films.

What the film does is show you that there is something that we don't get in the media," Spurlock said. "What we get in the media is, ‘Oh, here's those wacky fat people in costumes again!' And ‘Oh look, there's a star!' The film shows you that that's not the story."

And on that note, we present to you some wacky (not-so-fat) people in costumes from Comic-Con!