Comic Con is now in full swing. That means 125,000 comic book lovers…many dressed as their favorite character. I’ve seen just about all the Star Wars characters, plenty of Batmen and a few Ghostbusters for good measure.

This unusual crowd has become critical to the recent success of Hollywood. Right next to a vendor selling comic strip drawings you’ll see a flashy set-up from Paramount Pictures or Sony. The big studios have been raking in the cash in recent years with their films adapted from comic books. This year’s Batman movie, Dark Knight is likely to smash all records. It grossed $203 million in its first 5 days..becoming the fastest movie to reach $200-million smashing the old record by 3 days. Hollywood has learned that Comic Con is a great place to generate buzz about their upcoming films. These fans leave San Diego and blog endlessly about the convention and the cool movies they got to get a sneak peak at. And 2008 is shaping up as the Year of the Comic Book Movie. In addition to Batman, there’s Iron Man, The Hulk, Hellboy, and Hancock…all big budget movies.

I have to say when you get beyond the big studio releases, the comic book movies get pretty strange and have a much smaller audience. For every Batman, there are several movies that are true to the graphic novels, lots of sex, blood and always very dark. But these fans eat it up. They love their flawed heroes and twisted story lines.

But Comic Con is showing no signs of slowing down. What started as 300 people gathering in the basement of a San Diego hotel 38 years ago has now taken over the entire San Diego Convention Center with more that 1,000 exhibitors. In fact, organizers say they need even more space and are trying to get the Convention Center to expand. The weekend even brings in some $40-million to the local economy. Geek Pride Day has its economic benefit.