Comikaze in Kearny Mesa (Beth Accomando)

The San Diego Comic-Con is in full swing and Friday at 10am there's a panel called Retail Relevance, all about comic book stores. I spoke with a couple of local comic book store owners and a comics writer about the challenges of working in today's comic industry for a KPBS radio feature (you can listen if you don't feel like reading).

As you enter Comickaze, you're engulfed by comics and graphic novels stuffed onto shelves, spread across wire racks, and piled high in boxes. Owner Robert Scott has been running the store for almost 16 years and he's seen some changes over the years.

Last year, Comic-Con had a fabulous panel called Image Comics: The Founders. The event rounded up all the key players in the ground-breaking company — Erik Larsen, Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, Whilce Portacio, Marc Silvestri, and Jim Valentino. The group reunited for Image's amazing 15th anniversary. Image gained fame when these seven top artists broke away from Marvel and DC.  The company is now famous for its  creator-owned line of comics. Listen to these comics greats reminisce about the founding of Image Comics. Thanks to Comic-Con for highlight footage for our news coverage.

The Image Comics Booth is #2729. Stop by and see what's new. They will present Image Comics Show (Friday, 4:00-5:00 PM, Room 7AB) and Tori Amos (Saturday, 11:30 AM, Toom 6B).

Batman beats Spider-man... at least at the box office (Warner Brothers / Sony)

It's official. The Dark Knight just broke the box office record for biggest opening weekend, formerly set by rival superhero Spider-Man (3) last year. The Dark Knight is also the fourth superhero film based on a comic to hit this summer (following Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and Hellboy II, and five if you count Wanted's Wesley as a superhero). So is it any wonder that Hollywood has a big presence at Comic-Con? If you watched the Guillermo del Toro video, he comments on how the expansion of comics into movies and gaming has helped keep the publishing end of the business alive. I just interviewed a pair of San Diego comic book store owners who had strikingly similar reports from the retail trenches in regards to Hollywood and the comics industry.

You could find these Why So Serious? dollars as part of a scavenger hunt for The Dark Knight at last year's Comic-Con (Warner Brothers)

This Friday the eagerly anticipated sequel to Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins opens and the buzz about The Dark Knight is that it kicks ass. Kevin Smith posted on his blog that "It's the Godfather II of comic book films." But the buzz for the film began generating at last year's Comic-Con with a viral marketing campaign (whysoserious.com) and scavenger hunt from Warner Brothers. On July 26 of last year the altered dollar bills (pictured above) started circulating at the Con. The rumor was that funny money was a clue and would lead to something big on Saturday. Warners didn't deliver a Dark Knight panel at the Con but if you participated in the scavenger hunt you were able to unlock an exclusive Joker photo and teaser trailer. Who knows what surprises may lurk at this year's Comic-Con. But I'll bet we have a lot of Jokers showing up.

There are probably more than 100,000 reasons for going to the San Diego Comic-Con International -- one for each person who attends because that's how different and precise everyone's motive is for going to this gathering of pop culture fanatics. And yes, we are fanatics because we care passionately about our obsessions and we appreciate that Comic-Con is put on by people who feel exactly like we do.