The Comic-Con Museum Returns For Their 2nd Year – Interview With Executive Director Rita Vandergaw

It’s officially Comic Con time and excitement is in the air. SDCC is the place to be to get the latest on comic news, pop culture reveals and hot collectibles. But you don’t have to be attending the Con to get in on the action. Just a short drive from the San Diego Convention Center, visitors can explore the San Diego Comic Con Museum: a fun, interactive and immersive experience for comic book fans of all ages.

This year the SDCC Museum boasts some incredible exhibits such as their feature exhibit, “The Animation Academy: From Pencils to Pixels”, that gives visitors a hands on and memorable journey through the history of animation. Other exhibits include “Excelsior! The Life and Legacy of Stan Lee” the “Cowboy Bebop 25th Anniversary Art Exhibit” featuring various commissioned art courtesy of Mondo, and the “My Hero Academia AR Experience” presented by Crunchyroll where fans can relive the major battle between All Might and All For One in Augmented Reality, a SDCC Museum first!

I recently had the pleasure of touring these new exhibits featured this year and talk with the Executive Director of the SDCC Museum, Rita Vandergaw.

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Payton Coelho: Thanks for taking the time to meet with me, I really appreciate it.

Rita Vandergaw: Of course!

Coelho: So, tell me a little bit about what the SDCC Museum is all about.

Vandergaw: The museum is apart of Comic Con, and the intent of the museum is so that, [if] you can’t get tickets to Comic Con, you can come visit the museum, we are open year round, and we just entering our second year of operation.

Coelho: I remember driving home from work one time last year and seeing a billboard for a Spider-Man exhibit here and that’s what got me curious to know what this museum was all about. I didn’t realize this museum was so new.

Vandergaw: Yes, Spider-Man was here last year.

Coelho: I’ve had a chance to look around at all the exhibits here this year, and I gotta say I’m really impressed with your Animation History exhibit you have here.

Vandergaw: It’s our feature exhibit, and, the Spider-Man exhibit was great, but it was very different. It was focused for a higher level audience, but with [the Animation exhibit] there’s something for all ages. We have a lot of interactive areas and things that you don’t just look but you can do, and that’s what I really love about this exhibit. And you learn too which is really great. You learn a lot.

Coelho: As an animation major in college right now I was really blown away by the in depth look at the whole animation pipe line. Like we had storyboarding, stop motion, and the history of cinema.

Vandergaw: Oh yeah it starts with designing the character, paper and pen, all the way to where we are today. It’s very exciting.

Coelho: I also got a look at the Stan Lee exhibit you’ve got downstairs, chronicling the history of his work in comics, so I was wondering if you could provide more insight to the significance of this exhibit in connection to San Diego Comic Con.

Vandergaw: Stan Lee was a guest of Comic Con for many many years. He had become a member of the Comic Con family. Comic Con has been around for 53 years.

Coelho: Wow!

Vandergaw: Many of the people I work with have been with the organization for 30, 35, 45 years and they knew Stan personally. I’ve seen the pictures. This is like many communities; it starts with a common purpose and their purpose was to recognize comics and what can be learned from them and to push the legacy forward. They had no idea 53 years ago that it would become what it is today.

Coelho: Yeah it’s crazy how massive Comic Con has become.

Vandergaw: It really has. And at the heart of it all is the art. What we try to do here is emphasize the art and the love for the art behind comics. We try to teach and have an appreciation for the art of it all.

Coelho: Yeah and that message definitely comes through loud and clear here, I can really feel the love for the art of comics here with the various exhibits.

Vandergaw: That’s great.

Coelho: This might be a tough one, but what is your favorite exhibit you have this year?

Vandergaw: Oh gosh! They’re all my favorite for various reasons. The Animation [exhibit] because it’s so engaging and there’s a lot of museums I feel that don’t allow you to have fun, but that’s what we do here differently. I love seeing the joy on people’s faces when they’re in this exhibit. We’ve also got the My Hero Academia exhibit downstairs that’s really cool, with the AR technology, it’s the first time we’ve had something like that so I’m curious to see how people will respond to it.

Coelho: Oh yeah I got to see a little bit of it and from what I saw it’s super cool.

Vandergaw: It’s exciting. I hope people come and check it out.

Coelho: Thank you so much for your time. It was really nice getting to talk to you about all of this.

Vandergaw: Of course, I hope you have fun here and at the Con this week.

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The SDCC Museum is open year round and between July 18th and 23rd, you can secure tickets/memberships to visit this incredible museum at a 15% discount. So if you ever wanted to get a taste of SDCC without all the long lines and heavy traffic, you should definitely check out the SDCC Museum!

Comic-Con Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5p.m., with the last entry at 4p.m., and the Museum will be open on Monday, July 24 after Comic-Con. Admission(adults ages 18+) is $25; children (ages 6-12) are $12; seniors (65+), students (13-17) and military are $18.Children five years of age and below
are free. Tickets can be purchased in advance at comic-conmuseum.org or at the door.