Comic-Con can be a pop culture clash

SAN DIEGO Director Jen Soska and her twin sister came to Comic-Con with one gory aim: Gross out as many people as possible with blood-soaked footage from their upcoming independent horror movie, "American Mary." And indeed, clips from the film about a broke medical student who starts performing underground surgeries attracted a healthy crowd of onlookers to a room in the San Diego convention center.

"We wanted to physically make you ill!" Soska told the audience cheerfully.

Two doors down, Nickelodeon was touting its roster of children's programming, including its upcoming "The Fairly OddParents" Christmas TV movie and "T.U.F.F. Puppy" Halloween special, designed to appeal to grade-schoolers.

PHOTOS: Comic-Con invades San Diego

Meanwhile, down on the exhibition floor, a buxom woman in a white blazer without a blouse talked up a graphic novel called "Whore," at a booth across from the one where DreamWorks Animation was giving out posters from its family film "The Croods." Nearby, plush Pokemon dolls were on sale just a few strides from a table filled with racy comic book titles with "Adults Only" stickers strategically covering body parts.

Begun in 1970 as a small comic-book convention attended mainly by adult men, Comic-Con International is now a multimedia smorgasbord attracting more than 125,000 people annually including throngs of women, toddlers, school kids and teens. Yet the pop culture expo, which wraps up Sunday, still retains much of its original freewheeling, anything-goes character, a phenomenon that can create some jarring juxtapositions.

The Walt Disney Co. and Playboy. "My Little Pony" and "Zombies vs. Strippers." SpongeBob Squarepants and "Fifty Shades of Grey." Stroller parking and a weapons check for costumed attendees it's all here, to the enjoyment and sometimes befuddlement of exhibitors and pass holders alike.

"It's a pop culture free-for-all," said Margaret Loesch, president and chief executive of the Hub, a children's network that is promoting its shows "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" and "Transformers Prime."

"It's families with kids and Mom and apple pie, and then you turn around and you see someone dressed in a thong with horns glued to their head. It's so eclectic it's surreal."

On the exhibition floor, booths are mainly grouped by format comics are with comics, video games with video games rather than by the intended age of the audience. Still, organizers say they take some measures to help families wade through the wildly divergent content, according to David Glanzer, director of marketing and public relations at Comic-Con International.

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Comic-Con can be a pop culture clash