With Hollywood studios sidelined due to the actors and writers strike, it is a back-to-basics year for the country's largest pop culture expo, San Diego Comic-Con International.
Tens of thousands of attendees, many in costume, roamed the city's Gaslamp Quarter and convention centre on Thursday at the start of the four-day event.
They typically would be eagerly awaiting panels featuring big Hollywood stars and sneak peeks at massive sci-fi, fantasy and comic book-inspired movies.
But actors aren't promoting their projects and most studios chose to simply sit out the convention, so fans' attention this year is on comic book artists and writers, and building a sense of community.
