About ComicsOnline
ComicsOnline.com is pleased to begin our 25th anniversary celebration!
In honor of this milestone we are proud to present to you a brief history of ComicsOnline.com:
1998– The original domain was bought by George Thrush for his comic book store, Comic City, in San Diego, California. The original site was just html frames generated by Microsoft Home Page. That site version was just intended to update Comic City’s customers of upcoming releases.
2000– September 25, 2000, the new dynamic ComicsOnline.com that you know and love went live. This new site was created by Kevin Gaussoin and used PHPNuke, an early Content Management System (CMS) similar to Slash. This new site was dedicated to upcoming releases in the Comic and Media industry.
2002-2004– Most of our site news focused on Comics and HeroClix. Our forums were constantly abuzz with gamers discussing upcoming tournaments.
2006– Kevin Gaussoin purchased the site and started to convert it more fully into a pop culture media site. Terrence St John began partnering with public relations reps and ComicsOnline begins reviewing genre DVDs.
2007– Just before San Diego Comic-Con, Matt Sernaker (Director of Media Relations and now Managing Editor) joined Kevin at ComicsOnline to develop partnerships with various TV and movie studios on interviews and continued expanding our scope of upcoming DVD and movie release reviews.
2008– ComicsOnline staff and friends start the ComicsOnline Podcast with Season Zero on May 8, 2008. Subsequent podcast seasons are numbered after the website year. At San Diego Comic-Con in July, we start with our first annual tee shirts to commemorate our presence at the event. These shirts were designed by Josie Herschel and featured retro flying saucers attacking the San Diego Convention Center on the back, and a superhero silhouette pocket logo on the front.
2009– ComicsOnline’s PHPNuke site went down when our hosting provider upgraded its database software. Less than a week later, we debuted our Drupal-based site. ComicsOnline expanded its Anime and Manga coverage considerably. This year’s SDCC shirts were designed by Jorge Jones and featured a mecha robot and more saucers. On the Sunday night after San Diego Comic-Con’s last day for the year, ComicsOnline presented the first annual Night of Geek Rock (that would become the Comic-Concert) at Lestat’s West in San Diego and featured Random Gibberish, Kirby Krackle, and The Megas.
2010– ComicsOnline continued to expand our growing coverage of everything geek pop culture. This year’s SDCC shirts were designed by Brian Hurtt and featured a giant dragon attacking the convention center. This year, our Comic-Concert moved to Dream Street in Ocean Beach and featured Random Gibberish, Kirby Krackle, and a guest appearance by Josh Keaton as Aquaman.
2011– ComicsOnline continued to deliver our reviews and interviews of everything geek pop culture. SDCC 2012 shirts were designed by Jorge Jones and featured Godzilla himself attacking the convention center. This year, our Third Annual Comic-Concert moved to Thursday night at The Stage in San Diego’s downtown Gaslamp Quarter and featured Random Gibberish, and a guest appearance by Duke Nukem himself, Jon St John. For the second straight year, our Comic-Concert featured an abbreviated live version the ComicsOnline Podcast.
2012– We built our team to over thirty staff members on three continents working at ComicsOnline to provide you with reviews and interviews on everything geek pop culture.
Over the years, we’ve interviewed a large variety of geek pop culture icons including this list of creators from our early years:
Comics
-Stan Lee
-Robert Kirkman
-Judd Winick
-John Romita, Jr
-Kevin Eastman
-Gail Simone
-Todd McFarlane
-Dave Gibbons (Watchmen)
Animation
-Josh Keaton (Green Lantern TAS, Spectacular Spider-Man)
-Vic Cook (Spectacular Spider-Man)
-Greg Weisman (Spectacular Spider-Man / Gargoyles)
-Bruce Timm (DC Animated)
-Kevin Conroy (Batman)
-Andrea Romano (DC Animated)
-Billy West (Futurama)
-John DiMaggio (Futurama)
Movies
-Frank Darabont (Terminator)
-Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead/Army of Darkness)
-Thomas Jane (Punisher)
-Jake Gyllenhaal (Prince of Persia)
-Jon Turteltaub (Prince of Persia / National Treasure)
-Ming-Na (Mulan / Stargate Universe)
-Chris Mintz-Plasse (Kick-Ass)
-Chloe Moretz (Kick-Ass)
TV
-Joss Whedon (Avengers / Buffy / Firefly / Dollhouse)
-Eliza Dushku (Buffy / Dollhouse)
-Summer Glau (Firefly / Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles)
-Richard Dean Anderson (Stargate SG-1)
-Amanda Tapping (Stargate SG-1)
-Christoper Judge (Stargate SG-1)
-John Barrowman (Doctor Who / Torchwood)
-Edward James Olmos (Battlestar Galactica)
-Mitch Hurwitz (Arrested Development)
-Henry Winkler (Arrested Development / Happy Days)
-Will Arnett (Arrested Development)
-Ben Browder (Farscape)
-Zac Levi (Chuck)
-Adam Baldwin (Chuck)
-Jackie Earle Haley (Human Target / Watchmen)
-James Marsters (Buffy / Smallville / Caprica)
Music
-Jonathan Coulton
-Stephen Lynch
-Claudio Sanchez (Coheed and Cambria)
Thank you for all of you support over the years. We are looking forward to bringing you the best possible reviews and interviews on everything geek pop culture for decades to come!