Gallery: From Christ to Cthulu: A Field Guide to the Street Preachers of Comic-Con
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Street preachers have long been a feature of San Diego Comic-Con, but this year, they attended in record numbers, with messages that ranged from moderate to frothing, sincere to satirical, and even promotional. We spoke to a handful of the most vocal of the sign-holding evangelists, to see what draws them to Comic-Con year after year. __Above: Cthulu Evangelism__ The street preachers didn't really come out in force until Saturday, but Thursday morning saw a handful of stalwarts in place for the first day of the con--as well as Chris Ford, who, for the last two years, has turned out with his stepstool and Necronomicon to share the good news that soon the great Cthulhu will rise from the watery depths to devour us all. Ford's a low-key counter-demonstrator--he riffs off other preachers, but he doesn't engage them directly. Based on the laughter and cameras that came out every time he started to speak, he was also a welcome break from his neighbors’ more serious attempts at drive-by conversion.
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Derek, pictured above, is soft-spoken despite his megaphone. He was initially nervous about speaking to Wired, and requested that we refer to him only by his first name. "There's nothing wrong with Comic Con," Derek told Wired. "There's nothing wrong with wearing a t-shirt or dressing up—in fact, I enjoy the cosplay. Some of them are really cool. But we come out here because there are a lot of people out here, and they need to hear about Jesus, and we want them to live with us forever in Heaven. That's the whole motivation." This is Derek's second year preaching at Comic Con--in fact, last year's SDCC was his first experience as a street preacher. Over the last year, he's gotten to know a handful of his fellow preachers, although he remains unattached to any group. What's his favorite costume so far? "I'd have to say... there was a really good Dark Knight costume. And someone else had a really nice Thor costume. Thor was really well done."
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After the notorious Westboro Baptist Church picketed Comic-Con in 2010, Stasi and Shay Lynn wanted to show some contrast--and to explicitly welcome con attendees on behalf of a religious group. "Comic-Con is awesome and people visiting us is awesome too," says Shay Lynn. "I'm just really disappointed in the message that can be said and the lies that are told of God and the Bible and all of that, so we're here with friendly messages to say 'Thanks for coming.' "
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Jason Roberts has been out every day since Preview Night. Dressed in a San Diego Fire Department t-shirt and matching hat, he's part of the largest and most visible group of preachers, whose matching yellow signs are visible from blocks away. Roberts and his group attend Comic Con yearly, along with a slew of other events--"wherever there's people." It's the crowds that bring Roberts and his fellow preachers to downtown San Diego, not any moral objection to the con itself. "I'm not against \[the convention\] at all," he told Wired, although many of his conversations with attendees have started under the assumption that he's protesting the show. Roberts, like others of the more moderate evangelists I spoke to, took pains to distinguish himself from the more aggressive preachers. His group may sport megaphones, but they don't accost individual patrons--and they keep their message general and centered around literal Bible verses rather than interpretation.
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This is Brian Stone's first year demonstrating at Comic-Con. After seeing the religious evangelists who flocked to the show every year, he and a few friends decided to provide an ideological counterpoint. They took a day to make signs, and spent Saturday in front of the Hilton, where the signs where at their thickest--and most extreme. "I don't pretend to represent anyone's opinions but my own," Stone told Wired. "But there's another point of view, and no one ever gets that other point of view out at Comic-Con, even if everybody's thinking it. It's time to show the other side."
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A spokesperson promotes Stan Lee's Comikaze Expo with a parody sign and matching patter.
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While other preachers--sincere and satirical--mostly stayed outside, one fan brought the Gospel of Martin into the exhibit hall itself.
