We’re going to have what a film festival has — creators, writers, producers. The people behind the scenes — from pop culture, television, film, and the animation mediums. The Pixars. The Disneys. All that. Those big players who are the driving force of where we are today, culturally. So, we’re building a Comic Con much like San Diego, and what L.A. does with WonderCon.

Certainly having Stan Lee appear in the first Palm Springs outing is good.

He’s really into it. He and his manager have had a lot of discussions about Palm Springs because the Comic Con here would be unique. There’s a passion for doing it here. Stan learned about our Comic Con and it’s interesting, because he’s been reduced to doing one-day appearances at other Comic Cons, but here, he’s like, ‘No, this is an exception.’ I just think there’s a history and environment here that’s attractive. I also believe that we’ve been building our close relationship with Stan and his manager. We are able to foster a unique situation and Stan has really embraced our Comic Con. It’s kismet.

Stan Lee will be here all three days?

Yes. But look — we have to go by how he’s feeling. He’s 93. He’s a force but everybody has their days. But as of now, he is going to be here all three days.

And Lou Ferrigno …

Yes. And you know who really helped propel things? The actor Sam Jones from Flash Gordon. He reached out. I actually remember seeing Flash Gordon when I was a kid — over at the Camelot Theatres. That left a big impression. So flash forward and there’s Sam’s cameo in the movie “Ted.” We all had that same memory and fan-boy relation. Sam reached out to us. He’s a popular person to have a Comic Con. He only does the really big ones. But he jumped aboard. And we snowballed with big names—comic book writers and voice over talents. We probably have the biggest first-year convention, doing things that bigger Comic Cons would do to lead to even having that possibility of Stan Lee. This will probably be his first, first-year Comic Con since the 1990s. And then Lou—he reached out to us. I got an email that read: “This is Lou Ferrigno and I’d like to attend your event.”

Were you into comic books growing up?

No. I was a film and TV and pop culture junkie. I grew up watching the Adam West Batman and The Incredible Hulk TV show. The Krofft Supershow, where there were vignettes with super hero characters — Shazam! and Isis. The Six Million Dollar Man, and even into the ’80s, The Greatest American Hero.

After traveling around the country and learning about Comic Cons and the people who attend, what have learned about our pop culture interests and, really, about humanity?

That we all grew up with a lot of peer pressure and influences that maybe we didn’t want to have. I grew up when people still called people “nerds.” But who didn’t really want to be the best that they could be to other people; to just to be ourselves and have people accept us? What I truly see in the Comic Con environment, is that people can really be themselves and have fun doing it, and nobody looks at your any different for doing it.

Comic Con Palm Springs, Aug. 26-28, Palm Springs Convention Center, 277 N. Avenida Caballeros; www.comicconpalmsprings.com

Follow Greg on Twitter: @Greg_Archer