Hyphen magazine - Asian American arts, culture, and politics

Tony Kim is particularly adept at shepherding people into the fold. By all rights, he should be. He’s a pastor. But each July he uses his powers to baptize the formerly unwilling into the ever-growing Mecca for die-hard devotees. He brings them to Comic Con.

Held in San Diego, Comic Con is perhaps the largest jamboree of fans in the world. Fans not just of comics but of anything that has or aspires to have fans. Promoters of movies, TV, novels, games all make the pilgrimage to Comic Con hoping to reward and drum up followers to their flock. Realizing the magnitude of Comic Con’s influence, mainstream press has steadily increased its coverage. Once thought of as a sect of Sci Fi silliness, Comic Con can now count Wall Street among its many converts.

To spread the gospel ever more, Kim made an audition tape for Morgan Spurlock’s documentary, Comic Con Episode Four: A Fan's Hope, and after a long process was chosen as one of the six conventioneers to be followed around by a film crew. His humor and charisma are quite evident on his Youtube audition tape, as is his passion about his “nerd heritage.”

Kim makes a strong case for those who think outside the box, whether whizzes of comics or computers. One of his goals is to affirm the reviled and create a culture for creative thinking

Asked about his day job, he mentions that he often draws from pop culture references and comics in his sermons. He draws parallels between biblical stories and those in comic books.

“Many comic book stories teach about redemption, justice, and compassion.”

Kim also is co-creator of BabbleOn5, a movie review site. There you can find a fan’s guide to movies and pop culture, including their intense fan devotion to the series, Chuck.

Kim is careful to point out, though, that whether in religion or fandom, extremism is not the way to heaven. “Anything taken to extreme is not good. Even Jesus’ parables are not comprehensively perfect but just meant to teach a point.”

Then again, Kim claims that his own immersion into the Comic Con experience supersedes in importance his wedding and the birth of his children -- just don’t tell his wife.