Del Toro, himself a famous hoarder of pop culture artifacts and a museum board member, said the Los Angeles wildfires earlier this year came “frighteningly close” to the collection he keeps at home. “Now that the museum exists, a lot of it may go there,” Del Toro said.

Lucas was joined on stage by Guillermo del Toro and production designer Doug Chiang, with all three bolstering the case on how narrative art, which includes comic book art, needs to be uplifted and celebrated.

Greeted by a crowd of 6,500 chanting, “Lucas! Lu-cas!” George Lucas, the man who made geek culture palatable to the masses through fussy golden robots, made his inaugural trip to Comic-Con today. Entering Hall H,