Jackie Estrada

"One of the things that people have asked me is, 'What was it about those early 70's conventions that made you want to get involved?' I would say just the nicest people, the nicest people."

Jackie Estrada is a Comic-Con superhero. She started collecting comics seriously when she was student at San Diego State University in the 1960s. She attended the first full Comic-Con in 1970 and has been a key organizer since 1974 when, as a freelance author writing an article about Comic-Con, she attended her first Comic-Con planning meeting. Jackie's contributions to Comic-Con are vast and impactful. She's been in public relations, edited souvenir books, served as liaison to invited guests, and acted as the official photographer in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

In 1977, she started the Robert A. Heinlein Blood Drive and received an Inkpot Award. She started the Artists' Alley in 1986 and the registration system for professionals in 1987. Since 1990, Jackie has been the administrator of the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the industry's most prestigious awards program. She creates the Events Guide publication and is chair of the guest committee, which decides who to invite to Comic-Con each year. In 1994, Jackie co-founded Exhibit A Press with her husband and Supernatural Law creator, Batton Lash. She edits the company's comics and books and does the lettering for Supernatural Law.