San Diego Comic Con Wrap-Up

This past weekend I attended the San Diego Comic Con for the first time. I’d always wanted to go because I felt I couldn’t consider myself a true fan unless I’d attended THE comic con. Thanks to the growth of Nerd News, I’ve attended a ton of cons before, but none of them prepared me for what I was about to experience. For years, I’d always heard that San Diego Comic Con was a whole different beast in comparison to other comic cons. The sheer scale and magnitude of the venue, frequency of events, and after con activities were enough to make even a seasoned journalist feel overwhelmed. Thankfully, I had backup as my wife was joining me on this massive undertaking. With that, we packed up all our gadgets, checked our fears at the door and hopped on a plane to San Diego.

Wednesday afternoon we arrived in San Diego, a bit jet lagged but ready for the day. We checked into our hotel, grabbed a bite to eat, then headed towards the convention center. For most journalists there to cover the con, preview night is one of the most important nights. The convention center is usually pretty slow, and it gives you a perfect opportunity to scope out panel locations and vendor booths. We walked around for a bit, and got our con guides, collectors bags, and then made a mad dash for the main floor. I couldn’t help but feel somewhat emotional after passing the first security checkpoint. I was standing on the main floor of the SDCC, the show of shows. I’d finally made it, or so I thought.

Maria and I spied out a few key vendors, and tried to come up with a strategy for navigating through the mass of people that’d finally shown up. We noticed there was a Skybound booth selling exclusive Walking Dead collectibles so naturally, this was our first stop. I’d heard there would be some pretty sweet SDCC exclusives at this booth including a comic book replica of Negan’s bat Lucille. I felt compelled to pick one up and I’m glad I did, as they’d sold out almost immediately. After picking up my first score we headed over to check out J. Scott Campbell’s booth to snag Maria a comic. Unfortunately, Maria had hit her breaking point for the evening and after mutually expressing the same feeling of exhaustion, we ended our night there.

Thursday was a bit of a weird day as we spent all of it outside, in the sun. We’d decided we wanted to attend the Walking Dead and Game Of Thrones panels for Friday, and the only way to gain entry was to wait in a line on Thursday for next day wristbands. By the time we got to where we needed to be, the line was already about 60 people deep, and it was only 8:30 AM. We had reached the end of the line, and we set up our camp, prepared to stay all day. The hot California sun was directly on top of us and it intensified as the day went on. It was in this line that Maria and I would learn about one of the most important rules of Comic Con; Make line friends. The staff working the lines cannot hold your spot, so if you have to take a potty break, or even if you want to leave to attend a different panel without losing your spot, a line buddy is priceless. Our line buddies happened to be a Scottish twenty something woman named Isobel and her mom Kate, and a husband and wife duo named Mike and Dee Dee. We’d somehow managed to make it through the blistering heat all day with these guys, and we were all rewarded with wristbands. After we got our admittance bands, it was time to head over to the Hall H tents, where we’d be spending the night.

After heading back to our room briefly for a shower, we hopped back into line to begin our wait to be admitted into the legendary Hall H. Hall H is generally the spot where the biggest panels of the con will be held. Sitting in the hot sun in line for about 20 hours would all soon be worth it, as I’d be getting the chance to get the first look at new trailers from my favorite TV shows. Once inside, we grabbed our seats and got ready for the ensuing madness. The first panel of the day was from Con Man, a show starring Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudnyk. I’m not too familiar with the premise of the show, but the trailer for season two looked hilarious and will definitely be worth checking out. The real stars of this packed schedule were of course the Walking Dead and Game Of Thrones panels. The Walking Dead panel provided tons of laughs, great insight into season 7 and of course the premiere of the season 7 trailer (which was badass by the way). The Game Of Thrones panel served as a recap mainly of all the craziness from season 6 of GoT, along with a proper sendoff for Kristian Narin who plays Hodor in the smash hit series.

Saturday is always the busiest day for any comic con, but at SDCC that was ramped up 100%. There was a ton of cool cosplay, and even more panels to attend. We chose not to do any on saturday because we ended up losing two days of coverage time from the panels we attended on Friday. Instead, we chose to weave our way through the thousands and thousands of attendees and score some sweet cosplay pics. As we made our way back through the crowd, I couldn’t help but notice that in comparison to other comic cons we’d been to, San Diego was a bit lacking in that department. Don’t get me wrong, we did see several really good costumes, but we’ve seen better in places like Wizard World in Chicago, or even Motor City Comic Con in Novi, MI. After walking around the main entrance for a while Maria and I decided to check out the main con floor in hopes of getting more photos. On the way in, we randomly ran into former LA Laker Rick Fox, who didn’t seem to like being bothered all that much. After a few hours on the floor, we decided to check out some of the happenings outside of the con, and I’m really glad we did.

We came across a recreation of South Park, CO complete with a replica school bus, and some of the most iconic locations from the show. Maria and I also ventured over to an exact replica of the computer repair shop from our new favorite TV show, Mr Robot. Inside the shop, we were encouraged to go through the files, pick things up and investigate, while we waited in line for a special Mr Robot VR experience. At first glance, the files seemed like ordinary sales receipts and work orders, but with further investigation there were police reports and copies of police department bookings from former Evil Corp employees (Watch the show to get the reference). Once it was our turn to experience the VR presentation, we were led behind a curtain, given Samsung Gear VR headsets, and stood outside of what appeared to be an apartment door. Once the door opened, we were pleasantly surprised to be standing inside of an exact replica of Elliot’s apartment. We were told to grab a seat, put the VR headset on and enjoy the presentation. The VR experience itself wasn’t anything groundbreaking, but it did happen to tell a very important piece of Elliot’s back story. I highly recommend checking it out if you ever get the chance.

I was dying to check out some of the gaming options that were offered at SDCC, so that was our next destination. We first stopped at the Capcom booth where they were offering players the chance to check out their Resident Evil 7 demo using Playstation VR. The game itself was really cool and immersive, and while I can’t give away too much on the story of the game, it’ll be a great return to the horror roots of the franchise. Next, we stopped by the Gears Of War 4 booth so I could finally see what all the fuss was about. I have to admit, I am a diehard Sony guy, so my next statement may be a bit biased. I didn’t like Gears Of War. It seemed really hokey, and in comparison to some of the other FPS offerings out there, it did very little to make me feel like I HAD TO HAVE IT.

I won’t bore you with the details of Sunday, because we mainly packed and got ready to hit up our flight. We did go back to the con one more time to say our goodbyes to San Diego and make our venture back to the mitten. I really enjoyed my time at San Diego Comic Con, but I’m not ready to crown it the absolute best just yet. There’s a bit of work that could be done in terms of tightening up the lines, and access to panels and events. Overall it was a great con, and I’m (hopefully) looking forward to returning next year.