I’m on my way to my first Comic-Con in San Diego, the granddaddy of all comic conventions. It’s one of those bucket list items that I’ve wanted to check off for quite a while. I’ll be heading down south with my firstborn daughter, who has to attend for work. So, it’s a day stopover in Burbank to pick her up before driving down I-5 together. As I wait for my daughter’s day at the office to finish up, I’ve been walking around “beautiful downtown Burbank” just people watching and catching all the sights. Busy place, Burbank. And nice, really. But uh-oh, my phone is running dangerously low on battery. Which it shouldn’t because it’s less than a year old! So now what? Well, I’m doing something right now that I never thought I never would. I’m writing this blog post from inside a Starbucks. I’ve ordered coffee and plugged my phone into one of the many power outlets to charge up. Fortunately, I found an empty outlet near a stand-up table, the only one available. I’ve always wondered how writers and others can do work inside a Starbucks. Writing to me is a solitary activity. I’ve always felt the distractions in a Starbucks or other coffee shop type of environment would drive me crazy so I never even attempted it. But here I am, kinda forced to do it as sort of a cover-up just to charge my phone. And …yeah, I hate it. Soooo many distractions. How can anyone concentrate? But it’s only a one-time thing for me and my phone is charging. So …onward.
have been a comic book geek all my life. Ever since I can remember, my father would take me to the corner drug store and buy me the latest issues of Batman, Superman, Justice League, Flash, Green Lantern, Legion of Superheroes and so many more. As I got older I would buy them myself. I had quite the collection! Books that would probably be worth a lot of money today …if I still had them. I either gave them away or just threw them away before I knew exactly what I had in those comics. Granted, some were not in the best of shape, but some were in really good or mint condition when I unloaded them. D’oh! Primarily a DC comics person, I didn’t get into Marvel books until I got a little older and started to buy issues of Captain America, Spiderman, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, X-Men and Thor. As a kid, my daydreams were filled with saving the world and fighting crime with some sort of superpower. I was always trying to invent my own superhero character. Comic books kindled a love for writing and drawing that remains with me to this day. Comic books stoked my imagination and encouraged me to create stories, draw cartoons, and become an actor because I wanted to be one of those characters. Or voice them in cartoons.
Well, it’s 2019 and I can finally say, I’ve been to Comic-Con! On its 50th anniversary, no less. Attending a Comic-Con has been one of my bucket list items that I can finally check off! Truth be told, it’s an experience I’m not planning to repeat. Once is enough for me. The “Con” experience has probably changed immeasurably over the last fifty years. Just getting a ticket to attend SDCC has become a grueling adventure over the years. The application procedure is frustrating and very time consuming. It’s basically a lottery, and the odds of winning one of those are not very good. An episode of the Big Bang Theory showed us what it’s like, when the four boys are sitting in Sheldon and Leonard’s apartment, laptops at the ready, waiting for “go time” to refresh the Comic-Con website for the chance to get in the queue to be able to apply for tickets. You might think it’s comedic exaggeration for the show, nope, it’s real! Been there, done that. But if you are one of the lucky ones to get a ticket, you should expect to empty your bank account.
The cost of attending a Comic-Con requires at least $250 for each ticket. Then there are travel costs for airfare, or if you’re driving, gas and hotel parking for four days. And, of course, hotel accommodations. Let me tell you, if you want to go to Comic-Con in 2020 and beyond, make your hotel reservations NOW! Because so many people already have them. Finding a hotel near the San Diego convention center is a must! Walking to the convention center is preferable to driving and parking or getting an Uber ride from a hotel that’s further away. And prepare for the cost of breakfast, lunch, dinner for the three or four days you’re there. Hotel food and drink is a small fortune. For example, at my hotel I had a glass of bourbon and splash of ginger ale–-one drink–-for $22. I could’ve bought a whole fifth of bourbon for just a few bucks more! Of course, there are restaurants and bars within walking distance of the convention center, many located in the San Diego Gaslamp district. Just be aware that you’ll pay higher than normal prices in those establishments during Comic-Con, so make sure to budget all that in.
The Spider-Verse
With all that being said, I am so very grateful I had the chance to attend this year. It was a rare pleasure to attend with my eldest daughter, who had to be there for her job. She attends every year. It was so great to be with her, just the two of us, for four days. I was able to meet her colleagues and coworkers, who were all great people. We walked the convention floor together to view all the booths where artists, writers and creators were displaying and selling their work. Of course, being the T-shirt collector that I am, I had to buy superhero T-shirts at various booths. I bought artwork for my wife to frame and hang in her office. There were freebies like posters and souvenirs. And I got pictures of lots of cosplayers. It was so fun to see these people in costume live at the Con before their pictures appeared on fan websites posted under “Best Cosplay of SDCC.” I gotta tell ya, these people are very committed. And there were some people in costumes who should actually BE committed, but for the most part, the cosplayers were great. My daughter and I deemed that the most popular costumes of this year’s Con were Deadpool and The Spider-verse gang. And for some reason, lots of Doctor Strange, as well.
In the audience for a Comic-Con Panel
The biggest disappointment for me was not being able to get into as many of the breakout panels I would have liked. Mostly because waiting in long, long …LONG lines just wasn’t worth it. Every year people actually camp out overnight just to secure a place in line for the Hall H presentations. This year, Marvel Studios shared all the information on their upcoming slate of films and tv shows in Hall H. Honestly, there is no panel I would care enough about to sleep outside overnight for chance to see it. However, we did brave a few long lines to see a couple of these panels, including the CW ArrowVerse presentations, where they show a sizzle reel for the upcoming season, and bring out and kibitz with most of the cast members. We set out in what we thought would be plenty of time to see the start of the presentation but, unfortunately, the line was so long we missed the whole Arrow panel that kicked it off. Thankfully, we made it in time to see half of the Supergirl panel and all of the Black Lightning and The Flash panels
All in all, it was a fun experience. One that you should at least have at least once if you are so inclined. My biggest takeaway, however, was the number of people that were there for the four days. Over three hundred thousand is what I heard. Three hundred thousand people, who for the most part, were well behaved, friendly, helpful and very enthusiastic. The diversity of this group of people was incredible. Three hundred thousand black, white, brown, yellow, and red-skinned people all getting along together and enjoying the experience. There were even some blue, green, and purple-skinned people enjoying themselves, too. I loved that.
So, if you attend a future Comic-Con, you won’t hear “Live Long and Prosper” or “Scotty, You Have the Con” or even, “Nanu-Nanu” very often. The sentiment I always heard was “Have a great Con!”
