After years of cancellations and a scaled down show last November, the true form of Comic-Con International’s biggest event of the year returned to the San Diego Convention Center to welcome geeks from around the world.
And while not everything was back to exactly what it once was, the spirit of the event returned, along with crowds wearing cosplay, hunting collectibles and comics, and experiencing everything that the Comic-Con world can provide only in San Diego! Off at the Comic-Con Museum, they were celebrating the 60th anniversary of Spider-Man. The Hall H lines were as massive as ever (even though every day but Saturday seemed to move everyone through pretty easily). And the floor played host to all of the exhibitors, vendors, creators, and publishers we have missed, most back to the same spots we left them back in 2019.
When I wasn’t endlessly roaming the floor or resting my feet in a panel, I was out in the streets of San Diego, having dinner and drinks with friends old and new, discovering places I’d never been before and revisiting old haunts that I had missed so much. Comic-Con was back. But it wasn’t easy getting here.
Getting there and back again…
Yeah, I know, this sounds like a lot of nostalgic hooey, but it really was a homecoming of sorts, seeing and feeling San Diego Comic-Con for the first time in what seems like ages. I know I didn’t share this before, but even when they didn’t hold an SDCC the last 2 July’s, I still showed up. I would drive down to San Diego each July, on the first night of what would have been the show, and wandered around the streets full of mostly closed restaurants and much less expensive hotel stays. Just a night is all I needed, even though I wanted more. It felt right to be there, even when nothing was technically happening.
In 2020, I took two cosplay pictures. They were of a husband and wife dressed as Moon Knight and Doctor Strange. Little did I know that I’d run into them again in front of the convention center in July 2021, dressed as Star Trek crewmembers along with more of their friends, and we’d soon become fast friends. Now we find time to hang out at cons all over Southern California, but especially in San Diego.
And when San Diego Comic-Con created their Special Edition show over Thanksgiving weekend in November 2021, with its expansive, mostly empty floors between the creators and vendors who were able to exhibit, many for the first time due to the lesser demand of the off-season show, I and the cosplayer crew met up again, making it possibly my biggest cosplay photo shoot of any San Diego based Comic-Con ever.
Return of the Comic-Con 2022
But what about 2022? Could it live up to what I expected? Yes, masks and other COVID restrictions were still required, which was a bummer, but understandable. For many, the sheer size of the event is off-putting: the crowds, the clamor, the cutthroat battles for exclusives and swag. It’s not just worth the stress of jumping into a massive crowd, especially as we’re pulling ourselves out of a worldwide pandemic. For me, I was ready for the challenge. While big shows like San Diego Comic-Con can be frustrating to navigate sometimes, I actually thrive on that. I set my goals high, but my expectations low, and somehow come out somewhere in the middle.
Triumphs and Highlights of San Diego Comic-Con 2022
JUST BEING THERE – The experience of stepping onto the floor was a breathtaking experience (not in a bad way, thankfully, after what we’ve been through), as this is the kind of show that I can kind of navigate completely with my eyes closed. Lucasfilm and LEGO, Marvel and Funko, Sideshow and Hulu (formerly Fox), Entertainment Earth and Kotobukiya. All were back where they belonged. Even my favorite comic creators, artists, writers, and friends, were back where I remembered them. The fan groups were back in the back mezzanine once again. The cosplayers mostly kept to the lobby and the sidewalks and streets outside.
GETTING INTO HALL H – With the way I move and the places I choose to visit, in every corner of the con, it’s rare I get into panels. A lot are in high demand and having a press badge doesn’t always get you special access to the ones you really want to get into (because EVERYBODY wants to get into them). But there’s one I always make an attempt for: Marvel Studios in Hall H, the biggest panel of ANY year at San Diego Comic-Con.
However, this year, I didn’t have a random collective of mostly strangers to team up with to conquer the Hall H beast of a line. In past years, we’d take shifts in groups of at least 2 or 3 over the course of many days in order to get our wristbands and eventually our position under the tents in order to make it into the hall for the entirety of Saturday’s panels. This year, I just took a shot at entering through the media and professionals entrance. Now, this might surprise some of you, but I’m no big deal (for now). Usually, that line is stacked with Hollywood types who at least know somebody who knows somebody, journalists from major publications or news outlets, geeky or otherwise, and people who have special access reserved to hang out directly in front of the stage and take pictures.
I wasn’t any of those people. I sat outside the hall, trying to find shade for what I expected to be a very long day outside that would result in nothing. But the powers that be were kind enough to give me and another lone journalist access to “The Pit” just as the Star Trek panels were wrapping up. I was giddy. Honestly, I’m getting too old to stand in line on and off for 3 days, even for Marvel Studios. But as I waited in a seat that was acquired by a friend of mine who was already inside, positioned perfectly in front of a large screen with a clear view of the stage, I got to witness panels for Neil Gaiman’s Sandman on Netflix, Entertainment Weekly’s: Bold School, featuring a collection of talented, inspiring, and hilarious women who told their stories of what it takes to be a woman in Hollywood, and eventually, Marvel Studios, which didn’t fail to blow every single one of us out of the water. Besides giving us a peek at the plan (mostly) and the name of the currently in progress Multiverse Saga, they gave us peeks at Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3, and an emotional introduction to the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever trailer, ending with the cast and much of the audience in tears between all the cheers.
GIVING A FRIEND A FIRST TIME TOUR OF SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON – I made a new friend at a different con a few months back, a local to San Diego who had never been inside her hometown Comic-Con. She had raised her son to be geeky, with a love for Star Wars and Star Trek as a foundation, but she had never stepped inside the halls of the convention center during the Big Show. I found a way to change that. It was almost too much for to take in over the course of a Sunday afternoon, but I made sure she met some comic creators (and bought some of their work), got her picture taken with some of my favorite cosplayers, and got her some free Star Trek swag from the Paramount booth. Between all of that, we just explored everything Comic-Con had to offer. She had been to other smaller cons before, but never anything like this, with its breadth of geekiness crossing all genres and tastes. We even explored behind the convention center and were some of the last people to roam through the FX activation and all it had to offer.
To me, as the person who wrote the San Diego Comic-Con Survival Guide, it was a treat to help her experience the show I love so much in a way that most never get to, even if it was just a little piece of it. I got to put my ancient wisdom to good use and saw that I still hadn’t lost my touch.
