What the heck is this? Every year that I attend SDCC, I do recaps of my experience. These are typically wordy, fun (I hope) reads, that give non-attendees a look at what a trip to San Diego Comic-Con may look like. I hope you enjoy!
…and we’re back.
It’s a little tough to believe that I’m sitting in a San Diego hotel while writing this. Naturally, the last time that I was in the city (accompanied for the first and possibly last time by my partner Mikaela) was all the way back in 2019 (you can see our SDCC 2019 content right here for a nice look back), and we had no idea what the world had coming for us just a handful of months down the road.
But we’re back. Thankfully, attendee safety seems like somewhat of a priority with strict always-on mask guidelines that many cosplayers are sure to hate, mandatory proof of vaccination or recent negative COVID-19 tests (which nets you a standard disposable wristband that definitely won’t be gross after several days in the California sun), and even security staff that will ensure con-goers are adhering to these rules.
Even with all of these guidelines in place, it’s hard not to be at least a little nervous. Sure, since things began to really open back up early this Spring, I’ve felt pretty comfortable venturing out for some fun again. I’d guess that I’ve been to over a dozen decent-to-large-sized concerts in the past few months, have returned to movie theatres regularly, have felt more comfortable with larger groups of friends, and overall things have felt pretty great (well, except for that time I got COVID, but that wasn’t due to any of those things).
A random, now terrifying crowd shot from SDCC 2019.
But this is San Diego Comic-Con, where (at least in the past) you’re shoulder to shoulder with what feels like every single other attendee for almost every moment you’re here (including when you’re outside in the Gaslamp District). Never in my life have I felt so incredibly close to so many people at once, and with the new BA.5 variant of COVID-19 now running rampant, being close to so many people once again, on days of little sleep, absolutely has me skittish. If I get sick, I can’t fly back to Canada for ten days, which sounds very hard and expensive, and I’m feeling more iffy just thinking about the possibility.
Maybe I (definitely) should have given it all more thought before flying in… but here we are, so let’s try to make the most of it.
Pre-Convention
I’m not yet sure just how messed up US airports are at this point (I’ll find out when I head to the San Diego airport on Monday), but Canadian airports are pretty screwed (to the point where one day recently, our largest airline, Air Canada delayed 70% of its flights). As such, I ended up at YVR preposterously early and had to sit around for hours for my 8AM Saturday flight to LAX.
Economy flights seem to have become even more nickel & dime-y since I was last in the air. In the past, I swear that you had the ability to choose almost any seat in the general economy area (aside from the few with an actual appropriate amount of leg room), and that checking in the very moment you could gave you an advantage, since more seats would still be readily available. This time around, my 6 foot, 3-inch frame was assigned a middle seat near the rear of the plane, and moving even one seat over in order to be in the aisle would have cost nearly $50. That felt new (and super lame).
Wanting to save more funds for the exorbitantly expensive ”Special SDCC” menus at the restaurants near the convention centre, I stuck with the middle seat, and naturally ended up next to another tall guy named Eric. We mostly kept to ourselves, but had a little bit of banter here and there — we came up with a strategy where an airline’s check in policy would also ask your height, and then seating would automatically be staggered between short and tall people in order to provide any amount of comfort. When departing the plane, I let him know that I hoped that he was able to sit next to someone shorter on his way back, and he did the same for me — fingers crossed, buddy.
After landing at LAX, I hopped on the FlyAway LAX bus to Van Nuys where I finally, after three years, reunited with Jonathan. At some point in the past few months it came up that I’d never had a Rueben sandwich before (I don’t think that they’re a common menu item up in Canada), so we’d already discussed that our first goal once I arrived in Los Angeles would be to change that fact. Jonathan, Heidi, and I ended up at Art’s Delicatessen — a popular sandwich joint that opened back in 1957, where I had a delicious (albeit expensive) introduction to the Rueben sandwich. Seriously, it was $26 USD for the sandwich and a small side, which is nearly $35 in Canadian dollars. Damn.
A poorly framed photo of the Art’s menu.
We spent much of the rest of the day preparing / inventorying items for the booth… and watching the new Netflix Resident Evil series. The series felt very so-bad-it’s-fantastic to start and slowly devolved from there into something all but nonsensical. There were certainly cool moments here and there, and a handful of great easter eggs for video game fans, but overall it was pretty rough.
That said, Jonathan spent much of the series yelling at the television and talking about how bad it was… but we still ripped through all eight episode in about two days.
https://youtu.be/uIdjcDTc9Vk
On Sunday morning, I had my first round of In-N-Out in nearly three years and it was just as tasty and fresh as I remembered it being. Those animal style fries are everything.
I’m home.
Matt finally showed up a few hours later, and it was phenomenal to be reunited with him as well. We all spent some time catching up and grabbing some Chinese food, and then spent much of the night watching Nathan for You and preparing mentally for the days to come.
Monday was mostly a day of hanging out (the Los Angeles heat, 36 degrees Celsius at one point in the day, made it fairly unbearable to do anything else), aside from picking up a small UHAUL trailer that would help us transport the booth (#3919, as always, if you’re at the show) and all of our merchandise to the convention centre.
This first recap is getting pretty lengthy already, so here’s a bit of a rapid fire on the rest of my pre-convention journey:
– We left early Tuesday morning to San Diego and I learned along the way that US Denny’s is just slightly rougher than Canadian Denny’s.
– Once we arrived at the convention centre, things devolved into chaos pretty quickly. Our plan was to park in the garage below the building in order to unload the booth, but no trailers were allowed in and we were instead routed around to the back of the building, and then further back, and then finally to the lot where all of the larger booths were being unloaded and brought to the convention center via forklift. The workers there acted like we didn’t belong (we didn’t) and seemed kind of angry when we weren’t using their forklift services to move our basically five boxes. One of the workers finally told us we could go in through a loading door, and told us “If they give you any trouble, tell them Jim sent you.” Of course, the security guard at the loading door wouldn’t let us in, and told us ”Well you better go talk to Jim then.” In the end, we had to walk down (booth in tow) the vehicle ramp into the underground parking, walk across the underground parking lot, take the elevator back up to the other side of the convention center, be told a few more times that we were in the wrong place, then be told that we needed to get our COVID wristband before we could dump our stuff, and then eventually we made it inside. I swear we’ve done this plenty of times before. The convention center also doesn’t turn on the air conditioning in the building during setup and that seems kind of mean for the people that are working inside all day (it’s so freaking hot in there).
– As soon as we hit the city, I was immediately enthralled with the spectacle. You’d think that this feeling would wear off after all of these years of attending, but especially after a three year break it’s simply amazing to be in this energy again. From the incredible work that goes into all of the hotel wraps (only to be removed a few days later), to the literal buildings that are being put together for amazing offsite events (again, only to be torn down a few days later), to the sheer size of the convention center, it’s simply so good to be back.
– Matt puts butter on Pop Tarts and it’s possibly the weirdest thing that I’ve ever heard.
– Again, for someone who seemed to hate the new Resident Evil series so much, Jonathan sure ripped through it quickly.
– Nathan For You is possibly the best television show ever made.
– COVID has changed Rockin’ Baha. The nacho / salsa bar is no more, which makes complete sense and they instead bring chips to the table, but the limitless supply of pineapple mango salsa is also gone, and instead you pay $2.50USD per minuscule portion. It’s delicious as ever, for sure, but during our post-setup lunch I was certainly more reserved in my pineapple mango salsa consumption than I would have been in the past. Our server, Ruby, has only been working at Rockin’ Baha for a few months, and hasn’t experienced an SDCC before. I feel bad for her.
After walking around the surprisingly-quiet Gaslamp District for a while (and grabbing a few supplies at Ralphs), Matt, Jonathan and I returned to our hotel (the Hilton Bayfront, which is thankfully just across the street from the convention center for an early night. I’m tired already!
Wednesday / Preview Night
Yep. Still tired, and we haven’t even done anything yet!
With not much planned until an early preview of a fantastic-sounding offsite activation for the new Netflix film The Gray Man, I wasn’t too sure what the first half of the day would look like.
Jonathan was already out for a November Project workout before I even woke up, and Matt was really worried that he would need nine hours to count shirts at the booth (again, #3919 if you’re in San Diego) so he dipped out pretty early too.
I decided to hang back, work on this recap, and just enjoy my last few hours of peace before SDCC 2022 finally arrived — that is, until El Chucho showed up to tear up the show floor well before it even opened (look for him on the Geekscape TikTok here).
I’ve been a big fan of G4 (well, and TechTV long before) since I was a young boy, so when Attack of the Show tweeted about a meetup / cosplay contest, I just had to head over. Of course, cosplay isn’t my thing, and it would have been way too late to set anything up anyways, but I absolutely wanted to see what was up.
Those that made it to the ’secret’ meetup spot were able to take part in a Kassem G hosted satellite segment that felt like a blast. You can take a look at pieces of the segment below! G4 is also running several panels throughout the week, including an Attack of the Show panel on Thursday at 6:45 (Room 6A), an XPlay panel on Friday at 6PM (Room 6A), and a special ’G4’s Return to SDCC’ panel on Saturday at 12PM (Room 25ABC).
Following the Attack of the Show fun (and still before the show floor opened), I was fortunate enough to be invited to a preview event for the fantastic-looking offsite activation for the new Netflix action thriller, The Gray Man. I’ve posted a couple of photos below, and you can head here for more!
The outside of the crashed train car. Inside is a short escape room style experience.
Since preview night is typically the easiest night to browse (due to the floor being the least crowded) I’d planned to head over to the convention centre after tackling The Gray Man activation. Instead, at the offsite I met a dude named Shaun, we connected over AEW, and decided to head over to HBO’s House of the Dragon activation instead.
The best offsite event that I’ve ever experienced at Comic-Con was 2013’s ’Godzilla Encounter’, and next up might just be this year’s House of the Dragon experience. Take a look at a couple of photos of the event below, and look for a larger piece about the offsite in the coming days! If you’re down in San Diego, the offsite opens tomorrow (Thursday) at 10AM at MLK Park.
My new pal Shaun on the new (old?) Iron Throne.
Rough quality, but this is really inside the event.
Seriously, House of the Dragon is a must-see if you’re at SDCC. Shaun and I finished up at the activation just before the show floor closed. He was headed to meet some friends at Rockin’ Baha (he had never been before, and yes I recommended the pineapple mango salsa), and I headed back to the hotel to get some writing done.
Matt returned to the room (bearing water, thanks Matt) and after what turned out to be a pretty long day, we didn’t feel like venturing out to the now overwhelming Gaslamp District. Thank goodness for Door Dash, as, as of this writing, Wingstop (which I’ve never had before) is currently on its way to our hotel room.
That’s it for now! Check back tomorrow for my recap of the first full day of SDCC!