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Derek’s SDCC 2022 Recap: Pre-Con / Preview Night

by Derek KraneveldtJuly 20, 2022

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.

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!

Mikaela’s Journey to SDCC 2019: Part II

by Mikaela MaxwellJuly 18, 2019

Wednesday morning was scheduled (for me) to be a sweet sweet day of sleeping in, and I guess if you compare me to everyone else in the room technically I did get to sleep in… until 6:15 AM!!?!

Grump-kaela was none too impressed about the early hour, but still happy to have a relaxed lounging morning, with time for hair and makeup and listening to the new Audible Original A Trick of Light created by Stan Lee.

I will be attending the A Trick of Light activation Thursday, and a round table press discussion on Saturday, so don’t worry you’ll be filled in on all the deets about that one in the near future! But I’ll tell you now from the wee bit I’ve listened to, it’s gonna be interesting A.F. !

Just as Matt, Derek, and I finally decided to leave the sweet sweet comfort of our cold hotel room, Jon and Gui showed back up! (Both were gone by the time I opened my eyes at the late hour of 6:15!) Gui discovered you could actually open our hotel room window way way up on the 28th floor, and figured he could probably catch a bird from there. However his fear of seagulls was quickly made apparent as one swooped by and he slammed the window shut. This seagull was relentless though. The bird literally perched directly on our window sill and stared us down. I wanted to open the window and feed it… everyone else wisely protested, and Gui guarded the window with his life. It was pretty entertaining though!

Shortly after Matt, Derek and I ventured out and I decided to put my brave pants on and face a newly discovered fear of breaking my face via electric scooter.

Last year Derek raved about getting to scoot around all over the place with his buddy Matt. Last night Derek tried to get me to ride one of them and I quickly realized I did not trust my coordination enough to not die, and opted instead to pathetically half jog beside him as he scooted to the grocery store.

With much support and encouragement I managed to hop on my first scooter ride! And it was equal parts terrifying and fun. Basically as soon as I got on I turned into a frozen terrified statue, but managed to not fall off, so… win 🤷‍♀️

We got to wander around and see a bunch of the activations in their final stages of set up, and I’m blown away by the amount of presence here. I’m not the best at references, but so many things that even I am aware of are here! From Seinfeld, The Good Place, Superstore, Brooklyn Nine Nine, South Park and on and on!

Around lunch time Derek and I parted ways with Matt to head over the the Amazon Prime Video Experience, featuring activations for The Expanse, The Boys, and Carnival Row. This was my first official SDCC activation experience, and I think it may have tricked me with its ease! We waited in line for about 15 minutes before it opened, and in the time we’re treated to big umbrellas for shade, and offered cold water bottles. In a very short amount of time we were allowed in and provided with a wicked experience.

Upon entering the site you are given special coins and mini churros! There is a giant, beautiful, reflective, colourful structure in the middle surrounded by AstroTurf, covered tables, a large screen with shaded couches which I’m assuming will be for when they show the premieres later this week. As well there are three separate and very different areas that allow you to enter and have an incredibly immersive experience based on each of the featured shows.

We started off by heading into the experience for The Expanse. After again waiting in line for what I assume is a very short amount of time in SDCC reality, sliding doors opened to let us into some sort of Space transportation. We were quickly informed that we‘re on a UN mission to figure out what this attack had been about (I’ve never seen the show, so I’m a little fuzzy on the details), before the doors open at the opposite end and we walk out into a space-tastic wasteland. Quickly our group was split up and we are guided by space people to interrogate/help (?) other space people who have been captured by other space people. It’s a real moral conundrum cause you don’t know whose in the right and suddenly a dispute explodes between different factions and you’re quickly whisked back out into reality. So. Freaking. Cool!

After that we headed over to The Boys activation area. Again we were quickly ushered… well yelled at to quickly get in here! Our group quickly filed into an electronics store that had its front window smashed in by a car, that was currently sat with smoke billowing out of the hood, half in/half out of the storefront. We were quickly informed that we were joining a group of people fighting against the destruction and pain caused in the wake of super heroes doing hero work. We quickly discovered that one of the group members worked at this store and is now missing, so we had to find clues to where he went and what had happened here. Our group had to rummage around this destroyed store and I managed to find two of the clues we were looking for! The whole scene ended with someone who had been planted in our group being murdered by one of the characters and us running out of the store.

I love immersive theatre, and this was so much fun! What a neat way to get people jazzed on a new show. Initially when hearing about this show I was intrigued simply because Seth Rogen is an executive producer (and I’m a big fan of that guy!), but now I’m extra invested and can’t wait for it to air!

After that we went and grabbed a branded and delish (and free!) Carl’s Jr. burger and watched a super neat performance based on The Boys play out on the central shiny structure. Check out our instagram for sneak peeks into these experiences!

After that we waited in an actual line that took actual time, like maybe 30-45min, which is still short by SDCC standards for the Carnival Row experience. After this sooo long of wait (teehee) we sadly were not let into the experience because the cards we were given showed that we were creatures and they didn’t have any more room for creatures, only humans. So I popped a squat and got comfy to wait another 15 minutes.

In the time we waited in line we actually got to see another performance on the central structure, this time a scene from the universe of Carnival Row where fairies were being hunted down by some sort of police and were sadly beaten down.

Once we did actually get let into the Carnivval Row we were immediately treated to some race/class discrimination. Because we had drawn ‘creature’ cards we were allowed in, but were treated poorly, being yelled at to hurry, to not take pictures of the characters, to stand in single file and not move etc., where as when the ‘humans’ were let in they were encouraged to take pictures, told to spread out and get comfy, generally treated respectfully etc.!

After a few moments we were guided into a market where fairies or creatures (I’m not totally sure) were selling their wares. One of them came up to Derek and I and asked if we wanted some love potion, and then proceeded to spray us with this ‘love potion’, so we just love each other now! Then the police people who had let us in game in and were getting mad about stuff so we were ushered into the next area, which was set up as a little cabaret type club room. It was super effing neat.

The cabaret room had a stage rotating through performers, with a fairy type person singing beautifully, and another doing a strip tease type thing, and then the singer again. At this point one of the characters came up and started talking to me, asking where I was from and telling me about where they’d come from and how this space was meant to be a safe space for every species etc.. literally during this conversation a character ran in terrified and asking to be hidden, followed quickly by the police people searching for her and trying to get her. During this we were quickly ushered through the next door and submerged back into muggy reality!

After finishing up at the Amazon Prime Video Experience Derek and I rushed over to the abandoned Horton Plaza to check out the FYE shop, and buy a couple more Stranger Things shirts (because I can’t stop won’t stop loving my fave show Stranger Things). And then popped over to grab a bite to eat and a couple cold beverages before the show floor opened for the evening.

Going into the preview night I knew my first stop would be the Mondo booth… what a didn’t know was that it would be my only stop!

I struggled to figure out exactly how to get into the convention centre, which I had kind of expected after hearing Derek’s stories every year about every employee giving a different answer to the same questions. However as it ended up I entered the centre around row 3000, and needed to rapidly get to the Mondo booth located in row 400. I speed walked as hard as I could without jogging, and still ended up arriving at a line that went all the way from the booth in row 400, and ended near row 900. And this booth only ‘ended’ because it had been capped and there was a courageous Mondo-man, in a bad ass pink jacket, fending people away from the end of the line.

Everyone was being instructed to go away and check back in an 30 minutes, then in an hour, then eventually told that there was no way the Mondo line up would be opening again this night. You’d think that would mean the end of the line and everyone walks away. Turns out that is not how this business works. Right off the bat I decided to hover around the end of the line, figuring that was easier than coming back in 30 Minutes with no clue what was happening. I noticed a few other people milling about so I approached a couple dudes to find out if they were also waiting for the Mondo line. Turned out they were, and we quickly became best line buddies! Well I guess technically we weren’t in the line, but you know what I mean! Turns out Stephen does this on the regular in order to grab those sweet SDCC exclusives, so I was reassured that I was taking the right approach. So were apparently a billion other people.

Flash forward a couple hours later to a hover-hoard of probably a hundred people, and a multitude of bewildered security guards trying (unsuccessfully) to get everyone to scatter away from the Mondo line instead of clogging the congested aisle. The line had dwindled to almost nothing and our glorious Pink Jacket Prophet gathered us around him to share the secret that we would in fact have a shot at getting into the Mondo line! Our hovering paid off when PJP was searching through the crowd for the hardcore hoverers and picked Stephen (and by extension me, due to our newly forged best bud status). So long story short by 8:30 I was standing in front of the Mondo booth, sharing my nervous excitement with the excited for me Mondo employee, as I tried desperately to make sure I didn’t forget which very important things I had just waited almost 3 hours for! I ended up being to get the limited edition (just 125) Batman poster that I had my heart set on, and I felt like I friggin earned it!

After Mondo I awkwardly waddled over to our booth, trying desperately to dodge the sea of people, and managed to get that sweet sweet poster tucked away in the safety of a poster tube! I also found a Derek there, and we took the opportunity to use the last few minutes of opening night to go grab some cricket bars, in celebration of the new Snowpiercer show! Also fun fact, somehow crickets are related to shellfish so if you are allergic to shellfish don’t be trying to get in on that! (Isn’t evolution freaking crazy!?)

When the show floor closed we scooped Matt and Jon and hurried, as fast as our sore tired feet could take us, over to Lolita’s for some tacos!

Everyone had basically collapsed by the time dinner was done and it was all we could do to drag our sorry asses outta there and back to the hotel room. The amount of tired and sore happening in my body definitely made the thought of scootering waaay less scary, and we managed to scoot about 2/3 of the way home!

Now it’s midnight, I’m exhausted, and I’m gonna stop talking. Thursday is gonna be my busiest day and I am tired just thinking about it… but I’m also so stoked about all the neat stuff I’m gonna see and do! Talk to you soon!

SDCC 2018: Derek’s Long-Winded SDCC Recap – Pre Convention And Preview Night

by Derek KraneveldtJuly 19, 2018

…And we’re back.

How has it been a year already since SDCC 2017? It’s absolutely flown by – and speaking of flying, I’m currently sitting at gate E90 at the Vancouver International Airport awaiting my slightly delayed 6AM flight to Los Angeles.

I’m super excited.

Last year I had only been at my current vocation for half a year or so, and as such I hadn’t actually earned enough vacation time to take as long a trip to California as I typically do. If you read last year’s recaps (check them out here if you haven’t and if you want to read a lot of words) you may remember that I arrived at the San Diego airport just before midnight on the Tuesday night, and had to leave the convention on the Sunday morning, long before it was over. Everything happened at what felt like the speed of light, and before I knew it I was taking a Lyft back to the airport.

I had a great time last year, but I’m super happy to be getting a couple of convention-less days with some of my Geekscape family this time around.

Last year I wrote a lot. Before finally turning in each night I published a huge recap of everything that I did, saw, ate, drank, thought, and avoided every day of my visit. I wasn’t sure if I’d do something similar this year, as those pieces were a lot of work, and I didn’t know how interesting they actually were.

In retrospect, I think that people were actually into them. I received a bunch of feedback from friends, family, and people I didn’t know telling me just how much they enjoyed reading each piece, and the interesting perspective that the journals gave to a non-attendee (or even the different perspective that they gave to a standard attendee). I’ve actually had more people come up and talk to me about these pieces than any interview, video, or review that I’ve posted over my near seven years with Geekscape.

A few days ago, in preparation for this trip and to help to try to figure out just what the hell I wanted to put together this year, I read through all of last year’s journals. I really enjoyed reading back on last year’s experiences (and imagine I will be especially grateful that I wrote them when I try to look back even a few years from now), and reading back on the convention made me realize a few important things:

A). Grammar disappears and writing becomes nonsensical when you’re trying to finish a piece at 1AM.
B). Even just a year later, an event like SDCC is such a sensory overload that you pretty much forget everything. I’m super happy that I wrote out my experience – in reading back I had more than a few “oh, right” moments that made me smile and reminisce. I appreciated seeing everything put together in a sort of timeline, rather than just a mass jumble of photos.
C). Remembering the way that I felt last year, I feel like I’m mentally in a better place today than I was then. That’s not to say that I’m in a great (or even good) place today, but I feel at least slightly better than I did then. Phew.
D). I am stagnant. I mean, I was stagnant this time last year, but at this point if I were water, I think I’d be water that has been standing so long that it basically kills you if you go near it. Last year, I wrote of goals and ways that I thought I could better myself, or things that I’d wanted to try based on my experience in San Diego, and… I’ve done none of it. I didn’t start meditating, I didn’t lose weight, I didn’t get a cool new job. Nothing. Reading back made me feel full of shit and, and it really opened my eyes (they really should have been open already) – I need to stop talking about being better, and simply start being better.

In saying that, I want to set a public goal (making it public will make it happen, that’s how this works, right?). I’m going to lose 70 pounds by next SDCC.

But first I’m going to land in California, eat In N’ Out, Panda Express, alternate varieties of Doritos Locos Tacos (we only have the standard in Canada), and simply burn the candle at both ends for ten days or so (a candle burned at both ends burns twice as bright, right?).

Matt and I have been waiting for Panda Express for some time now.

So, here we go again. Based on feedback, reflection, and… a lack of creativity (?), just like last year I’ll be posting a daily recap/journal of my experience at San Diego Comic-Con. The piece you’re reading now will be a recap of my time in California before heading to San Diego, but after this you can expect a daily write up full of convention goodness. I’m hoping to keep the pieces a little shorter and a lot more concise than they were last year, but based on the current word count of this very first recap, I’m not promising anything.

I really don’t get the hot towel benefit that first class gets on flights. It’s not even 7AM and it’s like 25 degrees (Celcius) outside. It’s warm in this cabin, so please put a hot towel on my face that’ll definitely help. I have no idea why this happens. But then again I’ve never been a first-class citizen, so maybe I just don’t have the brain capacity to understand.

Continuing the trend (second year in a row now) of heading down to California with some sort of ailment, I was an absolute idiot and didn’t apply an appropriate amount of sunscreen (or remember to re-apply it) when two days ago I spent several hours in the sun watching the Vans Park Series (skateboarding competition) preliminaries at Hastings Skatepark in Vancouver (man, do I want to start skating again each time I see events like this). My forehead is red (and hurts), my knees hurt (and hurt really badly when I towelled them off this morning), and my arms are pretty red as well. That said, I would take this any day (or every day) over last year’s infected tooth debacle. I’m getting chills just thinking about that one. I even felt a tiny bit of pain in my mouth as I woke up this morning, which reminds me that I’m due for another cleaning and checkup when I get back to Vancouver.

Flight wise, I lucked out (aside from that slight delay) and had nobody beside me on my YVR to LAX journey. Security was painless to get through (you pretty much just tell the TSA agent that you’re going to a comic book convention, they look at you in disgust (fuckin’ nerd), and let you through without another question. Instead of napping, I used my time in the air to start writing this recap, read a few comics (x, x, and x) , watched a little Netflix (x), and before I knew it the plane was landing. After stuffing my carry-on to the verge of explosion last year (even after leaving a few unneeded items with others in San Diego), I decided it best to check a larger bag this year, so I waited around for that before reuniting with Jonathan.

What was the first thing we did? Chiller Club reunion, obviously.

Following Chiller Club, we dropped our things off at Jonathan’s, caught up a bit, and drove to a nearby AC-equipped bougie as shit Starbucks to drink more coffee and get a little bit of work done.

Then it was ‘wrasslin time. WWE’s Extreme Rules PPV started at 4PM, so Matt Kelly found his way back to Jonathan’s place and we sat in the heat for hours to watch the whole thing. Old friend Zack Haddad joined, and aside from a few shitty, why-did-this-happen matches, and the whole thing not being that extreme aside from its title, the PPV overall was an enjoyable one (also I hope Kevin Owens is okay). Also, I think that time moves more slowly in heat like this as, while it wasn’t that long, Extreme Rules felt like it took absolutely forever.

Before turning in for the night, it was time for some food. At this point in my journey, I hadn’t had any In-N-Out yet, so we drove to a nearby location and quickly realized that it just wasn’t going to happen. The drive-thru line was nearly a block long, and the small parking lot was completely full.

Instead, we ended up at some “world famous” place that I’d never heard of until this trip: Tommy’s World Famous Hamburgers. It was a burger place (naturally) that has a love for chilli, which it puts on almost everything, I had a burger with chilli on it (for the first time ever) and some chilli cheese fries (also for the first time ever), and it was fucking delicious. Why have I never thought to put chilli on shit before? Seriously.

That was it for the night! We turned in pretty quickly so we could get an early start on Monday morning.

Monday

I don’t know if its the sunburn or what, but while the temperature in Los Angeles right now is similar to that of Vancouver, it feels fucking hot, and as such the cold shower that I had this morning felt like it might just be the best part of this entire trip (not really).

Matt and I went for breakfast at Cafe 101, which is apparently super famous and has been in a ton of movies. The locale definitely looked familiar, but I couldn’t figure out just where I’d seen it before. The conversation was good, the bacon was super tasty, and the coffee woke me the hell up. Thank goodness.

A ton of exclusives news has been dropping this morning. I always get really excited for what Mondo has to show off at their booth because each and every piece that they do is incredibly beautiful, and being able to pick pieces up at the convention saves me a ton of money on shipping and duty. Prior to my flight to Los Angeles, the only revealed piece that I was really hankering for was the Daniel Danger piece for The Shape Of Water. I loved the film, and have the convention exclusive Daniel Danger Crimson Peak piece from a couple of years back, and I think they would look gorgeous beside each other.

Today, the company revealed some incredible art for Drive, Jurassic Park, and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. I’m going to lose any self control I thought that I had…

Yep. I’m screwed.

After breakfast we went back to Jon’s for a bit before Matt took off to meet up with some old friends. I had some emails to respond to, and Jon was still working on the Geekscape / Dweeb Darlings press release to announce our upcoming SDCC ConQuest Scavenger hunt. We did some running around (I even met a new canine friend at Lodger) before finally sending out the release (after learning that our standard Geekscape email accounts could not be used to send mass emails, of course).

Things were pretty relaxed here for the rest of the day. We went to a giant theatre to see the BIGGEST BLOCKBUSTER OF THE SUMMER, Dwayne Johnson’s Skyscraper. The first thing that I noticed is that the actual auditorium for this screening was tiny compared to what I’m used to in Vancouver – maybe 60 or so seats. Also, Movie Pass is fucking insane, and people who complain about it are just freaking wrong. Give me that shit at whatever price you want and I will pay it happily.

The movie itself was fucking awesome. It was dumb as hell, with some fantastic action, some terrible villains, tons of quotable one-liners, and an amputee The Rock who is somehow still more bad-ass than anyone with all of their limbs. It was a fabulous time, and I’m super glad that we’d decided to see something like that instead of something more serious. It was really a perfect way to kick-off what’s about to be an insane and exhausting week.

Following the movie, we walked over to a nearby In-N-Out burger so that I could finally fill myself with that sweet, fattening, never-frozen never-microwaved burger goodness. Before we ordered, Matt said “Ah man, you better go first. I don’t know what I want,” and I replied by noting “What the hell are you talking about, they have like three options!?” Matt went first, and it wasn’t that hard.

We returned to Jonathan’s, and spent the rest of the night recording a pre-SDCC episode of Geekscape that largely turned into a roast of Matt Kelly and a chat about just how awesome Skyscraper was. You can listen to the episode below, but be warned that there are some spoilers on the ROCK-solid plot of the film.

Following the recording, we crashed hard and turned in just before midnight…

Tuesday

Matt and I left Jon’s apartment at 8am as Matt had to return his rental car before we hopped on an AMTRAK to San Diego. The drop-off was right at the station, which was nice (although it ended up being confusing as hell and we had to drive around the station several times before we found an employee that could actually give us directions to a completely un-signed area underground where the car could actually be returned), and Matt handed his keys to some dude without a uniform who just said “Yo you can give those keys to me.” I was pretty sure that this guy just stole the car, but Matt received a “Thank you for returning your rental” email a half-hour or so later.

We grabbed a quick Starbucks coffee and breakfast sandwich (thank Xenu for cheap food) before jumping on the train. Matt immediately started talking up everyone around us, and I was again envious of his crazy ability to find common ground with everyone. Within three minutes of sitting down he was telling people about the SDCC booth, the Geekscape Podcast Network, and had a business card from some local stand up comedian.

The ride itself was pretty chill and was my first time on a several-hour train ride that wasn’t bursting-at-the-seams crowded (which was just taking me to work, as well). It featured seats, wifi (which actually works pretty well, unlike the wifi on BC Ferries), air conditioning, and a table that I could put my iPad on so I could keep working. 10/10 would train again.

It wasn’t the prettiest view, but it was still a cool time.

From the San Diego station, we walked over to our hotel at the Hilton Bayfront (right beside the convention centre, aw yiss), checked in (where Matt Kelly got some weird story from a girl named Kelli that used to be Kelly), turned the air conditioning to the lowest that it could possibly go to, and then went to meet Jonathan and Heidi at ROCKIN’ FUCKING BAHA.

I had mango salsa, it was phenomenal. I also ordered a beer and didn’t realize that it would be massive (25oz), and instead of eating the tacos that I normally get a spent like $4 more and had a weird bucket that included lobster, steak, shrimp, chicken, and corn on the cob. Fucking delicious.

I can’t wait for more mango salsa.

We all made our way back to the hotel, and Jonathan quickly passed out for a super loud nap. By this time, Courtney had arrived at the airport, dropped her stuff off at her home for the week, and was waiting in the lobby of the Hilton Bayfront. I went down to the lobby instead of subjecting her to Jonathan’s snoring, and we caught up for a bit before deciding to grab a drink.

Courtney had a Maple Old Fashioned, and I grabbed some sort of Amber Ale that I can’t remember the name of (the waitress even upgraded me to a larger size for free because she couldn’t remember what I ordered). Of course, the very second that Courtney’s tiny drink and my Dwayne-Johnson-in-SKYSCRAPER sized beer arrived, Jonathan texted me to let me know that it was time to set up the booth.

We went into the Convention Centre (it’s pretty freaking cool getting early access to the show floor in order to see everything being built) and put the booth together before shooting a small El Chucho short to kick off the Seed and Spark Crowdfunding Campaign for the Stalking LeVar short film that is about to launch.

Following the booth build, we took things pretty easy for the rest of the night. Jonathan, Heidi, Courtney, Gui, Matt, and I went to Lolita’s Mexican Restaurant near PetCo Park for some food (I was still pretty full, so I just had a couple of small Taquitos and a bunch of water), and following that Matt, Courtney and I decided to go to a grocery store to grab some hotel room supplies before turning in for the night. I grabbed a case of 24 bottles of water (for like $2, instead of the $3.50 the hotel wanted for a single one), some coconut water for when I wake up each morning (to keep me hydrated, obviously), and a few granola bars to throw in my bag so that I eat those instead of spending like $40US on a pretzel.

The day felt so relaxed. The Gaslamp district was empty, we didn’t have to wait for what felt like hours to get food, and nearly all of the incredible-looking offsite events were still being built. Wednesday brings preview night, and press previews for a bunch of events that I’m beyond excited for (like LAIKA Live, which remains one of my most anticipated events of the entire week).

Wednesday

After fighting to fall asleep for what felt like hours (until I finally hopped out of bed to grab some earplugs), I eventually passed out and slept in until about 8am. When I woke up everyone else had already left the room aside from Matt, who had already showered and was watching this week’s RAW beside me.

I showered, had a quick chat with Mikaela, and Matt and I made our way to breakfast. We both had some eggs, bacon, and pancakes before walking over to the FYE Pop-Up at the Horton Plaza (look for photos from the shop right here). I found a rad GLOW shirt that I had every intention of buying, but there was only an L (which was too short) and an XXL (which was far too wide). I asked an employee if they had more in the back, and the guy said that everything they had was on the shelf. I said “So it’s only Wednesday and you have like four Glow shirts left?” and the guy kind of just shrugged and walked away. This was definitely a little disappointing, but the place was filled with cool stuff, and was packed with people to the point where it was hard to take photos of some of the offerings.

Side note – sorry about the IMGUR banners from here on out. Geekscape is having major issues uploading images at this time.

Before heading back to the hotel, we decided to walk a few more blocks to the Castle Rock installation that was still being set up at the Children’s Museum park. The area was pretty fenced off and was still mostly being built, but what we saw at this point was freaking awesome – they build a fucking house first of all, there was a car in the fountain, a creepy figure (Georgie?) and a memorial to Georgie (that was too fenced off to get a good photo of at this point). Amazing. We also saw a Stranger Things train station, but we couldn’t get too close at this point as a local news station had taken over the area.

Somehow I convinced Matt to get on one of these rental motorized scooters that are everywhere in San Diego at this point. I don’t think that these existed at last year’s convention, but it was pretty hard to walk 30 feet without seeing one. We used Lime, and it was so convenient and inexpensive. The scooters are $1 to unlock, and then $.15 per minute after that. You push off to start, and then the handlebars show have a ‘Go’ and ‘Stop’ switch to accelerate or brake. The scooters travel way faster than I expected them to, and they were a fun and fast way to get back to our hotel. I even managed a selfie while riding, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen Matt look so excited in my life.

After arriving back at the hotel, I wrote up my FYE piece before meeting up with Courtney. We chatted for awhile before heading back to the convention centre to pick up my badge (which took a total of like four seconds somehow), and then decided that it was time for lunch at… Rockin’ Baha of course! At this point, I wondered just how many times we would hit up the same restaurant before the week was over.

Next up was the first official event of the week, FutureTechLive! This event is open through Sunday, and is located on the second floor of the Omni Hotel. Here, there were a bunch of VR experiences to try, a neat Overwatch photo op (I definitely lost my balance on this one, as the platform we stood on spun around) that netted you an exclusive Overwatch pin once you completed it, and some Bitcoin and other coin vendors. We played a game called Star Wars Jedi Challenge which was a stand-alone headset, lightsaber, and tracking ball thing, where you fight different Star Wars villains with your lightsaber. It was kind of fun, but felt pretty janky, and the field of view on the headset (which was powered by your phone) was quite poor – you would turn your head naturally in order to see where Darth Maul (or whatever villain you were fighting) was, and all of a sudden everything would go blank. It’s also $200 which feels like a lot for what it is. It felt a little bit like Wii launch title Red Steel, but that game is like ten years old and the Wii did way more for your money. We also played a pretty cool four-player cooperative title that was demonstrating a technology called HoloGate. The game we played was a simple first-person shooter that has the four players shooting easy drones and robots, followed by some larger robots and dragons and stuff. The round lasted about five minutes, and while it was simple I probably had a smile on my face the whole time. The setup was pretty neat, and it was really cool having a system to hold the VR wiring (and to keep it safe) while you moved around in the virtual space. We checked out a couple of other things before it was time for me to head to the Hilton Gaslamp for a preview of the DC Universe offsite event.

There is a lot of incredible stuff at San Diego Comic-Con. The offsite events get more and more elaborate every year, and up to today the coolest activation ever remained the Godzilla Encounter from 2013 (read my coverage of that event right here). It’s freaking Preview Night 2018, and tonight I attended not one, but two events that may have surpassed it.

The first was the aforementioned DC Universe offsite. It’s here to represent the aptly titled DC Universe app and subscription service, which should launch in beta in the next few weeks, and in full this Fall. The service is kind of like Marvel’s long running Marvel Unlimited service for digital comics, except that DC Universe includes not only comics, but DC films, television series, animated features, and even some original content like the upcoming live-action Titans series (the costumes from which were on display at the exhibit) and way way more. DC Legend Jim Lee said that the event itself was meant to act as a sort of physical representation of the DC Universe app, and the location was filled with concept art, real props from the Batman movies (like a giant rubber duck, Mr. Freeze’ freeze ray, and the freakin Batmissile), stations where you could try the app out, food, and way more. Inside the building you could find things like “Harley Quinn’s Chaos Room”, in which you suited up in protective gear, donned a baseball bat, and smashed things for 45 seconds, and there was even a small Swamp Thing activation in which an actor took you through the “swamp” while things jumped out at you. You’ll tap into each experience using an RFID bracelet, and a link will be texted to you so you can see photos, videos, and more of you in each piece of the experience. Pretty cool, and pretty seamless.

The DC Universe offsite is open through Sunday, and is an amazing time. You can look for my full write-up on the event on the site sometime tomorrow, but for now you’ll have to settle for just a few photos that are posted above.

The last stop of the evening was an invitational preview to the LAIKA Live offsite that I first wrote about a few days ago. This event was literally heaven. Life-sized versions of Coraline, the Other Mother, Kubo, Sparky, and Norman wandered around the event taking photos with patrons as they chatted and consumed the wonderful food and drink provided. The food really amazed the hell out of me, as it was all themed after different LAIKA properties, and the cupcakes were even decorated with artwork of the distinct hair of numerous LAIKA characters. This, by the way, was only the entrance of the experience. Once inside, you could stare in absolute amazement at actual sets from Coraline and The Boxtrolls, sit in a life-sized version of the Other Mother’s living room, chat with actual LAIKA animators (where I learned that the now rarely used art of stop motion is still evolving, and in the upcoming LAIKA feature Missing Link, they’ve actually added the ability for the puppets to breathe. The whole thing sounds incredible.

Teri Hatcher, the Other Mother herself even showed up in order to help kick off the event and to help celebrate Coraline‘s tenth anniversary. She even saw a little girl out on the street selling giant suckers for a charity called Child Hunger Sucks, brought the girl inside, and let her tell everyone about what the organization does. Pretty freaking amazing. LAIKA Live is in the old Dick’s Last Resort locale, and is also open through Sunday at 6PM. The offsite even has a ton of amazing merchandise for sale (I need more money), and will even have the store open separately so that you don’t have to wait in line for hours and hours if you just want to buy things. That said, LAIKA Live is worth waiting hours and hours for.

Just like with DC Universe, you can look for more from LAIKA Live right here on Geekscape tomorrow!

Now, however, it’s midnight and I need to crash! Tomorrow kicks off with the Mattel / WWE Panel to mark the first full day of SDCC 2018!

Thanks for reading!

An SDCC Veteran Tells You What You Really Need To Know At Comic-Con!

by Shane O'HareJuly 11, 2012

This is the time of year. San Diego Comic Con is about to begin. This will be my 9th SDCC, and over the years I have developed a keen sense of how to have a crazy fun and pain free adventure into the Geek Mecca. Come with me as I give you some Tips & Tricks from a SDCC veteran. If this is your first year, make sure to check out the guide written up by our own Scott Alminiana! It is perfect for the guy who just doesn’t know what kind of adventure Comic Con is.

First off, the look. Yeah, comic con is the pinnacle of bad fashion and geek T-Shirts. Yeah, it’s okay to wear your 10 year old Joker shirt, but please look tidy. The old, virgin me (literally and figuratively)used to wear the Cargo shorts, Hookups Shirt and Golfing hat. FUCK I thought I looked so fly, but I didn’t. I looked like the comic shop owner from The Simpsons. If you look like an adult, you will be treated like an adult.

Next politeness. Be overly nice. The people working booths are going to be tired and worn thin, so you don’t wanna be THAT guy. Don’t ask a cosplayer to see her tits, even if you had cool Two-Toned hair like I did.

Wanna know what one of the most funnest panels that you don’t think would be fun for the everyday geek? Burn Notice. Or really any of the USA networks panels for that matter. Burn Notice is just Bruce Campbell being Bruce, having fun with the audience and telling funny stories. One year I went to it and he was giving out $20 bills to fans that asked flattering questions. Best part? Everyone in the audience gets a ticket, you go to a secret room hand them the ticket BOOM! Free shirt!

So with most of the common sense out of the way, lets get into the nitty gritty. Preview. Fucking. Night. If you are lucky enough to get into the most exclusive night then you are a lucky goose. First off, DO NOT BRING ANYTHING! The only thing open Preview Night is the convention floor, so it will be packed. The entirety of the attendees will all be sharing the same room together. There wont be a couple thousand in Hall H. There wont be the hundreds hanging out in Ballroom 20. They will all be there with you, cluttering up the main floor. If you have a bag or anything extra to carry, you are going to be bumped, torn and jostled more than an unwanted baby. Do not plan on buying anything either. Yeah, the Death Star collectors set from last year was fucking rad, but I saw a dude literally start crying from having to carry it around the floor for a few hours. Use preview night to check out some of the great booths, like GEEKSCAPE #3919 and pick out some stuff you wanna buy. Do your shopping Thursday or Sunday.

Now we all know the best part of the Con after hours is the fucking parties. There are a shit ton going on all around San Diego. Downtown has a bunch of bars and clubs that cater exclusive events such as the Suicide Girls from years past, after they were banned from SDCC. But you asked “Shane! I am not cool enough to get into some of the exclusive events, an I spent the most of my bribe money on Hasbro Exclusives (Like I am going to). WHAT PARTIES CAN I GET INTO?”. The easiest and cheapest party if you wanna see some cool people, isn’t even a party at all. It is the downstairs lobby bar for the Hyatt just a few blocks away from the convention center. Just wander in and hang out with the important people. This is the place where the famous tussle happened. This is also where I drunkenly yelled at whom I thought to be a random blonde, ended up being Tricia Helfer from BSG. I think I may have called her a stuck up bitch. I can’t remember much from that night.

Now we get to the most important part of the convention. Trying to hookup with hot chicks. Now, for most of you it is going to be a hard task. Most girls hot girls will have their shields up from all the picture requests and just want to head home with good old Mr. Hitachi Magicwand. The dorky nerdy girls will be oblivious to your come ons and more focused on the sweet swag or the KAWAII anime hats. So lets say you strike out preview night. Then Thursday. Then Friday. Saturday morning comes and you are getting desperate. You start browsing Craigslist while in line for signings. You’re getting drastic. Well NEVER FEAR SHANE IS HERE! Most people are aware of the grandiose masquerade. Ballroom 20 turns into cosplay heaven. You will most likely be geared to wandering into the giant ballroom to watch the fun. DO NOT DO THIS! This is a mistake. Instead get into the line dedicated for the ballroom overflow. This will lead you into the Sails Pavilion. Where SDCC has provided you a wonderful room for festivities. They put up a big ass projector and broadcast the costume contest via CCTV for you to see. There are tables, chairs and most importantly BOOZE! The vodka cranberrys they make here are cheap, get you drunk (possibly crunk) and ready for fun. Keep feeding yourself booze until the contest is over. Then you will see the Sails Pavilion turn from modest theater to FANTASTIC NIGHT CLUB! A DJ emerges from the back, the lights go down and the music goes up. What was before a group of conservative and quiet nerds is now a raving mosh pit of drunk party goers. People in costume jumping, dancing and twirling glowsticks is really a sight to be seen. Speaking as an electro DJ, the music is usually pretty good. The best part though is the fruit. The low hanging fruit. AKA the girls who couldn’t get into the Stan Lee party and are bummed out are now drunk and in their slutty Anime Nurse costumes looking for fun. Buy them a Vodka Cranberry, make it a double, and apply dance moves. No one cares how bad you are at it, the only light will be glowsticks and strobes. If you do not care about what kind of costume she is wearing, this is your place to pick up some ladies. This goes to about 1 AM!

PROTIP: Behind the curtains just beyond the DJ booth are more tables. Perfect for an anonymous encounter with a cosplaying lady.

Afterwards if you are still standing, you can find a golf cart and drive it a few blocks to the Hyatt and randomly join up with a BSG tweetup.

So that’s that! Come, have fun, be flexible with your schedule and life will be glorious this weekend. HEY! If you are clever enough with tools, you could make a GoPro mount for your shoes! Perfect for those booth babe photo ops!