It has been over a week since my second year at San Diego Comic-Con came to an end and it has taken that long to fully wash myself of the experience. When you’re there, it feels like its own little world and you’re just excited that you were invited behind the pearly gates. You’re immersed in this sea of pop culture nirvana for five days and the scope of the event, while seemingly daunting, is equally intoxicating. You get to be the first to see things that the general public can’t see yet and you get to feel the wave of energy from all involved with the Comic-Con experience. From studios and celebrities at panels to vendors trying to get their independent work seen, to the big wigs at Marvel & DC, everyone is vying for their moment to be noticed.
This was my second year attending the convention for Reel Talk and before I departed from Los Angeles to San Diego, I already felt more confident about my experience. Last year I went in a bit blind and while I had a schedule to follow, I’d be lying to you if I told you I felt like I knew what I was doing. Going last year felt like one giant surprise because when I applied for my press badge to attend, I didn’t think I was going to get approved for one. I had been running my Instagram page, @g_reelz, which focuses on social media influencing for film and TV, but that didn’t qualify me to attend the convention. My tenure with Reel Talk hadn’t really been all that long before talk of San Diego Comic-Con started to become a reality. I submitted four articles for consideration and from there the waiting game began.
I remember the date that emails were supposed to go out for press badge notification had approached and I still hadn’t heard anything. In the fine print on their site, it was stated that you could notify them at that date if you hadn’t been approved or denied for the badge. At that point, I wasn’t approved or denied, so radio silence felt good because it implied there was still a chance. I sent the email to them and let them know when I submitted my credentials, clicked send, and the waiting game began once again.
Thankfully, the wait didn’t last that long. About 3 hours later I received the confirmation email that had been approved for a press badge and it would allow me access for all four days of the convention, plus preview night. That email began my Comic-Con journey last year and it led me to the point of being automatically approved for year two.
The key difference between year one and year two was the presence of Hall H. For those of you that don’t know, Hall H is the holy mecca of Comic-Con. It’s the largest hall at the convention center and it’s typically where all the major panels go. Last year, Marvel had a large presence in the room along with other buzzworthy shows such as Stranger Things, Game of Thrones, and Westworld. Hall H, I learned last year, is such a big deal for fans that many will show up on preview night (Wednesday) to begin camping out for the biggest day of Hall H (Saturday). That’s the ultimate fan devotion and something I was impressed by but also couldn’t quite understand why’d you pay for a 4-day event to camp out for most of it. Hall H was so heavy last year that it was impossible for me to get into the room without sacrificing reporting other aspects of the convention. Sure I could get into Hall H on Thursday when Kingsman: The Golden Circle was the hot ticket, followed by Teen Wolf and the Netflix presentation featuring Will Smith’s Bright, but Friday and Saturday would require me giving up my first born. People do make line deals for groups to hold places in line so that they can go enjoy some of the Con and are able to return to the line with their place still intact but I wasn’t on that level and hadn’t figured out how to navigate that scenario.
Before I get into this year’s Hall H, I should take you to where Comic-Con began this year. Weeks before I left for the convention, I made connections on a Comic-Con Reddit page that helped press navigate various industry parties that would be taking place over the 5 days of Comic-Con. Last year, I went to one party, and that’s because I didn’t know my press credentials could get me into them. This year, I was sent many of the necessary RSVP emails to ensure I would get into most of them. These email contacts are already saved in my address book for next year and I intend to get an even earlier jump on these events so that I can attend even more. The Reddit page would prove to be one of the best Comic-Con decisions I would make. At first, it felt weird connecting with strangers but soon you realize you’re all like-minded and trying to do the same thing: navigate the overwhelming madness that is San Diego Comic-Con.
When I arrived for preview night on Wednesday, I checked into my hotel at The Best Western Palms, which proved to be a great find by my friend Morgan Brown, who also attended the convention with me. While she came down a day after preview night, she proved to be a great asset when it came to keeping me organized. The hotel was her first significant accomplishment. It was about 10 minutes from the convention center, making it a very quick and easy Uber ride. It was also in a beautiful location by the marina so you had an amazing view of the ocean and all the boats that were docked. It felt a bit like home in Hermosa Beach.
After getting dressed for the night and leaving the hotel, I made my way to the center. Preview night isn’t entirely necessary, which is something I learned last year, but it was a good way to get a lay of the land. You get to walk the floor and check out all the vendors before the crazy crowds begin the next day and it’s the ideal day to buy any Comic-Con exclusive merchandise you may be looking for. A lot of the hot items are sold out by the Friday so the preview night usually ensures you will get what you want.
After walking the floor a bit, it was time for me to attend my first event: The Rotten Tomatoes Press Mixer. This was an event I sought out at the last minute. It felt like a good opportunity to see what they’re all about. I was also able to hand out fresh business cards from the website and was eager to give them out anywhere I could.
The Press Mixer was a fun experience albeit a bit pretentious at times. I’m a film buff and I love meeting other film buffs and I know I’m a movie critic as well but I don’t like the stigma that comes along with that. Casual moviegoers tend to think that critics are a bit highbrow and think everything they love is the holy grail while everything you like is subpar. I tend to think I have casual moviegoer tendencies with movie critic expertise so I’m able to identify with both sides. The mixer was a mixed bag of people like myself and those who thought they knew everything about film. My job that night wasn’t to judge anyone. It was to get our name out there, so that’s what I did. I passed out our cards, showed them the website and highlighted that I was there representing a team. Showing the site off to some of them, made the last hour a more enjoyable experience. Maybe it was the good food and open bar but the group I was with became looser and much more friendly, which allowed the mixer to end on a pretty positive note.
After the event, I connected with a group of people who were in our official Reddit group chat. We all agreed that we would meet at the Omni Hotel, conveniently across the street from the press mixer, at one of the guy’s rooms. Again, this might feel strange, but I learned last year that meeting people at these things makes it a much more fulfilling experience and I wanted to continue that this year.
Staying at the Omni, was Louis Coleman, a guy who pretty much led the Reddit group chat. He immediately has an engaging personality and is inviting. Already in the room by the time I get there is Kenny, another member from the group chat, who also displayed a high level of likability. Louis and Kenny are from Florida but oddly enough, Louis had just accepted a position at Raytheon in Los Angeles, which led to a lot of conversations about connecting in LA if we didn’t completely annoy each other in San Diego. We all have drinks in the room and decide to hit the town because the night was relatively still young.
The convention center is located across the way from the Gaslamp District, which is the heart of nightlife in that area of San Diego. As we were walking the streets we met up with more people from the group and from there we just had a great time over the drinks. We all got to know each other and some of them were vets of the convention. I met people who were coming into this for their tenth year in a row while others were Comic-Con virgins like I was last year. It was a solid mix of personalities and it made my first night of the event one to remember.
The official start of the convention was on Thursday and despite a relatively late night the night before, I was up at 6:00 a.m. to begin my day and ensure that I got into the Hall H panel for The Predator, which began at 10:30 a.m. I already wrote about my experience with that panel, so I will focus on the people I met while in line to get into the hall since they would be another group that would shape my Comic-Con experience.
In line for Thursday’s Hall H were Jesse and his friends, Jenny and Jillian. To say we hit it off immediately would be an understatement. I was in the line for about five minutes before we started chatting and by the ten-minute mark, we were already exchanging numbers. They were a bit different from the group I was with the night before because they were more industry focused. Jesse, also from Florida, worked for a company that repped DJ Mark Ronson and Ronson was there to DJ the FOX Fandom Party that night that was being sponsored by their X-Men inspired show, The Gifted. Jesse immediately invited me to that party when I told him I had a friend, who was also coming in later that day, he threw her on the guest list with no hesitation. This meeting in line led to us spending the duration of the convention together. We became fast friends and I couldn’t imagine the experience without them.
After we watched The Predator panel together, we spent the day just walking the floor and checking out the different booths. The Marvel and DC booths were always packed but we all picked up some cool stuff to take home. Walking the floor on the first day is a tad overwhelming. It’s way more crowded compared to the preview night and you have to learn how to expertly swerve through a crowd. I think I’ve become a professional at it though at this point. After walking the convention floor from one end to the other, I had to leave my new friends to get Morgan situated in the hotel but that wasn’t before Jesse got us an invite for another party hosted by Lionsgate. Jesse essentially had mapped out our Thursday night and I was just happy to be along for the ride.
We met Jesse and his friends at the Hotel del Coronado (the same from 1959’s Some Like It Hot), which looks like a fancy castle that sits along the water. It’s a beautiful spot and was only about 5 minutes from us. After having a few drinks at the bar, we got an uber to our first party which was being thrown by Lionsgate. The party was a great time and it was Power Rangers themed because they are launching a new show for the franchise. The cocktails were all inspired by the show and even though that’s all you could get, they were actually quite tasty. There were photo ops set up with people dressed in the old school Power Rangers costumes and of course, we took many pictures. The big surprise was during one of those photo ops, an actual Power Ranger actually showed up. Jason David Frank, who played Tommy the Green Ranger, popped into our photo op and I was lucky enough to get a few pictures with him. He was as nice as they come and it was cool to see how much he still loves the brand.
Our time at the Lionsgate party was pretty limited, maybe about 90 minutes, and that’s because we had to hurry to the FOX Fandom Party. The party was held at a hotel on their roof and as we approached it we could see all the hoopla from below. The party had a pretty good setup and if you weren’t already watching The Gifted, you were surely going to do it now because of all their promotional images were spread throughout the event. Mark Ronson was on the stage serving as DJ and the energy from the party was palpable. This was another open bar event and everyone there was extremely nice. While I was at the bar, I even ran into a buddy from Hermosa Beach, who was there as a liquor representative for the event (never too far from home I guess). The Fandom party wrapped up around 2:00 a.m. and by that time, I was ready to end Thursday at Comic-Con and get ready for another early day!
On Friday, I had another early day ahead of me. The Hall H schedule on Friday was a major get for the website because the panels included Glass, Halloween, Bumblebee and Venom. I had to wake up early to ensure that I would get into the hall. My new friend Jesse was already up and at the convention center at 7:00 a.m. and had been texting me to get down there so it was cool to have someone that was ready to go with me.
The first thing we did when we got down there was scope out the Hall H line situation and it became clear that, without Marvel in attendance, it was going to be much easier to get in for what we wanted to see so that gave us some time on Friday to do other things. We decided to take advantage of the off-site installations, beginning with the Jack Ryan Experience.
The Jack Ryan Experience was an installation set up by Amazon for their upcoming series, Jack Ryan, starring John Krasinski. It was set up to be like you were an agent in the field once you entered the official area but to get into that area you had to bypass a really long line. It had a five-hour wait but Jesse and I decided we should take advantage of our press badges. We walk up to the person in charge and told them who we work for and that we would love to do a media walkthrough so we could promote it on our respective platforms. The press pass worked its magic because were immediately let in and given a ton of Jack Ryan swag, including a free Amazon Fire Stick and other accessories. The installation looked like Amazon poured a lot of money into because everything about it was legit. We did their escape room and it was a really fun experience. We went in with a random group and had to go through a series of rooms to prevent a nuclear attack. We all had a great time doing it and I learned I’m not good at cutting wires because it cost us about 45 seconds and I’m sure lives were lost.
After the Jack Ryan Experience, we figured we should try our luck at another off-site installation. Across the way, Hulu had an installation set up for their Stephen King series, Castle Rock. We approached that installation the same way we did the previous one. The Castle Rock Experience was essentially a walkthrough of a haunted house and it was pretty well done. The girl behind me nearly lost her soul as we walked through a hall of mannequins and my claustrophobia kicked in during one section of the room that had you to walk through a hall while the walls closed in. Thankfully that was the last room and before I knew it, I was stepping back out into sunny San Diego.
By the time we were done with the off-site stuff, it was time to get ready for a day in Hall H. Morgan was up and ready in time to join us in a very short line to get in and before we knew it, we were in. I was a tad concerned about Morgan because I didn’t know if she was ready to spend 3 hours in one room but she really enjoyed. She’s an assistant to a director on the CBS series Mom so she’s used to the behind the scenes stuff and she genuinely enjoyed all the info she learned during the panels. She came out of it loving the Halloween panel and she said she found a newfound respect and love for Jamie Lee Curtis.
After the panels were over, our two groups separated for a bit. Jesse and his crew wanted a chill night after the long night at the Fandom Party so Morgan and I had a night to figure out on our own. I had us RSVP’d for the SYFY Fan Party and Morgan was down to go to that. I then decided to text my new friends that I met on Preview Night and it turns out they were also attending. We met at their hotel and pre-gamed a bit and we had an even bigger crew than we had on Wednesday when I first met them. They were all down to earth and extremely personable. Made me wish that everyone in Los Angeles acted this way.
Soon enough we made our way to the SYFY Fan Party and as soon as we walked in, we are all stoked to learn that it’s 90’s themed. There was a 90’s cover band, Saved by the 90s, who is actually local to Hermosa Beach so once again, you’re never too far from home. We had a blast singing along to such covers as “Don’t Speak”, “No Scrubs”, “What’s My Age Again?”, “My Heart Will Go On” and many others. The band then began covering “I Want It That Way” by the Backstreet Boys and color me surprised when they called up a member from the group, A.J. McLean, to help them finish out the song. To say the crowd went crazy for this moment would be a vast understatement.
After the band was done playing, a DJ came on to finish out the night and we all had a blast taking turns busting out our best moves in a dance circle. Everyone was just there to enjoy the experience and it was such a fun way to end the night. We wrapped everything up by taking a group photo in the photo booth and we got a cool motion photo that ended up being my favorite picture from the whole weekend.
Saturday ended up being another full day of walking the convention floor since Morgan hadn’t had the opportunity to do so since she arrived. She needed to buy some items for her brother and I also needed to get some things for a buddy who gave me cash to pick up anything cool I saw involving Daredevil or Wolverine. It was cool spending the day checking out all the vendors in detail. I picked up some shirts and some artwork and Morgan got some cool pins for her brother since he’s a collector and she got some very cool ones that complemented her style as well. After walking the floor for 5 hours – yes! 5 hours! – I developed a blister on the top of my foot and that’s when I knew it was time to go back to the room and chill. We needed the rest! Saturday ended up being the most chill of the day, which is needed for an event like this. I highly recommend planning a more relaxed day for yourself when you experience a con. Staying up late, waking up early, and walking miles in the convention center and outside spaces will take its toll if you don’t take some time to recoup and recharge.
I woke up Sunday to update the Reel Talk crew on our Reel Chronicles Podcast on my Comic-Con experience. You can listen here. It was cool to be able to carve out time to call in and update them in real time. By the time the podcast was over, it was time to finish out my weekend.
Sunday at Comic-Con is the most rushed day of the whole convention. It’s the last day so the floor closes up at 5:00 PM and once it’s all over, you’re really ushered out in a hurried fashion. Thankfully, we had our fill of walking the floor and the only thing left on the schedule were panels in Hall H for Riverdale and Legion. These two panels were the perfect way to wrap up the event. I’m a huge TV guy and, unfortunately, I didn’t do many TV panels in comparison to last year but these two shows were ones I went to the year before, so it was interesting to see how much they had both grown in a year. They were in much smaller rooms last year and now they were filling the 6,500 capacity in Hall H.
As the Legion panel wrapped, it was sinking in that this was all over again. The groups of friends I met this weekend had been texting me all day since our Sunday agendas didn’t match up we didn’t get to hang. We all agreed that this crew would get together again next year for the event and some of us even agreed that we would be making hotel arrangements to stay together next year. Those who planned on being in LA soon said, I’d be the first person they’d call and that they felt like we all made some lifelong friends that weekend. The end was bittersweet and felt like leaving some adult nerd camp. We’re all going back home to our lives, cherishing the experience but also counting down until we can do it again next summer. SDCC is an experience I’ve been lucky enough to do two years in a row and while last year was amazing, I felt like this year, I fully took on the experience and maximized it in the best way possible.
Until next year San Diego Comic-Con…
