FA+
Shop
SDCC 2018
7 years ago
OK, for all those who complain I don't post con reports any more, here's one for ComiCon.
The very fact I can still attend San Diego ComiCon International is due to a lucky convergence of things, any one of which going awry would keep me away. Firstly—I can still get a pro pass, which means I don’t have to shell out hundreds of dollars and have to count on luck to even get a badge. Second, I don’t currently have a 9-to-5 job, which means I can go Thursday and Friday, before the worse of the weekend crowd. And finally, I can stay with my sister-in-law, who has a place in San Diego. Even if I could get a hotel room (which is nearly impossible) the minimum cost is well over $200 a night, not counting parking.
Even getting to San Diego from northern LA County is a huge hassle. You’re going to run into shitty traffic unless you leave at midnight, which wasn’t an option for me since I had to get there at a decent hour. Since my sister-in-law was nice enough to let me stay there a couple nights, I wasn’t going to ask her to stay up to some unholy hour just so I could avoid traffic. So I sat in traffic for 4 hours getting there (four hours equals 3 CDs and an extended period of listening to the radio).
I knew better than to try for Preview Night (Weds. Night), where the crowds are nightmarish even for SDCC. So spent the night in San Diego and got to the convention center about 10 Thursday morning. Even parking is an expensive trial. The closest public parking to the convention center is for the Petco Park sports stadium, but since I was arriving after the con opened I had a feeling that lot was full. So I parked in the Amtrak station lot, which is far enough away that it doesn’t fill up as quickly. It’s also hideously expensive ($40 a day), but it’s close to a con center shuttle stop so I don’t have to take a cab or anything to get there. I suppose I could’ve trolled for a cheaper spot or even street parking, but with all the homeless prowling around, I didn’t want to risk my car getting broken into.
One convention exclusive I had my eye on was a Hallmark ornament set of the 2 nonhuman characters from the Star Trek animated series (Mress and that 3-limbed guy). Of course I arrived too late to get a line ticket (for most of the exclusives, you need to get a line ticket first. That is, you need to wait in line to get a ticket to wait in another line.) BUT... the people there said they’d open up for general sales at 12:30, assuming everything wasn’t sold out. So at 11:30 I came back to the booth and staked out an area, along with some other people, despite being told they were not allowing pre-lineups.
At 12:30 all hell broke loose, with the guy holding the ‘end of line’ sign shouting that people needed to BE TOUCHING THE WALL in order to count on being in line. That resulted in a crush of people shoving and pushing to get near the wall. Thank God I’m not crowd-phobic, but it was still pretty hairy. I ended up near the front with the guy who’d been waiting near me. Since everyone was limited to one of each item, we agreed to get each other a second purchase of what we wanted (he wanted a Star Wars item, so I bought a Star Wars for him, and he got the Star Trek for me.) Then they gave everyone a button so you could ID yourself to the cashier.
So after all that, yes I have an extra Mress ornament! I was figuring some furry fan would be willing to buy or trade for it (note me if interested. Otherwise I’ll make a general announcement later).
Now, on to other things at the con. I needed to drop off several copies of the 6th Extinction book to Diana Harlan-Stein, which I did. Then there was a graphic novel I’d seen in Previews I wanted to pick up, and luckily the publisher was there. One thing that’s weird about ComiCon—you can’t get copies of any current comics unless the publisher has a booth, and sometimes not even then. There was a current Image title & a graphic novel I wanted, but I could not find a single copy. Since Mile High Comics wasn’t there any more, the dealers selling contemporary comics were few and far between. Another small publisher I wanted to talk to wasn’t there at all this year, which was a drag. The only real furry presence there was Sofawolf, but I’d already seen what they had at AnthroCon so I didn’t stop by their booth. Occasional furry artist Ken Mitchroney was in artist’s alley, but I forgot he was there so I didn’t swing by to say hello.
On the other hand, Kikidoodle, who is running a really awesome Kickstarter for wild cat pins, was there too, so I stopped by. Backers could get a freebie at her table, but then I ended up getting into a conversation with one of her dealer’s minions who commented on my Muse shirt, so of course I had to grill her to find out if she was a REAL fan (she was). Seriously, if you like wild cats, check out that Kickstarter! (link) https://www.kickstarter.com/project.....?ref=user_menu
The art show had been moved from the Convention Center to one of the further hotels, necessitating a long hike to get there. My backpack, filled with water, books and a cold pack to keep lunch chill, weighed about 50 pounds and was murder on my shoulders and back. I could handle all the walking, but hauling that load was a bit too much. But I needed to drop off Terrie Smith’s copy of the 6th Extinction book with her husband Glen, who was running the art show, so I made the trek over there.
Fitbit total for Thursday, about 12K steps, and boy I felt all of them.
Friday was more of the same. I’d been asked by two people to get a couple con exclusives at the Hasbro booth, but that was asking for the moon, normally. If you’re lucky, if you’re willing to get up at 4AM and stand in a huge line, you might get a line ticket to get into the booth. Since there was no way hell I was going to ask my sister-in-law to facilitate me getting up at that hour, I told both people it didn’t look good. But lo and behold, late Friday the line was gone and they were just letting regular plebeians without a line ticket into the booth. So I quickly shuffled in and got the two items, which were also freaking expensive (nearly $200 for just 2 things.) So I was able to make a couple of people very happy!
Another thing I was charged to get was any decent Final Space merch. The network had a whole booth set up with a VR Experience (which I didn’t feel like standing in line for) but they did have one decent TShirt design (and a whole bunch of crappy designs), so I was able to get that. There was also a Final Space panel at the Indigo Ballroom, but the line for that was so huge I didn’t even try to get in. Another huge line I did stand in was for the con exclusive TShirt, which I got for my dad as a late B-Day present. Luckily I had a good book on my Kindle I could read while in line.
Interestingly, the line for Hall H was not as humongous as it normally was. I found out later that was due to HBO and Marvel not really having a presence there this year. Go figure. I did see a couple comics that looked kind of interesting, but the booths were manned by those super-eager, hard-sell people that I avoid like the plague, so I didn’t want to even act interested. Seriously, there is nothing more off-putting than being pounced on and given a relentless hard-sell the instant you even hesitate by a table. I can usually count on getting something neat at the Stuart Ng booth, but this year there was nada that caught my fancy. I almost got some art supplies at the Copic booth, but I figured I could get those cheaper online (that thinking being the bane of dealers, I know…)
Despite being cancelled this year and not having a venue for next year, CaliFur still had a table in the fan area. I went there to talk about getting a refund for this year’s dealer table, but they said refunds were delayed due to a bunch of people doing PayPal charge-backs. Of course then I felt like a schmuck for not thinking to do that myself, but instead just waiting around for them to get it to me like an idiot.
There were plenty of cool hall costumes, and some scary ones (a very obese woman in spandex comes to mind). I ran into a group dressed as the Council of Ricks, which I got a big kick out of. There were a couple of nearly naked guys dressed (so to speak) as characters from the 300 movie (or comic), and a bunch of other ones I can’t remember. Believe it or not, amid the tens of thousands of people, I actually ran into two people I knew randomly on the dealer’s floor. Who would’ve thunk it?
By about 3 or 4 Friday all the walking and carrying the heavy load had really caught up with me. I’d gotten most of what I’d come for, so I decided to schlep to the Amtrack lot and head back to LA. Of course, this would put me on the road during Friday rush hour, but what can you do? My sciatica, which generally didn’t bother me any more since I lost a bunch of weight, was flaring up so badly it was extraordinarily painful to sit down at all. My shoulders were in equally bad shape, and I was really worried about getting another attack of bursitis there (if you’ve never had bursitis—it’s horrendous, constant pain that lasts for weeks). One thing you can count on seeing at ComiCon is plenty of morbidly obese hauling around heavy bags. I’m in reasonably good shape, and if I was in so much pain by the end of the day I don’t know how those other people manage. I did see plenty of the obese in those go-karts, so I guess that’s one way to get around all the walking. I also saw huge strollers with suspiciously older kids in them. You’re not allowed to bring any rolling transports in the dealer’s area unless it’s a stroller, wheelchair or go-kart, and I suspect a lot of parents stick older kids in strollers so they wouldn’t have to carry all their purchases around.
The drive back to LA also lasted 4 hours, although by the time I’d gotten past downtown LA it was late enough that traffic had let up for the most part. Four hours in stop-and-go traffic is murder on a knee that’s already hurting from two days of constantly being on your feet, for those who don’t know that.
So now I’m back in LA, with a bunch of commissions to catch up on, and a few days of record heat to look forward to. Who knows…by this time next year I’ll probably do it all over again.
The very fact I can still attend San Diego ComiCon International is due to a lucky convergence of things, any one of which going awry would keep me away. Firstly—I can still get a pro pass, which means I don’t have to shell out hundreds of dollars and have to count on luck to even get a badge. Second, I don’t currently have a 9-to-5 job, which means I can go Thursday and Friday, before the worse of the weekend crowd. And finally, I can stay with my sister-in-law, who has a place in San Diego. Even if I could get a hotel room (which is nearly impossible) the minimum cost is well over $200 a night, not counting parking.
Even getting to San Diego from northern LA County is a huge hassle. You’re going to run into shitty traffic unless you leave at midnight, which wasn’t an option for me since I had to get there at a decent hour. Since my sister-in-law was nice enough to let me stay there a couple nights, I wasn’t going to ask her to stay up to some unholy hour just so I could avoid traffic. So I sat in traffic for 4 hours getting there (four hours equals 3 CDs and an extended period of listening to the radio).
I knew better than to try for Preview Night (Weds. Night), where the crowds are nightmarish even for SDCC. So spent the night in San Diego and got to the convention center about 10 Thursday morning. Even parking is an expensive trial. The closest public parking to the convention center is for the Petco Park sports stadium, but since I was arriving after the con opened I had a feeling that lot was full. So I parked in the Amtrak station lot, which is far enough away that it doesn’t fill up as quickly. It’s also hideously expensive ($40 a day), but it’s close to a con center shuttle stop so I don’t have to take a cab or anything to get there. I suppose I could’ve trolled for a cheaper spot or even street parking, but with all the homeless prowling around, I didn’t want to risk my car getting broken into.
One convention exclusive I had my eye on was a Hallmark ornament set of the 2 nonhuman characters from the Star Trek animated series (Mress and that 3-limbed guy). Of course I arrived too late to get a line ticket (for most of the exclusives, you need to get a line ticket first. That is, you need to wait in line to get a ticket to wait in another line.) BUT... the people there said they’d open up for general sales at 12:30, assuming everything wasn’t sold out. So at 11:30 I came back to the booth and staked out an area, along with some other people, despite being told they were not allowing pre-lineups.
At 12:30 all hell broke loose, with the guy holding the ‘end of line’ sign shouting that people needed to BE TOUCHING THE WALL in order to count on being in line. That resulted in a crush of people shoving and pushing to get near the wall. Thank God I’m not crowd-phobic, but it was still pretty hairy. I ended up near the front with the guy who’d been waiting near me. Since everyone was limited to one of each item, we agreed to get each other a second purchase of what we wanted (he wanted a Star Wars item, so I bought a Star Wars for him, and he got the Star Trek for me.) Then they gave everyone a button so you could ID yourself to the cashier.
So after all that, yes I have an extra Mress ornament! I was figuring some furry fan would be willing to buy or trade for it (note me if interested. Otherwise I’ll make a general announcement later).
Now, on to other things at the con. I needed to drop off several copies of the 6th Extinction book to Diana Harlan-Stein, which I did. Then there was a graphic novel I’d seen in Previews I wanted to pick up, and luckily the publisher was there. One thing that’s weird about ComiCon—you can’t get copies of any current comics unless the publisher has a booth, and sometimes not even then. There was a current Image title & a graphic novel I wanted, but I could not find a single copy. Since Mile High Comics wasn’t there any more, the dealers selling contemporary comics were few and far between. Another small publisher I wanted to talk to wasn’t there at all this year, which was a drag. The only real furry presence there was Sofawolf, but I’d already seen what they had at AnthroCon so I didn’t stop by their booth. Occasional furry artist Ken Mitchroney was in artist’s alley, but I forgot he was there so I didn’t swing by to say hello.
On the other hand, Kikidoodle, who is running a really awesome Kickstarter for wild cat pins, was there too, so I stopped by. Backers could get a freebie at her table, but then I ended up getting into a conversation with one of her dealer’s minions who commented on my Muse shirt, so of course I had to grill her to find out if she was a REAL fan (she was). Seriously, if you like wild cats, check out that Kickstarter! (link) https://www.kickstarter.com/project.....?ref=user_menu
The art show had been moved from the Convention Center to one of the further hotels, necessitating a long hike to get there. My backpack, filled with water, books and a cold pack to keep lunch chill, weighed about 50 pounds and was murder on my shoulders and back. I could handle all the walking, but hauling that load was a bit too much. But I needed to drop off Terrie Smith’s copy of the 6th Extinction book with her husband Glen, who was running the art show, so I made the trek over there.
Fitbit total for Thursday, about 12K steps, and boy I felt all of them.
Friday was more of the same. I’d been asked by two people to get a couple con exclusives at the Hasbro booth, but that was asking for the moon, normally. If you’re lucky, if you’re willing to get up at 4AM and stand in a huge line, you might get a line ticket to get into the booth. Since there was no way hell I was going to ask my sister-in-law to facilitate me getting up at that hour, I told both people it didn’t look good. But lo and behold, late Friday the line was gone and they were just letting regular plebeians without a line ticket into the booth. So I quickly shuffled in and got the two items, which were also freaking expensive (nearly $200 for just 2 things.) So I was able to make a couple of people very happy!
Another thing I was charged to get was any decent Final Space merch. The network had a whole booth set up with a VR Experience (which I didn’t feel like standing in line for) but they did have one decent TShirt design (and a whole bunch of crappy designs), so I was able to get that. There was also a Final Space panel at the Indigo Ballroom, but the line for that was so huge I didn’t even try to get in. Another huge line I did stand in was for the con exclusive TShirt, which I got for my dad as a late B-Day present. Luckily I had a good book on my Kindle I could read while in line.
Interestingly, the line for Hall H was not as humongous as it normally was. I found out later that was due to HBO and Marvel not really having a presence there this year. Go figure. I did see a couple comics that looked kind of interesting, but the booths were manned by those super-eager, hard-sell people that I avoid like the plague, so I didn’t want to even act interested. Seriously, there is nothing more off-putting than being pounced on and given a relentless hard-sell the instant you even hesitate by a table. I can usually count on getting something neat at the Stuart Ng booth, but this year there was nada that caught my fancy. I almost got some art supplies at the Copic booth, but I figured I could get those cheaper online (that thinking being the bane of dealers, I know…)
Despite being cancelled this year and not having a venue for next year, CaliFur still had a table in the fan area. I went there to talk about getting a refund for this year’s dealer table, but they said refunds were delayed due to a bunch of people doing PayPal charge-backs. Of course then I felt like a schmuck for not thinking to do that myself, but instead just waiting around for them to get it to me like an idiot.
There were plenty of cool hall costumes, and some scary ones (a very obese woman in spandex comes to mind). I ran into a group dressed as the Council of Ricks, which I got a big kick out of. There were a couple of nearly naked guys dressed (so to speak) as characters from the 300 movie (or comic), and a bunch of other ones I can’t remember. Believe it or not, amid the tens of thousands of people, I actually ran into two people I knew randomly on the dealer’s floor. Who would’ve thunk it?
By about 3 or 4 Friday all the walking and carrying the heavy load had really caught up with me. I’d gotten most of what I’d come for, so I decided to schlep to the Amtrack lot and head back to LA. Of course, this would put me on the road during Friday rush hour, but what can you do? My sciatica, which generally didn’t bother me any more since I lost a bunch of weight, was flaring up so badly it was extraordinarily painful to sit down at all. My shoulders were in equally bad shape, and I was really worried about getting another attack of bursitis there (if you’ve never had bursitis—it’s horrendous, constant pain that lasts for weeks). One thing you can count on seeing at ComiCon is plenty of morbidly obese hauling around heavy bags. I’m in reasonably good shape, and if I was in so much pain by the end of the day I don’t know how those other people manage. I did see plenty of the obese in those go-karts, so I guess that’s one way to get around all the walking. I also saw huge strollers with suspiciously older kids in them. You’re not allowed to bring any rolling transports in the dealer’s area unless it’s a stroller, wheelchair or go-kart, and I suspect a lot of parents stick older kids in strollers so they wouldn’t have to carry all their purchases around.
The drive back to LA also lasted 4 hours, although by the time I’d gotten past downtown LA it was late enough that traffic had let up for the most part. Four hours in stop-and-go traffic is murder on a knee that’s already hurting from two days of constantly being on your feet, for those who don’t know that.
So now I’m back in LA, with a bunch of commissions to catch up on, and a few days of record heat to look forward to. Who knows…by this time next year I’ll probably do it all over again.
I hope you get to! Some of the situations sounded scary or unpleasant, but nothing too far outside the norm. This report was fun to read, in any case.
See? Living in Connecticut, nothing is more than 90 minutes from anything else. That's only 2 CDs!
Now I'm glad I don't get involved in this sort of thing. As I get older, I like crowds less and less, and I can say the same about physical contact with Humans. I'm just satisfied didn't inherit a full-blown version of my Dad's agoraphobia (as one of my brothers did).
I think if I ever become a successful writer, I'm going to hire a stunt double.
Hugs
Bunners
I've never been able to get out there for the con, though it doesn't sound like my kind of place these days; I'm mostly just interested in comics. ;-p
Guessing they will do the same next year, but of course not sure.
But yeah, many of them are happy just to go to Wondercon now, with its more manageable size/cost/location... but I'll still go to SDCC as long as I can, because it still has a few extra surprises every year.. plus that weather is pretty much always perfect. :>
Good seein' ya too... fairly good con, but yeah.. some new things (as always) this year..
The most disappointing one for me was that, after all these years, they have finally eliminated the last of the (reasonably close) free parking that was over by the naval yard.. *sad sigh*..
Some street parking can still be found for $7.50, which isn't too bad though..
One friend told me there is also MTA parking for $4/day if you buy five full days, but I haven't checked that out.
I've sat in traffic SO many times, I just don't like to do that any more for this con... so will have to give you a gold star for enduring that in consideration of your host. Any drive times between 4 a.m. and 9 p.m. are generally terrible, just as you noted...
Congrats on getting the exclusive items! Did not try for any of those this year, except I wish I'd gotten the toucan pin, but the con merch line was insaaaanely long, and they closed the booth (even though it was in an adjacent hotel) at the same time the con closed every evening.. 7pm!
Freaky experience about needing to touch the wall to be validated.. LOL :D
I hope your muscles are feeling a lot better soon!
Damn.
Reasons for going at ALL are drying up faster than Lake Mead.
Glad you had a good time though despite all the walking on your bad knee you had to do. :)
I do miss it though, especially hanging out with folks and going to restaurants in the area with the crew. I appreciate your diligence in still attending and of course writing about the experience afterwards. It's cool to hear what's been happening. Did you happen to notice if there's still a big presence of animation art galleries? That's something I never see at any of the other cons.
What I miss the most about the old ComiCons are the social aspects, the parties and the familiar vendors. It's gotten so expensive that it's priced most of the small vendors out of the picture. Even if you can afford a table, affording the hotel room is another thing altogether. Add on top of that the draconian rules (you have to have the table manned from opening until closing. No early check-out.) not to mention the union rules when it comes to moving and setting up.