Skkawliens, the time has come – for San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC)! We thought it would be cool to discuss as a first-timer (Justin) and a veteran (Skkaw) what our plans are for the world’s biggest comic and popular art convention.
As my first time attending SDCC, preparing has been a little overwhelming but very exciting. My interest when it comes to conventions is meeting creators whose art or stories I love, so that is what I’ll be focusing most on at SDCC. But I am also going to try to be open to going with the flow if any once in a lifetime opportunities come my way; I suppose this relates to meeting celebrities and going to panels. I am also very interested in exclusives since this is my first comic con. I would love to get things for my friends and family too!
As it got closer to the con, I made a Google Sheet with all of the creators I thought I might be able to meet with columns that I could fill in like what day/time they would be there and at what booth. I also added a column for what comics or things I might bring for these creators to sign. I started by dreaming big, knowing that there is no way I’ll get to everyone on this list.
Next, I started surfing the internet on sites like sdccblog.com (The Unofficial SDCC Blog), the SDCC Reddit pages, and Twitter for any great insider scoops. I used this information to fill in tabs in my Google Sheets; I made an additional tab for exclusives and one for my schedule for each day of the convention, taking any artist signings and combining them with panels to create a schedule. I’ve been trying to look at these sheets and update once or twice a week. Speaking of creators, here’s a short list of who I am extra pumped to meet:
- Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodrigez – Locke & Key
- Kieron Gillen – The Wicked + The Divine, Die, and Phonogram
- Daniel Warren Johnson – Murder Falcon and Extremity
- Joshua Williamson – Birthright and Nailbiter
- My Favorite Batmen – Greg Capullo, Jock, Scott Snyder, and Jim Lee
- Stanley “Artgerm” Lau – I love all his work, but his Catwoman is ****
- Jen Bartel – I love all her work. Her recent Venom and Thanos Marvel Tales Covers are out of this world. Somebody will need to hold me back from buying all the prints. . . or not and I will buy them, mwah ha ha!
I also have a decent list of exclusives I am interested in, but I know that a lot of them are based on a lottery and I’m not sure I’ll get any. The exclusive I most want is this Batman Funko holding an SDCC bag.
Another way that I’ve prepared for the con is by packing all of the comics I might want to bring in one of these big plastic short bins:
I’m taking my car so I’ll have the luxury of having space, otherwise I’d have to be a little more thoughtful about what I was putting in my comic book folios, and I will have to do that each day either way. Also, I’ll be preparing any comics I want signed and graded by CGC or CBCS using this comic prepping method that I found before my last big con. It is super helpful to prep your comics.
Lastly, I have to stop and tell myself to breathe. You will spend all your money. You will have a good time. You will SURVIVE! Okay, just writing this is getting me excited. This is the good kind of anxious energy and I am here for it.
Skkaw the SDCC Veteran
This will be my third SDCC. Third! I can’t believe it. I’m really grateful, I covered SDCC last year, and I’m very excited to go back. My goal this year is to try and cover the biggest attractions at the con. Be it catching a glimpse of my favorite comic celebrities, to visiting the over-the-top booths or meeting some of the most influential comic creators. And this being the 50th SDCC to date, there are a lot of attractions to look forward to:
- Marvel Cinematic Universe – Kevin Feige set to make an announcement
- DC Universe: Doom Patrol, Titans
- HBO Shows: Game of Thrones, Westworld
- DISNEY TV: MARVEL’S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D., The Orville, Bob’s Burgers
- To name just a few, there are many more!
Even if I encounter just a few of the attractions it would already be a larger than geek-life experience. But that’s not all! No SDCC experience would be complete without:
- Encountering SDCC Cosplay – for reference, check out our 2018 SDCC coverage here
- Booth pop-ups and displays – same as above, last year was awesome, hoping this year will be great too
- Celebrity Random Encounters – last year was epic (check out our posts here, here and here), and just from my first list above, it looks like this year will be a blast as well!
And to top it all off, I was lucky enough to get two exclusives from SDCC Exclusive Portal. What are SDCC Exclusives you say? Some of the most coveted, limited, items and events at the con. They are so limited, access is provided via an online lottery. So if you get anything, anything at all, count yourself lucky! This year I was surprised and grateful to get access to two exclusives:
I’ve been a fan of Greg Capullo‘s work since his days working on Spawn and Scott Synder‘s writing is just as amazing. As a team? Simply awesome. But don’t take my word for it, check out Batman: Last Knight on Earth #1 and you’ll see what I mean:
Also, the Lego Star wars toy will be great, see some photos below. By the way, Justin is totally drooling over my win!
In my experience, you can go to SDCC one year and have a totally different experience from the last year. I am so looking forward to going again this year and comparing my experience from SDCC 2018. I’m pretty sure though, whatever happens, it’s going to be an awesome con!
Keep following us here to get updates from our daily SDCC 2019 adventures via our upcoming post: Con Stories and our SDCC Cosplay Coverage. Also, we’ll be sharing any big SDCC Reveals and Announcements as they happen from the con.
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